Disir
Platinum Member
- Sep 30, 2011
- 28,003
- 9,607
- 910
Two years ago, in Dunn v. Ray (2019), the Supreme Court rejected a request by a Muslim inmate on death row to have an imam provide him with spiritual advice and comfort during his final moments of life. The decision was 5-4 along ideological lines, but it triggered a widespread backlash across the political spectrum.
As Justice Elena Kagan noted in her dissenting opinion in Ray, the state of Alabama permitted Christian inmates to have a spiritual adviser present, but not Muslims, so the Court’s decision in Ray permitted unconstitutional discrimination among differing faiths. The day after the decision in Ray, the conservative National Review’s David French labeled it a “grave violation of the First Amendment.”
On Thursday night, the Court handed down the closest thing it will probably ever give to a confession that its decision in Ray was wrong. The vote in this new case, called Dunn v. Smith, is a bit uncertain — the Court did not release a majority opinion, and two justices did not indicate how they voted — but the upshot of Smith is that all states that still have a death penalty should allow those inmates to have a spiritual adviser present during their execution, regardless of the inmate’s faith. (Both Dunn cases came to the Court on the “shadow docket,” a bouillabaisse of emergency motions and other matters that do not receive full briefing and oral argument before the justices decide a case.)
www.vox.com
Well, at this point it will no longer be discriminatory.
As Justice Elena Kagan noted in her dissenting opinion in Ray, the state of Alabama permitted Christian inmates to have a spiritual adviser present, but not Muslims, so the Court’s decision in Ray permitted unconstitutional discrimination among differing faiths. The day after the decision in Ray, the conservative National Review’s David French labeled it a “grave violation of the First Amendment.”
On Thursday night, the Court handed down the closest thing it will probably ever give to a confession that its decision in Ray was wrong. The vote in this new case, called Dunn v. Smith, is a bit uncertain — the Court did not release a majority opinion, and two justices did not indicate how they voted — but the upshot of Smith is that all states that still have a death penalty should allow those inmates to have a spiritual adviser present during their execution, regardless of the inmate’s faith. (Both Dunn cases came to the Court on the “shadow docket,” a bouillabaisse of emergency motions and other matters that do not receive full briefing and oral argument before the justices decide a case.)
The Supreme Court just backed away from one of its cruelest death penalty decisions
After a two-year struggle, the Court allows death row inmates to have a spiritual adviser present at their execution.
www.vox.com
Well, at this point it will no longer be discriminatory.
