Sotomayor, J., dissenting
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. 20A8
WILLIAM P. BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL, ET AL. v.
DANIEL LEWIS LEE, ET AL.
ON APPLICATION FOR STAY OR VACATUR
[July 14, 2020]
Justice Sotomayor, with whom Justice Ginsburg and Justice Kagan join, dissenting.
The Court hastily disposes of respondents' Eighth Amendment challenge to the use of pentobarbital in the Federal Government's single-drug execution protocol. In doing so, the Court accepts the Government's artificial claim of urgency to truncate ordinary procedures of judicial review. This sets a dangerous precedent. The Government is poised to carry out the first federal executions in nearly two decades. Yet because of the Court's rush to dispose of this litigation in an emergency posture, there will be no meaningful judicial review of the grave, fact-heavy challenges respondents bring to the way in which the Government plans to execute them.
I
Respondents' original complaint in this case dates back to 2005. Since then, the Government has modified its execution protocol in significant part, most recently in July 2019 when it replaced the three-drug protocol with a single drug: pentobarbital sodium. App. to Application for Stay or Vacatur 5a. In light of this change, respondents alleged that the Government's planned use of pentobarbital could result in needless pain and suffering in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Among other things, respondents proffered expert evidence that the majority of those injected
