Sotomayor, J., dissenting
with pentobarbital suffer flash pulmonary edema, which can lead to a sensation akin to drowning and " 'extreme pain, terror, and panic.'" Id., at 10a. Respondents first focused their litigation efforts on the claim that the 2019 protocol exceeds statutory authority, although they also alleged that the protocol violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the Controlled Substances Act, the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and the Constitution. The Court of Appeals issued a final ruling on the statutory-authority claim in April 2020, expressly declining to rule on respondents' remaining claims on the ground that they were " 'neither addressed by the district court nor fully briefed.' " Id., at 7a. This Court denied review two weeks ago.
On June 15, 2020, the Government announced respondents' new execution dates. Four days later, respondents filed a joint motion for a preliminary injunction on their remaining claims and filed a motion for expedited discovery the following day. The parties submitted hundreds of pages of briefing and exhibits over two weeks. The District Court decided this record-heavy motion within two weeks, and during a time when two sister courts independently stayed two of the executions. The District Court evaluated respondents' Eighth Amendment challenge and stayed their executions to permit full consideration by the District Court and the Court of Appeals of their claims. The Court of Appeals denied the Government's motion for a stay, noting that respondents' claims involve "novel and difficult constitutional questions" that require the benefit of "further factual and legal development." The court sua sponte set an expedited briefing schedule to resolve the appeal. Mere hours later, however, this Court now grants the Government's last-minute application to vacate the stay, allowing death-sentenced inmates to be executed before any court can properly consider whether their executions are unconstitutionally cruel and unusual.
