Last night, in denying a request for a muslim man scheduled to be executed to have an imam in the chamber rather than a Christian chaplain, the christianist caliphate of the Supreme Court laid waste to the first amendment:
Time and time again the courts have demanded religious neutrality from the state, whether the context is schools, government programs, or religious displays. Alabama acknowledges that since 1997, the Rev. Chris Summers has witnessed nearly every execution in the state, kneeling and praying with prisoners just before they are killed. But they would not allow Ray’s imam to do the same.
As the 11th Circuit noted, this was not a complicated question: “The central constitutional problem here is that the state has regularly placed a Christian cleric in the execution room to minister to the needs of Christian inmates, but has refused to provide the same benefit to a devout Muslim and all other non-Christians.” The state argued that only the chaplain was allowed to be present because he was a prison employee and “a member of the execution team.” He was trained in execution protocols—but prison officials would not explain what such training demands, or why Ray’s imam could visit him regularly in prison but not be with him at the time of execution. The appeals court was bothered by the paucity of briefing and had ordered a fast-track hearing to better understand the reasons for the policy. The state agreed that the Christian chaplain need not be present and, feeling that it had cured the constitutional defect, asked the high court to vacate the stay. Ray’s attorneys responded in pleadings that “Mr. Ray does not dispute that the state has an interest in enforcing its judgments. But it does not have an interest in doing so unconstitutionally.”
This will do down with other appalling decisions from the past and the near future.
Roger Moore
So the whole thing was vacated on a bunch of bullshit about the complaint not being timely. Meanwhile, the state didn’t bother to tell the inmate that he couldn’t have his imam with him until nearly the last minute, and they wouldn’t provide him with their protocols, so he had no possible way to know until very shortly before the date of his execution. Just as a general rule, the state shouldn’t be allowed to run down the clock and then argue that complaints should have been lodged earlier, but it’s especially evil when the deadline was always arbitrary.
Jerzy Russian
This is fucked up six ways to Sunday.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Yeah, well, could be worse. We could have a president appointing Supreme Court justices who doesn’t follow e-mail best practices…
Mary G
A decision that should live in infamy. Complete bullshit and exposure of exactly how much they really believe in “religious freedom” if it’s not fucking with teh gayz and liberals.
Salty Sam
Wow- talk about “Gimme that ol’time religion…”
rikyrah
Absolutely wrong.
Period
Yutsano
Make every single decision an asterisk.
Make Roberts eat his legacy of enabling the rich and stepping on the powerless.
Roberts continues to show why he’ll end up worse than Taney in the history books regardless of him coming around on abortion.
randy khan
My working assumption here is that the underlying reason for this actually was that the 5 Republicans don’t want anything to get in the way of a speedy execution. You can see that in the suggestion that the guy was just trying to delay things by inserting a last-minute objection. So I’m pretty confident that they thought that the First Amendment claim was just a pretext and not about his sincere beliefs. (Christian beliefs, on the other hand, are automatically sincere, even when they’re hare-brained.)
The Dangerman
Hire an Imam, Alabama; problem solved. My consulting bill will be in the mail.
“They’re on the road to Hell
Just like my Mama said
They’re on the road to Hell”
ruemara
Hey, legal eagles of BJ (that sounds like a porn-0); what kind of precedent could this ruling set? I find it unnerving because I can see how it could be argued in bad faith to undermine actual religious liberty. Talk me down here.
Jerzy Russian
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Or a warmonger president.
Salty Sam
ETA- Just want to be clear on this, I agree with everyone here, this is ALL kinds of fucked up. I’ve felt queasy since I first read it, and it doesn’t feel like that feeling will subside anytime soon.
But on a personal note, as an elder in my community, and involved in our spiritual practices, I am HORRIFIED at the thought of clergy employed in the prison industry, “trained in execution protocol”, and so forth.
And I wasn’t born yesterday, I know this sort of thing exists- psychiatrists and medical doctors advising torture teams, etc. But this one was a sucker punch.
Immanentize
I have so much to say about this that I can’t say anything. It is so wrong on almost every level. Moral, religious, Constitution, law, precedent.
Strap in. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Lyrebird
@Jerzy Russian: Eto pravda.
Raven Onthill
The worst Court since the Taney.
I have a certain sympathy for Chief Justice John Roberts, who seems now to be the swing vote on the Court – I doubt that he wants to go down in history with Roger Taney. Only a bit of sympathy, though. He has the position he wants. Let him deal with the consequences.
J R in WV
IN my mind, this is excellent reason to impeach those justices who voted to kill this guy without his religious cleric present.
Freedom of Religion is not freedom to have a Southron Baptist minister of hate with you in your last moments. Any judge who doesn’t see that clearly without reference to timing issues is not fit to judge parking tickets in municiple night court!
It would have taken those racist bastards 20 minutes to approve the Iman and carry out the sentence, but NO, that’s WAY too merciful for those bastards!
Monsters walk among us, some wearing black robes.
Yarrow
This is so awful. Done in our name.
Jim Parish
Shameless? I’d call it shameful.
Yutsano
@J R in WV: It really just proves that yes there are five political hacks on the Supreme Court now. And Roberts is risking the legitimacy of the court system for ideological goals. This is not going to end well. For anyone.
Gvg
It shouldn’t matter about the time. An honest court would have automatically asked long before this AND employ someone in every darn religious sect anyone has ever heard of.
SiubhanDuinne
This is simply appalling. I am genuinely horrified.
J R in WV
@J R in WV:
To add, at least they didn’t force the poor guy to die with the Southron Baptist prison employee alongside, enjoying the view!
edit to add:
I wonder how the prison administration would feel about a Wiccan holy person in full regalia, or a member of the Church of Satan, for another example?/s
Not really, I know how they would feel, they have to go along with it anyway, that’s the meaning of that pesky First Amendment!!!
Steve in the ATL
@Immanentize: Steve in the ATL, J., concurs in whole with the post.
Steve in the ATL
@Yutsano: he has only come around on abortion regarding the TRO. Let’s see what happens when the substantive case drops in his lap.
scav
May they, in their last hour, in their hour of need, be attended only by circus clowns, pointing and laughing. Seems only just.
Yutsano
@Steve in the ATL: I did leave off the “for now” portion of that statement, but at that point I had people walking into my office that I needed to attend to.
Cermet
I am appalled by an execution but not whether some mystical story teller is present. Life in prison should be the maximum penalty a government can apply.
greenergood
@Salty Sam: ‘as an elder in my community, and involved in our spiritual practices,’ – in what religious community are you a participant? Christian? Muslim? Buddhist? Jewish? Actually, does it matter? I feel more than queasy reading about what happened to this man denied the comfort of his faith before execution, but also acknowledge that all faiths have their benevolent (i.e. merciful) and malevolent (i.e. vindictive) branches. I sense that you derive comfort and strength in your faith, which I respect, but not every variation of your chosen faith is benevolent, and the current behaviour of the US courts holds no comfort for those seeking respect, if not kindness.
Roger Moore
@ruemara:
Just an interested layperson here, but I don’t think there’s likely to be much value as a precedent. They reversed the stay on the narrowest possible technical grounds (that he had delayed too long in filing) precisely so they didn’t have to get into the facts of the case and possibly set a precedent that could be used against people whose religious beliefs they agree with.
Steve in the ATL
@Roger Moore: which is an extremely common tactic used by appellate courts all the way up to and including SCOTUS when they don’t want to have to decide something
Brachiator
@Jerzy Russian:
Or whatever day a Sabbath or Islamic equivalent occurs.
Man, I step away from the computer for a while, and when I come back all kind of craziness erupts.
Capital punishment is stupid, and I am God’s own atheist, but shit damn, to execute a person and deny that person the comfort of an official from his or her own religion is to deliberately inflict cruelty on that person’s last hours.
Jay Noble
@Jerzy Russian: That’s about as succinctly as you can put it.
choppe
i’m sure that this state would have provided a rabbi for a jewish prisoner. i’m absolutely fucking sure.
chopper
i’m sure that this state would have provided a rabbi for a jewish prisoner. i’m absolutely fucking sure.
chopper
@The Dangerman:
wouldn’t it be great for some state to make sure that the chaplain at their execution services is an imam, with no christian guy around? naw man, i can do the protestant thing for you. i’m trained and what not.
Salty Sam
@greenergood:
It is avowedly NOT a religious community, and I am God’s own agnostic, to paraphrase Brachiator. FSM works as well for me as any other diety (May we all one day Requiescat al Dente). We have some simple ritual ceremonies at our gatherings, and I play a small part in them. They bring me comfort and equanimity.
But again, quoting Brachiator, to deliberately inflict cruelty on that person’s last hours. , as both the State of Alabama, and the SCOTUS in this decision have done, goes SO against any kind of pastoral care, denying even the basest level of human dignity or care.
I know what kind of people we are dealing with here. I’ve been paying attention for almost two decades now, and this cruelty and pettiness is to be expected. But occasionally the depth to which they will go in their practice takes my breath away.
What Villago Delende Est says…
chopper
@Salty Sam:
i can’t imagine being a priest or rabbi or imam or whatever and willingly be a part of an execution. OTOH, these people are going to be put to death by the state, and it would be nice for someone to be there for them. it’s not like they’re going to let their family in there to comfort them when they’re killed.
Salty Sam
@chopper: I agree on both points. A cleric who is part of an “execution team” can share the same cubicle in hell with the doctors who participate in torture.
And a State that can put a person to death without granting simple decency in the last hour is no better than a fucking lynch mob.
Fuck’em
Duane
How the hell this ends up at the SC is hard to figure. The question isn’t hard. Children know better. Apparently, the state of Alabama doesn’t. Maybe that’s to be expected. Now we have a SC just as bad as Alabama.
Remember when people had faith in the court? Now it’s another bunch of conservative asses that put hateful ideology before anything else.
E.
It would be interesting to hear the chaplain’s take on this. I wonder what the guy is like. I’m guessing awful, but, you know, maybe not.
Mnemosyne
@Cermet:
That’s the funny thing about the First Amendment: your opinion of someone else’s religious or spiritual beliefs is immaterial to the question of whether or not that person is supposed to be treated fairly.
I guarantee you that the “Christian” chaplain at the execution had the exact same opinion of the prisoner’e beliefs that you do, and shares your opinion that there was no need to respect someone who believes differently than he does.
Villago Delenda Est
The five justices who went along with this on the most narrow of technicalities, without bothering to consider the facts, should be impeached on this alone.
They have just shat on the First Amendment.
Villago Delenda Est
@Duane: It’s pretty obvious that Zombie Sherman needs to take a left at Atlanta and kick some Alabama ass.
dww44
I like the analogy but to get to Alabama, Zombie Sherman needs to take a right, right? Zombie is attacking from the North, just as the non-Zombie Sherman did?