Texas previously allowed state-employed clergy to accompany inmates into the room where they’d be executed, but its prison staff included only Christian and Muslim clerics.
Supreme Court
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Supreme Court’s recent actions reveal its death penalty divide
In two recent actions, the U.S. Supreme Court revealed its death penalty decisions are hardly cut and dried.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Couple creates a new scholarship for L.G.B.T. Catholics
Dismayed by the negative messages L.G.B.T. Catholics often face regarding their place in the church, Greg Bourke and Michael De Leon decided to take action.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Will a 40-foot cross finally push the Supreme Court to revisit public religious displays?
The case gives the court an opportunity to clarify the test used to determine when government-sponsored religious displays violate the First Amendment.
Posted inNews Analysis, Politics & Society
2018 review of the U.S. Supreme Court: Big decisions and bench changes
The Supreme Court’s past year will probably be remembered more for the shakeup at the bench than for specific rulings.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
The free press gets on the president’s nerves. It’s supposed to.
A recent disruption of the balance of power between a chief executive and the Fourth Estate was the Trump administration’s revocation of CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s White House “hard pass.” The action was met by unanimous opposition from the press.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Inside the Supreme Court’s latest case on cruelty and the death penalty
Newly appointed Justice Brett Kavanaugh takes part in the argument over death-penalty methods that may cause “gruesome and brutal pain.”
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to fast-track cases challenging DACA
The Trump administration announced plans to end DACA last year, but court rulings have temporarily blocked the termination of the program.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Supreme Court examines dementia, health issues in death penalty cases
The U.S. Supreme Court, no stranger to death penalty cases, is looking very narrowly at two aspects of capital punishment this term.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Your Take
Our readers respond to Brett Kavanaugh
“I am shocked to see so many attacking Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.”