Earlier tonight, the Supreme Court stayed an execution in a Texas case in which the defendant, a Buddhist, was denied the right to have a Buddhist priest join him in the execution chamber, even though Christian and Muslim prisoners were allowed the company of spiritual advisers of the same faith, in like circumstances. The facts of Murphy v. Collier are very similar to those of Dunn v. Ray, a recent ruling in which the Court allowed an Alabama execution to go forward, even though the prisoner, a Muslim, was not allowed to have a Muslim imam in the execution chamber with him, while Christian prisoners were allowed to have a Christian minister present.
In Dunn, a 5-4 majority split along ideological lines allowed the execution to proceed on the grounds that Ray had filed his appeal too late, despite strong arguments in Justice Kagan's dissent, and in the lower court opinion by the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, that he had filed as fast as he could (arguments that the conservative majority did not even bother to try to rebut).
Dunn attracted harsh, widespread criticism from commentators across the political spectrum,both rightand left - myself included. The main point of contention was not over whether the majority got the case wrong, but whether they were motivated by anti-Muslim bigotry, or "merely" by frustration with what they considered to be excessive delays in death penalty cases (a common complaint of conservative jurists suspicious of anti-death penalty activists).
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