Should Courts Assess the Sincerity of Religious Beliefs?

It was no surprise back in March when the Supreme Court ruled that Texas had to oblige a death-row inmate's wish for the company of a pastor who would pray with him and touch him as the lethal cocktail dripped into his veins. Such execution-chamber companionship was "part of my faith," the inmate claimed, and if anything could penetrate the Court's wall of indifference toward the death penalty, it figured to be religion. The vote was 8–1. But there was in fact something unexpected about the decision in Ramirez v. Collier: The lone dissenter was Clarence Thomas. Furthermore, Justice Thomas got it right.