Supreme Court allows Justice Dept. to resume federal executions

The Supreme Court said early Tuesday morning that the Justice Department can resume federal executions this week, overturning a D.C. judge’s last-minute order that had temporarily halted the lethal injections.

In an unsigned, 5-4 opinion issued around 2 a.m., the Supreme Court found that the prisoners on death row had “not made the showing required to justify last-minute intervention.” Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor each wrote dissents, which Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan joined.

The opinion came hours after U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the District of Columbia had blocked the executions — including three set to take place this week — saying it was necessary to let legal challenges to the government’s lethal-injection protocol play out in court. Continue reading.