Ethicists, lawyers and people across the political spectrum are troubled by this pair of decisions.
On Feb. 7, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay for a Muslim man on death row who was not allowed to have a spiritual advisor at his execution.
Seven weeks later, a Buddhist man faced the same denial. This time, the court issued a stay of execution.
Their situations were not the same in every detail, of course. But the decisions were different enough that National Public Radio Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg wrote,”Commentary from the right, left and center denounced the decision as a violation of Constitution’s ban on favoring one religion over another.”
See Totenberg’s report on NPR and a related article in Slate.
The Bias Busters series has one guide on Islam and another in the works for 2019 on Buddhism.
