Neil Gorsuch’s First Ruling Just Killed A Man (VIDEO)


We all remember Neil Gorsuch. He’s the newly appointed Supreme Court Justice that filled the seat stolen from former President Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland. For over a year, the Republican Senate refused to even hold a hearing for Garland, citing nonexistent rules that the Senate held about Presidents in their final year of service. Gorsuch’s very first ruling as member of SCOTUS: casting the tie-breaking vote to execute a man.

Arkansas has been making a push to execute eight inmates on their death row in a matter of eleven days; their supply of lethal injection drugs is about to expire. Ledell Lee is one of those men, and he was executed earlier this weekend after Gorsuch cast the tie-breaking vote upholding the state’s decision to fast track his execution. Among other moral quandaries surrounding the rushed execution is this claim by the defendant:

The execution was Arkansas’ first since 2005.

According to ThinkProgress, only two justices – Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor – opted to hear the full case. The other two dissenting opinions – Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer – voted only to stay the execution and not to hear the case. ThinkProgress posits that the latter two justices just wanted the case off the Supreme Court’s docket, lest the Republican Senate use another 5-4 decision to make it easier for states to execute prisoners.

President Obama should have been able to tilt the Supreme Court much more toward the left with the appointment of Merrick Garland. Instead, Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell and his obstructionist Senate continued their campaign to pretend Obama never became President. As a result, the first ruling by the newest SCOTUS appointee has cost a man his life. So… a round of applause? Ted Nugent would be proud. Watch a report on the Arkansas executions below:

Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons / CCO 1.0.