Eighth-Amendment

On the morning of September 30, 2026, a federal appeals court did something courts are supposed to do when a person is hours from being put to death: it paused to think. By evening, the Supreme Court had told the appeals court to stop thinking. Its order in Nelsen v. Pike (No. 26A428) contained no reasoning. Tennessee then tried to execute Christa Pike by lethal injection, and the attempt failed. Pike, 50, survived. The sequence is a case study in what is wrong with how the Supreme Court handles life-and-death questions on its emergency docket. ...

Grants Pass, Oregon has a population of about 38,000 people and, at last count, nowhere near enough shelter beds for its unhoused residents. The city’s answer to that shortfall wasn’t more beds. It was a set of ordinances that fined people $295 for sleeping outside with so much as a blanket, and jailed repeat offenders — including people who had nowhere else to legally exist. In June 2024, the Supreme Court said that was perfectly constitutional. ...