Texas loses case over prayer during executions
By Jessica Gresko
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with a Texas death row inmate seeking to have his pastor be allowed to pray out loud and touch him during his execution.
The high court's decision won't keep John Henry Ramirez from being executed. But the justices in an 8-1 decision rejected Texas' defense of its policy of allowing an inmate's spiritual adviser to be present in the death chamber but without speaking or touching the inmate.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a majority opinion that Texas "appears to have long allowed prison chaplains to pray with inmates in the execution chamber, deciding to prohibit such prayer only in the last several years." He also rejected concerns that allowing Ramirez to be touched could interfere with the IV lines that carry the drugs used to carry out the execution. "Texas could allow touch on a part of the body away from IV lines, such as a prisoner's lower leg," he wrote.
Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone justice to dissent, writing that Ramirez has engaged in repeated litigation tactics to delay his execution and that his current lawsuit "is but the latest iteration in an 18-year pattern of evasion."
Executions in Texas, the nation's busiest death penalty state, had been delayed while the court considered the case.
Ramirez is on death row for killing a Corpus Christi convenience store worker during a 2004 robbery. Ramirez stabbed the man, Pablo Castro, 29 times and robbed him of $1.25.
Ramirez's lawyers sued after Texas said it would not allow his minister to pray audibly and touch him as he is being given a lethal injection. Lower courts had sided with Texas, but the Supreme Court halted his Sept. 8 execution to hear his case.
Justices reject college official's claims over censure
WASHINGTON (AP) — A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Thursday against an elected public college official in Texas who complained that his colleagues' censure of his actions violated his free speech rights.
The justices had stepped into a yearslong dispute between the Houston Community College board of trustees and one of its members, Dave Wilson. The board oversees various community colleges in Texas.
Wilson has sued his colleagues on several occasions, arranged for robocalls against some and even hired a private investigator to try to prove another didn't live in the district she represents, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in his opinion for the court.
In 2018, the board adopted a resolution of censure against Wilson, calling his conduct "not only inappropriate, but reprehensible." The censure followed an earlier reprimand from the board. Wilson amended one of his lawsuits to challenge the censure.
But Gorsuch wrote that a "purely verbal censure" of a colleague is not a First Amendment violation.
"Doubtless, by invoking its 'censure' authority in the second resolution the Board added a measure of sting. But we cannot see how that alone changed the equation and materially inhibited Mr. Wilson's ability to speak freely," Gorsuch wrote, calling the court's decision a narrow one.
A trial court had dismissed Wilson's claim, but an appellate panel reinstated it, leading to the Supreme Court case.
Court blocks NJ from leaving port watchdog
By David Porter
Associated Press
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked the state of New Jersey from withdrawing from a bistate commission formed in the 1950s to investigate corruption at the New York region's ports.
The court's order sided with the state of New York, which had petitioned the Supreme Court this month to block New Jersey from leaving the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. It had said it would do so by March 28.
New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement Thursday he was disappointed by the high court's decision but he's optimistic that the state will eventually be "vindicated" and able to withdraw from the commission.
"I will not give up the fight to protect New Jersey's interests, which are poorly served by a commission that operates without transparency and has long outlived its usefulness," Murphy said.
In court filings, New York has claimed New Jersey can't unilaterally withdraw from the commission under the terms of the compact signed by the two states in 1953, during an era of rampant corruption in the unions representing dock workers. It noted recent criminal prosecutions of reputed mob associates to assert that organized crime still has some influence at the ports.
In a statement Thursday, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called the decision "a victory for the safety of New Yorkers and for the health of our economy."
New Jersey has contended that organized crime has largely been driven out of the ports and that the commission impedes job growth by overregulating businesses there and making hiring more difficult. It also notes that 90% of activity at the ports is on the New Jersey side, in Newark, Elizabeth and Bayonne, as opposed to decades past when most was centered in New York.
The New York-New Jersey port system is the busiest on the East Coast and ranks third in the U.S. behind Los Angeles and Long Beach, California.
The commission itself was forced to clean house in the wake of a 2009 report by New York's inspector general that detailed improper hiring and licensing practices, misappropriation of forfeiture funds and misuse of Homeland Security grants. In one case, the IG reported, senior officials looked the other way as a convicted felon was allowed to continue operating a warehouse by putting it in his wife's name, in violation of commission rules.
Under a law signed by Republican Gov. Chris Christie withdrawing New Jersey from the commission in 2018, New Jersey state police would take over policing the ports, including performing background checks for prospective hires.
A federal judge blocked the state's attempt in 2019, but an appeals court reversed last year and wrote that New Jersey was protected from the commission's challenge by sovereign immunity.
Through its attorney, the Waterfront Commission declined comment Thursday.
