Amherst professor Austin Sarat examines a recent lawsuit in Arkansas challenging a new law, Act 302, which gives the state's Department of Corrections unchecked discretion to choose between execution by lethal injection or nitrogen hypoxia, without timely notice or legislative guidance. Professor Sarat argues that this vague delegation of power is unconstitutional, violates due process and separation of powers, and adds unnecessary psychological cruelty to death row inmates by keeping them uninformed about how they will be executed.
SMU Dedman School of Law professor Joanna L. Grossman comments on the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent summary reversal of the Arkansas Supreme Court’s ruling that upheld that state’s attempt to avoid the marriage equality decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. Grossman describes the ways in which some states, such as Arkansas in this case, have tried to avoid, subvert, or limit Obergefell’s holding, and she discusses the Supreme Court’s simple yet clear response, as well as the significance of Justice Gorsuch’s dissent from the per curiam opinion.
