Today: DOJ is scheduled to carry out its second of three executions this week.

As with Daniel Lee yesterday morning, whether and when Wesley Ira Purkey is executed will again likely come down to SCOTUS.

Multiple appeals working through courts now. http://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/supreme-court-condones-executions-as-public-opinion-shifts

Thread on events leading to this week's first execution, the first federal one in 17 years, following a 2am 5-4 order from SCOTUS https://twitter.com/Jordan_S_Rubin/status/1282658713866829826

Among the pending issues today is yet another injunction from the DC trial court this morning against DOJ's protocol. This time related to the Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act.

DOJ appealing this as it successfully has prior protocol-related injunctions.

http://aboutblaw.com/R0z 

Another issue, pending in the Seventh Circuit, involves religion & Covid-19.

Ministers for Purkey & Dustin Lee Honken (Honken is scheduled for this week's third execution, on Friday) say the executions will violate the priests' religious rights.

http://aboutblaw.com/R0C 

And another injunction for Purkey out of DC trial court this morning relates to his mental competency claim.

http://aboutblaw.com/R0G 

DOJ appealing this one too.

In granting Purkey preliminary relief on the competency claim, Judge Chutkan in DC (whose rulings keep getting overturned) calls out DOJ's speed & SCOTUS' "prioritization of that pace over additional legal process."

On top of protocol, competency, & priest claims, there's DOJ's application pending at SCOTUS to lift a stay previously granted to Purkey ( https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/20a4.html).

Anticipate lots of back-and-forth but at the end of the day (or early the next day) it all comes down to SCOTUS.

While litigation related to Purkey (and Honken) plays out, Daniel Lee's lawyers filed a motion to preserve all evidence related to his body, citing reports suggesting he "may have experienced flash pulmonary edema" (issue SCOTUS rejected 5-4 yesterday).

http://aboutblaw.com/R06 

Timing note: DOJ says due to all the litigation happening today, they're moving the planned Purkey execution from 4pm to "no earlier than 7:00 p.m. E.D.T. today to allow additional time for" appeals court and potentially SCOTUS review of pending claims.

Appeals starting to get to SCOTUS. DOJ files for stay/vacatur of DC trial court's injunction for Purkey on his competence claim.

http://aboutblaw.com/R1N 

And now we have DOJ's appeal at SCOTUS of the other injunction today from the DC trial court, related to the execution protocol (this is the one that relates to Purkey and the other impending executions as well).

http://aboutblaw.com/R12 

NEW: SCOTUS 5-4 lifts the stay that was in place against Purkey's execution.

Other appeals remain pending but this removes a major obstacle to the execution going forward today.

As was the case in yesterday's early morning contentious opinion in the Lee litigation, the 5 Republican appointees sided with the government and the 4 Democratic appointees sided with Purkey.

This isn't the final word from SCOTUS today/tonight. Stay tuned.

And here's the third appeal to reach SCOTUS today, from Purkey's priest (and Honken's) challenging the execution on Covid/religion grounds.

http://aboutblaw.com/R2u 

Now the justices have before them the initial filings from DOJ against the protocol and Purkey's competency claim, and the religion filing from Purkey's side.

Will take a little while though for the parties to file more papers back-and-forth at SCOTUS before justices rule.

The filing/link two tweets above on the religion claim is the priests' stay application. Here's their full petition, which shows the legal question they want the justices to take up:

http://aboutblaw.com/R2v