The U.S. Supreme Court stayed the execution of Texas death row inmate Patrick Murphy March 28 unless the state allowed a Buddhist spiritual adviser to accompany Murphy in the death chamber during the execution.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh flipped his vote from a similar case last month.
Kavanaugh wrote in the Murphy case that the government may not discriminate on the basis of religion. Texas allows Christian or Muslim spiritual advisers in the execution room, but not spiritual advisers of other faiths.
“What the State may not do, in my view, is allow Christian or Muslim inmates but not Buddhist inmates ...