In a 5-4 decision in Hoffman v. Westcott, (Sup. Ct., March 18, 2025), the U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant a stay of execution to a Buddhist inmate who contended that Louisiana's method of execution would violate his free exercise rights under RLUIPA. Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson dissented from the denial without filing opinions. Justice Gorsuch filed a dissenting opinion, saying in part:
The State of Louisiana plans to execute Jessie Hoffman tonight. Mr. Hoffman is a Buddhist. And he argues that the State’s chosen method of execution—nitrogen hypoxia—violates his rights under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000.... Nitrogen hypoxia will, he says, substantially burden his religious exercise by interfering with his meditative breathing as he dies.... No one has questioned the sincerity of Mr. Hoffman’s religious beliefs. Yet the district court rejected his RLUIPA claim anyway based on its own “find[ing]” about the kind of breathing Mr. Hoffman’s faith requires.... That finding contravened the fundamental principle that courts have “no license to declare . . . whether an adherent has ‘correctly perceived’ the commands of his religion.”
AP reports on the Court's action.
