Earlier this week, the Supreme Court did something it does very rarely.

It issued a major opinion, a life or death decision, at two in the morning.

Normally, when the Supreme Court issues a late night order, it means that someone has been

burning the candle on a descent.

Mark Joseph Stern covers the Supreme Court for slate.

He was waiting on this opinion.

I think that's what happened here.

It looks like Justice's briar and Justice Sotomayor both penned these descents kind of at

the last minute because the court did not have this case on its docket until suddenly

the defendant here, or Daniel Lee, was banging on the courthouse door, saying, please don't

let them kill me.

But a few hours after the Supreme Court's ruling, Daniel Lee was executed.

Five out of the nine justices ruled the lethal injection that the federal government

planted minister was perfectly legal.

This decision was the culmination of months of planning on the part of the Justice Department,

which had originally scheduled Lee's execution for December.

It fulfilled a Trump administration promise.

No more waiting around for prisoners on federal death row.

And I think what the Trump administration and what Attorney General Bill Barr have been

trying to do here is just relentlessly rescheduling these executions, almost like an office

assistant who knows a meeting really has to happen and doesn't want his boss to keep

blowing it off.

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