Justice Sotomayor opens her dissent in U.S. v. Dustin Higgs by saying the names of every person executed by the federal government over the past year.

Sotomayor continues by providing historical context. The federal government has executed more people over the past six months than it had in the previous six decades.

Sotomayor details some of the legal disputes that have come up around this spree of federal executions. She goes on to say that, “against this backdrop of legal uncertainty, @TheJusticeDept did not tread carefully.”

Sotomayor explains that it was the government, not death row prisoners, that created the rush to resolve complicated legal questions on artificially compressed deadlines.

Justice Sotomayor: “The government sought emergency relief to proceed before courts had meaningful opportunities to determine if the executions were legal.” The SCOTUS “has consistently rejected inmates’ credible claims for relief.”