Supreme Court looks at death row rights, Puerto Rico federal benefits

The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in multiple cases Tuesday, including one asking what Texas must allow a death row inmate to have during his execution. Ramirez v. Collier involves John Henry Ramirez, who is on death row for killing a Corpus Christi convenience store worker during a 2004 robbery.

According to Ramirez’s petition for a writ of certiorari, the Supreme Court is asked to consider whether the following substantially burdens the free expression of Ramirez’s religion:

• “The State’s decision to allow Ramirez’s pastor to enter the execution chamber, but forbidding the pastor from laying his hands on his parishioner as he dies”
• “The State’s decision to allow Ramirez’s pastor to enter the execution chamber, but forbidding the pastor from singing prayers, saying prayers or scripture, or whispering prayers or scripture”

Lower courts have sided with Texas so far. However, the Supreme Court halted the death row inmate’s execution, planned for Sept. 8, to hear the case. All executions in Texas have been delayed while the court considers the question.

Also Tuesday, the Supreme Court is expected to weigh the legality of a decades-old congressional decision to exclude Puerto Rico from a federal program. According to the petition for a writ of certiorari in United States v. Vaello-Madero, the court is tasked with deciding “whether Congress violated the equal-protection component of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment by establishing Supplemental Security Income (SSI) — a program that provides benefits to needy aged, blind, and disabled individuals — in the 50 States and the District of Columbia, and in the Northern Mariana Islands pursuant to a negotiated covenant, but not extending it to Puerto Rico.”

The case involves a Puerto Rican resident named Jose Luis Vaello-Madero who received SSI benefits when he lived in New York but lost eligibility when he moved to Puerto Rico in 2013. A lower court ruled Puerto Rico’s exclusion from the SSI program was unlawful. The decision was appealed by former President Donald Trump’s administration. However, the Biden administration has since continued the appeal.

“This provision is inconsistent with my Administration’s policies and values,” President Joe Biden said in a statement back in June. “However, the Department of Justice has a longstanding practice of defending the constitutionality of federal statutes, regardless of policy preferences.”

In that same statement, President Biden said “I believe that Puerto Rico residents should be able to receive SSI benefits”. He called on Congress “to amend the Social Security Act to extend these benefits to residents of Puerto Rico”.