Page:Glossip v. Gross.pdf/41

 Cite as: 576 U. S. ____ (2015)

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THOMAS, J., concurring

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES _________________

No. 14–7955 _________________

RICHARD E. GLOSSIP, ET AL., PETITIONERS v.

KEVIN J. GROSS, ET AL.

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF

APPEALS FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT

[June 29, 2015]

JUSTICE THOMAS, with whom JUSTICE SCALIA joins, concurring. I agree with the Court that petitioners’ Eighth Amendment claim fails. That claim has no foundation in the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits only those “method[s] of execution” that are “deliberately designed to inflict pain.” Baze v. Rees, 553 U. S. 35, 94 (2008) (THOMAS, J., concurring in judgment). Because petitioners make no allegation that Oklahoma adopted its lethal injection protocol “to add elements of terror, pain, or disgrace to the death penalty,” they have no valid claim. Id., at 107. That should have been the end of this case, but our precedents have predictably transformed the federal courts “into boards of inquiry charged with determining the ‘best practices’ for executions,” id., at 101 (internal quotation marks omitted), necessitating the painstaking factual inquiry the Court undertakes today. Although I continue to believe that the broader interpretation of the Eighth Amendment advanced in the plurality opinion in Baze is erroneous, I join the Court’s opinion in full because it correctly explains why petitioners’ claim fails even under that controlling opinion. I write separately to respond to JUSTICE BREYER’s dissent questioning the constitutionality of the death penalty generally. No more need be said about the constitutional