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Emergency application · Capital case

Stay of execution

Eric Guerrero, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division v. Edward Lee Busby

Granted
No. 25A1235Vacatur applicationFiled by a state or local governmentPresented to Justice AlitoFrom United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

What did the Court do?

The Court granted the request on May 14, 2026 and wiped out (vacated) the lower-court order it challenged.

Emergency rulings are temporary and do not decide the underlying case. Justice Kagan, Justice Jackson, and Justice Sotomayor would have ruled the other way.

Filed Ruled 3 days after filing

What's being asked

Texas corrections director Eric Guerrero asks the Court to lift the Fifth Circuit's temporary pause on Edward Busby's scheduled execution. Busby is challenging his death sentence in federal court. Justice Jackson said experts for Busby and Texas found him intellectually disabled, and Texas once asked courts to find him ineligible for execution.

What the Court did

The Court lifted the Fifth Circuit's temporary pause on Busby's execution and wiped out (vacated) its order, giving Texas the emergency help it requested. This removes the pause but does not decide Busby's underlying federal challenge. Justice Kagan would have refused the request; Justice Jackson disagreed, with Justice Sotomayor signing on to her view; no vote count is stated.

  • Dissented
  • Wrote separately
  • Vote not published
Dissenting · 3recorded against the Court's order
  1. Sotomayorjoined Jackson's writing
  2. Kaganwould deny
  3. Jacksonwrote a dissent
Vote not published · 6the order does not say how they voted
  1. Roberts
  2. Thomas
  3. Alito
  4. Gorsuch
  5. Kavanaugh
  6. Barrett
The order records the positions of 3 of 9 justices. The Court usually does not say how each justice voted on an emergency application, so the rest are shown as not published.
Half of 89 rulings on capital applications decided without a response came 2 to 5 days after filing, and the median was 3 days; this one was ruled on 3 days after filing.

What it means

This emergency ruling addresses only the temporary execution pause; it does not resolve Busby's federal challenge to his death sentence. The Fifth Circuit's consideration of Busby's request for federal relief remains unresolved. No related Supreme Court case about the underlying legal question is listed, and the Court set no argument.

Separate writings

  • Justice Jackson, joined by Justice Sotomayor, dissenting

    Read (PDF)

Sources

Facts on this page come from the Supreme Court docket, orders, and opinions for No. 25A1235. The answers restate that record in plain words; explainer copy is written from the record and the filings only.

Checked October 8, 2026