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The Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared skeptical of the way Texas decides who must be spared the death penalty on account of intellectual disability, with several justices indicating that the state’s standards were either too strict or too arbitrary. But there was also disagreement and confusion over precisely what the state’s standards required. (Liptak, 11/29)

The U.S. Supreme Court appeared fairly split among party lines during oral arguments Tuesday in a Texas case involving how to define intellectual disability among death row inmates. The high court has previously ruled that executing people with intellectual disabilities is unconstitutional, but it left it up to the states to legally determine the condition. In 2014, the court weighed in on borderline cases, ruling that states can’t use an IQ below 70 as the sole way to define the disability. (McCullough, 11/29)