Justice Elena Kagan's stinging dissent last week backing an Alabama death row inmate who was executed despite an unresolved religious discrimination claim highlighted her evolving role as a key voice in religion-related cases at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The high court's conservative majority permitted the execution of a Muslim inmate named Domineque Ray, who had argued his imam should be permitted to be with him in the death chamber at the end of his life. The justices, ruling 5-4, overturned a stay of execution entered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

The appellate court had concluded there was a “substantial likelihood” that the Alabama prison's policy allowing only Christian clergy to accompany inmates violated the establishment clause. The Supreme Court, denying the stay, gave no reason but its order did suggest the inmate's claim was a last-minute attempt to delay execution. Kagan called the decision “profoundly wrong” in a dissent that was joined by justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.