The US Supreme Court denied certiorari Monday in the case of Bourgeois v. Barr, refusing to block the execution of four federal death row inmates.

While federal executions have been sparse in the last three decades, Attorney General William Barr announced last year that executions would resume, scheduling of five executions set to be carried out with the drug pentobarbital.

Counsel for several of these inmates, including Daniel Lewis Lee, Alfred Bourgeois, Wesley Purkey and Dustin Lee Honken, petitioned the Supreme Court to review, in part, whether the method of executing these men constituted a “procedural rule.” As a procedural rule, the method would not be subject to comment by the public.

Although Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor stated that they would have granted the application to consider the case, the majority denied review.