(CNN) The Supreme Court said early Friday that the execution of Alabama death row inmate Christopher Lee Price can go forward in the fourth major death penalty case this year that has justices feuding openly.

However, the court's action came after Price's death warrant expired in Alabama at midnight central time Thursday. This means that Alabama will have to apply to the state courts for a new execution date for Price before he can be put to death.

The order further unmasked the tension building between the newly solidified conservative majority on the court that wants to stop inmates from making last minute appeals and liberals who think the justices should defer to lower courts when it comes to specific facts in individual death penalty cases.

Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by the three other liberal justices on the high court, penned a furious dissent , released at 2:51 AM, ET.

"Should anyone doubt that death sentences in the United States can be carried out in an arbitrary way, let that person review the following circumstances as they have been presented to our Court this evening," Breyer wrote.

Read More