Ross v. Blake | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Argued March 29, 2016 Decided June 6, 2016 | |
Full case name | Michael Ross, Petitioner v. Shaidon Blake |
Docket no. | 15-339 |
Citations | 578 U.S. ___ ( more ) 136 S. Ct. 1850; 195 L. Ed. 2d 117 |
Argument | Oral argument |
Opinion announcement | Opinion announcement |
Case history | |
Prior | Blake v. Ross, 787 F.3d 693 (4th Cir. 2015); cert. granted, 136 S. Ct. 614 (2015). |
Holding | |
The Prison Litigation Reform Act’s requirement to exhaust administrative remedies does not have a “special circumstances” exception, but inmates are only required to exhaust administrative remedies that are genuinely available to them. | |
Court membership | |
| |
Case opinions | |
Majority | Kagan, joined by Roberts, Kennedy, Ginsburg, Alito, Sotomayor |
Concurrence | Thomas (in part) |
Concurrence | Breyer (in part) |
Laws applied | |
Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 |
Ross v. Blake, 578 U.S. ___ (2016), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that "special circumstances" cannot excuse an inmate's failure to exhaust administrative remedies before filing a lawsuit under the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995, [1] but clarified that inmates are required to exhaust only administrative remedies that are genuinely available. [2] In so doing, it vacated and remanded the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. [3] [4]
In 2007, Shaidon Blake, an inmate in a Maryland prison, was assaulted by guards James Madigan and Michael Ross while being moved from his regular cell to the segregation unit. [5] Blake reported the incident to a senior corrections officer who referred it to the Maryland prison system's Internal Investigative Unit (IIU), which investigates employee misconduct. [5] The IIU investigated for a year, and then issued a report that condemned Madigan but made no findings regarding Ross. [5] Madigan then resigned. [5]
After the IIU issued its report, Blake sued Madigan and Ross under 42 U.S.C. § 1983; he claimed that Madigan used excessive force and Ross failed to take protective action. [5] A jury awarded Blake $50,000 as to his claim against Madigan. [5]
Ross presented an affirmative defense: Blake had sued without first exhausting the prison's Administrative Remedy Procedure (ARP) process, and thus was barred from court under the PLRA. [5] The PLRA, 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a) provides that “No action shall be brought with respect to prison conditions under section 1983 of this title, or any other Federal law, by a prisoner confined in any jail, prison, or other correctional facility until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted.” [6] Blake conceded that he had not submitted a formal grievance through the ARP, "because, he thought, the IIU investigation served as a substitute for that otherwise standard process." [5]
Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland dismissed the case, reasoning that "the commencement of an internal investigation does not relieve prisoners from the [PLRA's] exhaustion requirement." [7]
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed. [4] It explained that the PLRA's "exhaustion requirement is not absolute." [8] Rather, there are certain "special circumstances" that can justify an inmate's failure to exhaust available administrative remedies. [8] One such circumstance, the Fourth Circuit panel held, was when an inmate failed to exhaust because he reasonably believed that he had already exhausted and no additional remedies were available. [8] And here, the court held that Blake was entitled to the "special circumstances" exception because he thought the IIU investigation precluded him from pursuing remedies through the regular ARP process. [9] Judge G. Steven Agee dissented, holding that judge-made exceptions to the PLRA's Congressionally-mandated exhaustion requirement were impermissible. [10]
Associate Justice Elena Kagan authored the majority opinion. [1] The Supreme Court vacated the judgment of the Fourth Circuit and remanded for the lower court to determine whether the ARP process was, in fact, “available” to Blake. [3]
The Court criticized the Fourth Circuit for making “no attempt to ground its analysis in the PLRA’s language.” [11] It agreed with Blake's characterization of the Fourth Circuit's rule as an “extra-textual exception to the PLRA’s exhaustion requirement.” [11] The PLRA's text, it held, “suggests no limits on an inmate’s obligation to exhaust – irrespective of any ‘special circumstances.’” [11] While the Court acknowledged that judges can craft exceptions to judge-made exhaustion requirements, it emphasized that statutory exhaustion requirements are different, and only Congress can create exceptions. [12] In this case, it explained, both Supreme Court precedent and the broader history of the PLRA supported the conclusion that Congress intended the exhaustion requirement to be mandatory. [13]
The Court noted, however, that its rejection of the “special circumstances” exception did not decide the case, because “the PLRA contains its own, textual exception to mandatory exhaustion.” [13] Inmates are required to exhaust only “such administrative remedies as are available.” [6] In other words, inmates must only exhaust remedies that are capable of use to obtain some relief. [14] The Court then outlined three situations in which an administrative remedy may be official policy, but yet is “not capable of use to obtain relief.” First, a remedy is unavailable when officers are consistently unable or unwilling to give inmates any sort of relief. [14] Second, a remedy is unavailable if it is “so opaque” that “no ordinary prisoner can discern or navigate it.” [14] Third, a remedy is unavailable if administrators “thwart inmates from taking advantage of a grievance process through machination, misrepresentation, or intimidation.” [15]
In this case, the Court noted, the facts suggested it was possible (but not certain) that the ARP was not “available” for Blake to exhaust. [16] While Maryland's Inmate Handbook provided that prisoners could use the ARP for all kinds of grievances, Blake maintained that “once the IIU commences such an inquiry, a prisoner cannot obtain relief through the standard ARP process – whatever the Handbook may say to the contrary.” [15] Because the materials the Court had seen concerning the operation of the IIU and ARP processes were “not conclusive,” it remanded for the lower courts to “perform a thorough review of such materials, and then address the legal issues [the Court] has highlighted concerning the availability of administrative remedies.” [17]
Justice Thomas concurred in part and in the judgment. He joined the Court's opinion, except for its discussion of the interaction of the ARP and IIU systems, which involved consideration of documents lodged with the Supreme Court, but never previously raised in the lower courts. [18] Justice Thomas opined that “[t]aking notice of the documents encourages gamesmanship and frustrates our review.” [18]
Justice Breyer concurred in part. Echoing his concurrence in Woodford v. Ngo , he wrote that the PLRA exhaustion requirement is subject to administrative law's “well-established exceptions” to exhaustion. While these do not include a “special circumstances” exception, other non-textual exceptions may apply. [19]
Ross v. Blake has been cited in nearly 2,000 cases as of March 2019. [20] While it is sometimes described as limiting access to courts for prisoners by abrogating the “special circumstances” exception, it is also often characterized as expanding prisoner recourse by clarifying that, in certain circumstances, administrative remedies may be on the books but yet practically “unavailable.” Though Ross has been discussed extensively by courts, it has received limited attention from scholars and news outlets.
Harvey v. Horan, 278 F. 3d 370 is a federal court case dealing with felons' rights of access to DNA testing. The Eastern Virginia District Court originally found that felons were entitled access to DNA testing on potentially exculpatory evidence, but this finding was later overturned by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Nevertheless, the case paved the way for the Innocence Protection Act, which ensures that convicted offenders can try to prove their innocence by requesting DNA testing on evidence in government's possession that was used in their case.
Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78 (1987), was a U.S. Supreme Court decision involving the constitutionality of two Missouri prison regulations. One of the prisoners' claims related to the fundamental right to marry, and the other related to freedom of speech. The court held that a regulation preventing inmates from marrying without permission violated their constitutional right to marry because it was not logically related to a legitimate penological concern, but a prohibition on inmate-to-inmate correspondence was justified by prison security needs.
David Brookman Smith, known professionally as D. Brooks Smith, is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He was previously Chief Judge of both the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and is the only judge in the history of the Third Circuit to have served as both a chief district judge and chief of the Court of Appeals. Since January 2022, Smith has served as Penn State Law's new jurist in residence.
The motor vehicle exception is a legal rule in the United States that modifies the normal probable cause requirement of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and, when applicable, allows a police officer to search a motor vehicle without a search warrant.
Woodford v. Ngo, 548 U.S. 81 (2006), is a United States Supreme Court case about the procedures determining when prison litigation may be commenced in federal court. Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, ruled that prisoners must exhaust all state-court remedies in accordance with the rules thereof before filing claims in federal court. Justice Stephen Breyer filed a concurrence. Justice John Paul Stevens filed a dissent.
Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97 (1976), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States established the standard of what a prisoner must plead in order to claim a violation of Eighth Amendment rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Specifically, the Court held that a prisoner must allege acts or omissions sufficiently harmful to evidence deliberate indifference to serious medical needs. Though the Court credited Gamble's complaint that doctors had failed to provide appropriate care, it held that medical malpractice did not rise to the level of "cruel and unusual punishment" simply because the victim is a prisoner.
All prisoners have the basic rights needed to survive and sustain a reasonable way of life. Most rights are taken away ostensibly so the prison system can maintain order, discipline, and security. Any of the following rights, given to prisoners, can be taken away for that purpose:
Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825 (1994), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that a prison official's "deliberate indifference" to a substantial risk of serious harm to an inmate violates the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment. Farmer built on two previous Supreme Court decisions addressing prison conditions, Estelle v. Gamble and Wilson v. Seiter. The decision marked the first time the Supreme Court directly addressed sexual assault in prisons.
Tolling is a legal doctrine that allows for the pausing or delaying of the running of the period of time set forth by a statute of limitations, such that a lawsuit may potentially be filed even after the statute of limitations has run. Although grounds for tolling the statute of limitations vary by jurisdiction, common grounds include:
The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e, is a U.S. federal law that was enacted in 1996. Congress enacted PLRA in response to a significant increase in prisoner litigation in the federal courts; the PLRA was designed to decrease the incidence of litigation within the court system.
Jones v. Bock, 549 U.S. 199 (2007), was a case before the United States Supreme Court. The issues concerned obligations of inmate litigants before one could file a civil rights action. The majority opinion was by Chief Justice Roberts and the court decided the case unanimously.
Plata v. Newsom, Docket No. 4:01-cv-01351-JST, is a federal class action civil rights lawsuit alleging that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's (CDCR) medical services are inadequate and violate the Eighth Amendment, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. As a result of the case, the CDCR's prison medical conditions were found to be in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. After repeated violations of a stipulated agreement and order for injunctive relief, the CDCR was held in civil contempt and the medical health care system was placed in receivership.
Porter v. Nussle, 534 U.S. 516 (2002), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the court settled an intercircuit conflict regarding civil procedure for prisoners seeking redress. The court held that prisoners alleging assaults by prison guards must meet §1997e(a)'s exhaustion requirement before commencing a civil rights action.
Booth v. Churner, 532 U.S. 731 (2001), was a United States Supreme Court case decided in 2001. The case concerned the extent to which a state prisoner must first utilize an administrative review process provided by the state, prior to filing a case in federal district court. The Court held that Booth still had a mechanism of administrative review, and thus his claim was premature.
Brown v. Plata, 563 U.S. 493 (2011), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States holding that a court-mandated population limit was necessary to remedy a violation of prisoners’ Eighth Amendment constitutional rights. Justice Kennedy filed the majority opinion of the 5 to 4 decision, affirming a decision by a three judge panel of the United States District Court for the Eastern and Northern Districts of California which had ordered California to reduce its prison population to 137.5% of design capacity within two years.
Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co., 415 U.S. 36 (1974), is a US labor law case, concerning arbitration with collective agreements for labor rights.
Fry v. Napoleon Community Schools, 580 U.S. 154 (2017), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the Handicapped Children's Protection Act of 1986 does not command exhaustion of state-level administrative remedies codified in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) when the gravamen of the plaintiff's lawsuit is not related to the denial of free appropriate public education (FAPE).
The First Step Act, formally known as the Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act, is a bipartisan criminal justice bill passed by the 115th Congress and signed by President Donald Trump in December 2018. The Act enacted several changes in U.S. federal criminal law aimed at reforming federal prisons and sentencing laws in order to reduce recidivism, decreasing the federal inmate population, and maintaining public safety.
Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U.S. 517 (1984), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that prison inmates have no privacy rights in their cells protected by the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Court also held that an intentional deprivation of property by a state employee "does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment if an adequate postdeprivation state remedy exists," extending Parratt v. Taylor to intentional torts.
Howes v. Fields, 565 U.S. 499 (2012), was a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that an interrogation of a prisoner was not a custodial interrogation per se, and certainly it was not "clearly established federal law" that it was custodial, as would be required by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA). Instead, the Court said, whether the interrogation was custodial depended on the specific circumstances, and moreover, in the particular circumstances of this case, it was not custodial. This decision overturned the rule of the Sixth Circuit, and denied the prisoner's habeas corpus petition.