Feb

9

The Trouble with Defining Torture

Posted by: | February 9, 2012 | 10 Comments

The definition of torture, as codified in Title 18 of the United States Code Section 2340, does little to prevent what we have come to see in the news.  Torture or harsh interrogation of detainees by Americans has made its way to the front pages of our papers over the past decade.  From the prisoner [...]

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Sep

22

Accommodation of Prisoners With Idiosyncratic Religious Beliefs

Posted by: | September 22, 2011 | 4 Comments

Under O’Lone v. Estate of Shabazz, 482 U.S. 342 (1987), prison officials may restrict inmates’ religious practices, but such restrictions are constitutionally limited to those that reasonably relate to legitimate penological objectives. The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act offers additional, statutory protections. But talk of a religious practice normally conjures up the image of an organized [...]

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Sep

8

Dismissal for Failure to Prosecute Does Not Count as PLRA Strike, Seventh Circuit Rules

Posted by: | September 8, 2011 | 1 Comment

Choosing form over substance, the Seventh Circuit ruled earlier this week that dismissals of a prison inmate’s repeated “unintelligible” complaints do not count as strikes under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, even though the cases should have been dismissed with prejudice for failure to state a claim. Paul v. Marberry (No. 10-3670). The PLRA requires [...]

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May

17

Ratner: Even Osama Should Have Had Criminal Rights

Posted by: | May 17, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Michael Ratner would have treated the pursuit of Osama bin Laden as a law enforcement matter, not as a matter of war. He would rather have seen bin Laden arrested, brought to trial, and given the rights of a criminal defendant than shot on the spot by Navy SEALS. This almost certainly doesn’t put Ratner [...]

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Jan

25

California Parole May Be Broken, But Federal Courts Cannot Fix It

Posted by: | January 25, 2011 | 1 Comment

By some curious coincidence, at about the same time that Jonathan Simon was explaining in his Barrock Lecture yesterday that parole has effectively become unavailable in California in homicide cases, the United States Supreme Court was overturning a pair of Ninth Circuit decisions that would have established a basis for federal-court review of parole denials. The [...]

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Nov

6

Seventh Circuit Backs Away From Apparent Circuit Split on Three Strikes Provision of PLRA

Posted by: | November 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Enacted in 1996, the Prison Litigation Reform Act raised numerous obstacles to prisoner rights lawsuits.  The “three strikes” provision of the statute, codified at 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), is intended to bar prisoners who have a history of frivolous litigation from proceeding in forma pauperis.  IFP status results in the waiver of court filing fees that would otherwise be [...]

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