2024 Term of Court:
The federal Prison Litigation Reform Act (“the PLRA”) requires the inmates of state prison or other confinement facilities to exhaust the administrative remedies their state offers to them for rectifying allegedly illegal conditions of their confinement before the inmate may file a federal court lawsuit against those conditions. 42 U.S.C. §1997e(a). In Perttu v. Richards, US SupCt Slip Opinion of June 18, 2025, the Court ruled five to four that the PLRA entitles a plaintiff who is suing thereunder to a trial by jury on any “exhaustion” issues that are “intertwined” with his or her claim that certain confinement conditions are illegal. In dissent, four Justices, Justices Barrett, Alito, Kavanaugh, and Thomas, argued that the PLRA allows trial judges to try and decide “exhaustion” issues without a jury, whether or not they are “intertwined” with the issues the plaintiff raises over the conditions of his or her confinement.
Comment: The dissenting Opinion in this case, written by Justice Barrett and joined without further comment by Justices Alito, Kavanaugh, and Thomas, is absolutely correct. The text, history, and structure of the PLRA say absolutely nothing about jury trials, or any rights thereto. The Seventh Amendment of the United States Constitution addresses the right to a jury trial in civil cases, but only in civil cases brought under the “common law.” The PLRA is not part of the “common law.”
Dan D. Rhea
RECENT RULINGS 