Prof. Rory Little Writes on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Oral Arguments in California Prison Cases

In an article published in The Recorder, Professor Rory Little reports on the recent oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court relating to prison conditions in California.  The court was hearing arguments on the validity of the remedial order issued by a special three-judge federal trial court in early 2010.

Wrestling With Prison Overcrowding
The Recorder
Dec. 01, 2010 -- On Nov. 30 the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in what have become known as the "California prison overcrowding cases." The court has not heard a case challenging prison conditions and court supervision in decades, and the 1996 Prison Litigation Act (PLA), designed to restrict federal court supervision, has been unexamined until now. The court accepted the state's appeal (not certiorari ) in two consolidated California cases. It then granted a highly unusual extra 20 minutes to the normal hour-long argument, and ran even beyond that until Chief Justice Roberts blew the final whistle. It was a historic moment in the history of these decades-long cases, and in the area of prison litigation in general.