James Rowland, Former Director, California Department of Corrections, et al. v. California Men's Colony, Unit Ii Men's Advisory Council (506 U.S. 194)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 12, 1993 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 506 U.S. 194 · 113 S. Ct. 716
- Decided
- January 12, 1993
- Term
- October Term 1992
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Souter
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court. Title 28 U. S. C. § 1915, providing for appearances informa pauperis, authorizes federal courts to favor any “person” meeting its criteria with a series of benefits including dispensation from the obligation to prepay fees, costs, or security for bringing, defending, or appealing a lawsuit. Here, we are asked to decide whether the term “person” as so used applies to the artificial entities listed in the definition of that term contained in 1 U. S. C. § 1. We hold that it does not, so that only a natural person may qualify for treatment in forma pauperis under § 1915. I Respondent California Men’s Colony, Unit II Men’s Advisory Council (Council), is a representative association of prison inmates organized at the behest of one of the petitioners, the Warden of the Colony, to advise him of complaints and recommendations from the inmates, and to communicate his administrative decisions back to them. The general prison population elects the Council’s members. In a complaint filed in the District Court in 1989, the Council charged the petitioners, state correctional officers, with violations of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments in discontinuing their practice of providing free tobacco to indigent inmates. The Council sought leave to proceed in forma pauperis under 28 U. S. C. § 1915(a), claiming by affidavit of the Council’s…
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