Jones v. Bock, Warden, et al. (549 U.S. 199)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 22, 2007 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 549 U.S. 199 · 127 S. Ct. 910
- Decided
- January 22, 2007
- Term
- October Term 2006
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Roberts
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice Roberts delivered the opinion of the Court. In an effort to address the large number of prisoner complaints filed in federal court, Congress enacted the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLRA), 110 Stat. 1321-71, as amended, 42 U. S. C. § 1997e et seq. Among other reforms, the PLRA mandates early judicial screening of prisoner complaints and requires prisoners to exhaust prison grievance procedures before filing suit. 28 U. S. C. § 1915A; 42 U. S. C. § 1997e(a). The Sixth Circuit, along with some other lower courts, adopted several procedural rules designed to implement this exhaustion requirement and facilitate early judicial screening. These rules require a prisoner to allege and demonstrate exhaustion in his complaint, permit suit only against defendants who were identified by the prisoner in his grievance, and require courts to dismiss the entire action if the prisoner fails to satisfy the exhaustion requirement as to any single claim in his complaint. Other lower courts declined to adopt such rules. We granted certiorari to resolve the conflict and now conclude that these rules are not required by the PLRA, and that crafting and imposing them exceeds the proper limits on the judicial role. I Prisoner litigation continues to “account for an outsized share of filings” in federal district courts. Woodford v. Ngo, 548 U. S. 81, 94, n. 4 (2006). In 2005,…
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