Lomax v. Ortiz-marquez
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 8, 2020 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- June 8, 2020
- Docket
- No. 18-8369
- Argued
- February 26, 2020
- Term
- October Term 2019
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Kagan
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Thomas, Justice Ginsburg, Justice Breyer, Justice Alito, Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan (wrote), Justice Gorsuch, Justice Kavanaugh
Oral argument transcript and advocates
Opinion excerpt
Justice KAGAN delivered the opinion of the Court. To help staunch a "flood of nonmeritorious" prisoner litigation, the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLRA) established what has become known as the three-strikes rule. Jones v. Bock , 549 U.S. 199, 203, 127 S.Ct. 910, 166 L.Ed.2d 798 (2007). That rule generally prevents a prisoner from bringing suit in forma pauperis (IFP)-that is, without first paying the filing fee-if he has had three or more prior suits "dismissed on the grounds that [they were] frivolous, malicious, or fail[ed] to state a claim upon which relief may be granted." 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). Today we address whether a suit dismissed for failure to state a claim counts as a strike when the dismissal was without prejudice. We conclude that it does: The text of Section 1915(g) 's three-strikes provision refers to any dismissal for failure to state a claim, whether with prejudice or without. I Petitioner Arthur Lomax is an inmate in a Colorado prison. He filed this suit against respondent prison officials to challenge his expulsion from the facility's sex-offender treatment program. As is common in prison litigation, he also moved for IFP status to allow his suit to go forward before he pays the $400 filing fee. For that motion to succeed, Lomax must avoid Section 1915(g). That provision bars further IFP litigation once a prisoner has had at least three prior…
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