Taylor v. Riojas
U.S. Supreme Court · decided November 2, 2020 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- November 2, 2020
- Term
- October Term 2020
- Vote
- 7–1
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Cite as: 592 U. S. ____ (2020) 1 Per Curiam SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES TRENT MICHAEL TAYLOR v. ROBERT RIOJAS, ET AL. ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT No. 19–1261. Decided November 2, 2020 PER CURIAM. Petitioner Trent Taylor is an inmate in the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Taylor alleges that, for six full days in September 2013, correctional officers confined him in a pair of shockingly unsanitary cells.1 The first cell was covered, nearly floor to ceiling, in “ ‘massive amounts’ of feces”: all over the floor, the ceiling, the win- dow, the walls, and even “ ‘packed inside the water faucet.’ ” Taylor v. Stevens, 946 F.3d 211 , 218 (CA5 2019). Fearing that his food and water would be contaminated, Taylor did not eat or drink for nearly four days. Correctional officers then moved Taylor to a second, frigidly cold cell, which was equipped with only a clogged drain in the floor to dispose of bodily wastes. Taylor held his bladder for over 24 hours, but he eventually (and involuntarily) relieved himself, causing the drain to overflow and raw sewage to spill across the floor. Because the cell lacked a bunk, and because Tay- lor was confined without clothing, he was left to sleep naked in sewage. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit properly held that such conditions of confinement…
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