Burns v. Polk
This is an appeal involving exhaustion of administrative remedies, as required by the Prison Litigation Reform Act (42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a)). It establishes no new law, but reemphasizes yet again that a prisoner’s affidavit can establish a genuine issue of material fact sufficient to require that a motion for summary judgment be denied. The facts […]
Felton v. Johnson
Another odd case. Plaintiffs are a father (who is a guard) and his son (who is a prisoner). Father let slip to son that a prison-wide shakedown was coming. Father is fired. Both father and son sue. Father alleges violation of First Amendment and due process violation; son alleges First Amendment retaliation. District Court dismissed […]
Passwater v. Pretorius
Plaintiff was placed on suicide watch. While on watch, he had a psychotic episode. The prison psychiatrist was notified, and over telepsych, without ever seeing the prisoner, the prison psychiatrist prescribed some psychotropic meds. While protocol required that he be monitored for two hours after administration of psychotropic drugs, no one did so. He was […]
Inendino v. Nance-Holt
This is not a prison case but has implications for the scope of First Amendment protections for prisoner speech. The case involves a Chicago firefighter fired for making a series of racist posts on Facebook. The issue before the 7th Circuit was the limits of First Amendment protections for the speech of government employees. Of […]
Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety
(S.Ct. June 23, 2026) This case presents the issue of whether individual state employees can be held liable for damages if they violate prisoners’ religious rights protected by RLUIPA (Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, 42 U. S. C. §§2000cc–1(a), et seq). The Court held that they cannot. The Court reasoned that RLUIPA was […]
Betts v. Boone County
Under Illinois law, coroners are required to release the bodies to next of kin. Instead, the Boone County Coroner kept the skulls of several people as weird souvenirs. When the skulls were discovered after the coroner’s death, the family of one of the dead people sued the County under a Monell theory, arguing that the […]
Barnes v. Wexford
Mr. Barnes was a prisoner at Stateville. He suffered from prolapsed hemorrhoids, which caused him pain while defecating. He began complaining about this pain in July 2016 and finally received surgery in April 2019. In between, he was prescribed laxatives and sent out for evaluations by specialists at UIC Hospital several times. After his surgery, […]
Watts v. Jones
Watts, a Wisconsin prisoner, sued two detectives (Kevin Jones and Mark Smit) under 42 U.S.C. §1983, alleging that they exposed him to risk from other inmates by making it known that he was cooperating with law enforcement. Watts claimed he was threatened and harassed but suffered no physical harm. The District Court denied summary judgment […]
Lee v. Milwaukee County
Lee was a pre-trial detainee in the Milwaukee County jail. When admitted to the jail in December 2020 (recall, this is the height of the COVID pandemic) he informed the screener that he suffered from a variety of mental health issues, including PTSD, depression, anxiety, and insomnia. During his time in the jail, he received […]
Ruderman v. Kenosha County
The 7th Circuit holds that Kenosha County is covered by the federal statute criminalizing forced labor (18 U.S.C. §1589). While this case is about civil detainees awaiting deportation hearings, there is language suggesting it applies equally to detainees charged with, but not yet convicted of, a crime. The statute provides: Whoever knowingly provides or obtains […]
