Recent Prisoners’ Rights Opinions
Seventh Circuit Roundup
Welcome to Kaplan & Grady’s Seventh Circuit Roundup. On a rolling basis, we review prisoner-related cases from the Seventh Circuit and publish summaries on this page. Please sign up to receive an email when we add case summaries to this page.
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...
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....
Plaintiff was placed on suicide watch. While on watch, he had a psychotic episode. The prison psychiatrist was notified, and over telepsych, without ever...
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...
(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...
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...
Mr. Barnes was a prisoner at Stateville. He suffered from prolapsed hemorrhoids, which caused him pain while defecating. He began complaining about this...
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...
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 [H2.1]COVID pandemic)...
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...
This last case is not a Section 1983 case by a prisoner at all. Rather, it is a case brought by guards challenging their firing on due process grounds,...
In Munson v. Newbold, the court (Sykes/Bauer/Rovner, with Sykes writing) affirmed summary judgment against a prison who raised an Eighth Amendment claim...
In Williams v. Rajoli, the court (Sykes/Easterbrook/Brennan, with Sykes writing) affirmed summary judgment against a prisoner for failing to exhaust his...
In Stockton v. Milwaukee County, the court (Scudder/St. Eve/Kirsch, with St. Eve writing) partially reversed and partially affirmed summary judgment against...
In Koch v. Village of Hartland, the court (St. Eve/Kirsch/Jackson-Akiwumi, with St. Eve writing and Kirsch concurring) addresses the application of laws...
In Stewardson v. Biggs, the court (Ripple/Rovner/Jacson-Akiwumi, with Jackson-Akiwumi writing) dismissed a qualified immunity appeal for lack of jurisdiction....
In Watts v. Kidman, the court (Easterbrook/Wood/Scudder, with Scudder writing) holds that a district court may consider the relative strength of the plaintiff’s...
In Jump v. Village of Shorewood, the court (Ripple/Scudder/Kirsch, with Judge Kirsch writing and Ripple dissenting) affirmed summary judgment against the...
In Miles v. Anton, the court (Easterbrook/Wood/Brennan, with Wood writing) reverses summary judgment against a prisoner for failure to exhaust the formal...
In Gonzalez v. McHenry County, the court (Manion/Hamilton/Brennan, with Manion writing) affirmed summary judgment against the estate of a man who was detained...
In Lane v. Person, the court (Brennan/Scudder/Kirsch, per curiam) reduces the judgment of costs against Lane, finding that one of the charges—a $2,750...
In Doxtator v. O’Brien, the court (Sykes/Flaum, with Flaum writing) affirmed summary judgment against the estate of a man who died after being shot by...
In Thomas v. Dart, the court (Manion/Jackson-Akiwumi, with Manion writing) affirmed the denial of a motion for leave to amend the plaintiff’s complaint...
The Court (Easterbrook/St. Eve/Jackson-Akiwumi, with St. Eve writing and Jackson concurring) affirmed SJ against a prisoner with appendicitis who alleged...
The Court (Rovner/St. Eve/Jackson-Akiwumi, with St. Eve writing) held that the 4th Amendment does not require a person to be given a bail hearing within...
The Court (Sykes/Hamilton/St. Eve, with Sykes writing) affirmed denial of a PI to stop enforcement of lifetime GPS monitoring of folks convicted of sex...
The Court (Rovner/Hamilton/St. Eve, with Hamilton writing) affirmed denial of a third party’s motion to intervene in a case as untimely. The case...
The Court (Hamilton/Scudder/Kirsch, per curiam) affirmed the dismissal of all pending cases and filing bar for a prisoner who the district judge found...
The Court (Manion/Rovner/St. Eve, with Rovner writing) affirmed a grant of a Rule 23(b)(3) class action better known as the “Orange Crush”...
The Court (Sykes/Easterbrook/Rovner, with Sykes writing and Rovner dissenting) affirms SJ against a prisoner for his claims about his treatment while in...
The Court (Rovner/Brennan/St. Eve, with Brennan writing) affirmed SJ against a prisoner for a failure to exhaust. The opinion doesn’t tread new ground,...
The Court (Brennan/Scudder/St. Eve, with Scudder writing) reversed SJ against a prisoner on a retaliation claim. The Court nicely lays out the elements...
The Court (Kanne/Rovner/Wood, with Wood writing) holds that Kingsley‘s objective reasonableness standard applies to failure-to-protect claims brought...
The Court (Ripple/Hamilton/Scudder, with Ripple writing and Hamilton concurring) affirms SJ against a prisoner with medical care claims against Wexford,...
The Court (Kanne/Brennan/Kirsch, with Kanne writing) reversed the district court’s dismissal of a lawsuit based on a finding of fraud. The Court...
The Court (Sykes/Hamilton/St. Eve, per curiam) reversed SJ against a prisoner for a failure to exhaust. The BOP requires grievances to be filed on a particular...
The Court (Easterbrook/Scudder/St. Eve, with Scudder writing) reversed dismissal of a prisoner’s complaint with prejudice during the 1915A screening....
