SCOTUS to hear Plata/Coleman Case on the Merits

As reported on SCOTUS Blog, the Supreme Court is ready to hear Plata/Coleman on its merits now. The issues have been framed as follows:

(1) Whether the three-judge court below properly determined that crowding was the “primary cause” of continuing violations of prisoners’ constitutional rights to adequate health care, and that no remedy existed other than issuance of a Prisoner Release Order pursuant to the Prison Litigation Reform Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3626;

(2) whether the system-wide Prisoner Release Orders issued by the three-judge court are “narrowly drawn, extend no further than necessary to correct the violation of the Federal right, and [are] the least intrusive means necessary to correct the violation of the Federal right” in compliance with the PLRA, 18 U.S.C. § 3626(a)(1)(A);

and (3) whether the same court properly gave ”substantial weight to any adverse impact on public safety or the operation of a criminal justice system” in ordering a reduction in population of approximately 46,000 inmates.

See our summary of the District Court ruling here and in the posts that follow.

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Props to Nolan Shaw for alerting me to this.