Litigation

Dewey Austin Barnett, II, is a devout Christian who practices his religion by reading the Bible. While incarcerated in Jefferson County, Mr. Barnett was held in solitary confinement and deprived of the Bible for a month.

When Timothy Finley was in the midst of a severe mental health spiral, Michigan prison officials responded by imposing on him the one condition they knew was likely to make it worse: months of solitary confinement in a tiny windowless cell. The MacArthur Justice Center is fighting to ensure that incarcerated people like Mr. Finley have their known psychiatric needs taken seriously, not punished with damaging social isolation.

Mr. Walker brought a civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 alleging violations of his First Amendment rights. Mr. Walker was carrying his draft civil rights complaint when a prison guard read it, ripped it apart, and began an onslaught of retaliation against Mr. Walker.

UPDATE: The MacArthur Justice Center secured an important victory in the Fifth Circuit. The court held that the sores that Mr. Buchanan developed on his residual limb satisfy the Prison Litigation Reform Act’s “physical injury” requirement. And it found that Mr. Buchanan can move forward with his lawsuit alleging that the Harris County Jail put...

UPDATE: In February 2022, the Tenth Circuit agreed with Mr. Thomas and sent the case back down to proceed in district court. The MacArthur Justice Center is proud to represent Mr. Thomas in partnership with Kirkland & Ellis as we seek to ensure that juvenile offenders like Mr. Thomas have the real possibility of release...

Update: The Ninth Circuit sided with Mr. Jones in an opinion making clear that prisons cannot use broad policies as an excuse to censor prisoners’ free expression. The court held that Mr. Jones had presented sufficient evidence that the Arizona Department of Corrections “selectively enforces” its regulations “against disfavored expression, rap and R&B musical genres.”...

On February 27, 2019, the MacArthur Justice Center obtained a major victory in the U.S. Supreme Court in Garza v. Idaho. In an opinion written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the Supreme Court recognized that a criminal defendant has the constitutional right to an appeal where his defense attorney improperly forfeited it, and that this right...

Like many Native Americans, David Priest believes that eagle feathers are sacred and central to his faith. Recognizing the centrality of eagle feathers to the spiritual practices of some Native Americans, the United States Department of the Interior will provide them with 20 such feathers—but only once during one’s life. Mr. Priest, a prisoner in...

Sexual abuse is rampant in American prisons and jails, supervisors often turn a blind eye to it, and incarcerated men and women who complain about sexual abuse face all manner of retaliation at the hands of their jailers. The MacArthur Justice Center filed an amicus brief, arguing that when an officer directs a detainee or prisoner to perform sexual acts for his gratification, it is offensive and absurd to call the encounter “consensual.”

Following an order from then-Governor Nikki Haley, Mr. Williamson was transferred from general population in a county jail to solitary confinement in a South Carolina prison after he engaged in misconduct while awaiting trial. Mr. Williamson was not provided notice or a hearing prior to the transfer and was not provided process during the three...