US Supreme Court Expands Jury Right for Prisoner Suits (1)

The US Supreme Court sided with a Michigan prisoner seeking a jury trial on his claims against prison staff despite concerns that such cases could overwhelm federal and state courts.

In a 5-4 ruling by Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday, the court said a jury—not a judge—must consider inmate Kyle Richards’ claim that Michigan corrections officer Thomas Perttu destroyed his sex harassment complaints, making it impossible for Richards to use the prison’s grievance process.

The Prison Litigation Reform Act requires that prisoners first “exhaust” their administrative remedies before suing. Though the exhaustion question is typically decided by a judge, the justices said a jury must decide it in this case because it’s bound up with the merits of Richards’ claim.

“Perttu offers important counterarguments, but we are ultimately not persuaded,” the majority wrote. “We hold that parties are entitled to a jury on PLRA exhaustion when that issue is intertwined with the merits of a claim protected by the Seventh Amendment,” or the right to trial by jury.

“The usual federal court practice in cases of intertwinement is to send common issues to the jury, and nothing in the PLRA suggests Congress intended to depart from that practice,” the majority said.

The split vote cut across ideological lines as Roberts was joined in the majority by fellow conservative Neil Gorsuch and the three liberal justices. Justice Amy Coney Barrett filed a dissenting opinion that was joined by fellow conservatives Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh.

The decision affirmed a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and resolved a split on the exhaustion issue with the Seventh Circuit.

In her dissent, Barrett wrote that she would reverse the Sixth Circuit’s decision because the Seventh Amendment’s jury right “does not depend on the degree of factual overlap between a threshold issue and the merits of the plaintiff’s claim.”

Barrett said the Supreme Court’s ruling was “wrong several times over.” She said the court now creates a system under which an exhaustion requirement will generate more suits and that any prisoner can “potentially obtain full jury review of the very threshold question that was designed to streamline prisoner litigation.”

Michigan Solicitor General Ann Sherman said at argument in February that a ruling for Richards would increase the already arduous burden on courts from prisoner suits.

The case is Perttu v. Richards, U.S., No. 23-1324.