Supreme Court: Brown v. Plata decision

The Su­preme Court, in a nar­row 5-4 de­cision, has an up­held an in­junc­tion by a three-judge pan­el or­der­ing Cali­for­nia to re­lease about 46,000 in­mates — more than one-fourth the state pris­on pop­u­la­tion — over the next two years to re­lieve over­crowding.

The de­cision was writ­ten by Justice An­thony Kennedy, and backed by the court’s lib­er­al bloc. At is­sue was wheth­er fed­er­al judges have the power to or­der the re­lease of state pris­on­ers as a ne­ces­sary means of cur­ing a con­sti­tu­tion­al vi­ol­a­tion. Read more »