Brown v. Plata, 131 S.Ct. 1910 (2011)
Type
Case
Week
Week 7
Course
LA 50: Constitutional Law
Definition
A decision by the USSC holding that a court-mandated population limit was necessary to remedy a violation of prisoners’ 8th Amendment constitutional rights. Justice Kennedy filed the majority opinion of the 5-4 decision, affirming a decision by a three-judge panel of the United States District Court for the Eastern and Northern Districts of California which had ordered California to reduce its prison population to 137.5% of design capacity within two years.