Litigation

When Crishala Reed, a 28-year-old Black woman, received a jury summons, she was eager to go. But when she told the court that she supported the Black Lives Matter movement, it became clear that she was not going to be seated on the jury. She was questioned by the prosecutor about whether she supported rioting...

The MacArthur Justice Center is suing Orleans District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro in light of his office’s practice of gathering evidence using subpoenas that do not have the required advance approval of a court. The suit asks the Orleans Parish Civil District Court to order Cannizzaro to comply with a 2015 public records request for copies of district attorney...

Proceeding without counsel, Ms. Balsewicz filed an action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, alleging that the sergeant violated her Eighth Amendment right to freedom from cruel and unusual punishment by failing to protect her from a substantial risk of serious harm. The district...

  Mr. Jones was in his own apartment building when a group of NYPD officers attempted to arrest him for a suspected drug transaction.     In response to Mr. Jones’s slightest resistance—insisting on an explanation for his arrest—the officers used an escalating battery of force: from a nightstick, to pepper spray, to shooting Taser...

Alan Beaman spent over a decade in prison after being wrongfully convicted of the 1993 murder of his ex-girlfriend. The MacArthur Justice Center represents Mr. Beaman in his lawsuit against the City of Normal and the three former Normal police officers who orchestrated the wrongful conviction.

For more than two decades, the Colorado State Penitentiary (“CSP”) denied outdoor exercise to all prisoners subjected to solitary confinement, a practice that Justice Kennedy condemned in 1979 when he was a judge on the Ninth Circuit. As Justice Kennedy appeared to recognize long ago, the deprivation piles barbarity upon barbarity. In these cases, outdoor...

Unlike Missouri and Georgia, Virginia provided some, but not all, documents in response to subpoena. But they would not allow depositions of their staff for use in the Mississippi trial in Jordan v. Hall. The Virginia DOC moved to quash the subpoena issued by our clients. After briefing but without oral argument, the District Court...

Mr. Grissom has been held in solitary confinement since 1996. In 2007, Mr. Grissom filed a pro se lawsuit, claiming that “excessive isolation”—i.e., solitary confinement—violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of procedural due process and the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The district court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment. With respect to...

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...

Mr. Finley suffers from severe mental illness, which compels him to swallow razor blades and engage in other acts of self-harm. After he swallowed—but did not pass—a razor blade, prison officials subjected him to solitary confinement, apparently because the blade lodged in his esophagus constituted dangerous contraband. A prison psychiatrist informed corrections personnel that solitary...