Litigation

Gabriel Bassford, proceeding pro se, sued police officers for arresting him simply for filming the police as they conducted an investigation at a gas station. The district court concluded that the officer arrested Mr. Bassford in retaliation for him exercising his First Amendment right to film the police.

Samuel Smalls, an incarcerated individual in Maryland, was held in solitary confinement for almost a year without access to any out-of-cell exercise or outdoor recreation whatsoever.

Joseph Vidal sued New York prison officials for violating his procedural due process rights after he was unable to introduce key witness testimony during the disciplinary hearing that resulted in his placement in solitary confinement for nearly nine months.

M.M. v. King considers whether jail policies in Michigan that eliminate in-person family visitation violate the Michigan Constitution and its expansive protections for right of intimate family association between children and their parents. In joining, as amicus, the family members of jailed people in Michigan who are challenging these visitation bans, the MacArthur Justice Center...

Mr. Avila sued California prison officials for violating his Eighth Amendment rights after they failed to treat a series of dangerous eye conditions, resulting in extreme pain and blindness in one eye.  The MacArthur Justice Center, along with UCLA’s Prisoners’ Rights Clinic, took on his case to help secure him the medical care he needed.

People v. Taylor and People v. Czarnecki consider whether mandatory life without parole (LWOP) for emerging adults who were convicted of offenses committed at the age of nineteen or twenty constitutes “cruel or unusual” punishment under the Michigan Constitution.

People v. Langston considers whether mandatory life without parole (LWOP) for felony murder, absent a showing that the defendant acted with malice or intent to kill, constitutes “cruel or unusual” punishment under the Michigan Constitution.

Terri McGuire-Mollica, proceeding pro se, sued federal prison officials for their years-long failure to treat a painful uterine fibroid that caused severe bleeding and other complications. Although she did everything Bureau of Prisons (BOP) regulations required of her to pursue her claim, the district court wrongly dismissed her case under the Prison Litigation Reform Act’s...

When Mandriez Spivey tried to vindicate his rights to medical care and to be free from the use of excessive force in federal prison, the district court dismissed his claims. The MacArthur Justice Center took his case to fight for him, and people like him in federal prison, to have the opportunity to vindicate their rights in court.

Despite repeatedly pleading for protection, Antonio Ballard was brutally assaulted by another prisoner while incarcerated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. When Mr. Ballard sued the officer who failed to protect him, the officer sought to block Mr. Ballard from vindicating his rights by denying that he had a cause of action to challenge the officer’s misconduct.