Supreme Court Seeks Narrow Win for Plaintiffs in Catch 22 (1)

US Supreme Court justices looked for a narrow way to side with civil rights plaintiffs stuck in a Catch 22 without impinging too much on a state’s ability to set rules for litigation in their own courts.

At issue in the court’s first argument of the new term on Monday was whether a state can require civil rights plaintiffs to “exhaust” the remedies available to them through state agencies before suing in court.

Justice Samuel Alito said forbidding the state, here Alabama, from adopting such exhaustion requirements would be a “significant weakening” of the idea that states generally get to ...