Supreme Court Signals Win for Prisoners Seeking Jury Trials

The US Supreme Court at arguments in a prisoner suit seemed more concerned with preserving the historic right to jury trials than the possibility of flooding courts with claims from inmates.

The case heard on Tuesday involves the Prison Litigation Reform Act, which Michigan Solicitor General Ann Sherman said already accounts for an “outsized” number of federal cases. The act requires that prisoners “exhaust” their administrative remedies before filing in federal court.

All parties agree that the issue of whether the prisoner has fully exhausted administrative avenues is generally one for a judge, not a jury. But the question for ...