Disabled Inmate Is Allowed Damage Suit

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Los Angeles Times January 11, 2006

Disabled Inmate Is Allowed Damage Suit

The high court rules that the Georgia man can sue over an alleged

breach of his constitutional rights.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that a

Georgia inmate should have a chance to prove that the state owed him

damages for not accommodating his disability.

The court said that disabled state prisoners whose constitutional

rights are violated behind bars can win damages, but the justices

stopped short of deciding a more significant question: whether states

can be opened to broader suits under the 1990 Americans With

Disabilities Act.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, said that lower courts

should reconsider the case of 41-year-old Georgia inmate Tony

Goodman, who contends he was kept for more than 23 hours a day in a

cell so narrow he could not turn his wheelchair.

Goodman had been supported in the case by the Bush administration,

which argued that lawsuits should be allowed under the disabilities

act.

" We're pleased that in today's decision the court limited liability

solely to instances where there is an actual constitutional

violation, " said Russ Willard, a spokesman for the Georgia attorney

general.

Ruth Colker, a law professor at Ohio State University, said that

although the decision was limited, it for the first time let disabled

prisoners use the 1990 law to sue for damages. " States should be

prepared for more lawsuits by inmates, " she said.

The Supreme Court had previously ruled that people in state prisons

are protected by the law, and the follow-up case asked whether

individual prisoners have recourse in the courts.

Tuesday's opinion left room for some lawsuits.

Justices s and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a concurring

opinion, said that both sides had a chance to " create a more

substantial factual record " before the justices reconsidered the

issue.

Justice Day O'Connor, who is retiring, was the deciding vote

the last time justices ruled on the scope of the 1990 law, siding

with the four more liberal court members in a 2004 decision, which

held that states could be sued for damages for not providing the

disabled access to courts.

s cited that opinion Tuesday and said that it should be

a " guide " in Goodman's case.

Georgia prison officials had described Goodman as a chronic lawsuit

filer who filed dozens of complaints contesting things like the

temperature and lighting in his cell. He is in prison for drug

possession and aggravated assault.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-

scotus11jan11,1,1374302.story