Supreme Court Rules for Prisoner in Grievance-Filing Dispute

A federal appeals court previously held that the prisoner was entitled to a jury trial in his lawsuit against a corrections official.

The Supreme Court in Washington on April 25, 2024. J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

A divided Supreme Court ruled on June 18 that a prisoner retains a right to a jury trial when there is a factual dispute over whether he fully exhausted prison grievance procedures before filing a lawsuit.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion in Perttu v. Richards. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the opinion authored by Roberts.