Supreme Court Won’t Hear California’s Claim of Immunity for COVID-19 Deaths at Prison

The court won’t shield corrections officials from lawsuits for the way they handled the pandemic.

A file photo of San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Calif., on June 29, 2020. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The Supreme Court on May 13 rejected an appeal from California prison officials who claimed immunity from lawsuits for transferring inmates with COVID-19 to San Quentin Rehabilitation Center in 2020, which allegedly caused an outbreak that left a guard and more than two dozen prisoners dead.

The Office of the Inspector General in California described the outbreak as “the worst epidemiological disaster in California correctional history.”