The Supreme Court quietly reversed a lower court decision this week in a ruling that largely flew under the radar. But the short order tells an interesting story about how the same body that created a cause of action for victims of federal abuse has since undermined that very right.
The case concerns a man named Andrew Fields, who alleges that guards at U.S. Penitentiary Lee repeatedly assaulted him after restraining him and placing him in solitary confinement, including ramming his head into the concrete wall and attacking him with a security shield. (He also says that officers seized his legal documents and prescription glasses, neither of which has been returned to him.)
Fields filed a civil suit against the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), the warden, supervisory prison officials, and the guards, based on his allegation that the excessive force violated his Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.
