In the ruling issued today in Brown v. Plata, a five-justice majority of the Supreme Court has affirmed a district-court order that, by the majority’s own estimate, may require the release of as many as 37,000 California prisoners. Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion (joined by Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan) acknowledges that the prison “population reduction potentially required is … of unprecedented sweep and extent.”
Justice Scalia, joined by Justice Thomas, wrote one vehement dissent (e.g., “the Court disregards stringently drawn provisions of the governing statute, and traditional limitations upon the power of federal judge, in order to uphold the absurd”), and Justice Alito, joined by the Chief Justice, wrote another.
I may have more commentary when I have completed my initial review of the opinions.