Why the next big battle at the Supreme Court may be over solitary confinement

Justice Anthony Kennedy has suggested that prolonged solitary confinement is inhumane

Solitary confinement
(Image credit: AP Photo/Steve Miller)

Last week, a 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court denied a habeas corpus claim filed by Hector Ayala, who was convicted of a triple murder in 1989. This case, however, is likely to take on greater historical importance than its rather technical ruling might otherwise imply. In a concurrence that is already being widely discussed, Justice Anthony Kennedy brought attention to one of the most important flaws of the American criminal justice system: the massive overuse of solitary confinement.

Davis v. Ayala hinged on hearings from which Ayala's attorneys were excluded, and at which prosecutors used preemptory challenges to exclude every potential African-American or Hispanic juror. The question was whether the exclusion was a "harmless error," which would not require Ayala's conviction to be reversed, even if the state's actions were illegal. The Supreme Court, through Justice Samuel Alito, held that the error was indeed harmless.

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Scott Lemieux

Scott Lemieux is a professor of political science at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y., with a focus on the Supreme Court and constitutional law. He is a frequent contributor to the American Prospect and blogs for Lawyers, Guns and Money.