Money v. Pritzker (N.D. Ill) - Denial of Release Under 1983 and Habeas Class Action
Individuals incarcerated in state prisons brought two class action lawsuits seeking release from Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) facilities in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first action, the individuals brought suit against the Governor and the Director of the IDOC, and asserted claims for deliberate indifference to a serious risk of harm under the Eighth Amendment and violation of their right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment, both pursuant to § 1983, as well as violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In the second action, individuals petitioned for writs of habeas corpus for relief from custody in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Individiuals in the first action moved for a temporary restraining order/preliminary injunction, asking the court to preliminarily certify their proposed subclasses and to order defendants to transfer members of subclasses to their homes to self-isolate via temporary medical furloughs, while individuals in the second action moved for an expedited hearing. The court held that: 1. the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) prevented it from granting a TRO; 2. the individuals failed to satisfy the commonality requirement to class certification; 3. Defendants were not deliberately indifferent to health or safety, in violation of the Eighth Amendment; 4. the individuals did not have a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits of their ADA claim; and 5. the individuals failed to establish that the state court system was not as available as the federal courts, and thus, the exhaustion requirement would not be waived with respect to their habeas petition.
Money v. Pritzker, No. 1:20-cv-02094, --- F.Supp.3d ----, 2020 WL 1820660 (N.D. Ill. Apr. 10, 2020)
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Crowdsourced legal documents from around the country related to COVID-19 and incarceration, organized, collected, and summarized for public defenders, litigators, and other advocates. Created and managed by Bronx Defenders, Columbia Law School’s Center for Institutional and Social Change, UCLA Law COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project, and Zealous. Mostly federal court opinions, but now expanding to states and legal filings, declarations, and exhibits.
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