Start Page
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Abstract
In Woodford v. Ngo, the Supreme Court made explicit the judicial assumption that most prisons have effective internal grievance procedures, firmly cementing that assumption within Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) exhaustion doctrine. Reliance on this assumption has contributed to doctrinal rules that map poorly onto the factual realities of prisons and require constant clarification by the Supreme Court. Indeed, the Supreme Court has been called upon twice in the past decade to sort out the mess of doctrinal rules governing PLRA exhaustion, first in Ross v. Blake and again this year in Perttu v. Richards. Examining the Court’s path to Ross and Perttu, this Comment argues that the Court’s reliance on the assumption mandated in Woodford blinded it to the Seventh Amendment issue raised by its 2016 holding in Ross, which the Court recently resolved in Perttu. Ultimately, efficiency is one of the core justifications for PLRA exhaustion, and the Supreme Court’s perpetual cycle of clarifying (and reclarifying, and reclarifying again) its construction of a single statutory provision fails to serve that end.
Recommended Citation
Goto, Katrina T.
(2025)
"Real Laws from Imagined Facts: The Formative Role of Assumption in Prison Litigation Reform Act Exhaustion Doctrine,"
University of Chicago Law Review: Vol. 92:
Iss.
8, Article 3.
Available at:
https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclrev/vol92/iss8/3