Chapter 7
Access to the Courts
This Chapter focuses on prisoners’ right to litigate, whether in civil or criminal actions, and the limitations on that right. Topics include communications between inmates and their attorneys, retaliation by staff that litigation may trigger, communication with attorneys, prison law libraries, and jailhouse lawyers.
Featured Opinions
- Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817 (1977)
- Ex parte Hull, 312 U.S. 546 (1941)
- Lewis v. Casey, 518 U.S. 343 (1996) (excerpted in Chapter 14)
- Johnson v. Avery, 393 U.S. 483 (1969)
- Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. 396 (1974)
Featured, Cited, and Supplemental Litigation Documents
- Greenhill v. Clarke, No. 18-7300 (4th Cir.)
- Litigation summary and documents
- Brief of Former Corrections Officials as Amici Curiae in Support of Plaintiff-Appellant (Jan. 21, 2019)
Other Excerpts and Supplemental Documents
- None
Non-case Excerpts and Supplemental Documents
- Eric Blackmon, Litigating from the Inside (2019)
- Protecting Religious Freedom after Boerne v. Flores, Hearing before the Subcomm. on the Constitution of the H. Judiciary Comm., 105th Cong., App. at 65-70 (July 14, 1997)
- Includes: Office of the Florida Att’y General, Preliminary Results of the RFRA Survey of All States: The Impact of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act on State Correctional Systems (July 19, 1996)
Additional Reading
Other Cited Sources
- Douglas Ankney, Attorney-Client Privilege Under Attack in Jails Across the Nation, Prison Legal News (May 2, 2019)
- Lynn S. Branham, Limiting the Burdens of Pro Se Inmate Litigation: A Technical-Assistance Manual for Courts, Correctional Officials, and Attorneys General (1997)
- Stephen B. Bright, Neither Equal Nor Just: The Rationing and Denial of Legal Services to the Poor When Life and Liberty Are at Stake, 1997 Ann. Surv. Am. L. 783, 798 (1997)
- Jill Schachner Chanen, Banned in the Bighouse, A.B.A. J. 26 (March 1998)
- Michael S. Hamden, North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services: A Model for Other States?, 40 Crim. L. Bull. No. 2 (2004)
- Evan R. Seamone, Fahrenheit 451 on Cell Block D: A Bar Examination to Safeguard America’s Jailhouse Lawyers from the Post-Lewis Blaze Consuming Their Law Libraries, 24 Yale L. & Pol’y Rev. 91 (2006)
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