Cases
All of our briefs are linked on their respective case pages. If they are helpful to you as an attorney or pro se litigator, please feel welcome to use them.
Parker v. LeBlanc
Our client served 337 days in prison past his mandatory release date. We're proud to have argued the case in the Fifth Circuit, which ruled that this constitutional violation was clearly stablished, overcoming qualified immunity
Getzen v. Long
Rights Behind Bars and the Legal Defense Fund represented David Getzen in a qualified immunity case after Mr. Getzen was subjected to an unlawful use of force.
Moderwell v. Cuyahoga County, Ohio
Rights Behind Bars has won an appeal in the Sixth Circuit on behalf of Larry Johnson, a pretrial detainee at Cuyahoga County Correctional Center in Cleveland who committed suicide under the watch of corrections officers.
Wheat v. Day
Rights Behind Bars represents Christopher Wheat, a pretrial detainee at Walton County Jail, on appeal for his § 1983 action against Deputy Day, a corrections officer who tasered him from behind as punishment for spilling water in his cell. Day moved for summary judgment following discovery on the basis of qualified immunity, and appealed when his motion was denied.
RBB wins rare Supreme Court qualified immunity reversal
In an extraordinary win for prisoner’s rights and all who oppose qualified immunity, the Supreme Court reversed the Fifth Circuit in Taylor v. Riojas, emphasizing that “no reasonable correctional officer could have concluded that, under the extreme circumstances of this case, it was constitutionally permissible to house Taylor in such deplorably unsanitary conditions for such an extended period of time.”
Melnik v. Dzurenda
Rights Behind Bars, together with O’Melveny & Myers, represent John Melnik, an individual incarcerated at Nevada Desert State Prison who was denied the opportunity to present documentary evidence in his defense for a disciplinary charge. Because he was denied the opportunity to present this evidence, Melnik is currently facing three years in punitive solitary confinement.
Stark v. Lee County
Rights Behind Bars and the National Association for Public Defense filed a brief as amici for a case brought by a detainee who was left in five-point shackles in the backseat of a deputy sheriff’s cruiser returning to jail from a medical appointment when the sheriff chose to respond to a bank robbery and engage in a high-speed chase, causing the detainee to suffer serious injuries.
Ingram v. Kubik
Rights Behind Bars is amicus counsel on behalf of disability rights groups supporting plaintiff who, in midst of a mental health crisis, was body-slammed by a police officer because the officer found him annoying.
Dickinson v. Cochran
Along with the law firm Wilkinson Walsh, Rights Behind Bars represents Joshua Dickinson who was jailed for three days in the midst of a mental health crisis.
Vette v. Sanders
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund along with Rights Behind Bars represents Eric Vette, who alleges he was subject to excessive force by the police when even after being restrained by the police he was punched, hit with a dog chain, and bit by a police dog.
McCoy v. Alamu
Rights Behind Bars, along with the MacArthur Justice Center, represents Prince McCoy, an incarcerated man in Texas who was sprayed in the face with mace by a prison guard for no reason other than the guard's frustration with a different person.
Williams v. Borrego
Rights Behind Bars, along with the law firm Jones Day, represents Charles Williams, an incarcerated man in Colorado. A devout adherent to Native American religious practices, his prison collectively punished the Native Americans in their prison by prohibiting their use of tobacco for religious pipe ceremonies when a non-Native incarcerated person was caught with unrelated tobacco.
Hoffman v. Preston
Partnering with the law firm Covington and Burling, Rights Behind Bars represents Marcellas Hoffman, who was incarcerated in a California prison when a correctional officer offered to pay other incarcerated people to assault him and spread rumors he hoped would lead to an attack on Hoffman.
Taylor v. Riojas
Rights Behind Bars filed a petition for rehearing en banc to the Fifth Circuit on behalf of Trent Taylor. The court granted Texas state prison officials qualified immunity notwithstanding Mr. Taylor's claim that forcing him to live naked in prison cells covered in human sewage for nearly a week was an unconstitutional condition of confinement. The Supreme Court summarily reversed the Fifth Circuit decision granting qualified immunity to prison officials.