Farmer v. Brennan

Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825 (1994), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that a prison official's "deliberate indifference" to a substantial risk of serious harm to an inmate violates the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment . Farmer built on two previous Supreme Court decisions addressing prison conditions, _Estelle v. Gamble _ and Wilson v. Seiter. The decision marked the first time the Supreme Court directly addressed sexual assault in prisons .

Contents

• 1 Background

  • 1.1 Dee Farmer

  • 1.2 Procedural history

    • 1.2.1 District Court

    • 1.2.2 Court of Appeals

  • 1.3 Consideration by the Supreme Court

    • 1.3.1 Petition for certiorari

    • 1.3.2 Merits briefs & oral arguments

    • 1.3.3 Amicus briefs

• 2 Opinion of the Court

  • 2.1 Majority opinion

  • 2.2 Concurrences

    • 2.2.1 Justice Blackmun

    • 2.2.2 Justice Stevens

    • 2.2.3 Justice Thomas

• 3 Subsequent developments

  • 3.1 Farmer on remand

  • 3.2 Subsequent cases

  • 3.3 Legacy

• 4 See also

• 5 References

• 6 Notes

• 7 External links

Background

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Farmer_v._Brennan&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: Background")

Dee Farmer

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Farmer_v._Brennan&action=edit&section=2 "Edit section: Dee Farmer")

Dee Farmer, a trans woman , was convicted of credit card fraud in 1986, and was initially incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution, Oxford , a medium-security federal prison for men. Farmer was incarcerated with the general male population due to federal prison guidelines that assigned trans prisoners to facilities based on medical transition status. In 1989, Farmer was transferred to the general male population at US Penitentiary Terre Haute , Indiana , a higher security facility that housed "more troublesome prisoners." Within two weeks of arriving at the penitentiary, Farmer was beaten and sexually assaulted by another inmate in her cell, which potentially exposed her to HIV infection.

Farmer subsequently filed a _Bivens _ lawsuit in federal court without a lawyer, alleging that the wardens of both of her prisons and other officials within the Federal Bureau of Prisons violated her Eighth Amendment rights. In an amended filing, she specified that the prison administration was deliberately indifferent to her safety when it transferred her to a general male prison population with a history of inmate violence, knowing that she would be particularly vulnerable to rape as a trans woman.

Procedural history

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Farmer_v._Brennan&action=edit&section=3 "Edit section: Procedural history")

District Court

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Farmer_v._Brennan&action=edit&section=4 "Edit section: District Court")

The District Court granted defendants' motion for summary judgment , denying Farmer's motion to delay its ruling until the defendants complied with a discovery request. It concluded that failure to prevent inmate assaults violates the Eighth Amendment only if prison officials had "actual knowledge" of a potential danger, and that respondents lacked such knowledge because Farmer never expressed any safety concerns to them.

Court of Appeals

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Farmer_v._Brennan&action=edit&section=5 "Edit section: Court of Appeals")

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court in a short memorandum opinion , noting that any issues that could be raised on appeal were "insubstantial," and the parties did not need to submit any briefs for the court to consider.

Consideration by the Supreme Court

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Farmer_v._Brennan&action=edit&section=6 "Edit section: Consideration by the Supreme Court")

Petition for certiorari

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Farmer_v._Brennan&action=edit&section=7 "Edit section: Petition for certiorari")

The Supreme Court granted Farmer's petition for certiorari from the Seventh Circuit decision, in order to resolve disagreement among different Courts of Appeals regarding the proper test to assess "deliberate indifference" of officials.

Merits briefs & oral arguments

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Farmer_v._Brennan&action=edit&section=8 "Edit section: Merits briefs & oral arguments")

After the Supreme Court granted certiorari, the ACLU National Prison Project stepped in to represent Farmer. In their briefing before the Court and at oral argument, Farmer and the ACLU argued that deliberate indifference should be defined objectively, where deliberate official indifference to obvious risks that are likely to result in the violation of constitutional rights is sufficient for a plaintiff to show an Eighth Amendment violation. This standard is akin to the recklessness standard used in civil cases. The federal government argued that the Court should adopt a test more similar to criminal recklessness, which would require that a plaintiff show that the prison official had actual knowledge of the substantial risk of serious harm.

ACLU attorney Elizabeth Alexander used Farmer's proper pronouns in her briefs and at oral arguments, while lawyers for the federal government used male pronouns.

Amicus briefs

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Farmer_v._Brennan&action=edit&section=9 "Edit section: Amicus briefs")

Amicus briefs were filed in favor of reversing the Seventh Circuit on behalf of the Montana Defender Project, the D.C. Prisoners' Legal Services Project, and Stop Prisoner Rape . An amicus brief in favor of affirming the Seventh Circuit was filed on by the Attorney General of Maryland, which was joined by all other state attorneys general.

The brief filed by Stop Prisoner Rape emphasized that prison rape is "widespread, repetitive, deadly, devastating, predictable, and preventable," but is rarely reported because it is "ingrained in the culture of confinement, both among prisoners and prison officials." In order to address this issue, the brief asked the Court to use Farmer's case to add pressure to prison officials to bring about systemic prison reforms, and to create greater access to the courts for survivors of prison rape.

Opinion of the Court

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Farmer_v._Brennan&action=edit&section=10 "Edit section: Opinion of the Court")

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 9–0 decision that "deliberate indifference" to a substantial risk of harm to an inmate can render a prison official liable under the Eighth Amendment.

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