Parker v. Hooper
Split Score
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This score (0-100) indicates how likely this case is to be reviewed by the Supreme Court based on:
Case Summary
Disposition
Vacated
In this en banc decision the Fifth Circuit held that it had jurisdiction to review, and ultimately vacated, the district court’s sweeping remedial order governing medical and disability care at Louisiana State Penitentiary. Concluding that the order violated multiple provisions of the Prison Litigation Reform Act and applied the wrong deliberate-indifference standard, the court vacated the order and remanded for further proceedings.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether an institutional-reform order that (1) finds liability, (2) directs the parties to propose or negotiate a remedial plan, and (3) appoints special masters before any concrete injunction issues is a “final decision” appealable under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (or, alternatively, an immediately appealable interlocutory injunction under § 1292(a)(1)).
Circuit Positions
Remedial orders directing development of a plan are final (or injunctive) and immediately appealable.
Remedial orders requiring a plan are non-final, non-appealable interlocutory orders; appeal must await a concrete injunction or contempt finding.
Conflict Summary
The Fifth and Eleventh Circuits treat such remedial-plan orders as effectively final (or, at minimum, appealable injunctions) and therefore within the courts of appeals’ jurisdiction, while the Ninth Circuit regards them as non-final, purely interlocutory case-management orders that cannot be appealed until the district court enters a specific remedial injunction.