United States Eighth Circuit

In a suit over prison medical care, an order terminating a consent decree regulating medical care for inmates at a federal prison is affirmed where: 1) the decree did not constitute a final judgment, and plaintiffs-inmates had no property right therein that would entitle them under the due process clause to further discovery and a pretermination evidentiary hearing; 2) the Prison Litigation Reform Act did not require a pretermination investigation and evidentiary hearing; 3) there was no evidence of ongoing Eighth Amendment violations at the prison; and 4) the consent decree was not narrowly tailored or the lease intrusive means to protect the inmates' Eighth Amendment rights.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/21/2008
• Published 11/21/2008

Judges

• WOLLMAN, Circuit Judge., Before WOLLMAN, BEAM, and BYE, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Mary R. Vasaly, argued, Minneapolis, MN for appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Kelly Susan Kemp, Asst. Atty. Gen., argued, St. Paul, MN (Jennifer A. Service, on the brief), for appellee.