United States Ninth Circuit

In an action alleging, inter alia, a cause of action under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 for cruel and unusual punishment premised on the danger of contracting various communicable diseases due to an agency's housing practices and its policy of not screening inmates for such diseases, a decision ordering the case closed is reversed where the district court should have allowed plaintiff's lawsuit to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP), without demanding an upfront $350 payment under the Prison Litigation Reform Act's "three-strikes rule", because he sufficiently alleged an "imminent danger of serious physical injury."

Appellate Information

• Argued 12/08/2006
• Decided 06/26/2007
• Published 06/26/2007

Judges

• Before:  D.W. NELSON, ROBERT E. COWEN, and MARSHA S. BERZON, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Paul T. Friedman, Morrison & Foerster, LLP, San Francisco, CA, and Melissa Ann Jones, Morrison & Foerster, LLP, Sacramento, CA, for the plaintiff-appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Megan R. O'Carroll, Deputy Attorney General, Sacramento, CA, for defendant-appellee James E. Tilton.