December 3, 2010
Supreme Court hears Calif. inmate health care case
A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court seemed willing Tuesday to uphold a federal court panel's authority to order California to reduce the population of its crowded prisons as a step toward improving its woeful health care system for inmates.
In more than an hour of arguments, some justices suggested they would narrow the San Francisco-based panel's August 2009 order that required the state to transfer or release 40,000 prisoners in two years.
But the state's arguments - that the release order exceeded judicial authority, was unnecessary to improve prison health care and could endanger Californians - drew skeptical responses from at least five of the nine justices...
LINK - SFGate.com
