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Page Number: 72

14 

BROWN v. PLATA 

SCALIA, J., dissenting 

grasping authority that appellate courts are not supposed 
to have, and using it to enact a compromise solution with
no legal basis other than the Court’s say-so.  That we are 
driven to engage in these extralegal activities should be a 
sign that the entire project of permitting district courts to
run prison systems is misbegotten.

But  perhaps  I  am  being  too  unkind.    The  Court,  or  at 
least  a  majority  of  the  Court’s  majority,  must  be  aware 
that  the  judges  of  the  District  Court  are  likely  to  call  its 
bluff,  since  they  know  full  well  it  cannot  possibly  be  an 
abuse of discretion to refuse to accept the State’s proposed 
modifications in an injunction that has just been approved 
(affirmed)  in  its  present  form.  An  injunction,  after  all,
does  not  have  to  be  perfect;  only  good  enough  for  govern-
ment work, which the Court today says this is.  So perhaps
the coda is nothing more than a ceremonial washing of the 
hands—making  it  clear  for  all  to  see,  that  if  the  terrible
things sure to happen as a consequence of this outrageous 
order do happen, they will be none of this Court’s respon-
sibility.  After all, did we not want, and indeed even sug-
gest, something better? 

III 

In  view  of  the  incoherence  of  the  Eighth  Amendment 
claim  at  the  core  of  this  case,  the  nonjudicial  features  of
institutional  reform  litigation  that  this  case  exemplifies,
and  the  unique  concerns  associated  with  mass  prisoner 
releases, I do not believe this Court can affirm this injunc-
tion.  I will state my approach briefly: In my view, a court
may  not  order  a  prisoner’s  release  unless  it  determines
that the prisoner is suffering from a violation of his consti-
tutional  rights,  and  that  his  release,  and  no  other  relief, 
will  remedy  that  violation.    Thus,  if  the  court  determines 
that a particular prisoner is being denied constitutionally 
required  medical  treatment,  and  the  release  of  that  pris-
oner  (and  no  other  remedy)  would  enable  him  to  obtain