Opinion ID: 769703
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Modifying the Remedy

Text: 76 Rule 60(b) provides in pertinent part:On motion and upon such terms as are just, the court may relieve a party or a party's legal representative from a final judgment, order, or proceeding for the following reasons . . . (5) the judgment has been satisfied, released, or discharged, or a prior judgment upon which it is based has been reversed or otherwise vacated, or it is no longer equitable that the judgment should have prospective application; or (6) any other reason justifying relief from the operation of the judgment. 77 Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b). The Rule codifies the long-established principle of equity practice that a court may, in its discretion, take cognizance of changed circumstances and relieve a party from a continuing decree. As the Supreme Court held in United States v. Swift & Co.: 78 We are not doubtful of the power of a court of equity to modify an injunction in adaptation to changed conditions, though it was entered by consent. . . . Power to modify the decree was reserved by its very terms, and from the beginning went hand in hand with its restraints. If the reservation had been omitted, power there still would be by force of principles inherent in the jurisdiction of the chancery. A continuing decree of injunction directed to events to come is subject always to adaptation as events may shape the need. The result is all one whether the decree has been entered after litigation or by consent. In either event, a court does not abdicate its power to revoke or modify its mandate, if satisfied that what it has been doing has been turned through changed circumstances into an instrument of wrong. 286 U.S. 106, 114-15 (1932) (emphasis added) (citations omitted); see also Railway Employees v. Wright , 364 U.S. 642, 651. (1961). 79 In Rufo v. Inmates of Suffolk County Jail, the Supreme Court considered the application of this rule to a prison conditions consent decree. The Court reversed the district court's conclusion that a consent decree is impervious to modification absent a showing of  `grievous wrong evoked by new and unforseen circumstances.'  502 U.S. at 377 (quoting Swift). Following Rule 60(b)(5), the Court determined that the traditional flexible standard for modification of consent decrees applies. Id. at 378-79, 383-84. According to this standard, modification is warranted if there is a significant change either in factual conditions or in law. Id. at 384. The court also emphasized that the burden of establishing such a change rests on the party seeking modification. 80 Obviously, the PLRA creates a more exacting standard for federal courts to follow. But the standard does not eviscerate a district court's equitable discretion and thereby prescribe a rule of decision. First, nothing in the termination provisions can be said to shift the burden of proof from the party seeking to terminate the prospective relief. Second, and more importantly, although S 3626(b)(2) speaks of immediate termination, and although S 3626(e)(1) requires a prompt ruling, a district court cannot terminate prospective relief without determining whether the existing relief (in whole or in part) exceeds the constitutional minimum 25 . And, consistent with S 3626(b)(3), a district court cannotterminate or refuse to grant prospective relief necessary to correct a current and ongoing violation, so long as the relief is tailored to the constitutional minimum. Thus, unless plaintiffs do not contest defendants' showing that there is no current and ongoing violation under S 3626(b)(3), the court must inquire into current conditions at a prison before ruling on a motion to terminate. If the existing relief qualifies for termination under S 3626(b)(2), but there is a current and ongoing violation, the district court will have to modify the relief to meet the Act's standards. It is plain that each of these steps requires real adjudication -the careful application of law to fact -not the wooden ratification of a legislatively prescribed conclusion.