Opinion ID: 764670
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Preiser v. Rodriguez

Text: 23 Recognizing the practical reasons why a prisoner might prefer a § 1983 action to a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, the Supreme Court held in Preiser that, for those cases at the heart of habeas corpus--those in which a prisoner challenges the fact or length of his confinement--habeas is the exclusive federal remedy, at least where the prisoner seeks an injunction affecting the fact or length of his incarceration. See 411 U.S. at 500, 93 S.Ct. 1827. The plaintiffs in Preiser were state prisoners who were deprived of good-time credits as a result of disciplinary proceedings. They sought injunctive relief restoring their good-time credits, which would have resulted in their immediate release from confinement. See id. at 476-77, 93 S.Ct. 1827. Despite the admitted literal applicability of § 1983 to such situations, id. at 489, 93 S.Ct. 1827, the Court concluded that the 1871 Congress' broad grant of a cause of action in § 1983 had been superseded by the 1948 Congress' intent to confine prisoner actions contesting the validity of confinement to the habeas corpus statute, and to require exhaustion of state remedies in such cases. See id. at 489-90, 93 S.Ct. 1827.