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Text: Ohio makes two additional arguments. First, Ohio points to language in Heck indicating that a prisoner's § 1983 damages action cannot lie where a favorable judgment would "necessarily imply the invalidity of his conviction or sentence." 512 U. S., at 487 (emphasis added). Ohio then argues that its parole proceedings are part of the prisoners' "sentence[s]" _x0097_ indeed, an aspect of the "sentence[s]" that the § 1983 claims, if successful, will invalidate.

We do not find this argument persuasive. In context, Heck uses the word "sentence" to refer not to prison procedures, but to substantive determinations as to the length of confinement. See Muhammad v. Close, 540 U. S. 749, 751, n. 1 (2004) (per curiam) ("[T]he incarceration that matters under Heck is the incarceration ordered by the original judgment of conviction"). Heck uses the word "sentence" interchangeably with such other terms as "continuing confinement" and "imprisonment." 512 U. S., at 483, 486; see also Balisok, supra, at 645, 648 (referring to the invalidity of "the judgment" or "punishment imposed"). So understood, Heck is consistent with other cases permitting prisoners to bring § 1983 challenges to prison administrative decisions. See, e. g., Wolff, supra, at 554-555; Muhammad, 540 U. S., at 754; see also ibid. (rejecting "the mistaken view ... that Heck applies categorically to all suits challenging prison disciplinary proceedings"). Indeed, this Court has repeatedly permitted prisoners to bring § 1983 actions challenging the conditions of their confinement _x0097_ conditions that, were Ohio right, might be considered part of the "sentence." See, e. g., Cooper v. Pate, 378 U. S. 546 (1964) (per curiam); Wilwording v. Swenson, 404 U. S. 249, 251 (1971) (per curiam). And this interpretation of Heck is consistent with Balisok, where the Court held the prisoner's suit Heck-barred not because it sought nullification of the disciplinary procedures but rather because nullification of the disciplinary procedures would lead necessarily to restoration of good-time credits and hence the shortening of the prisoner's sentence. 520 U. S., at 646.

Second, Ohio says that a decision in favor of respondents would break faith with principles of federal/state comity by opening the door to federal court without prior exhaustion of state-court remedies. Our earlier cases, however, have already placed the States' important comity considerations in the balance, weighed them against the competing need to vindicate federal rights without exhaustion, and concluded that prisoners may bring their claims without fully exhausting state-court remedies so long as their suits, if established, would not necessarily invalidate state-imposed confinement. See Part II, supra. Thus, we see no reason for moving the line these cases draw _x0097_ particularly since Congress has already strengthened the requirement that prisoners exhaust state administrative remedies as a precondition to any § 1983 action. See 42 U. S. C. § 1997e(a); Porter v. Nussle, 534 U. S. 516, 524 (2002).

For these reasons, the Sixth Circuit's judgment is affirmed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

It is so ordered.