Court Opinion

ID: 9496312
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:23:06.001241+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:29.411093
License: Public Domain

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the judgment.
In my view, this case requires a straightforward application of the well-known and frequently applied rational basis test of constitutional analysis. When a classification is subject to this review, it is not appropriate for a court to second-guess “the wisdom, fairness, or logic of legislative choices.” FCC v. Beach Communications, Inc., 508 U.S. 307, 313, 113 S.Ct. 2096, 124 L.Ed.2d 211 (1993). Only one issue is appropriately before us: Whether Congress could have believed that the classification implemented by the legislation had a rational relationship to some legitimate government purpose. See id. In conducting this inquiry, the classification “is accorded a strong presumption of validity,” Heller v. Doe, 509 U.S. 312, 319, 113 S.Ct. 2637, 125 L.Ed.2d 257 (1993), and must be upheld so long as there is some “reasonably conceivable state of facts that could provide a rational basis for the classification,” Beach Communications, 508 U.S. at 313, 113 S.Ct. 2096.
When Congress enacted the classification in question in this ease, it had specific goals in mind: (1) to bring relief to a federal civil justice system that, in its view, was overburdened by meritless lawsuits brought by prisoners; and (2) to protect the public treasury from unwise expenditures. See 141 Cong. Rec. S14611-01, at S14626 (daily ed. Sept. 29, 1995) (statement of Sen. Hatch) (“This landmark legislation will help bring relief to a civil justice system overburdened by *599frivolous prisoner lawsuits.”); 141 Cong. Rec. S7498-01, at S7524 (daily ed. May 25, 1995) (statement of Sen. Dole) (“[W]e have witnessed an alarming explosion in the number of lawsuits filed by State and Federal prisoners.... Frivolous lawsuits filed by prisoners tie up the courts, waste valuable judicial and legal resources, and affect the quality of justice enjoyed by the law-abiding population.”); id. at S7526 (statement of Sen. Kyi) (“The volume of prisoner litigation represents a large burden on the judicial system, which is already overburdened by increases in non-prisoner litigation.”); 141 Cong. Rec. S14312-03, at S14317 (daily ed. Sept. 26, 1995) (statement of Sen. Abraham) (“[A]t-torney’s fees must be proportionally related to the court ordered relief. No longer will attorneys be allowed to charge massive amounts to the State for the service of correcting minimal violations.”). These are certainly legitimate government concerns, and it is certainly not open to us to second-guess the congressional judgment that there was a need to address these problems. Congress had a sufficient basis for its determination that the present state of civil litigation in the federal courts required legislative intervention.
Congress also had sufficient grounds for concluding that, with respect to civil rights litigation, prisoners present a unique situation that requires a particularized remedy. See Boivin v. Black, 225 F.3d 36, 44 (1st Cir.2000); Madrid v. Gomez, 190 F.3d 990, 996 (9th Cir.1999). The hardships of prison life, the prisoners’ lack of any control over the conditions of their incarceration, the availability of a great deal of free time, and the absence of the usual economic disincentives in initiating legal action all combine to affect the type of litigation brought by prisoners, the frequency with which it is brought, and the manner in which it is presented to the courts. Although other conclusions reasonably might be drawn from the evidence, Congress was entitled to conclude that these factors lead prisoners to see high potential gains from bringing litigation and low opportunity costs associated with the venture. See Boivin, 225 F.3d at 44; Madrid, 190 F.3d at 996; see also 141 Cong. Rec. S7498-01, at S7526 (daily ed. May 25, 1995) (statement of Sen. Kyi) (“Unlike other prospective litigants who seek poor person status, prisoners have all the necessities of life supplied, including the materials required to bring their lawsuits. For a prisoner who qualifies for poor person status, there is no cost to bring a suit and, therefore, no incentive to limit suits to cases that have some chance of success.”). Congress may well have been dead wrong in coming to that conclusion, but we cannot say that the decision to view prisoners as presenting special problems requiring a special remedy was an irrational one.
Nor does the rational basis standard permit us to substitute our judgment for the determination of Congress with respect to the appropriate means to address the identified problems. One manner in which Congress chose to address the problem was by imposing restrictions on the attorneys’ fees available for the successful prosecution of § 1983 litigation brought by a prisoner. This approach is certainly not the only way of addressing the prisoner litigation problem. Nor is it, in all probability, the best one. It may well be correct that the restriction on attorneys’ fees, while discouraging attorneys from bringing frivolous cases, will hardly prevent the prisoners from bringing the same suits without the assistance of counsel. It also may turn out that the attorneys’ fees restriction does more harm than good by discouraging attorneys from taking meritorious cases and thereby reducing the effectiveness of § 1983. Indeed, the restriction might increase the number of meritorious *600cases brought by prisoners without the assistance of counsel and therefore increase significantly the judicial resources needed to unravel the issues.
These concerns demonstrate the possibility that Congress might have misjudged the effectiveness of the remedy that it chose. That Congress may have made an unwise choice of remedy does not establish, however, that Congress acted irrationally. See Massachusetts Bd. of Retirement v. Murgia, 421 U.S. 307, 316, 96 S.Ct. 2562, 49 L.Ed.2d 520 (1976) (per curiam) (“[T]he State perhaps has not chosen the best means to accomplish [its] purpose. But where rationality is the test, a State ‘does not violate the Equal Protection Clause merely because the classifications made by its laws are imperfect.’ ” (quoting Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S. 471, 485, 90 S.Ct. 1153, 25 L.Ed.2d 491 (1970))). Congress may well have thought that, if lawyers declined to take meritless lawsuits, prisoners, aware of other provisions, including the “three strikes” provision of the PLRA, would take the implicit advice in the attorney’s decision and decide not to bring the cases on their own. See Walker v. Bain, 257 F.3d 660, 669 (6th Cir.2001); Hadix v. Johnson, 230 F.3d 840, 845 (6th Cir.2001). Congress also might have believed that, in the past, attorneys had brought a good number of meritless lawsuits in the hope that, despite the frivolousness of the suit, a recovery might be obtained. See Jackson v. State Bd. of Pardons & Paroles, 331 F.3d 790, 798 (11th Cir.2003); Walker, 257 F.3d at 669; Hadix, 230 F.3d at 845. Congress may well have been wrong in making such estimations; at the very least, it may have overestimated the value of the attorneys’ fees restriction as a remedy. But, in implementing the rational basis test, we are not grading the wisdom of the legislative branch. See Heller, 509 U.S. at 319, 113 S.Ct. 2637; Beach Communications, 508 U.S. at 313, 113 S.Ct. 2096. As long as our legislators could have had a rational basis for their action, we must allow their judgment to stand. We have no right to demand that Congress achieve a perfect, or even a near perfect, accommodation between means and ends. See Heller, 509 U.S. at 321, 113 S.Ct. 2637 (“[Cjourts are compelled under rational-basis review to accept a legislature’s generalizations even when there is an imperfect fit between means and ends.”). Indeed, Congress has the perfect right to experiment. It can implement a “solution,” monitor its effectiveness and later determine to change course in its quest for a solution.
On this basis, I join the judgment of the court.