Court Opinion

ID: 9426762
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:18:52.480729+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:02.991248
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Powell,
concurring.
The decision today recognizes that a prison inmate has a constitutional right of access to the courts to assert such procedural and substantive rights as may be available to him under state and federal law. It does not purport to pass on the kinds of claims that the Constitution requires state or federal courts to hear. In Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U. S. 539, 577-580 (1974), where we extended the right of access recognized in Johnson v. Avery, 393 U. S. 483 (1969), to civil rights actions arising under the Civil Rights Act of 1871, we did not suggest that the Constitution required such actions to be heard in federal court. And in Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U. S. 12 (1956), where the Court required the States to provide trial records for indigents on appeal, the plurality and concurring opinions explicitly recognized that the Constitution does not require any appellate review of state convictions. Similarly, the holding here implies nothing as to the constitutionally required scope of review of prisoners’ claims in state or federal court.
With this understanding, I join the opinion of the Court.