Join us on May 18 for oral arguments on whether California violated the settlement in our case, Ashker v. Governor of California, a federal class-action lawsuit on behalf of incarcerated people held in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison who spent a decade or more in solitary confinement.

Members of the public can attend the argument in-person at the James M. Carter and Judith N. Keep United States Courthouse, Special Proceedings Courtroom 15B. Livestream will also be available on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit website. Tune in at 9:00 a.m. PST/12:00 p.m. EST. 

Case Background

Ashker v. Governor of California is a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of individuals held in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison who spent a decade or more in solitary confinement. The case was filed in 2012 and was part of a larger movement to reform conditions in SHUs in California prisons that was sparked by hunger strikes by thousands of people held in SHUs in 2011 and 2013. In 2015, the case reached a landmark settlement, ending indeterminate solitary confinement in California state prisons.

However, during the monitoring period required by the settlement, the Center for Constitutional Rights and our co-counsel’s investigation revealed that, in addition to violating various terms of the settlement, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) was continuing to violate the constitutional rights of Ashker class members. Since the settlement, we have asked for two extensions to the monitoring period, which were granted by the district court.

At issue before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is CDCR’s challenge of the district court’s decisions to grant the requests to extend the monitoring period. If the Ninth Circuit rules in favor of CDCR, the settlement agreement will terminate, and there will no longer be oversight by plaintiffs or the court to hold CDCR accountable for complying in practice and in spirit with the settlement agreement to end indeterminate solitary confinement. Jules Lobel, cooperating counsel with the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Carmen Bremer, co-counsel with the Bremer Law Group, will be defending both extension orders on behalf of plaintiffs at the oral argument.