Justice Lashes Out Against Solitary Confinement In Case About Jury Bias

Courts may “be required” — at another time, in another case — to address “a solitary confinement regime that will bring [an inmate] to the edge of madness, perhaps to madness itself,” Justice Anthony Kennedy writes. A solitary confinement case could make its way to the Supreme Court this fall.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy testifies before a House committee on Monday, March 23, 2015.

Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP

When the Supreme Court issued its decision Thursday in Davis v. Ayala, about the process for challenging questions about bias in jury selection, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote separately — despite agreeing with the court's opinion "in all respects."

Why? Because Hector Ayala's lawyer mentioned at oral argument that Ayala has spent the majority of his past 25 years in solitary confinement.

Kennedy went on to detail a brief history of human thought about the "human toll wrought" by such isolation.

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