Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Yale Law Journal
Publication Date
1998
ISSN
0044-0094
Page Number
2451
Keywords
privacy law, civil law, prisoner litigation
Disciplines
Civil Rights and Discrimination | Law
Abstract
Davis filed a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 suit pro se for the violation of his constitutional right to privacy, seeking $1.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The district court dismissed the claim sua sponte, relying on a section of the newly enacted Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), entitled "Limitation on Recovery": "No Federal civil action may be brought by a prisoner confined in a jail, prison, or other correctional facility, for mental or emotional injury suffered while in custody without a prior showing of physical injury." Davis challenged this physical injury requirement on equal protection grounds, but in "Davis v. District of Columbia" the D.C. Circuit held that there is no cure for a broken heart...The court upheld the physical injury requirement as being rationally related to the government's interest in "cutting back meritless prisoner litigation," and Davis's claim was dismissed with prejudice.
Recommended Citation
Daniel J. Sharfstein,
No Cure for a Broken Heart, 108 Yale Law Journal. 2451
(1998)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/389