The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a request from the Trump administration to block a lower court ruling that required the Bureau of Prisons to ramp up efforts to protect hundreds of vulnerable inmates in Ohio amid the coronavirus pandemic. Four inmates of Ohio’s state prison system filed a federal lawsuit against Gov. Mike DeWine alleged cruel and unusual punishment, urging that “it is not too late to save lives and diminish the further spread.” Judge James S. Gwin of the Federal District Court in Cleveland ordered federal prison officials last month to transfer over 800 elderly and medically vulnerable inmates from the Elkton Federal Correctional Institution to “other means of confinement.”
The Justice Department tried to block the ruling, asserting that federal prison officials are “working assiduously to mitigate those risks.” David Cole, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union representing the plaintiffs, argued that the prisoners “are housed, cheek by jowl, in dormitory-style rooms of approximately 150 persons each.” The high court wrote in its unsigned order that it refused the Trump administration’s request “without prejudice to the government seeking a new stay if circumstances warrant.”
