458 F. Supp. 1131 - Wetmore v. Fields’s Empirical Analysis
1978
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 2 district · 3 state decisions
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1331 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · Wolff v. McDonnell · Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle · Bounds v. Smith · Rizzo v. Goode
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Where a prison provides inmates with adequate assistance from persons trained in the law, the right to inmate legal assistance, which is premised upon absence of reasonable alternatives for legal aid, is not applicable. In such a situation, a prison can restrict inmates from giving legal assistance to other prisoners, and the prison is not required to provide an adequate law library.” pp. 1142-43. “Where a prison does not provide adequate assistance from persons trained in the law, the right to inmate legal assistance applies. In that situation, the prison cannot prohibit inmates from rendering legal assistance to other ignorant, unskilled, untutored or illiterate inmates, and the prison must provide an adequate law library for those capable of using it.” p. 1143.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent“"So radically and massively does government assault individual freedom when it engages in imprisonment that, in my view, the due process clause should be held to require that through the weeks, months, and years, prisoners be afforded abundant and effective means to mount challenges to particular conditions of confinement for resolution by the judicial branch. Without regard to the degree of formal education, intellectual powers, or gifts of expression of a particular prisoner, he or she should be constitutionally entitled to a choice among: adequate assistance from persons trained in the law, direct access to truly adequate law libraries, and the opportunity for assistance from fellow prisoners with legal research and writing."”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.