Perttu v. Richards

                   PRELIMINARY PRINT

              Volume 605 U. S. Part 2
                             Pages 460–494




       OFFICIAL REPORTS
                                     OF


   THE SUPREME COURT
                                June 18, 2025


Page Proof Pending Publication


                    REBECCA A. WOMELDORF
                           reporter of decisions




    NOTICE: This preliminary print is subject to formal revision before
  the bound volume is published. Users are requested to notify the Reporter
  of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D. C. 20543,
  [email protected], of any typographical or other formal errors.
460                     OCTOBER TERM, 2024

                                Syllabus


                     PERTTU v. RICHARDS

certiorari to the united states court of appeals for
                  the sixth circuit
      No. 23–1324 Argued February 25, 2025—Decided June 18, 2025
The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) requires prisoners with complaints about prison conditions to exhaust available grievance procedures before fling suit in federal court. 42 U. S. C. § 1997e(a). But
  “exhaustion is not required” when a prison administrator “threaten[s]
  individual inmates so as to prevent their use of otherwise proper procedures.” Ross v. Blake, 

. “Such interference with an
  inmate's pursuit of relief renders the administrative process unavailable,” so “§ 1997e(a) poses no bar” to suit. Ibid. The question presented is whether a party has a right to a jury trial on PLRA exhaustion
  when that dispute is intertwined with the merits of the underlying suit.
    In this case, inmate Kyle Richards alleges that Thomas Perttu, a
  prison employee, sexually harassed Richards and other inmates. Richards also alleges that, when he attempted to fle grievance documents
Page Proof Pending Publication
  about the abuse, Perttu destroyed them and “retaliated against” him for
  attempting to fle them. Richards sued Perttu under 

  for violating his constitutional rights, including his First Amendment
  right to fle grievances. Perttu moved for summary judgment, arguing
  that the plaintiffs had failed to exhaust available grievance procedures
  as required by the PLRA. The Magistrate Judge concluded that there
  was “a genuine issue of fact as to whether Plaintiffs were excused from
  properly exhausting their claims due to interference by Perttu” and that
  the issue was “appropriate for resolution during an evidentiary hearing.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 86a. At that hearing, the Magistrate
  Judge concluded that Richards's witnesses regarding Perttu's alleged
  destruction of grievance forms “lacked credibility.” The Magistrate
  Judge recommended dismissal without prejudice for failure to exhaust,
  and the District Court adopted that recommendation. The Sixth Circuit reversed. It stated that there was “no doubt that a judge may
  otherwise resolve factual disputes regarding exhaustion under the
  PLRA,” but it held that “the Seventh Amendment requires a jury trial
  when the resolution of the exhaustion issue under the PLRA would also
  resolve a genuine dispute of material fact regarding the merits of the
  plaintiff 's substantive case.” 

. That decision
  conficted with Seventh Circuit precedent.
                       Cite as: 

 (2025)                   461

                                 Syllabus

Held: Parties are entitled to a jury trial on PLRA exhaustion when that
 issue is intertwined with the merits of a claim that requires a jury trial
 under the Seventh Amendment. Pp. 467–479.
    (a) Before reaching Richards's arguments for why his Seventh
 Amendment right to a jury trial has been violated, the Court must frst
 determine whether a construction of the PLRA is “fairly possible” by
 which the constitutional question may be avoided. Monterey v. Del
 Monte Dunes at Monterey, Ltd., 

. Such a construction is possible here. Because the Court construes the PLRA to require a jury trial in Richards's case, the Court need not address whether
 Congress could have required otherwise in the PLRA without violating
 the Seventh Amendment.
    PLRA exhaustion is a standard affrmative defense subject to “the
 usual practice” under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Jones v.
 Bock, 

. The usual practice is that factual disputes
 regarding legal claims go to the jury, even if that means a judge must let
 a jury decide questions he could ordinarily resolve on his own. Beacon
 Theatres, Inc. v. Westover, 

, 510–511. That usual practice
 matters for interpreting the PLRA because “Congress is understood to
 legislate against a background of common-law adjudicatory principles
 . . . with an expectation that the principle[s] will apply except `when a
Page Proof Pending Publication
 statutory purpose to the contrary is evident.' ” Astoria Fed. Sav. &
 Loan Assn. v. Solimino, 

 (quoting Isbrandtsen Co. v.
 Johnson, 

). No such contrary purpose is evident in the
 PLRA. The PLRA is “silent” on whether judges or juries should resolve
 exhaustion disputes, and that silence is “strong evidence that the usual
 practice should be followed.” Jones, 

. Pp. 467–470.
    (b) At the time the PLRA was enacted, it was well established that
 factual disputes intertwined with claims that fall under the Seventh
 Amendment should go to a jury. The Court has held in various contexts that, in cases of intertwinement, district courts should structure
 their order of operations to preserve the jury trial right. Pp. 470–474.
       (1) One prominent line of cases involves suits that contain both
 legal and equitable claims. Ordinarily, judges resolve equitable claims
 and juries resolve legal claims. In Beacon Theatres, this Court held
 that judges may not resolve equitable claims frst if doing so could prevent legal claims from getting to the jury. In that case, both the legal
 and equitable claims hinged on the “common issue” whether there was
 an antitrust violation. 

. The Court emphasized that
 in that situation, judicial “discretion is very narrowly limited and must,
 wherever possible, be exercised to preserve jury trial.” 

.
 Because resolving the equitable claims could “prevent a full jury trial”
462                     PERTTU v. RICHARDS

                                 Syllabus

 on the legal claims, the legal claims frst needed to be resolved by a jury.
 

. In this case, the parties agree that the exhaustion
 and First Amendment questions depend on common factual issues, and
 Beacon Theatres teaches that a trial court must preserve the jury trial
 in such a situation whenever possible. Nothing in the PLRA prevents
 holding a jury trial here. Pp. 471–472.
       (2) Cases involving subject matter jurisdiction are also instructive.
 Ordinarily, judges may resolve factual disputes when determining subject matter jurisdiction. But courts may not do so when the factual
 disputes are intertwined with the merits. In Smithers v. Smith, 

, the Court held that judicial authority to dismiss for lack of
 subject matter jurisdiction “obviously is not unlimited,” for that would
 risk summarily determining the merits “without the ordinary incidents
 of a trial, including the right to a jury.” 

. In Land v. Dollar,
 

, the Court found that Land was “the type of case where
 the question of jurisdiction is dependent on decision of the merits” and
 thus held the District Court should have “proceed[ed] to a decision on
 the merits.” 

, 738–739.
    In its decision below, the Sixth Circuit relied on its precedent applying
 Land, reasoning that if “certain cases [must] be heard and determined
 on the merits even when constitutionally implicated jurisdictional disPage Proof Pending Publication
 putes” are at play, then “the result should be the same when the lesser
 concern of an affrmative defense, such as the PLRA's requirement to
 exhaust administrative remedies, implicates the merits of a claim.” 

. The Court fnds this reasoning persuasive. After all,
 when the PLRA was enacted, many lower court decisions and treatises
 had extended the intertwinement principle to other threshold questions,
 like personal jurisdiction and venue. The Court expresses no view
 today on whether lower courts have been correct to extend the intertwinement principle to these other issues, but simply notes that these
 cases—along with Beacon Theatres and Smithers—show that when the
 PLRA was enacted, the usual practice in the federal courts across a
 variety of contexts was to resolve factual disputes that are intertwined
 with the merits at the merits stage. Pp. 472–474.
    (c) Perttu's counterarguments are unpersuasive. Perttu argues that
 Beacon Theatres is inapplicable, but his argument relies on the questionable assumption that judicial factual fndings concerning exhaustion
 have no estoppel effect in later jury trials. Regardless, even if Perttu
 is correct about estoppel, Beacon Theatres still applies when judicial
 resolution might prevent a full jury trial for other reasons. Here, Richards's claim is being dismissed entirely rather than just estopped, and
 it is usually impossible for prisoners to go back and exhaust then fle
 suit again, because grievance deadlines will have long since passed.
                       Cite as: 

 (2025)                   463

                                 Syllabus

  Perttu's argument that jury trials confict with the PLRA's purpose of
  conserving judicial resources also fails, because the PLRA contemplates
  that merits claims will be resolved by a jury and is silent about exhaustion. The usual federal court practice in cases of intertwinement is to
  send common issues to the jury, and nothing in the PLRA suggests
  Congress intended to depart from that practice. Pp. 474–478.

, affrmed.
   Roberts, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Sotomayor,
Kagan, Gorsuch, and Jackson, JJ., joined. Barrett, J., fled a dissenting opinion, in which Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh, JJ., joined, post,
p. 479.

  Ann M. Sherman, Solicitor General of Michigan, argued
the cause for petitioner. With her on the briefs were Kyla
L. Barranco, Assistant Solicitor General, and Joshua S.
Smith, Assistant Attorney General.
  Lori Alvino McGill argued the cause for respondent.
With her on the brief was J. Scott Ballenger.*
  *Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were fled for the State of Ohio
Page
et al. by DaveProof        Pending
               Yost, Attorney                   Publication
                              General of Ohio, T. Elliot Gaiser, Solicitor
General, Zachery P. Keller, Deputy Solicitor General, and Daniel McKitrick and Brandon Kennedy, Assistant Attorneys General, and by the Attorneys General for their respective jurisdictions as follows: Steve Marshall of Alabama, Tim Griffn of Arkansas, William Tong of Connecticut,
Brian L. Schwalb of the District of Columbia, Ashley Moody of Florida,
Christopher M. Carr of Georgia, Raúl R. Labrador of Idaho, Theodore E.
Rokita of Indiana, Brenna Bird of Iowa, Kris Kobach of Kansas, Russell
Coleman of Kentucky, Elizabeth B. Murrill of Louisiana, Anthony G.
Brown of Maryland, Lynn Fitch of Mississippi, Austin Knudsen of Montana, Michael T. Hilgers of Nebraska, Gentner Drummond of Oklahoma,
Ellen F. Rosenblum of Oregon, Peter F. Neronha of Rhode Island, Alan
Wilson of South Carolina, Marty Jackley of South Dakota, Jonathan
Skrmetti of Tennessee, Ken Paxton of Texas, and Sean D. Reyes of Utah;
for the International Municipal Lawyers Association et al. by F. Andrew
Hessick, Richard A. Simpson, Amanda Karras, and Erich Eiselt; and for
the National Sheriffs' Association et al. by Gregory C. Champagne and
Maurice E. Bostick.
  Briefs of amici curiae urging affrmance were fled for the American
Civil Liberties Union et al. by Jennifer A. Wedekind, Cecillia D. Wang,
and Daniel S. Korobkin; for the Cato Institute by Clark M. Neily III and
Matthew Cavedon; and for Law Professors by Kevin K. Russell.
464                 PERTTU v. RICHARDS

                      Opinion of the Court

  Chief Justice Roberts delivered the opinion of the
Court.
   The Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLRA) requires prisoners with complaints about prison conditions to
exhaust available grievance procedures before bringing suit
in federal court. 42 U. S. C. § 1997e(a). In some cases the
question whether a prisoner has exhausted those procedures
is intertwined with the merits of the prisoner's lawsuit. Respondent Kyle Richards is a prisoner in Michigan. He alleges that he was sexually abused by petitioner Thomas
Perttu, a prison employee. He also alleges that when he
tried to fle grievance forms about the abuse, Perttu destroyed them and threatened to kill him if he fled more.
   Richards sued Perttu for violating his constitutional
rights, including his First Amendment right to fle grievances. Perttu responded that Richards had failed to exhaust available grievance procedures as required by the
Page Proof Pending Publication
PLRA. The parties agree that the exhaustion and First
Amendment issues are intertwined, because both depend on
whether Perttu did in fact destroy Richards's grievances and
retaliate against him. The question presented is whether a
party has a right to a jury trial on PLRA exhaustion when
that dispute is intertwined with the merits of the underlying suit.
                              I
                              A
   “Our legal system [is] committed to guaranteeing that prisoner claims of illegal conduct by their custodians are fairly
handled according to law.” Jones v. Bock, 

(2007). “The challenge,” however, “lies in ensuring that the
food of nonmeritorious claims does not submerge and effectively preclude consideration of the allegations with merit.”

 To address that challenge, Congress enacted the Prison
Litigation Reform Act of 1995, 110 Stat. 1321–71, as amended,
42 U. S. C. § 1997e, which aims to “reduce the quantity and im-
                   Cite as: 

 (2025)            465

                      Opinion of the Court

prove the quality of prisoner suits.” Porter v. Nussle, 

 (2002).
  A “centerpiece” of the PLRA is its exhaustion provision.
Woodford v. Ngo, 

 (2006). It provides:
    “No action shall be brought with respect to prison conditions under [

], or any other Federal law,
    by a prisoner confned in any jail, prison, or other correctional facility until such administrative remedies as are
    available are exhausted.” § 1997e(a).
We have held that this provision “requires proper exhaustion” of available prison grievance procedures, meaning a
prisoner “must complete the administrative review process
in accordance with the applicable procedural rules . . . as a
precondition to bringing suit in federal court.” Woodford,

. But “exhaustion is not required” when
a prison administrator “threaten[s] individual inmates so as
to prevent their use of otherwise proper procedures.” Ross
Page Proof Pending Publication
v. Blake, 

 (2016). As we have explained,
“such interference with an inmate's pursuit of relief renders
the administrative process unavailable,” so “§ 1997e(a) poses
no bar” to suit. Ibid.
                              B
   In 2020, Richards and two other prisoners fled this suit
against Perttu under 

. The complaint alleged that, over the prior year, Perttu had “engaged in a
pattern of prolifc and repetitive sexual abuse, against at
least a dozen inmates,” in violation of their constitutional
rights. App. 2–3. The complaint also alleged that the
plaintiffs had “attempted to exhaust remedies to the best of
[their] ability” but had been “threatened and retaliated
against” for doing so. 

. The complaint listed
specifc incidents in which Perttu allegedly ripped up the
plaintiffs' grievance forms, threw them away, and threatened
to kill the plaintiffs if they fled more. 

 at 13–18. The
plaintiffs also alleged they were being “wrongfully held in
466                 PERTTU v. RICHARDS

                      Opinion of the Court

administrative segregation in retaliation for fling grievances” and that Perttu was retaliating against them in other
ways, all in violation of their First Amendment rights. 

at 18–27.
   Perttu moved for summary judgment, arguing that the
plaintiffs had failed to exhaust available grievance procedures as required by the PLRA. To support his motion,
Perttu submitted an affdavit from a prison grievance coordinator attesting that there was no record evidence of the
plaintiffs fling grievances about sexual abuse by Perttu in
2019 or 2020. The plaintiffs responded by reiterating that
Perttu had intercepted and destroyed those grievances and
had warned them not to fle more. The Magistrate Judge
concluded that there was “a genuine issue of fact as to
whether Plaintiffs were excused from properly exhausting
their claims due to interference by Perttu” and that the issue
was “appropriate for resolution during an evidentiary hearing.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 86a.
Page Proof Pending Publication
   The Magistrate Judge held the evidentiary hearing by
video conference in November 2021. App. 88. Richards,
representing himself, conducted direct examinations of multiple witnesses who testifed that they had seen Perttu destroy Richards's grievance forms and retaliate against him
for fling them. See, e.g., 

 at 210–214, 230, 234–238, 250–
255. Perttu denied doing so. 

 at 339–341. The Magistrate Judge concluded that Richards's witnesses “lacked
credibility” because their testimony “was either substantially guided by Richards's manner of questioning or wholly
conclusory.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 69a. The Magistrate
Judge therefore recommended the case be dismissed without
prejudice for failure to exhaust. 

 at 76a. The District
Court adopted the recommendation. 

 at 28a–29a.

                               C
  Richards appealed to the Sixth Circuit. Still representing
himself, he argued that resolving exhaustion through “a
                   Cite as: 

 (2025)             467

                      Opinion of the Court

bench trial”—one before a judge without a jury—is “not permissible where it would essentially be resolving a claim itself.” Brief for Appellant in No. 22–1298, p. 1. After appointing counsel for Richards and requesting supplemental
briefng, the Sixth Circuit reversed. It acknowledged that,
under Circuit precedent, there was “no doubt that a judge
may otherwise resolve factual disputes regarding exhaustion
under the PLRA.” 

 (2024) (citing Lee v.
Willey, 

 (CA6 2015)). But the court held
that “the Seventh Amendment requires a jury trial when the
resolution of the exhaustion issue under the PLRA would
also resolve a genuine dispute of material fact regarding the
merits of the plaintiff's substantive case.” 

.
That decision conficted with a contrary holding on the same
question from the Seventh Circuit, see Pavey v. Conley, 

 (2008), and we granted certiorari to resolve
the split. 

 (2024).

Page Proof Pending
             II    Publication
   “The right to trial by jury is `of such importance and occupies so frm a place in our history and jurisprudence that any
seeming curtailment of the right' has always been and
`should be scrutinized with the utmost care.' ” SEC v. Jarkesy, 

, 121 (2024) (quoting Dimick v. Schiedt, 

 (1935)). Richards makes two arguments for
why his Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial has been
violated here. First, he argues that the dispute over exhaustion in this case is intertwined with a claim that falls
squarely under the Seventh Amendment—his First Amendment retaliation claim for damages under § 1983—and that
factual questions related to that claim must be resolved by
a jury. See Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes at Monterey,
Ltd., 

, 720–721 (1999) (holding that “a § 1983
suit seeking legal relief is an action at law within the meaning of the Seventh Amendment” and that a “predominantly
factual question” in such an action is “for the jury”). Sec-
468                 PERTTU v. RICHARDS

                      Opinion of the Court

ond, Richards makes a broader argument that, based on the
historical test in Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc.,

 (1996), the Seventh Amendment requires a jury
trial for all factual disputes related to PLRA exhaustion,
even those not intertwined with the merits.
   Our precedents make clear that “[b]efore inquiring into
the applicability of the Seventh Amendment, we must `frst
ascertain whether a construction of the statute is fairly
possible by which the [constitutional] question may be
avoided.' ” Del Monte Dunes, 

 (quoting Feltner v. Columbia Pictures Television, Inc., 

(1998)). Such a construction is possible here. PLRA exhaustion is an affrmative defense subject to “the usual practice under the Federal Rules [of Civil Procedure].” Jones,

. The usual practice is that factual disputes
regarding the merits of a legal claim go to the jury, even if
that means a judge must let a jury decide questions he could
Page Proof Pending Publication
ordinarily decide on his own. See Beacon Theatres, Inc. v.
Westover, 

, 510–511 (1959). That usual practice
matters for interpreting the statute because “Congress is understood to legislate against a background of common-law
adjudicatory principles . . . with an expectation that the principle[s] will apply except `when a statutory purpose to the
contrary is evident.' ” Astoria Fed. Sav. & Loan Assn. v.
Solimino, 

 (1991) (quoting Isbrandtsen Co.
v. Johnson, 

 (1952)). No such contrary purpose is evident in the PLRA.
   For those reasons, we hold as a matter of statutory interpretation that parties have a right to a jury trial on PLRA
exhaustion when that issue is intertwined with the merits of
a claim that falls under the Seventh Amendment. In light
of this holding, we express no view today on whether Congress could have required otherwise in the PLRA without
violating a party's Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial.
See Byrd v. Blue Ridge Rural Elec. Cooperative, Inc., 

, and n. 10 (1958) (holding that affrmative de-
                       Cite as: 

 (2025)                    469

                           Opinion of the Court

fense should go to jury due to “the manner in which [the
federal system] distributes trial functions between judge and
jury,” making it “unnecessary” to consider “the constitutional question”).1
                               A
   We begin with a settled premise: PLRA exhaustion is a
standard affrmative defense. Jones, 

. As
we said in Woodford, 

, PLRA exhaustion is
“not jurisdictional,” which is why “a district court [is allowed] to dismiss plainly meritless claims without frst addressing” the often “more complex question” of exhaustion.
And as we said in Jones, 

, PLRA exhaustion
is not a “pleading requirement,” which is why “inmates are
not required to specially plead or demonstrate exhaustion in
their complaints.” Rather, PLRA exhaustion is an “affrmative defense” subject to “the usual practice under the Federal Rules.” 

. And that usual practice applies,
Page Proof Pending Publication
Jones explained, even though the PLRA is “silent on the
issue,” because that silence is itself “strong evidence that the
usual practice should be followed.” 

   The PLRA is similarly “silent on the issue” whether
judges or juries should resolve factual disputes related to
exhaustion. The exhaustion provision states simply that
“[n]o action shall be brought with respect to prison condi-
   1
     The dissent criticizes us for asking whether we can avoid the constitutional question by answering the statutory one. Post, at 484–486, and
n. 3 (Barrett, J., dissenting). But we have described doing exactly that
as a “cardinal principle.” Tull v. United States, 

(1987). The dissent suggests the principle does not apply here because
the parties did not raise it and the courts below did not address it. But
the same was true in Tull, yet we still began by asking whether it was
possible to read the statute to avoid the constitutional question, and moved
on only after concluding the answer was no. Surely we should not deviate
from that principle simply because our answer this time is yes. And in
this case, the statutory question has been fully briefed by amici and involves the same precedents relied on by the parties. See Brief for Law
Professors as Amici Curiae 8–15.
470                     PERTTU v. RICHARDS

                          Opinion of the Court

tions . . . until such administrative remedies as are available
are exhausted.” 42 U. S. C. § 1997e(a). Perttu does not
argue that this provision requires that exhaustion disputes
be resolved by judges. And rightly so. As we noted in
Jones, the phrase “[n]o action shall be brought” is “boilerplate language” often used for other affrmative defenses,
like statutes of limitations, 

, that routinely
go to the jury. And “failure to exhaust was notably not
added” to the PLRA's screening provisions, which require
judges to dismiss cases on specifed grounds. 

.
   Just like in Jones, then, the statutory silence on the question before us “is strong evidence that the usual practice
should be followed.” 

; see also Dixon v. United
States, 

 (2006) (“In light of Congress' silence
on the issue . . . it is up to the federal courts to effectuate
the affrmative defense . . . as Congress may have contemplated it . . . given the long-established common-law rule.”
(internal quotation marks omitted)). We therefore look to
Page Proof Pending Publication
the usual practice for resolving factual disputes intertwined
with the merits.2
                                B
  The PLRA was enacted in 1996. By that time, it was well
established that when a factual dispute is intertwined with
the merits of a claim that falls under the Seventh Amendment, that dispute should go to a jury, even if that requires
judges to defer determinations they would ordinarily make
on their own. We have accordingly held in various contexts

   2
     The dissent thinks this should be an even “easier case” than Tull and
others where we concluded that a statute did not confer a jury trial right.
Post, at 488. But our analysis in this case is that “the usual practice
should be followed,” Jones v. Bock, 

 (2007), and that the
usual practice in cases of intertwinement is to send the question to the
jury, see Beacon Theatres, Inc. v. Westover, 

, 510–511 (1959);
see also post, at 490 (recognizing that Beacon Theatres establishes a “general prudential rule”). Tull and the other cases did not implicate a practice or rule like Beacon Theatres that itself calls for a jury trial.
                   Cite as: 

 (2025)             471

                      Opinion of the Court

that, in cases of intertwinement, district courts should structure their order of operations to preserve the jury trial right.

                                1
   One prominent line of cases involves suits that contain
both legal and equitable claims. Ordinarily, judges resolve
equitable claims and juries resolve legal claims. But in Beacon Theatres, 359 U. S., at 510–511, we held that judges may
not resolve equitable claims frst if doing so could prevent
legal claims from getting to the jury.
   Beacon Theatres involved an antitrust dispute between
two movie theater companies. One company brought an equitable claim for a declaratory judgment that it had not violated antitrust laws. The other company brought a legal
claim for money damages alleging that the frst company had
violated antitrust laws. Both the equitable and legal claims
therefore hinged on the “common issue” whether there was
Page Proof Pending Publication
an antitrust violation. 

. Faced with this dilemma, we emphasized that, while judges ordinarily have
“discretion in deciding whether the legal or equitable cause
should be tried frst,” “that discretion is very narrowly limited and must, wherever possible, be exercised to preserve
jury trial.” 

; see also 

 at 510–511 (“[O]nly
under the most imperative circumstances, circumstances
which in view of the fexible procedures of the Federal Rules
we cannot now anticipate, can the right to a jury trial of
legal issues be lost through prior determination of equitable
claims.” (footnote omitted)). The consequence in that case
was clear: Because resolving the equitable claims could “prevent a full jury trial” on the legal claims, the legal claims
needed to be resolved by a jury frst. 

. The
district court's decision to instead resolve the equitable
claims frst was therefore “not permissible.” 

.
   Later cases confrm that Beacon Theatres should be read
“expansively,” applying to any claim triable by a jury even
“in a suit in which the basic relief sought is equitable.” 

                 PERTTU v. RICHARDS

                      Opinion of the Court

Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2302.1,
pp. 33–34 (4th ed. 2020). For example, in Dairy Queen, Inc.
v. Wood, 

 (1962), the plaintiff alleged
that the defendant had breached a contract for use of the
trademark “Dairy Queen,” and the plaintiff sought both legal
and equitable relief. We observed that the legal and equitable claims therefore depended on “common” “factual issues
related to the question of whether there [had] been a breach
of contract.” 

. For that reason, the consequence
was again clear: “[T]he district judge erred in refusing to
grant petitioner's demand for a trial by jury.” 

   In this case, the parties agree that the exhaustion and
First Amendment questions depend on common factual issues. And Beacon Theatres teaches that a trial court's discretion in such a situation is “very narrowly limited and
must, wherever possible, be exercised to preserve jury trial.”

. Nothing in the PLRA prevents holding a
jury trial here.
Page Proof Pending Publication2
  Our cases involving subject matter jurisdiction are also
instructive. Ordinarily, judges may resolve factual disputes
in the course of determining whether subject matter jurisdiction is proper. See Wetmore v. Rymer, 

,
120–121 (1898). But we have long held that a court may
not do so when the factual disputes are intertwined with
the merits.
  For example, in Smithers v. Smith, 

, 641–642
(1907), the district court concluded that it lacked subject
matter jurisdiction because the case did not meet the $2,000
amount-in-controversy requirement. The district court did
so, however, by fnding that even if the defendants had each
taken a part of the plaintiff 's land—as the plaintiff alleged—
the defendants had not acted jointly, and so the aggregate
amount in controversy did not exceed $2,000. 

 at 645–
646. We reversed because we found that, in arriving at this
conclusion, the district court had decided a factual question
that was “an essential element of the merits of the dispute”—
                    Cite as: 

 (2025)             473

                       Opinion of the Court

whether the defendants had acted jointly—and so had “in
effect, decided the controversy between the parties upon the
merits.” Id., at 646. We acknowledged that judges ordinarily have “the authority to dismiss [an] action [for lack of
subject matter jurisdiction] without trial by jury.” Id., at
644–645. But we held that this authority “obviously is not
unlimited,” “lest under the guise of determining jurisdiction
the merits of the controversy between the parties be summarily decided without the ordinary incidents of a trial, including the right to a jury.” Id., at 645.
   We applied similar analysis in Land v. Dollar, 

 (1947). There the district court concluded that it lacked
subject matter jurisdiction due to sovereign immunity, because the suit for unlawful possession of stock shares by federal offcials was in fact a suit “against the United States.”

. We recognized that “as a general rule the District Court would have authority to consider questions of
jurisdiction.” 

. But we found that Land was
Page Proof Pending Publication
“the type of case where the question of jurisdiction is dependent on decision of the merits,” because both questions
hinged on the plaintiffs' claims that “the shares of stock
never were property of the United States.” 

.
We therefore held that the district court should have “proceed[ed] to a decision on the merits” rather than resolve the
jurisdictional issue at a preliminary stage. 

. See
Gulf Oil Corp. v. Copp Paving Co., 

(1974) (acknowledging practice of “reserving the jurisdictional issues” when there is “an identity between the `jurisdictional' issues and certain issues on the merits”); see also
8 J. Moore, D. Coquillette, G. Joseph, G. Vairo, & C. Varner,
Moore's Federal Practice § 38.34[1][c][i], p. 38–154 (3d ed.
2024) (Moore); 5B C. Wright, A. Miller, & A. Spencer, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1350, pp. 224–226 (4th ed.
2024).
   In its decision below, the Sixth Circuit relied on its Circuit
precedent applying Land, reasoning that if “certain cases
[must] be heard and determined on the merits even when
474                  PERTTU v. RICHARDS

                       Opinion of the Court

constitutionally implicated jurisdictional disputes” are at
play, then “the result should be the same when the lesser
concern of an affrmative defense, such as the PLRA's requirement to exhaust administrative remedies, implicates
the merits of a claim.” 

 (citing Fireman's
Fund Ins. Co. v. Railway Express Agency, Inc., 

 (CA6 1958)). We fnd that reasoning persuasive.
After all, when the PLRA was enacted, many lower court
decisions and treatises had extended the intertwinement
principle to other threshold questions, including personal jurisdiction, venue, choice of law, and forum non conveniens.
See, e. g., 5 J. Moore et al., Moore's Federal Practice ¶38.36[3],
p. 38–341 (2d ed. 1996) (“[T]o determine that the alleged acts
did not take place . . . on motion to dismiss for want of proper
venue would be to deny the plaintiff a jury trial on the merits.”); see also 8 Moore §§ 38.34[1][e], [2], [3] (3d ed. 2024).
We express no view today on whether lower courts have
been correct to extend the intertwinement principle to these
Page Proof Pending Publication
other issues. We simply note that these cases—along with
Beacon Theatres and Smithers—show that when the PLRA
was enacted, the usual practice in the federal courts across
a variety of contexts was to resolve factual disputes that are
intertwined with the merits at the merits stage. The
PLRA's complete silence on that question is therefore
“strong evidence” that this “usual practice should be followed.” Jones, 

.

                                C
   Perttu offers important counterarguments, but we are ultimately not persuaded. First, Perttu argues that Beacon
Theatres is inapplicable here. According to Perttu, the concern in Beacon Theatres was that judicial resolution of the
equitable claims would have had collateral estoppel effect on
the legal claims. But here, Perttu says, the judge's factual
fndings related to exhaustion would have no such effect in a
later jury trial.
                        Cite as: 

 (2025)                      475

                            Opinion of the Court

   Two Circuits have suggested they agree with Perttu that
factual fndings related to exhaustion have no estoppel effect,
but with little analysis and in cases that did not squarely
present an estoppel issue. See Pavey, 

; Albino v. Baca, 

 (CA9 2014). Legal treatises, on the other hand, provide support for the proposition
that factual determinations in a frst action can have direct
estoppel effect in a second action on the same claim. See
Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 27, Comment b, Illustration 3, Comment d, pp. 251–255 (1980); 18 C. Wright, A.
Miller, & E. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure § 4418,
pp. 505–506 (3d ed. 2016). The Restatement gives an example analogous to the situation before us: If a court dismisses
a case for lack of personal jurisdiction based on a particular
factual fnding, that factual fnding has preclusive effect in a
subsequent action on issues beyond just personal jurisdiction. Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 27, Illustration
Page Proof Pending Publication
3, p. 252.3 Perttu also overlooks the fact that, if the judge
below had ruled that Perttu did destroy Richards's grievances, then Perttu himself may have been precluded from
relitigating that issue before the jury under law of the case.
See 18B C. Wright, A. Miller, & E. Cooper, Federal Practice
and Procedure § 4478.5, p. 773 (3d ed. 2019).
   We therefore cannot reject the possibility that a judicial
ruling on PLRA exhaustion might have estoppel effect in a
later jury trial. And Beacon Theatres shows that the
proper path in that situation is to hold the jury trial, not to
change the estoppel rules. See Parklane Hosiery Co. v.
Shore, 

 (1979) (“Recognition that an equitable determination could have collateral-estoppel effect in a

   3
     See also, e. g., Carr v. Tillery, 

 (CA7 2010) (“[A] dismissal can be without prejudice yet have preclusive effect.”); Deutsch v.
Flannery, 

 (CA9 1987) (“It matters not that the prior
action resulted in a dismissal without prejudice, so long as the determination being accorded preclusive effect was essential to the dismissal.”).
476                     PERTTU v. RICHARDS

                          Opinion of the Court

subsequent legal action was the major premise of this
Court's decision in Beacon Theatres.”).4
   Regardless, even if Perttu is right that factual fndings
concerning exhaustion have no estoppel effect in a later jury
trial, we decline to limit Beacon Theatres artifcially to cases
involving estoppel. The problem in Beacon Theatres was
that judicial resolution of a “common issue” might have “prevent[ed] a full jury trial” on the legal claims. 

. Estoppel was simply the reason why a “full
jury trial” might have been “prevent[ed]” in that case. 

 (“[T]o try the equitable cause frst . . . might, through
collateral estoppel, prevent a full jury trial.” (emphasis
added)). The principle of Beacon Theatres still applies
when judicial resolution of a common issue might “prevent a
full jury trial” for some reason other than estoppel. And
here, that other reason is clear. Instead of just being estopped, Richards's claim is being dismissed entirely. We
therefore agree with the Sixth Circuit's reasoning: Even asPage Proof Pending Publication
suming Perttu is right that a jury may “reexamine the
judge's factual fndings,” that “rationale” “rings hollow if the
prisoner's case is dismissed for failure to exhaust,” because
“[i]n such an instance, a jury would never be assembled to
resolve the factual disputes.” 

.
   It is no answer, in our view, to say that a prisoner might
someday get a jury by starting over, exhausting the grievance procedures, then refling his lawsuit. After all, that
path is impossible in most cases. As Perttu acknowledged
at oral argument, “the time frames for . . . grievances are
very short”— on the order of days. Tr. of Oral Arg. 35; see,

  4
   The dissent reads this “major premise” language from Parklane as
suggesting that Beacon Theatres is all about estoppel. Post, at 491. But
the question in Parklane was whether a prior equitable ruling could have
estoppel effect in a subsequent legal action, and Parklane simply pointed
out that Beacon Theatres believed it could—i.e., that Beacon Theatres
took that fact as a “major premise” then reasoned from there. That logic
does not imply that Beacon Theatres is limited to cases involving estoppel.
                         Cite as: 

 (2025)                     477

                            Opinion of the Court

e. g., Jones, 

 (grievance deadlines of 2 to 5
days); Woodford, 548 U. S., at 95–96 (grievance deadlines of
14 to 30 days). By the time a case is dismissed for failure
to exhaust, grievance deadlines will have long since passed.
But Perttu makes no argument that such deadlines are tolled
in these situations. Instead, he points to the fact that prison
administrators in some (but not all) jurisdictions have discretion to excuse missed grievance deadlines, with no evidence
of how often administrators actually exercise that discretion,
let alone in cases where—as here—doing so would foreseeably set up a second lawsuit. And though Perttu makes a
different argument for why Richards could exhaust and refle
in this case,5 he does not argue that courts should treat individual cases of intertwinement differently based on whether
a particular party in a given case might one day get to a
jury. See Beacon Theatres, 

 (concern at
  5
      Perttu argues that Richards remains able to exhaust because his allePage          Proof
gations fall under  the PrisonPending
                                Rape Elimination ActPublication
                                                        of 2003 (PREA), 

, 

 et seq., and federal regulations prevent prisons from imposing deadlines on PREA grievances regarding sexual abuse.
Reply Brief 14 (citing 

(b)(1) (2024)). Accordingly, Perttu
says, the PREA policy applicable in the State of Michigan when Richards
fled suit did not bar him from fling new grievances. See App. 75 (“A
prisoner may fle a PREA grievance at any time.”). Richards, however,
says “[t]his is the frst time in this fve years of litigation that [Perttu] has
represented that . . . all of [Richards's] claims might be able to be exhausted.” Tr. of Oral Arg. 51. Richards also says that his “First Amendment claim . . . is not protected by the PREA policy.” 

 at 51–52;
see also App. 76 (“Any PREA grievance containing multiple issues, which
include sexual abuse and non-sexual abuse issues, shall be processed . . .
to address the allegations of sexual abuse only.”). We take no position on
this dispute.
  Perttu also notes that the Michigan Department of Corrections has since
amended its PREA policy to “eliminat[e] the administrative grievance procedure for addressing prisoner grievances regarding sexual abuse.”
Reply Brief 14, n. 3. We take no position on whether this new policy
covers Richards's First Amendment claim or whether there are other administrative remedies that Richards would need to exhaust before fling a
subsequent action.
478                 PERTTU v. RICHARDS

                      Opinion of the Court

issue arises when prior determination by judge “might” deprive party of jury trial); 

 (same).
   Finally, Perttu argues that requiring a jury trial here
would confict with the purpose of PLRA exhaustion, which
is to conserve judicial resources by preventing unexhausted
claims from going to trial. For support, Perttu cites our
decision in Katchen v. Landy, 

 (1966). There
we held that a bankruptcy court could proceed to decide an
equitable claim—even if similar issues might one day arise
before a jury on a legal claim—because to prevent the equitable claim from being “tried in the bankruptcy court in the
normal manner” would be “to dismember a scheme which
Congress has prescribed.” 

.
   But Katchen is clearly far afeld. That case involved
a “specifc statutory scheme”—bankruptcy—“contemplating
the prompt trial of a disputed claim without the intervention
of a jury” in a special set of courts created for that purpose.
Page Proof Pending Publication

 The equivalent “statutory scheme” here—the
PLRA—contemplates that Richards's First Amendment
claim will be resolved by a jury and is silent about whether
a jury should resolve exhaustion.
   Perttu responds that holding a jury trial on exhaustion
nonetheless conficts with congressional intent because the
point of PLRA exhaustion is to ensure that only exhausted
claims go to trial. But that objection would apply with even
greater force in Smithers and Land, because—by the same
logic—holding a trial on subject matter jurisdiction would
confict with the purpose of ensuring that trials happen only
where jurisdiction is proper. See Ex parte McCardle, 

 (1869) (“Without jurisdiction the court cannot
proceed at all in any cause.”). Yet Smithers and Land show
that, in cases of intertwinement, the proper practice is indeed to go to trial. We therefore cannot agree with Perttu
that the PLRA's general interest in conserving judicial resources shows that Congress clearly intended for judges to
resolve exhaustion disputes in this unique circumstance.
                   Cite as: 

 (2025)            479

                     Barrett, J., dissenting

                         …
   If Congress had expressly provided in the PLRA that exhaustion disputes must be resolved by judges, then we would
have been required to consider today whether such a provision violates the Seventh Amendment. But it is a “cardinal
principle” that we not address such a constitutional question
unless necessary. Tull v. United States, 

 (1987). Meanwhile, as we have shown, the usual practice of the federal courts in cases of intertwinement is to
send common issues to the jury. Because nothing in the
PLRA suggests Congress intended to depart from that practice here, we hold that parties are entitled to a jury trial on
PLRA exhaustion when that issue is intertwined with the
merits of a claim protected by the Seventh Amendment.
   The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for
the Sixth Circuit is affrmed.
                                              It is so ordered.
Page
 Justice Proof    Pending
         Barrett, with            Publication
                       whom Justice Thomas, Justice
Alito, and Justice Kavanaugh join, dissenting.
  The Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLRA) requires prisoners suing under 

 to frst exhaust the administrative remedies that are “available” to
them. § 1997e(a). In the decision below, the Sixth Circuit
held that even if prisoners are not ordinarily entitled to a
jury trial to resolve this threshold question, the Seventh
Amendment requires a jury when exhaustion is intertwined
with the merits. I would reverse. The jury right conferred by the Seventh Amendment does not depend on the
degree of factual overlap between a threshold issue and the
merits of the plaintiff's claim.
  The Court takes a different path. Instead of resolving
the constitutional question that the parties brought to us,
the Court holds that the PLRA itself requires a jury trial
whenever an issue is common to exhaustion and the merits.
No matter, the Court says, that the PLRA is silent on the
480                 PERTTU v. RICHARDS

                     Barrett, J., dissenting

subject. No matter that this statutory argument was not
briefed before us. And no matter that it was not passed on
by the courts below.
  Having taken this detour, the Court ends up in the wrong
place. Reading the PLRA's silence to implicitly confer a
right to a jury trial contravenes not only basic principles
of statutory interpretation, but also several of this Court's
precedents. I respectfully dissent.

                               I
   Kyle Richards, a state prisoner, sued Thomas Perttu, a
prison employee, for damages under § 1983. Richards alleged two bases for relief: First, he alleged that Perttu had
sexually harassed several inmates, including Richards. And
second, Richards alleged that when he had attempted to fle
grievances reporting the harassment, Perttu had retaliated
in several ways, including by destroying Richards's grievPage Proof Pending Publication
ance forms. See ante, at 465–466. Richards claimed that
Perttu's initial harassment and subsequent retaliation violated the Eighth and First Amendments, respectively. See
App. 18.
   Because a damages suit under § 1983 is a “Sui[t] at common
law,” all agree that the Seventh Amendment entitles Richards to a jury trial on the merits of his claims. U. S. Const.,
Amdt. 7 (“In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury
shall be preserved”); see Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes at
Monterey, Ltd., 

, 720–721 (1999). To litigate
the merits, however, the PLRA requires Richards to establish that he exhausted “such administrative remedies as are
available” to him. § 1997e(a). Whether Richards did so
turns on a factual dispute about the availability of his administrative remedies. According to Richards, Perttu's destruction of Richards's grievances rendered the prison grievance system “unavailable” for purposes of the PLRA. Ross
v. Blake, 

 (2016). Perttu, for his part, in-
                      Cite as: 

 (2025)                  481

                        Barrett, J., dissenting

sists that he did not destroy Richards's grievances; thus, he
says, the system was available to Richards and Richards's
failure to fle grievances dooms his § 1983 claims. See
§ 1997e(a).
   This dispute about the facts engendered another about the
law—and more specifcally, about the role of the jury. The
PLRA itself says nothing about the right to a jury trial on
the question of exhaustion. And all the circuits to have considered the question hold that the Seventh Amendment does
not require one. So the consensus rule in the courts of appeals has been that PLRA exhaustion can be resolved
through a bench trial.1
   Although the Sixth Circuit has long embraced this rule,
see Lee v. Willey, 

 (2015), Richards argued
that his case was special—and the Sixth Circuit agreed. An
exception applies, it held, “when the resolution of the exhaustion issue . . . would also resolve a genuine dispute of material fact regarding the merits of the plaintiff's substantive
Page Proof Pending Publication
case.” 

 (2024). In such cases, the Sixth
Circuit held, the Seventh Amendment entitles the parties to
a jury. That holding broke with the decisions of the Seventh
and Ninth Circuits, both of which have rejected a factualoverlap exception. See Pavey v. Conley, 

(CA7 2008); Albino v. Baca, 

 (CA9 2014)
(en banc) (agreeing with Pavey in dicta).

                                   II
  Having granted certiorari to resolve this split, I would reverse. The jury-trial right conferred by the Seventh
Amendment does not turn on the degree of factual overlap
  1
    See Messa v. Goord, 

, 308–310 (CA2 2011) (per curiam);
Small v. Camden Cty., 

, 269–271 (CA3 2013); Dillon v. Rogers, 

 (CA5 2010); Lee v. Willey, 

, 677–678
(CA6 2015); Pavey v. Conley, 

, 741–742 (CA7 2008); Albino v.
Baca, 

, 1170–1171 (CA9 2014) (en banc); Bryant v. Rich, 

, 1373–1377 (CA11 2008).
482                      PERTTU v. RICHARDS

                          Barrett, J., dissenting

between a threshold question and the merits of the plaintiff 's claim.
   Because the Seventh Amendment provides that the “ `right
of trial by jury shall be preserved,' ” it protects “ `the right
which existed under the English common law when the
Amendment was adopted.' ” Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 

 (1996). In actions that would
have been tried at law at the founding, such as this one, the
question is whether the “particular trial decision” at issue
“must fall to the jury in order to preserve the substance of
the common-law right as it existed in 1791.” 

   The parties devote much of their time to debating the best
founding-era analogue to the exhaustion defense. According to Richards, exhaustion is analogous to common-law defenses that would have been raised through a plea in bar.2
Under the common-law pleading system, Richards argues,
the parties' dueling pleas would isolate disputed points of
law and fact, with the former allocated to a judge and the
Page Proof Pending Publication
latter allocated to a jury. See H. Stephen, Principles of
Pleading in Civil Actions 59–61 (1882); B. Shipman, Handbook of Common-Law Pleading § 15, p. 32 (3d ed. 1923).
Perttu, on the other hand, grounds exhaustion in traditional
equitable practice. In his view, an exhaustion defense most
closely resembles a defensive equitable action to enjoin a
lawsuit—an action that would have been heard by the chancellor, not a jury. Liberty Oil Co. v. Condon Nat. Bank, 

, 242–243 (1922).
   The Court does not get into this back-and-forth—and here,
I agree with the Court. We did not take this case to determine whether the Seventh Amendment requires jury trials
for all disputes about exhaustion. There is no circuit split
on that question, and the court below did not address it.
   2
     Richards relies primarily on the plea in discharge, a type of plea in bar
that applies when the plaintiff 's cause of action has been “discharged by
some matter subsequent, either of fact or of law.” B. Shipman, Handbook
of Common-Law Pleading § 198b, p. 348 (3d ed. 1923).
                   Cite as: 

 (2025)            483

                     Barrett, J., dissenting

(Recall that under binding Sixth Circuit precedent, there is
generally no Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial for
exhaustion disputes. See Lee, 

.) The question, moreover, might be very diffcult. Neither party identifes an obvious analogue to exhaustion, a defense that developed long after the founding. See R. Berger, Exhaustion
of Administrative Remedies, 48 Yale L. J. 981, and n. 1 (1939).
Resolving the dispute would therefore require us to confront
challenging historical and methodological questions: Did the
Seventh Amendment constitutionalize common-law pleading
rules? Does Congress have the authority, after the merger
of law and equity, to fashion novel defenses as “equitable”?
What presumption applies when the historical evidence is
ambiguous? It would be unwise to address these questions
before the lower courts have seriously considered them.
   Answering the question presented, however, would not
have required us to resolve these knotty issues. We granted
Page Proof Pending Publication
certiorari to decide the same limited issue that the Sixth
Circuit decided: whether a special Seventh Amendment rule
applies when a factual dispute about exhaustion is intertwined with the merits. And on this question, the historical
record is much clearer. Richards has presented no evidence
that intertwinement with the merits was relevant to the
jury-trial right. Instead, he simply repeats his broader historical argument: that factual disputes raised through pleas
were heard by juries. But this was true regardless of
whether the dispute overlapped with the merits. See, e. g.,
Wetmore v. Rymer, 

, 120–123 (1898) (describing
“trial[s] had with a jury” over subject-matter jurisdiction).
Likewise, Perttu's account does not implicate intertwinement. All equitable defenses were heard by “the judge as
a chancellor” because they were freestanding equitable actions. Liberty Oil, 260 U. S., at 242–243; see W. Cook, Equitable Defenses, 32 Yale L. J. 645, 650–652 (1922–1923).
   The upshot is that there is no historical support for a special intertwinement rule. Mere factual overlap with the
484                      PERTTU v. RICHARDS

                          Barrett, J., dissenting

merits does not transform a collateral issue ordinarily resolved by a court into one necessarily resolved by a jury.
We could have corrected that constitutional error and saved
the broader, more complicated debate for another day.
                              III
   Remarkably, in this Seventh Amendment case, the Court
has nothing to say about the Seventh Amendment. In fact,
the Court sets the Constitution entirely aside, “express[ing]
no view” on how or when it demands that a jury resolve
intertwined factual disputes. Ante, at 468–469. Left with
nothing else to interpret, the Court pivots to the PLRA.
True, the Court acknowledges, the PLRA says nothing about
the role of the jury—and certainly nothing about the role of
the jury in resolving disputes about exhaustion. But as a
matter of statutory interpretation and “ `common-law adjudicatory principles,' ” the Court holds that the PLRA nonetheless requires a jury trial when a dispute about exhaustion is
Page Proof Pending Publication
“intertwined with the merits” of the plaintiff 's claim. Ante,
at 468.
   This is wrong several times over. Richards did not present this statutory theory to us or any other court; the PLRA
does not confer a jury right through its silence; and the
Court plucks its purported “common-law adjudicatory principle” out of thin air. I take each point in turn.
                             A
  To begin, the Court spins a statutory theory that Richards
has never even mentioned, much less developed.3 Before us,
   3
     The avoidance canon permits a court to choose a less plausible interpretation of a statute when the most natural one would provoke a “ `serious' ”
constitutional question. Zadvydas v. Davis, 

 (2001).
Though the Court invokes the canon in this case, it is unwilling to say that
interpreting the PLRA to permit a court to resolve Richards's exhaustion
defense would pose a “serious” constitutional question. This reticence
is presumably attributable to the scant historical support for Richards's
proposed intertwinement rule. Even if the canon applied, moreover, the
                     Cite as: 

 (2025)               485

                       Barrett, J., dissenting

Richards argues only that he has a constitutional right to a
jury trial. Both his Brief in Opposition and his merits brief
focus exclusively on the Seventh Amendment. See Brief for
Respondent 3 (“[T]he Seventh Amendment clearly protects
Respondent's right to jury resolution of disputed historical
facts central to the merits of his legal claim”); Brief in Opposition 1 (“The Sixth Circuit correctly held that [the District
Court's] process violated the Seventh Amendment”). The
same was true below. In the District Court, Richards's argument turned on the proper application of circuit precedent—precedent that has everything to do with the Seventh
Amendment and nothing to do with the PLRA. See Objections and Request for Review in No. 2:20–cv–00076 (WD
Mich., Aug. 6, 2021), ECF Doc. 102, p. 2; Lee, 

. Following Richards's lead, the District Court likewise
focused on the Seventh Amendment. 

, *2
(WD Mich., Aug. 10, 2021) (“[T]he Seventh Amendment right
to a jury trial [does] not extend to the exhaustion question”).
Page Proof Pending Publication
On appeal in the Sixth Circuit, Richards continued to press
the same Seventh Amendment argument. Brief for Appellant in No. 22–1298, p. 2; see generally Supplemental Brief
for Appellant in No. 22–1289. So, no surprise, the Sixth Circuit addressed only the Seventh Amendment. See 

 (“[T]he Seventh Amendment requires a jury trial
when the resolution of the exhaustion issue under the PLRA
would also resolve a genuine dispute of material fact regarding the merits of the plaintiff 's substantive case”).
   In light of this procedural history, the Court's path is perplexing. We typically refuse to consider arguments that the
parties failed to make before us. See Reno v. American
Civil Liberties Union, 

 (1997). Likewise, “we normally decline to entertain . . . arguments” that
a party “failed to raise . . . in the courts below.” Kingdomware Technologies, Inc. v. United States, 

, 173
chosen interpretation must be plausible—and, as I explain in the next
Part, the Court's interpretation most certainly is not.
486                   PERTTU v. RICHARDS

                      Barrett, J., dissenting

(2016). And we regularly emphasize that “we are a court of
review, not of frst view,” so we generally do not address
issues that the court of appeals did not analyze frst. Cutter
v. Wilkinson, 

 (2005). (Making matters worse, it is not clear that any court has considered the
statutory question the Court resolves today.) Apparently,
these party-presentation principles have no purchase here.
Without any prompting from the parties, the Court devises
and embraces a theory that Richards himself never raised—
all, ironically enough, to save his case from dismissal for an
alleged failure to exhaust.
                               B
   Nor does the Court depart from party presentation in
service of a sound result. Its analysis goes wrong at every
turn, beginning with its choice to venture beyond statutory
text into the realm of statutory silence.
   As the Court recognizes, the PLRA is “ `silent on the issue'
Page Proof Pending Publication
whether judges or juries should resolve factual disputes related to exhaustion.” Ante, at 469. Indeed, a search of the
exhaustion provision yields nothing remotely related to a
jury trial:
      “No action shall be brought with respect to prison conditions under [

], or any other Federal law,
      by a prisoner confned in any jail, prison, or other correctional facility until such administrative remedies as are
      available are exhausted.” § 1997e(a).
Notwithstanding this silence, the Court says that the PLRA
guarantees the plaintiff “a right to a jury trial on PLRA
exhaustion when that issue is intertwined with the merits of
a claim that falls under the Seventh Amendment.” Ante, at
468. According to the Court, this “intertwinement” rule is
so well established that Congress expected courts to apply
it even when the statute says nothing about it. Ibid. Supposedly, the rule is a “ `common-law adjudicatory principl[e]' ”
against which Congress legislates. Ibid.
                   Cite as: 

 (2025)            487

                     Barrett, J., dissenting

   It is true that Congress sometimes legislates against the
backdrop of a well-established principle. For example, relying on the “strength of the traditional rule” that criminal
offenses require mens rea, we interpret statutes to incorporate that requirement “ `even where the statutory defnition
did not in terms include it.' ” Staples v. United States, 

, 605–606 (1994) (quoting United States v. Balint,

, 251–252 (1922)). Section 1997e(a), however,
implicates no such “traditional rule.” (Note that while the
Court treats the “intertwinement” rule as bedrock, it is apparently not confdent enough in the rule's historical roots to
call it constitutionally required.) Even beyond that, however, the Court does not cite precedent applying this supposed rule—or anything like it—as a background principle
of statutory interpretation. And so far as I can tell, there
is no such precedent. On the contrary, when we have considered whether a statute confers the right to a jury trial,
Page Proof Pending Publication
we have understood silence to mean what you would expect—that Congress did not affrmatively confer such a
right.
   Consider Tull v. Uni ted States, 

 (1987).
There, we considered whether a civil action under the Clean
Water Act required the jury's involvement. We asked the
same question that the Court asks today: Was a “ `construction of the statute . . . fairly possible by which the [Seventh
Amendment] question may be avoided' ”? 

.
No, we said: “Nothing in the language of the Clean Water
Act or its legislative history implies any congressional intent
to grant defendants the right to a jury trial.” 

 “Given
this statutory silence,” there was no statutory basis for a
jury-trial right. 

 (emphasis added). That was so even
though the traditional role of the jury in this context meant
that the Seventh Amendment required one. 

 at 418–419.
   Our decision in Feltner v. Columbia Pictures Television,
Inc., is similar. 

 (1998). Faced with the question whether a copyright owner was entitled to a jury trial
488                  PERTTU v. RICHARDS

                      Barrett, J., dissenting

in a suit for damages, we observed that the statute was “silent on the point.” 

. The “entire statutory provision” made “no mention of a right to a jury trial or, for that
matter, to juries at all.” 

. As in Tull, that silence was dispositive: We “discern[ed] no statutory right to
a jury trial.” 

. And again, that was so even
though the Seventh Amendment demanded a jury. 

 at
348–355.
   Finally, in Monterey, we held that § 1983 “does not itself
confer the jury right.” 

. This was true, we
explained, even though § 1983 authorizes a party to proceed
through an “ `action at law.' ” Ibid. We declined to interpret the phrase as a “term of art implying a right to a jury
trial,” and, as a result, we declined “to fnd a statutory jury
right under § 1983.” Id., at 707–708.
   This should have been an easier case than Tull, Feltner,
or Monterey. In each of those cases, the statute invoked
terms traditionally associated with the jury-trial right. See
Page Proof Pending Publication
Monterey, 

 (“ `action[s] at law' ”); Feltner, 523
U. S., at 352–353 (“statutory damages”); Tull, 

 (“civil penalty”). Indeed, in all three cases, we ultimately held that the Seventh Amendment required a jury
trial. Monterey, 526 U. S., at 720–721; Feltner, 

; Tull, 

. It would have been easy to read
into a phrase such as “action at law” an implicit instruction
to require jury trials, but we did not do so; instead, we read
the statute to mean what it actually said. Monterey, 

. Here, the statute contains no term traditionally associated with the jury-trial right, and the claim to a
statutory backdrop is even weaker. That is perhaps why
Richards never attempted to make the statutory argument
that the Court advances now.

                                C
  The Court's approach to statutory interpretation is not only
adventuresome—it also rests on an illusion. Neither history,
nor logic, nor precedent supports its “intertwinement” rule.
                   Cite as: 

 (2025)             489

                     Barrett, J., dissenting

   I covered the lack of historical support for the rule in my
discussion of the Seventh Amendment. On, then, to logic:
The Court's proposed rule is both manifestly unfair and inherently arbitrary. Under the Court's approach, similarly
situated plaintiffs are entitled to a jury (or not) based on
immaterial distinctions in the claims they choose to bring.
To see why, imagine that another inmate (say, Smith) sues
Perttu based on the very same facts that Richards alleges
here. Like Richards, Smith claims that Perttu sexually harassed him. And, like Richards, Smith contends that Perttu
destroyed his grievances, thus excusing his failure to exhaust
his available administrative remedies. But suppose that,
unlike Richards, Smith brings only an Eighth Amendment
claim. Because the destruction of grievance forms does not
implicate the Eighth Amendment, Richards's proposed rule
would not entitle Smith to a jury trial on exhaustion.
   As this example illustrates, the Court's rule makes little
sense. There is no question that both Richards and Smith
Page Proof Pending Publication
would be entitled to a jury trial on the merits of their § 1983
claims. For both Richards and Smith, an adverse ruling on
administrative exhaustion would require dismissal. For
both Richards and Smith, the exhaustion question would depend on the same set of facts and credibility determinations.
And for both Richards and Smith, an exhaustion-related dismissal would not preclude a subsequent suit once they have
adequately exhausted their claims. So why should Richards
get a jury trial, but not Smith? The Court does not say.
   Instead, the Court relies on three cases holding (it says)
that an issue triggers the jury-trial right if it is intertwined
with the merits, even if it could ordinarily be resolved by the
court. None of the cited cases stands for this proposition.

                                1
   The Court leads with Beacon Theatres, Inc. v. Westover,

 (1959). See ante, at 471–472. In that case, the
District Court had two actions before it: (1) an equitable action by the plaintiff (Fox Theatres); and (2) a countersuit by
490                 PERTTU v. RICHARDS

                     Barrett, J., dissenting

the defendant (Beacon Theatres) for damages. See 359
U. S., at 502–503. Both actions involved a common issue related to the reasonableness of the plaintiff's underlying contracts. But only the latter action—a suit at law—implicated
the right to a jury trial. That teed up the question: Which
should the trial court resolve frst?
   The answer, we held, is that courts ultimately have “discretion in deciding whether the legal or equitable cause
should be tried frst.” 

. But this discretion
should, “wherever possible, be exercised” such that the legal
claims would be heard before the equitable ones. 

Resolving the equitable claim frst, we explained, might inadvertently “ `operate either by way of res judicata or collateral
estoppel' ” so as to limit the “ `opportunity fully to try to a
jury every issue which has a bearing upon' ” the legal claim.

 at 504 (quoting Beacon Theatres, Inc. v. Westover, 

 (CA9 1958)).
Page Proof Pending Publication
   Beacon Theatres does not hold, however, that the Seventh
Amendment compels legal-then-equitable sequencing. Nor
does it “construc[t]” statutory silence to require such a rule.
Ante, at 468. Instead, as our later cases confrm, Beacon
Theatres “enunciate[s] no more than a general prudential
rule” governing the trial court's “discretion in determining
the sequence of trial” when legal and equitable claims are
joined in the same action. Parklane Hosiery Co. v. Shore,

 (1979). As a rule of discretion, it is not
hard and fast: We have observed that “there might be situations” in which a court may “resolve the equitable claim frst
even though the results might be dispositive of the issues
involved in the legal claim.” Katchen v. Landy, 

, 339–340 (1966). Congress, too, has fexibility: It may
devise “a specifc statutory scheme” that contemplates “the
prompt trial of a disputed claim without the intervention of
a jury.” 

.
   With that understanding of Beacon Theatres in mind, the
differences with this case are hard to miss. Beacon The-
                       Cite as: 

 (2025)                    491

                         Barrett, J., dissenting

atres involved a court's discretion in judicial administration—discretion that Congress is always free to override.
See Katchen, 382 U. S., at 339–340 (emphasizing that the
Beacon Theatres rule can be displaced “[t]o implement congressional intent”). The Court's analysis here, by contrast,
turns on whether Congress affrmatively conferred a jury-trial right on prisoners when it enacted the PLRA.
   Besides, the problem that drove the Court's decision in
Beacon Theatres is absent here. Recall the concern: that
Fox's equitable claim would proceed to fnal judgment before
Beacon Theatres's legal claim and thus preclusively resolve
“the issues involved” in that claim. Katchen, 382 U. S., at
339–340. Indeed, as we later explained in Parklane Hosiery, “[r]ecognition that an equitable determination could
have collateral-estoppel effect in a subsequent legal action
was the major premise” of Beacon Theatres. 

 (emphasis added). The holding of Beacon Theatres, we
Page Proof Pending Publication
underscored, was specifcally intended to avoid foreclosing,
“by res judicata or collateral estoppel,” the “relitigation” of
an “issue common to both legal and equitable claims.” 

.
   No such concern is present in this case. Both courts to
have considered the issue have concluded, consistent with
principles of collateral estoppel, that the resolution of facts
relating to administrative exhaustion does not bind the jury
in a subsequent trial. See Pavey, 

; Albino,

. This makes sense: Because collateral estoppel requires a “fnal judgment,” it should have no force
when the resolution of a threshold issue (like exhaustion)
results in a without-prejudice dismissal. Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 27 (1980).4

  4
    While Richards does not dispute that collateral estoppel is inapplicable
here, the Court suggests that it may apply. To support this contention,
however, the Court simply relies on the hornbook principle that “factual
determinations in a frst action can have direct estoppel effect in a second
492                     PERTTU v. RICHARDS

                         Barrett, J., dissenting

  For reasons I do not understand, the Court recasts Beacon
Theatres as having little to do with collateral estoppel.
Without any hesitation, it turns Beacon Theatres's “major
premise” into a minor corollary, announcing that the case will
not be “artifcially” limited “to cases involving estoppel.”
Ante, at 476. But the reasoning of Beacon Theatres expressly turned on estoppel, and we have subsequently identifed this principle as the animating force behind its holding.
Parklane Hosiery, 

; Katchen, 382 U. S., at
339–340. And estoppel is the one circumstance where intertwinement with the merits has practical relevance to the
jury-trial right. Without fanfare, citation, or explanation,
the Court thus transforms our 40-year understanding of a
seminal case on equity.
                              2
  The Court's reliance on Smithers v. Smith and Land v.
Dollar is even more of a stretch: Neither has anything to do
Page Proof Pending Publication
with the question presented here.

action on the same claim.” Ante, at 475. To be sure, the resolution of a
threshold issue precludes relitigation of that same threshold issue in a
subsequent suit. See 18A C. Wright, A. Miller, & E. Cooper, Federal
Practice and Procedure § 4436, p. 143 (3d ed. 2017). For that reason, if a
court rules against a plaintiff on exhaustion and dismisses her case, she
cannot relitigate whether she exhausted her administrative remedies.
But if she prevails on exhaustion and proceeds to the merits, collateral
estoppel should not preclude revisiting the facts that informed the court's
ruling on exhaustion. Indeed, the cases cited by the majority, see ante,
at 475, n. 3, are consistent with this principle. See Carr v. Tillery, 

, 916–917 (CA7 2010) (a determination that a federal court lacks
subject-matter jurisdiction over a suit would bar a federal court from asserting jurisdiction in a subsequent suit); Deutsch v. Flannery, 

 (CA9 1987) (a determination that a complaint fails to allege
fraud with particularity could preclude the refling of an identical complaint). The law-of-the-case doctrine would be similarly inapplicable.
See 18B C. Wright, A. Miller, & E. Cooper, Federal Practice & Procedure
§ 4478.5, p. 774 (3d ed. 2019) (“Reconsideration of a fact issue may be appropriate . . . if a change of procedural posture changes the nature of
the issue”).
                   Cite as: 

 (2025)             493

                     Barrett, J., dissenting

   Start with Smithers, in which the plaintiff asserted that
the defendants had stolen his land. 

 (1907).
The land, the plaintiff claimed, was worth more than $2,000,
the amount-in-controversy requirement then in effect. See

 at 639–641. After holding a bench trial, the District
Court dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction; according
to the court, each defendant had taken a parcel worth less
than $2,000, and the defendants had not acted jointly. 

at 641–642. In so holding, the court violated the black-letter
rule that a plaintiff's declaration generally establishes the
amount in controversy. 

. Because it was “legally
possible for the plaintiff to recover the full amount of all the
land and the full amount of the damages claimed,” we held
that the District Court had erred in dismissing the case.

.
   In other words, the District Court simply misapplied longstanding jurisdictional principles. The plaintiff 's pleadings
were suffcient to establish jurisdiction, notwithstanding any
Page Proof Pending Publication
factual disputes that might limit the plaintiff 's potential recovery down the line. But these disputes implicated the
merits—damages, in particular—not jurisdiction. Smithers's rule is therefore unremarkable. A trial court may not
prematurely resolve a merits question by framing it as a jurisdictional question, thereby depriving the plaintiff of a
jury. Smithers says nothing about whether a threshold
question requires a jury simply because of factual overlap
with the merits.
   Land v. Dollar, 

 (1947), is even further afeld.
There, stockholders sued members of the U. S. Maritime
Commission to recover stock previously delivered to the
Commission. 

 at 733–734. The District Court dismissed the case, reasoning that because the stock was federal
property, sovereign immunity barred the plaintiff's suit.

 at 734–735. That was an error, we held: Ownership of
the stock implicated the merits of the stockholders' claim, so
the court should not have decided that issue at the outset of
the case. 

.
494                 PERTTU v. RICHARDS

                     Barrett, J., dissenting

   Nothing in Land turned on the Seventh Amendment; indeed, the word “jury” does not appear in our opinion or the
opinion of the court below. See Dollar v. Land, 

 (CADC 1946). This may be because Land was a suit for
injunctive relief and mandamus, not damages. See 

 (Reed, J., concurring); Dollar, 

(“The complaint prayed for relief by way of injunction and
mandamus against the defendant”). In fact, in the end “a
lengthy trial was had before the court without a jury.” Dollar v. Land, 

 (CADC 1950). Sensibly, then,
we have never understood Land to inform the scope of the
right to a jury trial. It stands for the more limited proposition that when there is “an identity between the `jurisdictional' issues and certain issues on the merits,” there is “no
objection to reserving the jurisdictional issues until a hearing on the merits.” Gulf Oil Corp. v. Copp Paving Co., 

 (1974). This rule is just a principle of
judicial administration—addressing circumstances in which
Page Proof Pending Publication
it makes sense to defer ruling on a potentially jurisdictional
issue until the merits—and not a holding on the jury-trial
right.
                          …
  The Court reads the PLRA to say what it does not. It
does so for reasons that the parties did not brief; that have
no basis in our doctrine; and that are contrary to well-established principles of statutory interpretation. In so
doing, the Court creates a regime under which an exhaustion
requirement designed to “reduce the quantity and improve
the quality of prisoner suits” just generates more litigation
of its own. Porter v. Nussle, 

 (2002).
Now, any prisoner can potentially obtain full jury review of
the very threshold question that was designed to streamline
prisoner litigation. All he has to do is fnd a way to transform his inability to use the prison system into a claim for
relief. Congress did not devise such a rule, and we have
never adopted one. I respectfully dissent.
                            Reporter’s Note

  The attached opinion has been revised to refect the usual publication
and citation style of the United States Reports. The revised pagination
makes available the offcial United States Reports citation in advance of
publication. The syllabus has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions
for the convenience of the reader and constitutes no part of the opinion of
Page Proof Pending Publication
the Court. A list of counsel who argued or fled briefs in this case, and
who were members of the bar of this Court at the time this case was
argued, has been inserted following the syllabus. Other revisions may
include adjustments to formatting, captions, citation form, and any errant
punctuation. The following additional edits were made:

p. 464, line 2 from bottom: “94 Stat. 352” is changed to “110 Stat. 1321–71,
   as amended,”