Prisoner's Handwritten Petition Prompts Justices To Weigh Government Immunity

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court's landmark decision requiring the states to provide lawyers for poor people accused of committing crimes.

...the Supreme Court is hearing the case of another defendant who, in the longest of long shots, filed a handwritten petition from prison asking the justices for their help.

Millbrook [Kim Millbrook] claims that he was held down by one guard and forced to perform oral sex on another guard while a third prison guard stood watch.  His case was thrown out by the lower courts without ruling on the merits of the allegations. Instead the lower courts dismissed the case on grounds of sovereign immunity — the concept that the government is immune from certain kinds of lawsuits.

The government initially argued that the court should not take Millbrook's case. It then changed course and alerted the court to an issue Millbrook had not raised, but that lower courts across the country are divided on. The issue is whether federal law waives sovereign immunity and allows lawsuits against the United States for intentional wrongful acts by prison guards acting as law enforcement officials.