The United States Supreme Court has just sidestepped a contentious fight over a mandated prison project in New Orleans, leaving conservative justices at odds and taxpayers on the hook.
The majority of justices opted not to take up a challenge against a lower court ruling that forces New Orleans to build a new jail, Newsweek reported.
However, the decision was split among the Supreme Court’s conservative members.
The case was sent to the high court after Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson inherited a mess of judicial orders pushing for a new prison before she even took office.
Her legal team argued that the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) bars courts from mandating prison construction as a fix, claiming these orders were questionable from the start.
They petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, hoping to halt what they saw as overreach.
However, the majority of justices declined to hear the case.
Conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch all said they wanted to hear the case.
Alito and Thomas penned a sharp dissent.
In the dissent, Alito didn’t hold back, writing:
“This case cried out for our review.”
Alito lamented that the city is left “to pay for the Fifth Circuit’s serious errors.”
That’s a polite way of saying the appeals court botched it, and now New Orleans foots the bill for a project many question.
Before reaching the Supreme Court, a district court rejected the city’s plea to halt the jail’s planning and construction indefinitely.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals backed that call.
Alito criticized the appeals court for flipping the burden of proof.
He is arguing that it wrongly placed the onus on the sheriff to justify stopping the project rather than on opponents to defend it.
With a split among circuit courts on who bears that burden, this legal gray area just got murkier.
The Supreme Court’s pass means no clarity anytime soon.
Meanwhile, the new prison, dubbed Phase III, is already 68.6 percent complete, according to U.S. attorneys opposing the sheriff’s petition.
They argued that even if the Supreme Court took the case, a ruling wouldn’t likely come until mid-2026, rendering any decision moot since the facility would probably be finished by then.
That’s a pragmatic jab at the sheriff’s fight.
With the Supreme Court stepping aside, the lower court’s ruling stands, construction continues, and New Orleans residents are left wondering if this was the right fix or just another government overstep.
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