Might SCOTUS soon (finally!) take up the constitutionality of solitary confinement?

Way back in March 2009, I asked via this post "Why isn't there more constitutional litigation over the 'hellhole' that is extended solitary confinement?".  And last year, as noted this post, Justice Anthony Kennedy essentially asked the same question via a remarkable (off-point) concurrence in the SCOTUS ruling in Davis v. Ayala.  Consequently, I was intrigued to see this new Mother Jones article headlined "The Supreme Court Might Finally Take On Solitary Confinement: The court could announce Monday whether it will consider the long-term solitary confinement of a death row inmate." Here is how the piece gets started:

Bobby Moore has been on death row in Texas for more than 35 years, for a murder he committed in 1980 at the age of 20.  He's come close to dying twice; once, he was hours away from execution before a court intervened.  For the past 15 years, he's been in solitary confinement nearly 23 hours a day, unable to interact with other inmates, in a type of cell described in legal filings as "virtual incubators of psychoses."

The Supreme Court is now considering Moore's claim that his solitary incarceration and the long delay between his conviction and execution are violations of the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.  Moore's petition has been pending for nearly a month, but a decision on whether the Supreme Court will hear it could come on Monday.  If the court takes up the case, its ruling could have profound implications for the nation's nearly 3,000 death row inmates, who are often confined to solitary cells and await execution for an average of more than 15 years.  If Moore wins, not only could he get off death row, but many inmates in his position could follow.

The high court has repeatedly refused to hear cases challenging an excessive delay of an execution as unconstitutional, and it's never directly confronted solitary confinement on death row.  But there are signs that the justices are seriously considering Moore's case.  The court grants only about 70 petitions a year, out of 9,000 filings, so most cases are dismissed quickly.  But it has relisted Moore's case for its weekly review conference three times, an unusual move.

Some of the court's liberal justices have spoken out about long solitary stays on death row for a long time.  Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired in 2010, was a notable advocate for the position that extended incarceration for capital offenders was a clear constitutional violation, one he first embraced more than 20 years ago.  Stevens gained an ally in Justice Stephen Breyer, who wrote in 1999, "It is difficult to deny the suffering inherent in a prolonged wait for execution."  Breyer cited these long waits in a lengthy dissent last year, in which he declared his view that capital punishment in any form is unconstitutional — a dissent joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  Last month, he objected to the court's refusal to take up a California death row case raising the issue, arguing that "unconscionably long delays...undermine the death penalty’s penological purpose."

The conservative justices, though, have been less sympathetic — that is, until 2014, when almost out of the blue, Anthony Kennedy, a Ronald Reagan appointee and the court's frequent swing vote, expressed concern about solitary confinement during oral arguments in a case.  He has since shown more signs that he could eventually be a decisive vote in forcing the court to confront the issue at last.

For various reasons, I would like to see the Supreme Court take up the constitutionality of extended solitary confinement in a non-capital case. But, obviously, that has not happened yet so I suppose my perspective now is that taking up the issue in a capital case is good enough for SCOTUS work.

Some of many prior related posts:

• Why isn't there more constitutional litigation over the "hellhole" that is extended solitary confinement?
• Great NPR series on solitary confinement
• More on Supermax, human dignity, and public safety
• Seventh Circuit ruling spotlighting Supermax realities
• The case against supermax
• Effective NPR coverage of supermax prisons and solitary confinement
• Justices Kennedy and Breyer urge Congress to reform "broken" federal criminal justice system
• "Justice Kennedy practically invites a challenge to solitary confinement"
• Justice Anthony Kennedy condemns extreme US punishments as "ongoing injustice of great proportions"
• "Why we must rethink solitary confinement"
• Is a capital case the right kind of vehicle for SCOTUS to consider solitary confinement?