The court of appeals affirmed in part and reversed in part a judgment and remanded. The court held that prison officials had to show that their use of racially-based lockdowns in response to disturbances was narrowly tailored to further a compelling governmental interest.
On several occasions in 2002 and 2003, prison officials at California’s High Desert State Prison locked down all African-American inmates in one section of the prison in response to disturbances in that section. In each instance, the disturbance was caused by one or two African-American inmates in that section.
