McCoy v. Alamu
Rights Behind Bars, along with the MacArthur Justice Center, represents Prince McCoy, an incarcerated man in Texas who was sprayed in the face with mace by a prison guard for no reason other than the guard's frustration with a different person. The Fifth Circuit held that although this assault was a violation of the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits sadistic and malicious uses of force, it was not a "clearly established" violation because the Fifth Circuit had not confronted a case with identical facts and therefore the guard was entitled to qualified immunity. Rights Behind Bars and MacArthur have filed a petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court asking them to resolve the multiple circuit splits created the court's opinion created or summarily reverse its obviously incorrect result.