Douglas Thomas v. Shawn Woolum, Richard Kepler Charlotte Starcher Billie Waddell, Sr.

OPINION

MOORE, Circuit Judge.

Congress’s passage of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”) was an attempt to curb rampant prison litigation in the federal courts, but its enactment did not erode the role of the federal courts as vindicators of federal rights. The PLRA explicitly requires an inmate seeking to challenge prison conditions in federal court to exhaust any available administrative remedies, but the statute’s text does not condition access to the federal courts on satisfying the procedures and timelines of prison administrators. Thus, this case turns not on whether exhaustion is…