Cruz v. Hauck

Petitioners are prisoners who claim that the prison authorities have denied them access to law books needed to seek judicial remedies. They are inmates of the Bexar County Jail in Texas and instituted this action in the District Court to restrain the respondent’s interference with their reasonable access to hardbound law books and other legal matter.1 They asserted that county jail regulations and practices deprived them of their rights to seek judicial redress. Their custodians answered that prison security necessitated removing hardback covers as part of an overall scheme to arrest…