Denton v. Hernandez
Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.
Status
More on how this was screened
McGore v. Wrigglesworth supplied the one confirmed treatment listed below, holding that the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires de novo review under the amended statute. The other opinions continued to apply Denton's substantive factual-frivolousness rule or placed treatment language in history parentheticals about Neitzke v. Williams, Parratt v. Taylor, and other cases.
9,936 later cases cite Denton v. Hernandez; 537 of those citations sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.
Relying on Denton v. Hernandez?
This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.
Treatments
Superseded by statute
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The court held that the Prison Litigation Reform Act displaced Denton's abuse-of-discretion standard for reviewing frivolousness dismissals and required de novo review under the amended statute.
McGore v. Wrigglesworth · Sixth Circuit · filed
In Denton v. Hernandez, 504 U.S. 25, 33, 112 S.Ct. 1728, 1733-34, 118 L.Ed.2d 340 (1992), the Supreme Court found that the language of the statute indicated that frivolity was a decision entrusted to the discretion of the court entertaining the pauper petition. Therefore, Supreme Court concluded that a dismissal under § 1915(d) was reviewed under the abuse of discretion standard. ... In contrast, § 1915(e)(2) and § 1915A(b) do not contain discretionary language. ... As this court must now ascertain whether the district court properly dismissed the complaint in compliance with § 1915(e)(2) and § 1915A, we conclude that our determination involves a question of law which requires de novo review.
Read the full opinion on CourtListener →
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