Jones v. Bock, Warden, et al.

Decided January 22, 2007. John Glover Roberts Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 05-7058 · 549 U.S. 199 (2007) · Cited 10,443 times

Holding

The Sixth Circuit’s rules are not required by the PLRA, and crafting and imposing such rules exceeds the proper limits of the judicial role.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 9–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Woodford v. Ngo · 548 U.S. 81 (2006)
• Porter v. Nussle · 534 U.S. 516 (2002)
• Rhines v. Weber · 544 U.S. 269 (2005)
• Neitzke v. Williams · 490 U.S. 319 (1989)
• Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N. A. · 534 U.S. 506 (2002)
• Leatherman v. Tarrant County Narcotics Intelligence and Coordination Unit · 507 U.S. 163 (1993)
• Hill v. McDonough · 547 U.S. 573 (2006)
• City of Chicago v. International College of Surgeons · 522 U.S. 156 (1997)
• Rose v. Lundy · 455 U.S. 509 (1982)
• Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Allapattah Services, Inc. · 545 U.S. 546 (2005)
• Patsy v. Board of Regents of Fla. · 457 U.S. 496 (1982)
• Day v. McDonough · 547 U.S. 198 (2006)
• Wright v. Universal Maritime Service Corp. · 525 U.S. 70 (1998)
• Beach v. Ocwen Federal Bank · 523 U.S. 410 (1998)
• National Credit Union Administration v. First National Bank & Trust Co. · 522 U.S. 479 (1998)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Perttu v. Richards · 605 U.S. 460 (2025)
• Coleman v. Tollefson · 575 U.S. 532 (2015)
• Ross v. Blake · 578 U.S. 632 (2016)
• Lomax v. Ortiz-Marquez · 590 U.S. 595 (2020)
• Santos-Zacaria v. Garland · 598 U.S. 411 (2023)
• Ramirez v. Collier · 595 U.S. 411 (2022)
• Taylor v. Sturgell · 553 U.S. 880 (2008)
• Bruce v. Samuels · 577 U.S. 1021 (2016)
• Axon Enterprise, Inc. v. FTC · 598 U.S. 175 (2023)
• United States ex rel. Polansky v. Executive Health Resources, Inc. · 599 U.S. 419 (2023)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

Explore from here

John Glover Roberts Jr.’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2007). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).