The U.S. Supreme Court Monday agreed to review a lower-court order that would force California to release 46,000 inmates to ease prison overcrowding.
The lower-court order, which would apply to about one-fourth of the state's prison population, is on hold until the outcome of the Supreme Court case.
If the case follows the normal high court scheduling, it probably won't be heard until next fall, with a decision sometime later.
A three-judge panel ruled last year that inmates in California's 33 prisons were not getting adequate medical care, and said overcrowding was the "primary cause," the Los Angeles Times reported. The panel ordered the state to cap the prison population at 137 percent of capacity, which translates into freeing about 46,000 inmates on two years, the report said.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a group of Republican legislators appealed the case directly to the Supreme Court. In their appeal, the GOP group said the judges' panel had violated a federal law that restricts lawsuits over
prisons, the Times said.
Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal.