The US Supreme Court ruled [opinion, PDF] 5-4 Wednesday in Murphy v. Smith [SCOTUSblog materials] that federal law [text] requires district courts to apply up to 25 percent of the judgment to attorney’s fees in prisoner civil rights suits.

The case involved how much prisoners who win their cases must pay their lawyers and how the fees must be paid. In this case a prisoner was assaulted by two police officers and lost part of his vision. The prisoner won at trial against the officers, and was also awarded attorney’s fees.

42 USC § 1997e(d)(2), states that “a portion of the [prisoner’s] judgment (not to exceed 25 percent) shall be applied to satisfy the amount of attorney’s fees awarded against the defendant.” The district court ordered that 10 percent of the award should be diverted to attorney’s fees, which the defendants appealed, saying that the district court was required to direct the full 25 percent of the award to attorney’s fees.

In an opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court ruled that district courts must apply as much of the judgment as is necessary to satisfy attorney fees within the 25 percent cap.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor filed a dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer.