The Fourteenth Amendment provides that no state may “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1. Analyzing whether one’s due process has been violated is a two-step process. First, the court must determine whether one has been deprived of a protected liberty or property interest. Second, if the court has determined that such a deprivation has occurred, then the court must determine if that deprivation occurred without constitutionally sufficient process. See Bd. Agents of Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 569-571 (1972); Prieto v. Clarke, 780 F.3d 245, 248 (4th Cir. 2015).

The Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause provides that no State shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of the law.” A caveat to this right is that incarcerated individuals are not guaranteed its full scope. Because of their limited liberty rights, solitary confinement has been successfully implemented in a number of both state and federal prisons throughout the United States. In the summer of 2021, more than 6,000 inmates had been in solitary confinement for over a year. As of this week, over 10,000 inmates in federal prison alone are being held in solitary confinement.

The current circuit court split lies in whether there should be a minimum length for the duration of confinement to be considered an atypical hardship giving rise to a liberty interest.