In June 2008, the Lieberman-Warner 2008 Climate Security Act reached the Senate floor, and for the first time in several years, Congress held actual debate on how the United States will address global climate change. Although no real action was taken on the Climate Security Act, the Senate debates signaled that Congress is finally awake to the reality that the United States must regulate carbon emissions and the fossil fuel industry in order to minimize the climate crisis.
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In Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97 (1976), the United States Supreme Court held that a gross and extreme departure from the standard of care in provision or denial of basic medical care to prisoners was deliberate indifference, constituting cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution. In that case, a state inmate brought a civil rights action under 42 USC Section 1983 against the state corrections department, state corrections officers, and the deputy medical director, claiming that he was subjected to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment for inadequate treatment he received for a serious back injury sustained while engaged in prison work.
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