For more than a decade, lawsuits have been piling up against California from inmates who contracted the fungal disease valley fever while incarcerated in state prison . Most plaintiffs have lost. Now, many of them are turning to a higher court. A group of 117 currently and formerly incarcerated people petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in late June and early July to argue California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation put them at risk of developing valley fever. The petition calls for the Supreme Court to review a decision by the Ninth Circut Court of Appeals to reject an earlier valley fever lawsuit. Benjamin Pavone, San Diego attorney and lead counsel on the petition, says that before taking on this case, he had been taking a break from prison lawsuits. “And I started getting letters pleading with me, ‘help us, we’re getting sick, there’s this disease,’” he says. “It was unlike anything else. These letters are really heartfelt, they changed my whole mindset about it.” Most
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