502us2$26J 01-22-99 08:32:58 PAGES OPINPGT
Cite as: 502 U. S. 367 (1992)
395
O’Connor, J., concurring in judgment
cretion and specify any shortcomings we might find in the method by which the court reached its conclusion. II In my view, the District Court took too narrow a view of its own discretion. The court’s reasoning, as expressed in its opinion, was flawed by three different errors of law, each of which excised a portion of the range of options available to the court. I believe the sum of these erroneously selfimposed limits constituted an abuse of the court’s discretion. First, the court relied on United States v. Swift & Co., 286 U. S. 106, 119 (1932), to determine that “new and unforeseen conditions” were a prerequisite to any modification. Inmates of Suffolk County Jail v. Kearney, 734 F. Supp. 561, 563 (Mass. 1990). Because the court found that the overcrowding at the jail was foreseen, id., at 564, the court viewed Swift as barring modification. As the Court explains today, ante, at 379–380, the District Court erred in this respect. That overcrowding was foreseen should not have been a dispositive factor in the court’s decision. Modification could conceivably still be “equitable” under Rule 60(b)(5) even if the rise in inmate population had been foreseen; the danger to the community from the pretrial release of inmates, for example, might outweigh the petitioners’ failure to accommodate even a foreseen increase in the inmate population. Second, the District Court concluded that it lacked the authority to consider the petitioners’ budget constraints in determining whether modification would be equitable. The court held: “It is not a legally supportable basis for modification of a consent decree that public officials having fiscal authority have chosen not to provide adequate resources for the Sheriff to comply with the terms of the consent decree.” 734 F. Supp., at 566. Here again, I think the court took too narrow a view of its own authority. State and local governments are responsible for providing a wide range of services.
