Throughout the history of the United States, prison systems have been successively influenced by the rulings of the justice system. Both the Federal Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court have issued landmark rulings since 1941, evolving today's correctional facilities. Although the Court of Appeals is not as high as the Supreme Court in the judicial branch, two influential decisions that have affected today's prison system are Sandin v. Conner in 1995 and Holt v. Sarver in 1971. By comparison, the Supreme Court made significant strides in its ruling in Cooper v. Pate in 1964 as well as in Hutto v. Finney in 1978. Each case was unique and because of this the sentences were as unique as the cases themselves. This has led to unprecedented sentences with lasting effects that set precedents for the prison system. Today, Antonin Scalia is the Supreme Court justice who has the greatest influence on the procedures that prisons must follow. During the 1900s, the American judicial branch revolutionized the prison system. The Federal Court of Appeals played a vital role in this progressive era. A 1995 case, Sandin v. Conner, set a standard for the interests of prisoners' freedom. During a search, Sandin misbehaved and was consequently sentenced to 30 days in segregated confinement. He was not allowed to bring witnesses to the disciplinary hearing, which, along with prison segregation, Sandin believed violated his 14th Amendment rights. This case was taken to the appeals court which ruled that the 30-day sentence did not violate his liberty interests. The court went on to justify this ruling by informing society that we must focus on the nature of the loss rather than written laws and policies. The fact that Sandin did not present a type of atypical deprivation that would constitute an interest in liberty also strengthened the sentence. This ruling had a positive impact