Whether a court determining if a prisoner has suffered an 'atypical and significant' hardship must consider factors such as the duration of and justification for the particular conditions imposed, or whether it can confine its analysis to a comparison of the conditions of other prison populations

QUESTION PRESENTED This Court has held that a prisoner has a liberty interest—protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment—in avoiding conditions of confinement that impose on the prisoner “atypical and significant” hardships in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life. Wilkinson v. Austin, 545 U.S. 209, 223 (2005). The question presented is: Whether a court determining if a prisoner has suffered an “atypical and significant” hardship must consider factors such as the duration of and justification for the particular conditions imposed (as several courts of appeals have held), or whether it can confine its analysis to a comparison of the conditions of other prison populations (as the court below held, joining several other courts of appeals).