In one California lawsuit, for example, two prisoners have sued both their employer and the prison, saying they were put in solitary confinement after complaining about working conditions.

The former prisoners, from all branches of the military, sued Iraq, its intelligence service and its president, Saddam Hussein, in April 2002, before the more recent war.

In a letter on March 3, the Attorney General said a prisoner had sued because he was brought the wrong kind of peanut butter.

Even skeptics like Justice Antonin Scalia seemed receptive to the argument that Congress can permit prisoners to sue, at a minimum, for violations of their constitutional rights.

Legal experts said the suit is the first in which prisoners and guards have jointly sued over prison conditions.

In 1996, Congress passed a different sort of law, the one under which the former prisoners held by Iraq sued.

Or the case where a prisoner is suing New York because his prison towels are white instead of his preferred beige.

That case, United States v. Georgia, scheduled for argument on Nov. 9, raises the question of whether prisoners can sue states under the disabilities act, as Congress intended.

Second, prisoners could not sue anyone they had not first named during the internal grievance process.

Two decades ago, prisoners sued over conditions at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.