Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Prisoners
Dist. Ct. erred in denying plaintiff-prisoner's motion to proceed in forma pauperis and in dismissing without prejudice plaintiff's section 1983 action alleging that defendants-prison officials retaliated against him for previously filing litigation regarding his conditions of confinement. While Dist. Ct. based its denial on belief that plaintiff had three prior strikes under Prison Litigation Reform Act due to fact that plaintiff had at least one claim dismissed for failure to state cause of action in each of three prior lawsuits, none of prior lawsuits constituted strike where other claims within each lawsuit were allowed to proceed to merits.