502us2$26D 01-22-99 08:32:58 PAGES OPINPGT
Cite as: 502 U. S. 367 (1992)
385
Opinion of the Court
759–761 (CA7 1985) (modification allowed to avoid pretrial
release of accused violent felons).
Respondents urge that modification should be allowed only
when a change in facts is both “unforeseen and unforeseeable.” Brief for Respondents 35. Such a standard would
provide even less flexibility than the exacting Swift test; we
decline to adopt it. Litigants are not required to anticipate
every exigency that could conceivably arise during the life
of a consent decree.
Ordinarily, however, modification should not be granted
where a party relies upon events that actually were anticipated at the time it entered into a decree. See Twelve John
Does v. District of Columbia, 274 U. S. App. D. C. 62, 65–66,
861 F. 2d 295, 298–299 (1988); Ruiz v. Lynaugh, 811 F. 2d 856,
862–863 (CA5 1987). If it is clear that a party anticipated
changing conditions that would make performance of the decree more onerous but nevertheless agreed to the decree,
that party would have to satisfy a heavy burden to convince
a court that it agreed to the decree in good faith, made a
reasonable effort to comply with the decree, and should be
relieved of the undertaking under Rule 60(b).
Accordingly, on remand the District Court should consider
whether the upsurge in the Suffolk County inmate population was foreseen by petitioners. The District Court
touched on this issue in April 1990, when, in the course of
denying the modification requested in this litigation, the
court stated that “the overcrowding problem faced by the
Sheriff is neither new nor unforeseen. It has been an ongoing problem during the course of this litigation, before and
after entry of the consent decree.” 734 F. Supp., at 564.
However, the architectural program incorporated in the decree in 1979 specifically set forth projections that the jail