Turner et al. v. Safley et al., was a U.S Supreme Court case in 1986 that dealt with the constitutionality of regulations on inmate marriages and correspondence between inmates at different institutions. The court ruled in favor of Turner, stating that the Missouri Division of Corrections' regulation prohibiting inmates from marrying unless there were compelling reasons to allow it violated their constitutional right under the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause. However, they upheld another regulation limiting correspondence between inmates at different institutions as it served legitimate penological interests such as security and rehabilitation efforts within prisons. This decision established a standard for evaluating prisoners' rights cases known as "Turner Test", which requires courts to consider whether a prison policy is reasonably related to legitimate penological objectives or if it represents an exaggerated response to those concerns.

In the dissenting opinion for Turner et al. v. Safley et al., Justice Stevens argued that the majority's decision to uphold restrictions on inmate marriages was a violation of constitutional rights, specifically those protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. He contended that marriage is an expression of emotional support and public commitment which should not be denied even to prisoners, as it does not inherently pose any threat to prison security or operations. Furthermore, he criticized the majority for failing to apply strict scrutiny in evaluating these restrictions - a standard typically used when fundamental rights are at stake - instead opting for a more lenient 'reasonableness' test which allowed them greater leeway in justifying their decision. In his view, this represented an unacceptable erosion of inmates' civil liberties.