The Thompson case came about when prison officials suspended visitation privileges for two inmates at the Kentucky State Reformatory without affording them a hearing. The inmates brought a class action suit against the prison, alleging that the suspension of visiting privileges without a hearing violated the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment. The District Court for the western District of Kentucky held that the language of the consent decree entitled prisoners to a protected liberty interest in open visitation. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed this decision, holding that the Kentucky prison regulation did not sufficiently limit official discretion in order to give inmates a State-created liberty interest in receiving visitors. The high court explicitly endorsed the requirement of mandatory language for entitlement to due process protection. The case demonstrates the need to strike a balance between prisoner rights and the independence of prison officials. 89 footnotes