The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that a Georgia inmate should have a chance to prove that the state owed him damages for not accommodating his disability.

The court said that disabled state prisoners whose constitutional rights are violated behind bars can win damages, but the justices stopped short of deciding a more significant question: whether states can be opened to broader suits under the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, said that lower courts should reconsider the case of 41-year-old Georgia inmate Tony Goodman, who contends he was kept for more than 23 hours a day in a cell so narrow he could not turn his wheelchair.