Cline v. Fox.

U.S. District Court

LIBRARY

Cline v. Fox, 319 F.Supp.2d 685 (N.D.W.Va. 2004). A federal district court determined that a West Virginia Department of Corrections policy that prohibits inmates from receiving or possessing obscene material was not unconstitutional as it was applied to the inmate. The inmate then alleged that the policy on its face violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments because it was used to purge the prison library of certain books. The district court held that the inmate had standing to challenge the policy, and that the policy was not reasonably related to a legitimate penological interest in promoting security, preventing sexual assaults, and furthering rehabilitation. The court ordered the prison to amend its publication policy and screen purged books under the revised policy before restoring them to library shelves. According to the court, the policy did not define explicit sexual activity in terms of its capacity to sexually arouse. The court noted that the policy prohibited material that contained even one depiction of sexual intercourse, regardless of its context, while it allowed certain commercial pornography. (St. Mary's Correctional Center, West Virginia)