Prison Legal News v. Lehman.U.S. Appeals Court PUBLICATIONS Prison Legal News v. Lehman, 397 F.3d 692 (9th Cir. 2005). A nonprofit corporation nonprofit corporation n. an organization incorporated under state laws and approved by both the state's Secretary of State and its taxing authority as operating for educational, charitable, social, religious, civic or humanitarian purposes. that published and distributed prison-related publications sued a state corrections department and its policy-making pol·i·cy·mak·ing or pol·i·cy-mak·ing n. High-level development of policy, especially official government policy. adj. Of, relating to, or involving the making of high-level policy: employees, challenging the constitutionality of the department's inmate mail directive. The district court granted summary judgment in part, denied in part, and granted injunctive relief injunctive relief n. a court-ordered act or prohibition against an act or condition which has been requested, and sometimes granted, in a petition to the court for an injunction. . The parties appealed. The appeals court affirmed. The court held that the department's ban on inmates' receipt of non-subscription bulk mail and catalogs violated the First Amendment, where the department's asserted interest in preventing the receipt of contraband, reducing fire hazards, increasing the efficiency of random cell inspections, and enhancing prison security were not rationally related to the mail directive. The court found that the employees were entitled to qualified immunity Qualified immunity is a doctrine in United States law providing immunity from suit to government officials performing discretionary functions when their action did not violate clearly established law. Qualified immunity was created by the U.S. regarding the First Amendment claims because the law was not clearly established at the time. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the court, where prisoners had a First Amendment right to receive non-subscription bulk mail and catalogs, the same procedural protections had to be afforded to prisoners with regard to this mail as with first-class, periodical, or subscription bulk-rate mail. (Washington Department of Corrections) |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion