Iowa Cost Bond Rule Unconstitutional When Applied To Post-Conviction Petitions by By Bob Williams An Iowa federal district court has ruled that a state rule of civil procedure, which requires posting a cost bond before suits will be heard when there has been three or more unsuccessful suits in the …
Notice Required When Mail Withheld For Disciplinary Reasons by The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a prisoner in disciplinary detention must receive written notice of any mail being temporarily withheld by prison officials. Leonard Gregory, an Iowa state prisoner, was placed in disciplinary detention for a prison …
Fact Issues Preclude Summary Judgment Of Iowa Guard's State, Federal Claims by The United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa held that issues of material fact precluded summary judgment of a former jail guard's action under state law and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against his former employer. …
Court Rules On JJDPA Suit Issues, State Compliance Plan Ordered by The United States District Court for the Northern District of Idaho ordered Idaho state officials to devise a plan to put the state in compliance with the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) and denied state's motions on …
Punishment for Religious Fasting States Claim by The court of appeals for the Eighth circuit held that a district court erred when it dismissed an Iowa prisoner's free exercise claim that he had been placed in segregation for religious fasting. The court held that pre service dismissal was erroneous because …
Court Denies Defendant Transfer to Jail Closer to Counsel by The federal criminal defendant complained that she was held in a jail in Cedar Rapids, which imposed excessive travel on her attorneys, rather than in Des Moines. She also complained that the jail conditions amounted to punishment. Assuming that the …
Court Upholds Firing of Probationary Cop for Affair With Captain by A female probationary police officer was terminated for having an affair with a male police captain. The captain was not terminated. There is no equal protection violation, since under the law of the Eighth Circuit a probationary officer and …
No Police or Hospital Liability for Catheterizing Motorist for Drug Test by The plaintiff ran out of gas and was walking down the road, without a coat in January. Sheriff's deputies concluded he was "bonkers" and "totally out of it," so they took him into custody, handcuffing him though they …
Damages for Racial Discrimination Claim Upheld, Explained by The court declines to disturb an award of $12,500 per plaintiff for an episode of racial discrimination for which only nominal and not compensatory damages were awarded. The Supreme Court has acknowledged that its presumptive ratios of punitive to compensatory damages may …
Catheterizing Motorist for Urine Sample Suit Dismissed by The plaintiff alleged that he ran out of gas and Sheriff's deputies took him to a hospital and requested he submit to a urine analysis; when he could not urinate with a room full of people watching him, the deputies tackled him …
Fourteenth Amendment Claims Not Exempt from Physical Injury Requirement by The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa held that hypertension, by itself, is insufficient to satisfy the physical injury requirement of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. §1997e(e), and that Fourteenth Amendment (equal protection) claims …
Effective Assistance of Counsel Not a Right in Civil Litigation by The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a district court's refusal to appoint substitute counsel and, following a prior appellate decision, held that civil litigants have no right to effective assistance of counsel. William L. Taylor was …
$75,000 Awarded to Prisoner for Inadequate Medical Care by $75,000 Awarded to Prisoner For Inadequate Medical Care An Iowa prisoner escaped from prison and shot two cops. When captured he was badly beaten and then denied medical treatment for his injuries. He filed suit and at trial he was awarded …
Denial of Disciplinary Nearing Witnesses Illegal; $250 Damages Awarded by The court of appeals for the Eighth circuit held that it violates due process for prison disciplinary hearing officers to refuse to call witnesses for the hearing. District court ruled in Iowa prisoner's favor and awarded $250 in damages where …
Iowa Prisoner Has No Right to Blood Samples Disposed of According to Religious Beliefs by The U.S. Court of Appeals for the eighth Circuit, held that the US District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, did not error when denied a prisoners suit, for failure to dispose of his …
Court May Not Force Attorneys to Represent Indigent Litigants by The U.S. Supreme Court held that an attorney could not be forced by the court to represent indigent prisoners. Petitioner, an attorney, was appointed by a magistrate to represent indigent prisoners in their § 1983 action against prison officials. Newly …
Removal of Property to Separate Legal and Non-Legal Materials Approved by The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, affirming the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, held that removal of a prisoner's property to separate legal from non-legal materials and to then search the non-legal materials outside …
Iowa Jail Blanket Strip Search Policy Unconstitutional by An Iowa federal district court held that strip searches of temporary pre- arraignment detainees charged with minor offenses not normally associated with weapons or contraband are permissible under the Fourth Amendment only if there is a basis for reasonable suspicion that the …
Iowa Prisoner Entitled to Due Process in Seizure of Money by The Supreme Court of Iowa held that money in a prisoner's trust account is protected property and funds for restitution cannot be deducted without a due process hearing. A procedural amendment to the IDOC's restitution collection policy allowed for …
Lack of Economic Means Does Not Justify Failure to Exhaust State Remedies by The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has found that a state prisoner's alleged inability to comply with state financial requirements does not relieve him from the federal habeas corpus exhaustion doctrine. Eddie Risdal …
