Alcoholics Anonymous Parole Requirement Violates Establishment Clause by Alcoholics Anonymous Parole Requirement violates Establishment Clause The supreme court of Tennessee held that the Tennessee parole board's method of determining prisoner parole eligibility, by circulating and reviewing case files individually, does not violate the state's open records act. The court held …
Retaliation for Filing Grievances Violates First Amendment by The court of appeals for the Sixth circuit held that an injunction against Tennessee prison officials was improper, but that retaliation against prisoners who were fired from their jobs as disciplinary hearing advisers after they filed grievances against the prison hearing officer …
Overcrowding Must Cause Harm to Be Actionable by The court of appeals for the Sixth circuit largely reversed a district court's injunction over conditions at the Knox county jail in Knoxville, Tennessee, holding there must be a causal connection between overcrowding and bad conditions. The district court issued an injunction …
Suit Dismissal for Failure to Appear Improper by The court of appeals for the Sixth circuit held that a district court in Tennessee improperly dismissed a federal prisoner's lawsuit because he did not appear in court for hearings. District court set various hearing dates, the plaintiff could not appear due …
Collect Call Phone System Doesn't Violate Right to Court Access by A federal district court in Tennessee held that no constitutional violation occurred when a Tennessee prison replaced its coin operated phones with a coinless, collect call only phone system. Lawsuit was brought in context of access to counsel and …
Black Voters' Disenfranchisement Claims Dismissed by The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee dismissed claims by a black, Tennessee voter and a public interest law project that a Tennessee law disenfranchising convicted felons, Tennessee Code Annotated (T.C.A.) §2-19-143, violated neither the federal Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. …
Beating Damages Award Upheld, Case Remanded for Further Damages Consideration by The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal district court's findings in favor of a prisoner beaten by jail guards and the court's award of damages, but remanded the case for consideration of further damages. Marty O'Shea …
Tennessee Disenfranchisement Law Upheld by The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal district court's dismissal of a case claiming that the Tennessee Voting Rights Act of 1981 violated the Federal Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1982 and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Charles …
PLRA Requires Prisoner 1983 Complaints to Plead Administrative Exhaustion by The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit recently held that the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) requires prisoner civil complaints under 42 U.S.C. 1983 to allege the prisoner exhausted all administrative remedies before suing or suffer dismissal of …
Dismissal of Tennessee Prisoner's Petition for Failure to Prosecute Reversed by In this case involving a prisoner's pro se petition for writ of certiorari, the Tennessee Court of Appeals held that the trial court improperly dismissed the petition for failure to appear and prosecute. Eddie Williams, a prisoner in the …
Environmental Tobacco Amendment Exposure Alone Doesn't Violate Eighth Amendment by Environmental Tobacco Amendment Exposure Alone Doesn't Violate Eighth Amendment The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in denying a Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) prisoner's claim that exposure to …
Tennessee: Punitive-Based Administrative Segregation States Claim by In this case involving the appeal of a disciplinary ruling, the Tennessee Court of Appeals held that because a prisoner's placement in administrative segregation appeared to be punitive, his petition for common law writ of certiorari stated a claim. Eric Woodruff, a prisoner …
Sixth Circuit Holds Prisoner's Access to Court Not Violated by Affirming a Tennessee federal district court decision, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a state prisoner incarcerated in a private prison suffered no violation of his right to meaningful access to courts. Danny Ray Thomas is a …
Confiscation of Social Security Benefits Actionable Under Rehabilitation Act by The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that juveniles formerly in state custody whose benefits were seized by the Tennessee Department of Children's Services (DCS) to pay for their "maintenance," could pursue a claim under the Rehabilitation …
Sixth Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment Against Injured Prisoner by The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment granted by the U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee, against a state prisoner stabbed by other prisoners. Harvey Hester, a Tennessee prisoner, sued Jack Morgan, warden of the Turney Center …
Sixth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Bivens Action Against Federal Agents by The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a Tennessee federal district court's dismissal of a Bivens claim against federal agents who allegedly destroyed a federal prisoner's property and denied him medical care. Thomas Harold Stiger, a federal prisoner, …
Sixth Circuit Dismisses Tennessee Jail Officials' Qualified Immunity Request by In an unpublished opinion dated October 20, 2004, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed for lack of jurisdiction an interlocutory appeal challenging a district court's denial of qualified immunity to Tennessee jail officials. While imprisoned in Tennessee's Shelby …
Prisoner Guilty Of Introduction Of Marijuana Into County Jail by State prisoner Gary Yarbro was found guilty of introducing marijuana into the Hardin County (Tennessee) jail in a tube of toothpaste upon reporting to serve a forty-five day sentence on an unrelated charge. Yarbro was allowed to bring a clothes …
Denial of Class Certification Reversed by The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal held that a district court used the wrong standard in denying class certification and remanded for consideration of the detainees' First Amendment claim. This action was filed by pretrial detainees at Tennessee's Warren County Jail, alleging constitutional violations …
Washington Sex Offender Release & Supervision Statute Explained by John Bader, a Washington state prisoner, was serving a 102-month sentence for child rape. The offense was committed in late 1997 or early 1998. In August of 2002, he filed a motion in superior court for release to community custody based …
