Allah v. Seiverling

• Citation: 229 F.3d 220
• Parties: (3rd Cir. 2000) MICHAEL MALIK ALLAH, Appellant v. THOMAS SEIVERLING; ROBERT SPARBANIE; JOHN D'ELETTO; BEN VARNER COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, Amicus Curiae UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Intervenor NO. 97-3627
• Decision Date: 28 September 2000
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (3rd Circuit)

Page 220

229 F.3d 220 (3rd Cir. 2000)

MICHAEL MALIK ALLAH, Appellant v. THOMAS SEIVERLING; ROBERT SPARBANIE; JOHN D'ELETTO; BEN VARNER COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, Amicus Curiae

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Intervenor

NO. 97-3627

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

Argued July 20, 2000

Filed September 28, 2000

On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, D.C. Civil No. 97-cv-01696, District Judge: Hon. Robert J. Cindrich

Attorneys for Appellant: Deena Jo Schneider Joseph T. Lukens (Argued) S. Jnatel Simmons Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis Philadelphia, PA 19103

Attorneys for Amicus Curiae on behalf of Appellees: D. Michael Fisher Attorney General J. Bart DeLone (Argued) Calvin R. Koons Senior Deputy Attorney General John G. Knorr, III Chief Deputy Attorney General Chief, Appellate Litigation Section Office of Attorney General Appellate Litigation Section Harrisburg, PA 17120

Attorney for Intervenor: David W. Ogden Acting Assistant Attorney General Michael R. Stiles United States Attorney John C. Hoyle Susan L. Pacholski

Before: SLOVITER, NYGAARD and FUENTES, Circuit Judges

OPINION OF THE COURT

SLOVITER, Circuit Judge.

Michael Malik Allah appeals the District Court's order dismissing Allah's complaint before service on the ground that his claims are barred by the Supreme Court's decision in Sandin v. Connor, 515 U.S. 472 (1995). The appeal requires us to consider the effect of the Sandin decision on Allah's access-to-courts claims, including his claim that he was kept in administrative segregation in retaliation for filing civil rights lawsuits.

I.

Allah, who was granted leave to proceed in forma pauperis, filed his pro se complaint on September 19, 1997 alleging that he was being kept in administrative segregation at S.C.I. Greene in retaliation for filing civil rights lawsuits against prison officials at S.C.I. Frackville and S.C.I. Graterford, two prisons where he had earlier been housed, and that while he was kept in administrative segregation he was denied meaningful access to the courts.

According to his complaint, Allah was transferred from S.C.I. Frackville to S.C.I. Greene on July 9, 1997 and was placed in administrative segregation. He was told by the officer in charge that the officer "had not had a chance to review [his] records" but that Allah would be brought before the Program Review Committee ("PRC") the next day, July 10. App. at 10. Allah was brought before the PRC on July 15 and was told that the PRC still did not have his records but that he would be seen every 30 days. Allah alleges the PRC did have his records but kept him in administrative segregation in retaliation for filing lawsuits when he was housed at other prisons. He was again brought before the PRC on August 12, 1998 and denied release to the general population, with "[n]o valid reason given." App. at 11. On September 9, 1997, he was again brought before the PRC and denied release to the general population.

Allah alleges in his complaint that he is "unable to file and product [sic] briefs" in his criminal case and unable to conduct discovery in his civil rights cases while in administrative segregation at S.C.I. Greene. App. at 10. His complaint seeks relief in the form of compensation damages and punitive damages. In his briefs he asserts that he also seeks injunctive and declaratory relief.

On September 29, 1997, before service of the complaint, the Magistrate Judge recommended that the complaint be dismissed for failure to state a claim, stating:

In Sandin v. Connor, 115 S. Ct. 2293 (1995), the Court held that housing an inmate in disciplinary custody did not impose such atypical and significant hardships on the inmate so as to invoke Constitutional protection. Thus, the plaintiff 's complaint here is without merit . . .

Report and Recommendation, Doc. # 6 (Sept. 29, 1997) at 2. The District Court adopted the Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation as the opinion of the court and ordered the complaint dismissed. Allah timely appealed.

This court appointed counsel to represent Allah on appeal.¹ We also requested that the Commonwealth submit a brief and argue as amicus curiae.² The appeal was consolidated with another brought by Allah in a separate case captioned Allah v. Al-Hafeez, No. 98-1385. The two consolidated appeals present distinct legal issues, and we address the issues in separate opinions.

Our review of the District Court's sua sponte dismissal for failure to state a claim, which was authorized by 28 U.S.C. S 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii) and 42 U.S.C. S 1997e(c)(2), like that for dismissal under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6), is plenary. See Tourscher v. McCullough, 184 F.3d 236, 240 (3d Cir. 1999). "[W]e must accept as true the factual allegations in the complaint and all reasonable inferences that can be drawn therefrom." Nami v. Fauver, 82 F.2d 63, 65 (3d Cir. 1996).

II.

Allah alleges two claims in his complaint: that he was denied meaningful access to the courts while he was kept in administrative segregation and that he was kept in administrative segregation in retaliation for filing civil rights claims against prison officials at S.C.I. Frackville and S.C.I. Graterford. The District Court interpreted Sandin to preclude both of these claims, apparently in the belief that Sandin stands for the principle that no claim arising out of administrative segregation can form the basis for a constitutional violation. We cannot agree with that interpretation of Sandin.

Sandin involved a S 1983 suit brought by a state prisoner against several prison officials alleging that they had violated his constitutional right to procedural due process by sentencing him to disciplinary segregation without permitting him to call certain witnesses. See 515 U.S. at 476. The Supreme Court noted in Sandin that under the procedure previously followed, if the Due Process Clause itself did not confer a liberty interest in a particular prison situation,³ the federal courts would proceed to "examin[e] . . . the possibility that the State had created a liberty interest by virtue of its prison regulations. . . ." Id. at 480 (explaining the approach taken by the Court in Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460 (1983)). The Supreme Court substantially modified that analysis in Sandin, holding that an examination of a state statute or regulation should not be conducted unless the challenged restraint on freedom "imposes atypical and significant hardship on the inmate in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life." Id. at 484. As the Court explained:

States may under certain circumstances create liberty interests which are protected by the Due Process Clause. But these interests will be generally limited to freedom from restraint which, while not exceeding the sentence in such an unexpected manner as to give rise to protection by the Due Process Clause of its own force, nonetheless imposes atypical and significant hardship on the inmate in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life.

Id. at 483-84 (citations omitted). Applying this approach to the facts of the case before it, the Court held that "[the prisoner's] discipline in segregated confinement did not present the type of atypical, significant deprivation in which a State might conceivably create a liberty interest," inasmuch as "[t]he regime to which [the prisoner] was subjected . . . was within the range of confinement to be normally expected for one serving an indeterminate term of 30 years to life." Id. at 486-87.

The Court's opinion makes clear that the decision does not foreclose other claims challenging the constitutionality of official actions. Specifically, it states:

Prisoners . . . , of course, retain other protection from arbitrary state action even within the expected conditions of confinement. They may invoke the First and Eighth Amendments and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment where appropriate, and may draw upon internal prison grievance procedures and state judicial review where available.

Id. at 487 n.11.

Accordingly, we conclude that Allah's claim alleging denial of his constitutional right to meaningful access to the courts is not foreclosed by Sandin. In fact, the Commonwealth concedes as much in its brief, stating that the District Court "should have" considered that claim. See Amicus Br. at 27. It is well settled that prisoners have a constitutional right to access to the courts, which requires access to "adequate law libraries or adequate assistance from persons trained in the law" for filing challenges to criminal sentences, both direct and collateral, and civil rights actions. Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 828 (1977); see also Lewis v. Casey, 518 U.S. 343, 355 (1996) (recognizing that the Constitution requires that prisoners be provided the tools "that the inmates need in order to attack their sentences, directly or collaterally, and in order to challenge the conditions of their confinement"); Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 579 (1974) (extending right of access to the courts, founded on the Due Process Clause, to prisoners filing actions under 42 U.S.C. S 1983 to vindicate "basic constitutional rights").⁴ This right to access to the courts is distinct from any liberty interest in remaining free from administrative or disciplinary segregation. A claim founded on the right of access remains viable after Sandin.⁵

Nor does Sandin preclude Allah's claim alleging that he was kept in administrative segregation in retaliation for filing civil rights suits against prison officials. We have recognized that "[t]he right of access to the courts . . . must be freely exercisable without hindrance or fear of retaliation." Milhouse v. Carlson, 652 F.2d 371, 374 (3d Cir. 1981) (locating right to access the courts in a retaliation case in the First Amendment right to petition for redress of grievances); see also Crawford-El v. Britton, 523 U.S. 574, 588 n.10 (1998) (stating that...