Hamilton v. Edmund G. Brown Jr
Decision Date | 04 January 2011 |
Docket Number | DC No. CV 04-5929 NVW,No. 09-15236,09-15236 |
Parties | George Hamilton, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Edmund G. Brown Jr.,*Attorney General, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
FOR PUBLICATION
OPINIONAppeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of California
Submitted December 10, 2010**
San Francisco, California
Before: Robert E. Cowen, *** A. Wallace Tashima, and
Opinion by Judge Tashima.
George Hamilton, Kern Valley State Prison, Delano, California, plaintiff-appellant, appearing pro se.
No appearance for the defendants-appellees.
We must decide whether California state prison inmates constitutionally may be required to provide blood samples for DNA identification under California's DNA and Forensic Identification Database and Data Bank Act of 1998, as amended, Cal. Pen. Code § 295 et seq. (the "Act" or the "California DNA Act"). Pro se plaintiff George Hamilton, a California state prison inmate, alleges that prison officials forcibly extracted a blood sample for DNA identification without his consent. He contends that this violated his rights under the Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and under California state law. The district court dismissed Hamilton's second amended complaint ("SAC") with prejudice.1 This appeal followed. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.
A.Hamilton's allegations2
Hamilton is serving a sentence of thirty-nine years to life in state prison. He alleges that, on October 7, 2003, Corcoran State Prison guards attempted to break his arm in retaliation for his trouble-making, which included filing complaints against prison officials, accusing them of corruption, and helping a legally-blind fellow inmate to file a lawsuit against prison officials. The day after that incident, the same prison guards escorted Hamilton to the prison medical clinic and demanded that Hamilton provide a blood sample for DNA analysis. Hamilton refused on the grounds that he did not receive a written notice or proof of a valid court order. Hamilton alleges that defendants' true motive in collecting a blood sample was to "set him up" in retaliation for his complaints. After Hamilton's refusal, he received a notice stating that blood sample collection is authorized by Cal. Penal Code § 296. The notice also stated: In response, Hamilton wrote to various state and federal officials to inform them that he was "the victim of malicious and excessive force," and that prison officials were trying to force him to turn over a blood sample without proper written notice or a "bona fide court order."
On November 17, 2003, Hamilton received a medical pass, allowing him to visit the prison hospital the next day for what
he thought was a podiatry appointment. The next day, defendant M. Jost came to Hamilton's cell, handcuffed him and escorted him to the medical clinic. When Hamilton arrived, defendants Sgt. E. Lawton, M. Chapman, a medical assistant, and a nurse demanded that he provide a blood sample. When he refused, the defendants exerted force. They strapped Hamilton, still handcuffed, into a chair and extracted a blood sample. On the prison's record of Hamilton's visit to the medical clinic, Hamilton wrote, "My DNA was taken against my will, under deception, fraud, force and fear, while I was handcuffed."
B. Procedural History
In his complaint, Hamilton named the state Attorney General, a State Senator, and Does 1-100, identified as personnel of the state's Forensic Identification Data Base and Data Bank, as defendants. Reviewing Hamilton's complaint pursuant to the PLRA, 28 U.S.C. § 1915A, 3 the magistrate judge dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim, with leave to amend. The court explained that Hamilton "must link each named defendant with some affirmative act or omission that demonstrates a violation of plaintiff's federal rights." In addition, the court explained that Hamilton could not pursue a claim for damages against the Attorney General in his official capacity.
Hamilton's SAC adds as defendants prison officials and employees allegedly involved in the collection of the blood sample, including the prison warden, two prison guards, and prison medical clinic personnel. On January 6, 2009, the district judge dismissed the SAC with prejudice. He concluded that it was "not organized into a short and plain statement of the claim," in violation of Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a). In addition, the district court stated that Hamilton failed to "allege that [he] suffered a specific injury as a result of specific conduct of a defendant and show an affirmative link between the injury and the conduct of the defendant."
Hamilton timely appealed.
II
We review de novo a district court's dismissal of a prisoner complaint under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Resnick, 213 F.3d at 447. "Under § 1915A, when determining whether a complaint states a claim, a court must accept as true all allegations of material fact and must construe those facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiff." Id. "Additionally, in general, courts
must construe pro se pleadings liberally." Id. (citing Balistreri v. Pacifica Police Dep't, 901 F.2d 696, 699 (9th Cir. 1990)). We may affirm the district court on any ground supported by the record. O'Guinn v. Lovelock Corr. Ctr., 502 F.3d 1056, 1059 (9th Cir. 2007).
III
Cal. Pen. Code § 295(c). California contributes information in its DNA database to a national DNA index maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI uses a computer program to identify forensic unknowns (e.g. crime scene samples) with reference to a felony offender's known sample that was previously obtained, analyzed, and stored in accordance with state or federal law. United States v. Kincade, 379 F.3d 813, 818-820 (9th Cir. 2004) (en banc) (plurality opinion); Cal. Pen. Code § 295(c), (g), (h)(4).
Cal. Pen. Code § 298.1(b)(1). Prison officials must make "efforts to secure voluntary compliance" before applying reasonable force. 15 Cal. Code Regs. § 3025(k).5
[3] Hamilton alleges that the warrantless, suspicionless taking of his blood sample was an illegal seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons,... against unreasonable searches and seizures." U.S. Const. amend. IV. This claim fails as a matter of law. "The compulsory extraction of blood for DNA profiling unquestionably implicates the right to personal security embodied in the Fourth Amendment, and thus constitutes a 'search' within the meaning of the Constitution." Kincade, 379 F.3d at 821 n.15. We have repeatedly held, however, that such compulsory blood extractions from convicted felons on supervised release do not violate the Fourth Amendment.6 Id. at 836 (citations omitted); United States v. Kriesel, 508 F.3d 941, 946 (9th Cir. 2007) ( ); United States v. Hugs, 384 F.3d 762, 769 (9th Cir. 2004) ...
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