Key v. Grayson

• Decision Date: 09 June 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-1471,98-1471
• Citation: 179 F.3d 996
• Parties: David G. KEY, Plaintiff-Appellee, Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service, Incorporated, Intervenor-Appellee, v. Henry GRAYSON, Warden, Trusty Division, Jackson Prison (SMT); Gary Gabry, Chairperson, Michigan Parole Board; Kenneth McGinnis, Director, Michigan Department of Corrections, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

179 F.3d 996

David G. KEY, Plaintiff-Appellee Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service, Incorporated Intervenor-Appellee, v. Henry GRAYSON, Warden, Trusty Division, Jackson Prison (SMT); Gary Gabry, Chairperson, Michigan Parole Board; Kenneth McGinnis, Director Michigan Department of Corrections, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 98-1471.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

Argued March 19, 1999.

Decided June 9, 1999.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan at Flint. No. 96-40166--Paul V. Gadola, District Judge.

ARGUED: John L. Thurber, Office of the Attorney General, Corrections Division, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellants. Daniel E. Manville, Ann Arbor, Michigan, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: John L. Thurber, Office of the Attorney General, Corrections Division, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellants. Daniel E. Manville, Ann Arbor, Michigan, for Appellee.

Before: RYAN, DAUGHTREY, and COLE, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

COLE, Circuit Judge.

This appeal requires us to determine whether, prior to 1996, it was clearly established that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12131 et seq., and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Rehabilitation Act), 29 U.S.C. § 794, applied to prisoners. Although it is now established that the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act apply to prisoners, see Pennsylvania Dep't of Corrections v. Yeskey, 524 U.S. 206,--, 118 S.Ct. 1952, 1956 (1998), the issue before us is whether the law was clearly established in 1996, prior to the Yeskey decision. This issue presents a question of first impression in this circuit.

Here, Defendants-Appellants (various employees of the Michigan Department of Corrections) appeal the district court's denial of their motion for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity with respect to an inmate's monetary claims brought pursuant to the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act. For the following reasons, we conclude that the defendants are entitled to qualified immunity because, prior to 1996, it was not clearly established that the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act applied to prisoners. We therefore REVERSE the judgment of the district court and REMAND for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.

I.

Plaintiff-Appellee David Key is a hearing-impaired prisoner in the custody of the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC). Key is incarcerated for crimes that were apparently sexual in nature, as Key is required to participate in MDOC's therapy program for sex offenders. In addition, Michigan Protective Services requires that Key take part in sex offender therapy before it will allow him to reside in his home with his children. According to Key, participation in sex offender therapy is necessary for another reason as well: he claims that he is subject to denial of parole for failure to participate in such therapy.

Key contends that he has attempted to participate in sex offender therapy on numerous occasions but has been unable to do so. Although MDOC requires that Key undergo sex offender therapy, MDOC has refused to allow Key to participate in the available group therapy because of his need for the services of an interpreter, which--according to MDOC--would violate the confidentiality of the other inmates undergoing therapy. Key asserts that his inability to participate is an impermissible form of disability discrimination.

On April 10, 1996, Key filed a complaint against various MDOC employees in their official capacities in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Key sought injunctive relief under the ADA; the Rehabilitation Act; 42 U.S.C. § 1983; and the Michigan Handicappers' Civil Rights Act, M.C.L. § § 37.1606. Specifically, Key sought an order from the district court requiring MDOC to provide him with an interpreter for group or individual sex offender therapy. Alternatively, Key sought an order prohibiting the Michigan Parole Board from considering his lack of therapy in any decision regarding his eligibility for parole.

Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment, claiming that the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act did not apply to prisons and, in addition, Key's complaint was barred by the Eleventh Amendment because the state had immunity from suit. In a Report and Recommendation, a magistrate judge recommended denying defendants' motion, finding that the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act apply to prisons and that Congress properly acted under Section 5 of the Constitution when it abrogated the states' immunity to suits under the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act. ¹ The district court adopted the magistrate judge's Report and Recommendation in full.

On September 9, 1997, Key filed an amended complaint in the district court, seeking monetary damages in addition to injunctive relief and noting that his lawsuit was filed against defendants in both their individual and official capacities; however, the substance of Key's complaint remained the same. In response, defendants filed a motion to dismiss and for summary judgment, arguing that qualified immunity was a complete defense to Key's claims for monetary damages against the defendants in their individual capacities.

In a Report and Recommendation, the magistrate judge determined that defendants were entitled to qualified immunity and, therefore, recommended that the district court grant defendants' motion for summary judgment with respect to Key's monetary claims. The magistrate judge based his recommendation on his finding that, at the time of the events in question, it was not clearly established that the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act applied to state prisoners. The district court, however, disagreed with the findings in the Report and Recommendation and found that a plain reading of the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act clearly indicate that the statutes applied to state prisoners at the time in question. The district court therefore determined that the law was clearly established and, accordingly, denied defendants' motion for summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity with respect to Key's claims for monetary damages. Defendants filed a timely notice of interlocutory appeal.

II.

Because the doctrine of qualified immunity is a legal issue, this court's review is de novo. See Summar v. Bennett, 157 F.3d 1054, 1057 (6th Cir.1998) (citation omitted). Moreover, this court is required to examine de novo all appeals from motions for summary judgment which a district court has denied. See id.

III.

A. Overview

The defense of qualified immunity grants government officials engaged in discretionary activities immunity from individual liability for civil damages unless their conduct violates "clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). This court applies a two-part test to determine whether a government official is entitled to the defense of qualified immunity: (1) whether the plaintiff has shown a violation of a constitutionally protected right; and, if so (2) whether that right was clearly established such that a reasonable official would have understood that his behavior violated that right. See Summar, 157 F.3d at 1058.

In this case, the first prong of the two-part test is not at issue because defendants do not argue that Key has failed to show a violation of a constitutionally protected right. That is, defendants do not assert, at least for purposes of qualified immunity, that Key's constitutional rights were not violated by the denial of sex offender therapy because of his disability. Instead, defendants contend that they are entitled to qualified immunity because it was not clearly established at the time in question that Key was entitled to therapy despite his disability, because it was uncertain whether the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act applied to state prisoners. Accordingly, the focus in this case is on the second part of the two-part test: whether it was clearly established that the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act applied to state prisoners prior to 1996. ²

To determine whether a right was clearly established for purposes of qualified immunity, this court "look[s] first to decisions of the Supreme Court, then to decisions of this court and other courts within our circuit, and finally to decisions of other circuits." Chappel v. Montgomery County Fire Protection Dist. No. 1, 131 F.3d 564, 579 (6th Cir.1997) (citation and quotation omitted). Although we have stated that "it is only in extraordinary circumstances that we can look beyond the Supreme Court and Sixth Circuit precedent to find 'clearly established law,' " Walton v. City of Southfield, 995 F.2d 1331, 1336 (6th Cir.1993), there need not be a relevant decision from the Supreme Court or this court in order to determine that a law is clearly established, see, e.g., Chappel, 131 F.3d at 579; McCloud v. Testa, 97 F.3d 1536, 1556 (6th Cir.1996) (stating that the lack of Supreme Court or Sixth Circuit precedent "is not a sufficient condition for concluding that the law is unclear on the subject and so qualified immunity must be granted to the defendant"). We have held that "the decisions of other courts can also clearly establish the law[,] but they must 'point [unmistakably] to the unconstitutionality of the conduct and be so clearly foreshadowed by applicable direct authority as to leave no doubt in the mind of a reasonable officer that his conduct was unconstitutional.' " Summar, 157 F.3d at 1058 (citation omitted). If reasonable officials could disagree on the issue, immunity should be recognized. See id. As this court has stated, "For qualified immunity to be surrendered, pre-existing law must dictate, that is, truly compel (not just suggest or allow to raise a question about), the conclusion for every like-situated, reasonable government agent that what defendant is doing violates federal law in the...