Riker v. Lemmon

Dist. Ct. erred in granting defendants-prison officials’ motion for summary judgment in action alleging that defendants violated plaintiff-former employee’s constitutional rights by denying her application to marry prisoner with whom she had engaged in improper romantic relationship while she was employed at prison. While defendants argued that denial of plaintiff’s request to marry prisoner was appropriate because plaintiff, having previously violated rules pertaining to having contact with prisoners, was more likely to engage in other prohibited acts, and because defendants feared that plaintiff might share confidential security information with prisoner, Ct. found that defendants’ policy reasons for denying instant marriage request that were centered in its visitation policy were insufficient to justify said denial, where plaintiff’s request consisted of single, brief marriage ceremony, and where defendants did not otherwise explain how allowance of such ceremony would pose security risk. Ct. further emphasized that prison’s visitation policy, by itself, is insufficient to justify denial of prisoner’s request to marry.