Miller v. Downey

Dist. Ct. erred in granting defendant-prison officials’ motion for summary judgment in plaintiff-prisoner’s section 1983 action alleging that defendants wrongfully confiscated his Chicago Daily Law Bulletin that plaintiff’s family bought for him in order to help him with his trial on bank robbery charges, where defendants argued that said legal publication was “newspaper” that violated jail’s ban on prisoners receiving newspapers. Remand was required since Dist. Ct. improperly treated issue in case as to whether jail’s ban on all newspapers violated plaintiff’s First Amendment rights, rather than on narrower issue as to whether plaintiff had right to receive legal publication like Law Bulletin. Ct. further noted that resolution of such issue required Dist. Ct to consider to consider fact that instant prison had no law library and lacked materials on federal criminal law, and that prison allowed prisoners to receive other publications such as Prison Legal News. Dist. Ct. also should focus on determination as to whether permitting inmates to receive subscriptions to legal publications jeopardized prison’s objectives so as to justify prison’s confiscation of Law Bulletin.