# Jamel Walker v. James H. Gomez Kingston W. Prunty R.R. Rath, Correctional Sergeant

> Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · June 7, 2004 · 370 F.3d 969

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9497046

## Case

- **Full name:** Jamel WALKER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. James H. GOMEZ; Kingston W. Prunty; R.R. Rath, Correctional Sergeant, Defendants-Appellees
- **Court:** Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- **Decided:** June 7, 2004
- **Citations:** 370 F.3d 969; 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 11157; 2004 WL 1238124
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Fernandez
- **Judges:** Fernandez, Kozinski, Rymer
- **Cited by:** 139 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9497046

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- recognizing that a prisoner does not have a property or liberty interest in prison employment under the due process clause
- stating that the plaintiff was not required to show discriminatory intent because the state admitted it considered race when it assigned inmates to a cell
- holding prison officials are entitled to qualified immunity if it was not clearly established that race-based differentiation is unconstitutional
- explaining that there is no due process property or liberty interest in prison employment
- reasoning the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth 14 1 Amendment does not create a liberty interest in prison employment

## Opinion text

FERNANDEZ, Circuit Judge,
concurring..
I concur in Judge Kozinski’s opinion, with one exception. I do not join in part 2 of the Discussion.
Although I find that part of the Discussion very informative, in my opinion we should not decide qualified immunity issues in the first instance, but should leave them for the district court. See Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 819-20 , 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2739 , 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982); Price v. Hawaii, 939 F.2d 702, 707 (9th Cir.1991). I realize that we have, on occasion, succumbed to the temptation to swoop down from our coign of vantage and pluck qualified immunity issues from the district court battlefield, but in the long run I think we are better advised to resist that temptation. I, for one, do not think we should attempt to predict the nature or result of further proceedings in the district court, once it actually begins to vet the qualified immunity issues raised here.
Thus, I respectfully concur, but with the exception just noted.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9497046. Public record. Not legal advice.