Amicus Curiae Brief — Lewis v. Casey
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g Supreme Court, U.S.
No. 94-1511 ~~ FILED
AUG 14
IN THE UG 1995
Supreme Curt of the Unite tes:
OCTOBER TERM, 1995
SAMUEL LEWIS, et al.,
Petitioners,
Vv.
FLETCHER CASEY, JR., et al.,
Respondents.
On Writ of Certiorari to the
United States Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit
BRIEF OF THE
NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF STATE LEGISLATURES,
COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS,
NATIONAL GOVERNORS’ ASSOCIATION,
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES,
INTERNATIONAL CITY/COUNTY
MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION,
AND NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES
AS AMICI CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONERS
CHARLES ROTHFELD RICHARD RUDA *
MAYER, BROWN & PLATT Chief Counsel
2000 Pennsylvania Ave.,N.W. STATE AND LOCAL LEGAL
Washington, D.C. 20006 CENTER
(202) 778-0616 444 North Capitol St., N.W.
Suite 345
Washington, D.C. 20001
(202) 434-4850
* Counsel of Record for the
Amici Curiae
WILSON - Eras Printine Co.. Inc. - 789-0096 - WASHINGTON, D.C. 20001
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUESTION PRESENTED ....2...................ceccccsscceeeesseeeeeee
a
INTEREST OF THE AMICI CURIAE ........................
SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT. ......00...n....eceeeeeeeeeeeseeeeenees
TTT aieteellalicaiinesenssccescosevsceseccesesscestensenecsnceeceoevece
THE COURT OF APPEALS RECOGNIZED AN
IMPROPERLY EXPANSIVE PRISONER RIGHT
5 |, EE
A.
D.
Bounds Requires Only The Elimination Of
Obstacles That Would Frustrate Access To The
. A State That Provides An Adequate Prison Law
Library Need Not Also Offer Specialized Legal
TAS TD
. The Lower Courts’ Detailed Mandate Regarding
The Contents Of And Access To Prison Libraries
I cntcupnsibnnnane
The Decisions Below Exceeded The Proper Judi-
a nnssentonsnnnseconcons
EE EEE
(iii)
14
83
&
iv
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
Cases Page
Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U.S. 880 (1983) ................ 12
Bee v. Utah State Prison, 823 F.2d 397 (10th Cir.
DITO. «:ccucsccinsiscnsisnadanmiicsiditenssssiatinseaeaiiamanisabeiciietnicais g
Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520 (1979) .......................-. passim
Block v. Rutherford, 468 U.S. 576 (1984) ............... 15
Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817 (1977) ...............-.-... passim
Brewer v. Wilkinson, 3 F.3d 816 (5th Cir. 1993),
cert. denied, 114 S.Ct. 1081 (1994) —.....00000000.. 11
Burns v. Ohio, 360 U.S. 252 (1959) ........................ 4-5
Califano v. Yamasaki, 442 U.S. 682 (1979) -—.......... 23
Campbell v. Miller, 787 F.2d 217 (7th Cir.), cert.
denied, 479 U.S. 1019 (1986) ................... ...15, 19, 22-23
Corgain v. Miller, 708 F.2d 1241 (7th Cir. 1983) .... 19
Cosby v. Purkett, 782 F. Supp. 1324 (E.D. Mo.
DID i nciccecicsivicinsssnitisisiiismsnrniannicatitnenmiinibeiiiapaaniianigpndanatiinnentinin 19
Cruz v. Hauck, 627 F.2d 710 (5th Cir. 1980) ........ 21
Dayton Bd. of Educ. v. Brinkman, 433 U.S. 406
CIID cniccccctssstnstilssnciescubinsedasssctaitemenstssiiamanstiiatiaiaietiias 24
DeShaney v. Winnebago Cty. Soc. Servs. Dept., 489
CE BE CI cnccintinseecbnianicnbititneiciintcsitintetinn 5-6
Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353 (1963) ............ 12
Ex Parte Hull, 312 U.S. 546 (1941) ......................... 4
Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391 (1963) .................-...----.- 12-13
Foster v. Basham, 932 F.2d 732 (8th Cir. 1991) .... 11
Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U.S. 12 (1956) ......................- 5
Harrell v. Keohane, 621 F.2d 1059 (10th Cir.
GD secscecscccstinstisiectebicicainiaishiicmetiaiiainiaieasiaeiasiateaithisndiniisiiattiis 15
Hewitt ». Helms, 459 U.S. 460 (1983) .....15, 18, 20, 20-21
Hooks v. Wainwright, 775 F.2d 1433 (11th Cir.
1985), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 913 (1986) ............. 5,8
Johnson v. Avery, 393 U.S. 483 (1969) ................... 5, 8,10
Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners’ Labor Union,
r Lt, |) |. =e 16
Kaiser v. Sacramento, 780 F. Supp. 1309 (E.D.
ie Gn os decictiesemectatansenianidaamnedinee 19
Keyes v. School Dist. No. 1, Denver, Colorado, 413
8 BR Foner 24
Lindquist v. Idaho Bd. of Corrections, 776 F.2d
BR GE GI, TI echt ciccccntiiccctnrectncctinctncnnesnrnenes 14, 17
Vv
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued
Page
Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215 (1976) -..........-..... 21, 24
Milliken v. Bradley, 483 U.S. 267 (1977) ............... 23
Minnesota Civil Liberties Union v. Schoen, 448
F. Supp. 960 (D. Minn. 1977) .............................. 11
Missouri v. Jenkins, 63 U.S.L.W. 4486 (U.S. June
eae ee Renin Pat Alt Se ae ene Sl IAS. 7, 23, 24, 25
Morrow v. Harwell, 768 F.2d 619 (5th Cir. 1985) .. 8-9
Murray v. Giarratano, 492 U.S. 1 (1989) passim
Nadea v. Helgemoe, 561 F.2d 411 (1st Cir. 1977).. 21
Pell v. Procunier, 417 U.S. 817 (1974) .................... 16
Pennsylvania v. Finley, 481 U.S. 551 (1987) _... 6-7, 12-13
Price v. Johnston, 334 U.S. 266 (1948) 16
Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. 396 (1974) .......... passim
Ross v. Moffit, 417 U.S. 600 (1974) 0 12,14
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of Educ., 402
Re etn init a BL es a 24, 26
Toussaint v. McCarthy, 801 F.2d 1080 (9th Cir.
1986), cert. denied, 481 U.S. 1069 (1987) _...... 19, 25-26
Turman v. Romer, 729 F. Supp. 1276 (D. Colo.
TIED <shcitasaniihanbesteidhabisthalamenititieanied iain elene ieee. 19
Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78 (1987) _........00 passim
United States v. MacCollom, 426 U.S. 317 (1976).. 13
Washington v. Harper, 494 U.S. 210 (1990) _.... 15, 18, 19
Washington v. James, 782 F.2d 1134 (2d Cir.
I erasable dan peat ahaa tinea 11
Wilkinson v. MacDougall, CIV 81-1397 (D. Ariz.
IG MRI clei 17
Williams v. Leeke, 584 F.2d 1336 (4th Cir. 1978),
cert. denied, 442 U.S. 911 (1979) ........0000000.. 9, 21
Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539 (1974) 5, 16
Zatko v. Rowland, 835 F. Supp. 1174 (N.D. Cal.
II sshediishieribinieiibaiiainirai chads aigela ee Tela ia ne 21-22
Miscellaneous
Douglas A. Blaze, Presumed Frivolous: Applica-
tion of Straight Pleading Requirements in Civil
Rights Litigation, 31 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 935
PETITE \sbidlatadtarWiikicndubdeaeiiatiiusslensiuitiaitctesinicsatbinembndeieetsinens 13
vi
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued
Page
Federal Judicial Center, Recommended Procedures
for Handling Prisoner Civil Rights Cases in the
VC ..l ld, SE) 13-14
Wayne R. LaFave & Jerold H. Israel, Criminal
Procedure (2d ed. 1992) ...................---c--eeceessseneee 5, 8, 13
David McCord, Visions of Habeas, 1994 B.Y.U. L.
RR a a ae 13
Paul S. Mishkin, Federal Courts as State Reform-
ers, 35 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 949 (1978) .............- 24
Report of the Federal Courts Study Committee
COD cncnncusrseesentnnintesnmemnitiianinnniauminiaigndanenpanadighn 13
Report of the Study Group on the Caseload of the
Supreme Court, 57 F.R.D. 573 (1972) ...........----- 14
er <n Se Ser nunerenes ere
IN THE
Supreme Court of the United States
OCTOBER TERM, 1995
No. 94-1511
SAMUEL LEwIS, et al.,
™ Petitioners,
FLETCHER CASEY, JR., et al.,
Respondents.
On Writ of Certiorari to the
United States Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit
BRIEF OF THE
NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF STATE LEGISLATURES,
COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS,
NATIONAL GOVERNORS’ ASSOCIATION,
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES,
INTERNATIONAL CITY/COUNTY
MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION,
AND NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES
AS AMICI CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONERS
INTEREST OF THE AMICI CURIAE
Amici are organizations whose members include
state, county, and municipal governments and offi-
cials throughout the United States. They have a
compelling interest in legal issues that affect state
and local governments.
2
This case presents an issue of continuing impor-
tance to amici: what must a State do to meet its
constitutional obligation to provide prisoners with
“access to the courts?” The courts below answered
that question by imposing extraordinarily detailed
and intrusive obligations on the Arizona Department
of Corrections, requiring, among other things, that
the Department (1) implement expansive prison law
library operating hours; (2) provide fully equipped
law libraries at every prison unit with a capacity
of 150 or more inmates; (3) provide full-time librar-
ians with law, library science, or paralegal degrees
at every prison law library; (4) offer an extensive
inmate legal assistant training program; (5) provide
a complete set of regional reporters for each law
library; and (6) provide trained legal assistants for
all inmates. This approach threatens both to impose
enormous burdens on amici—burdens that will be
especially difficult to carry at a time of tight budgets
—and to restrict the ability of prison administrators
to manage their institutions. Amici accordingly sub-
mit this brief to assist the Court in the resolution of
this case.’
SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT
A. The prisoner right of access to the courts rec-
ognized in Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817 (1977),
precludes States from imposing obstacles that would
effectively frustrate a prisoner seeking redress in
court. But Bounds manifestly did not hold, as the
courts below appear to have believed, that prisoners
must be assured effective presentation of their claims
1 The parties’ letters of consent to the filing of this brief
have been filed with the Clerk pursuant to this Court’s
Rule 37.3.
3
in court. Bounds itself made no such suggestion.
And the point is confirmed by the Court’s holding in
Murray v. Giarratano, 492 U.S. 1 (1989), that, even
where a particular group of inmates is unable to
make effective use of a law library, the State is under
no obligation to provide those prisoners with trained
legal assistance.
B. This principle leads to the conclusion that the
State satisfies its obligation under Bounds when it
provides prisoners access to an adequate law library
—and that the additional measures mandated by the
courts below are insupportable. Bounds repeatedly
indicated that the State must either offer a law
library or make available to prisoners assistance
from persons trained in the law. Bounds did not
Suggest that prison systems must provide special
legal services to illiterate or non-English speaking
prisoners, even though the Bounds Court surely was
aware of the difficulties faced by such inmates. And
the point is again confirmed by Murray, where—in
the face of a factual finding that death row inmates
were incapable of using lawbooks effectively—the
Court held that the State need not respond to the
particular handicaps of inmates by providing special
legal services.
C. The courts below erred in issuing a detailed
mandate governing the operation of prison libraries.
Their direction to the State failed to take into ac-
count the limited resources of the Arizona prison
system, the legitimate safety and penological con-
cerns of prison administrators, and the narrow judi-
cial role in prison administration—all considerations
that have been emphasized by this Court. Viewed in
the light of this Court’s holdings, the extraordinarily
intrusive order of the courts below dictating the con-
4
tents of the prison libraries, the degree of access to
the library stacks permitted prisoners, the time and
manner of access to the library, and the construction
of prison library facilities, cannot stand.
ARGUMENT
THE COURT OF APPEALS RECOGNIZED AN IM-
PROPERLY EXPANSIVE PRISONER RIGHT OF
ACCESS TO COURTS
A. Bounds Requires Only The Elimination Of Obstacles
That Would Frustrate Access To The Courts
This case involves the prisoner right of access to
t >» courts that was first expressly articulated in
Bounds v. Smith, 480 U.S. 817 (1977). Determining
the scope of that right presents unusual difficulties
because it has an extraordinarily hazy provenance;
the Court has failed to identify with specificity even
the provision of the Constitution on which it rests.
See Murray v. Giarratano, 492 U.S. 1, 11 & n.6
(1989). But the history and purposes of the right
of access suggest both its limits and its proper
application.
The decisions on which Bounds constructed the
right of access precluded States from imposing ob-
stacles that would effectively frustrate a prisoner
seeking redress in court. See generally Bounds, 430
U.S. at 822-824. Thus, the first decision in this line
held that “the state and its officers may not abridge
or impair [a prisoner’s] right to apply to a federal
court for a writ of habeas corpus” by exercising a
veto over the filing of a habeas petition. Ex Parte
Hull, 312 U.S. 546, 549 (1941) (emphasis added).
The Court subsequently held that a State could not
“effectively foreclose[] access” to the courts by re-
5
quiring payment of docket fees (Burns v. Ohio, 360
U.S. 252, 257 (1959)) or purchase of a transcript
that was essential for appeal. Griffin v. Illinois, 351
U.S. 12, 20 (1956). By the same token, the Court
held that inmates could not arbitrarily be precluded
from seeking the assistance of fellow prisoners with
regard to the preparation of habeas corpus applica-
tions and other legal filings. Johnson v. Avery, 393
U.S. 483, 489 (1969); Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S.
539, 577-580 (1974).
In Bounds, the Court built on these decisions in
holding that prisons may be required to provide law
libraries or equivalent legal resources to prisoners,
explaining that States might have “to shoulder af-
firmative obligations to assure all prisoners mean-
ingful access to the courts.” 430 U.S. at 824.
Plainly, however, the Court in Bounds meant to do
no more than require that States “remove[] the bar-
riers to court access that imprisonment * * *
erect[s].” Hooks v. Wainwright, 775 F.2d 1433,
1436 (11th Cir. 1985), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 913
(1986). As the Court explained in some detail (430
U.S. at 825-827), use of legal materials is essential
to meaningful advocacy; yet a prisoner—unlike an
otherwise similarly situated person who is not in-
carcerated *—is denied access to those materials by
* Neither Bounds nor any other decision of this Court has
suggested that there is a right to any level of legal assistance
for individuals who are not imprisoned and who wish “to
pursue a fundamental constitutional claim in the courts (e.g.
a parolee who seeks through federal habeas corpus to chal-
lenge his conviction or through a civil rights action to present
a constitutional claim against the parole agency).” Wayne
R. LaFave & Jerold H. Israel, Criminal Procedure § 11.2(f)
(2d ed. 1992). See also DeShaney v. Winnebago Cty. Soc.
6
the State. Provision of a law library, like waiver of
a filing fee, therefore is necessary “to assure mean-
ingful access to inmates able to present their own
eases.” Id. at 824.
The courts below, however, proceeded from a dif-
ferent conception of the right described in Bounds.
They seemed to have it in mind, not only that pris-
oners must be guaranteed access to the courts, but
also that prisoners be assured an effective presenta-
tion of their claims in court. Bounds, however, made
no such suggestion. And the limited nature of
Bounds is confirmed by Murray. There, in the face
of a factual finding that prisoners on death row were
“‘ineapable of effectively using lawbooks to raise
their claims’” (492 U.S. at 5 (plurality opinion)
(citation omitted) ), the Court rejected the conten-
tion that the State was obligated to provide such
inmates “ ‘trained legal assistance.’” Ibid. (citation
omitted). Instead, the Court found it sufficient that
the prisoners be given “adequate and timely access
to a law library.” 7d. at 13.
Indeed, any other approach would embark the
courts on a journey down what then-Justice Rehn-
quist called “a slippery slope” (Bounds, 430 U.S. at
837 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) ), which would make
the drawing of principled and manageable distinc-
tions impossible. After all, the Court has made clear,
both in Murray and in Pennsylvania v. Finley, 481
Servs. Dept., 489 U.S. 189, 196 (1989) (“[T]he Due Process
Clauses generally confer no affirmative right to government
aid, even where such aid may be necessary to secure life,
liberty, or property interests of which the government itself
may not deprive the individual.’’).
7
U.S. 551 (1987), that inmates seeking legal relief
generally are not entitled to state-financed counsel.
As a consequence, if States are required to do more
than place inmates on a par with unincarcerated
persons by providing for access to legal materials—
while not having to go so far as actually to assure
effective representation for inmates by offering coun-
sel—determining whether the State has done enough
in any given case will turn on an exercise of the
trial judge’s purely subjective judgment. Cf. Mis-
souri v. Jenkins, 63 U.S.L.W. 4486, 4494 (U.S. June
12, 1995) (rejecting remedy in part because it was
not “susceptible to any objective limitation”). We
proceed to consider the holding below in light of these
considerations.
B. A State That Provides An Adequate Prison Law
Library Need Not Also Offer Specialized Legal
Services
1. The limited scope of the right recognized in
Bounds necessarily leads to the conclusion that the
State satisfies its constitutional obligation when it
offers an inmate access to an adequate law library—
and that the additional measures mandated by the
courts below are insupportable.* As the Court put
* In this case, the specific elements of the order upheld below
that go beyond the core requirement of Bounds include: (1)
the requirement that the State hire full-time, professionally
trained librarians with law, library science, or paralegal
degrees for every law library (see Pet. App. 66a-67a); (2)
the requirement that tle State provide trained inmate legal
assistants—-including bilingual legal assistants—to all inmates,
even if the inmates are literate and have physical access to a
law library (id. at 69a-7la); and (3) the requirement that
the State provide a legal assistant training program, includ-
ing a legal research course approximately 60 hours in length,
to be taught by lawyers, !aw students, or trained paralegals
at each law library twice a year, ad infinitum. Id. at 71a-72a.
8
it in Bounds, “the fundamental constitutional right
of access to the courts requires prison authorities to
assist inmates in the preparation and filing of mean-
ingful legal papers by providing prisoners with ade-
quate law libraries or adequate assistance from per-
sons trained in the law.” 430 U.S. at 828 (emphasis
added). Not only did the Court use this disjunctive
formulation no fewer than five times in Bounds (id.
at 825, 828-829), it also went on to add that “ade-
quate law libraries are one constitutionally acceptable
method to assure meaningful access to the courts.”
Id. at 830 (emphasis added).
As this language suggests, the Bounds principle
does not—as the court below believed (see Pet. App.
7a-9a)—mandate special legal services for illiterate
and non-English speaking prisoners. The Bounds
Court surely was aware of the difficulties faced by
such prisoners when it declared an adequate law
library sufficient to meet the States’ obligation of
assistance. See Hooks, 775 F.2d at 1436; LaFave &
Israel, supra, at § 11.2(f). Indeed, that very prob-
lem was specifically acknowledged in an earlier “ac-
cess to courts” case. See Johnson, 393 U.S. at 484.
The Court nevertheless indicated that States are
obligated only to mitigate the effects of incarceration,
not all pre-existing problems of individual prisoners
that would affect their capacity to exercise their
legal rights. See LaFave & Israel, supra, at § 11.2(f)
(noting that the access right would not necessarily
require the state to “offset the limitations of the in-
dividual * * * that presumably would restrict his
capacity to exercise his right of access even if he
were not incarcerated”’) .*
4 See Hooks, 775 F.2d at 1436-1437; Bee v. Utah State
Prison, 823 F.2d 397, 398 (10th Cir. 1987); see also Morrow
9
This conclusion is confirmed by Murray. As noted
above, in that case the district court made a specific
factual finding that the special burdens of death row
inmates rendered them “ ‘incapable of effectively
using lawbooks to raise their claims’”’; as a conse-
quence, the district court held access to an adequate
law library insufficient to fulfill the State’s burden
under Bounds. See Murray, 492 U.S. at 5 (plurality
opinion) (citation omitted). This Court, however,
refused to extend Bounds to support that result,
holding instead that the State’s policy of either allow-
ing death row inmates time in the prison law library
or permitting them to have law books in their cells
was constitutionally adequate. Jd. at 5, 12. In so
doing, the Court rejected a reading of Bounds that
would have required state prison authorities to op-
erate by different rules depending upon the facts of
each case, stating:
[t]reating such matters as “factual findings,”
presumably subject only to review under the
“clearly-erroneous” standard, would permit a
different constitutional rule to apply in a differ-
ent State if the district judge hearing that claim
reached different conclusions. Our cases involv-
ing the right to counsel have never taken this
tack; they have been categorical holdings as to
v. Harwell, 768 F.2d 619, 623 (5th Cir. 1985) (“[ Bounds]
foreclosed the question of the practical utility of a library,
concluding that access to a library is access to the courts.”) ;
Williams v. Leeke, 584 F.2d 1336, 1341 (4th Cir. 1978)
(Hall, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (“The
state’s obligation considered in Bounds is an institutional one
which is fulfilled as to all prisoners—even illiterate prisoners
—by making legal research materials generally available to
inmates * * *.”), cert. denied, 442 U.S. 911 (1979).
10
what the Constitution requires with respect to a
particular stage of a criminal proceeding in
general.
Id. at 12.
That holding dictates the outcome here. The State
in Murray was not obligated to respond to the par-
ticular handicaps of inmates under a capital sentence
by providing additional legal assistance, notwith-
standing a factual finding that those handicaps ren-
dered the inmates incapable of using lawbooks and
the prison library effectively. There is no reason why
the handicaps of illiterate or non-English speaking
prisoners should dictate a different result in this
ease. To the contrary, it would be perverse to hold
that prisoners with limitations unrelated to incar-
ceration (such as illiteracy) are entitled to a greater
right of access to the courts than are death row
inmates whose limitations are a consequence of the
special burdens resulting from their sentences.
It may be added that the expansion upon Bounds
worked by the courts below is not necessary to pro-
tect a meaningful right of access to the courts for
illiterate or non-English speaking prisoners. Those
inmates still have a constitutional right to seek the
legal aid of their fellow literate inmates. See Bounds,
430 U.S. at 824 & n.10 (noting Wolff’s holding that
illiterate inmates have a right to assistance from
literate inmates even though an adequate law library
is present) ; Johnson, 393 U.S. at 490. Even though
an adequate law library may not directly benefit
illiterate or non-English speaking prisoners, it does
help them indirectly by improving the quality of as-
sistance from literate inmates. Additionally, illit-
erate prisoners may, with assistance from a literate
wT
|
11
inmate if necessary, seek the assistance of counsel.’
This puts the illiterate or non-English speaking pris-
oner on an equal footing with similarly situated
uninearcerated individuals, who also would have to
seek legal aid or help from English-literate associates
to gain access to the courts.
2. In addition, requiring the State to expend
scarce legal resources by providing legal assistance
beyond an adequate law library will not necessarily
inure to the benefit of prisoners. As this Court has
often noted, the resources that States may devote to
legal services (and to prison systems generally) are
limited. See, e.g., Murray, 492 U.S. at 11 (plurality
opinion) ; id. at 18 (O’Connor, J., concurring). The
expense of instituting the programs required by the
lower courts in this case would represent a consider-
able strain on those resources, and might well require
a reduction in the expenditures dedicated to provid-
ing prisoners legal assistance at trial and during the
direct appeal of their convictions—the stages of the
process that are crucial in a criminal proceeding.
* The Court has held that the right of “access to courts”
necessarily includes a right to seek legal assistance.
[I}nmates must have a reasonable opportunity to seek
and receive the assistance of attorneys. Regulations and
practices that unjustifiably obstruct the availability of
professional representation of other aspects of the right
of access to the courts are invalid.
Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. 396, 419 (1974). This right
to seek legal assistance has been used to strike down regula-
tions and practices that prohibit or unreasonably interfere
with the solicitation of legal assistance by mail. See Brewer
v. Wilkinson, 3 F.3d 816 (5th Cir. 1993), cert. denied, 114
S.Ct. 1081 (1994); Foster v. Basham, 932 F.2d 732 (8th Cir.
1991); Washington v. James, 782 F.2d 1134 (2d Cir. 1986);
Minnesota Civil Liberties Union v. Schoen, 448 F. Supp. 960
(D. Minn. 1977).
12
The Court has recognized the danger of ordering ac-
commodations of asserted constitutional rights with-
out taking these sorts of trade-offs into account. “In
the necessarily closed environient of the correctional
institution, few changes will have no ramifications
on the liberty of others or on the use of the prison’s
limited resources * * *.” Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S.
78, 90 (1987).
A shift of scarce resources from the trial and
direct appeal stages of a criminal proceeding to as-
sistance in filing post-conviction collateral attacks
would hardly redound to the advantage of prisoners.
The trial provides the criminal defendant his prin-
cipal opportunity to avoid incarceration and is of
utmost importance in the criminal justice system.
See Ross v. Moffit, 417 U.S. 600, 611 (1974). Of
secondary but considerable moment is the direct ap-
peal of a conviction, which “is the primary avenue
for review of a conviction or sentence * * *.” Bare-
foot v. Estelle, 463 U.S. 880, 887 (1993). The right
to counsel for an initial appeal from the judgment
or sentence of the trial court reflects the importance
of this stage of the criminal proceeding. See Douglas
v. California, 372 U.S. 353 (1963). In contrast, the
role of habeas corpus proceedings is secondary and
limited. See Barefoot, 463 U.S. at 887; Murray, 492
U.S. at 10 (plurality opinion). Accordingly, this
Court concluded in Finley that there was no federal
constitutional right to counsel for post-conviction col-
lateral proceedings:
Posteonviction relief is even further removed
from the criminal trial than is discretionary di-
rect review. It is not part of the criminal pro-
ceeding itself, and it is in fact considered to be
civil in nature. See Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391,
iiss ce - .
13
423-424 (1963). * * * States have no obligation
to provide this avenue of relief, cf. United States
v. MacCollom, 426 U.S. 317, 323 (1976) (plu-
rality opinion), and when they do, the funda-
mental fairness mandated by the Due Process
Clause does not require that the State supply a
lawyer as well.
Id. at 556-557; see also Murray, 492 U.S. at 10 (plu-
rality opinion).
Yet the decision below would require States to use
scarce resources in providing legal aid to assist pris-
oners pursuing post-conviction relief. This would
preclude the States from making the sensible policy
decision to concentrate their resources at the trial
and direct appeal stages of criminal proceedings
where “[c]lapable lawyering * * * would mean
fewer colorable claims of ineffective assistance of
counsel to be litigated on collateral attack.” Murray,
492 U.S. at 11 (plurality opinion).* While the pro-
*In addition to the secondary nature of habeas corpus
actions, it is useful to note that habeas petitions most often
are unsuccessful. “Habeas relief * * * typically has been
granted in less than 4% of all petitions filed and an even
smaller percentage of petitioners gain release from custody.”
LaFave & Israel, supra, § 28.2; see also David McCord,
Visions of Habeas, 1994 B.Y.U. L. Rev. 735, 768 (discussing
problem of large volume of frivolous habeas actions). Pris-
oner civil rights actions also are rarely successful. See
Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. at 405 n.9 (noting problem
of frivolous prisoner claims); Douglas A. Blaze, Presumed
Frivolous: Application of Straight Pleading Requirements
in Civil Rights Litigation, 31 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 935, 935-
938 (1990) (discussing problem of frivolous prisoner civil
rights claims); Report of the Federal Courts Study Commit-
tee 48-51 (1990) (proposing new procedure to deal with
prisoner civil rights cases, which represented 11 percent of
all civil filings in 1989); Federal Judicial Center, Recom-
14
vision of legal assistance to prisoners pursuing post-
conviction relief or civil actions might be a good idea
in the best of all possible worlds, that does not mean
that it should be constitutionally mandated. See Ross,
417 U.S. at 618. The difficult policy questions con-
cerning the allocation of limited legal resources
should be left to the state legislative and executive
branches, which are far better equipped to weigh the
advantages and disadvantages of various policies
than are the courts. See Turner, 482 U.S. at 84;
Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. 396, 405 (1974);
Murray, 492 U.S. at 11 (plurality opinion); id. at
13 (O’Connor, J., concurring).
C. The Lower Courts’ Detailed Mandate Regarding The
Contents Of And Access To Prison Libraries Is
Insupportable
Allowing prisoners access to a law library thus is
sufficient to satisfy the requirements of Bounds, pro-
vided that the library is “adequate” (430 U.S. at
828) and that the degree of access is “meaningful.”
Id. at 823, 825. To require an adequate law library,
however, is not to require a perfect or superior one.
See Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. at 420 (prison
not required to adopt every proposal that facilitates
prisoner access to the courts) ; Lindquist v. Idaho Bd.
of Corrections, 776 F.2d 851, 856 (9th Cir. 1985).
By the same token, meaningful access does not require
mended Procedures for Handling Prisoner Civil Rights Cases
in the Federal Courts 9-11 (1980); Report of the Study Group
on the Caseload of the Supreme Court, 57 F.R.D. 573, 587
(1972). While this is not to gainsay the importance of the
right of access to the courts, it does suggest that increasing
the level of state resources devoted to such claims—a step
that necessarily will be taken at the expense of other state
expenditures—is not a sensible policy.
o- a
15
that prisoners be given unlimited use of library re-
sources. See Campbell v. Miller, 787 F.2d 217, 226
(7th Cir.), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 1019 (1986);
Harrell v. Keohane, 621 F.2d 1059 (10th Cir. 1980)
(per curiam). Instead, it is enough that the re-
sources made available to prisoners offer them a rea-
sonable opportunity to “prepare petitions for judicial
relief.” Murray, 492 U.S. at 11 (plurality opinion).
At the same time, implementation of this principle
requires that courts take into account competing con-
siderations: the limited resources of state prison
systems (see Murray, 492 U.S. at 11 (plurality
opinion); Turner, 482 U.S. at 90), the safety and
penological concerns of prison administrators (see
Washington v. Harper, 494 U.S. 210, 223 (1990);
Hewitt v. Helms, 459 U.S. 460, 473 (1983)), and a
scrupulous attention to this Court’s explanation of
the narrow judicial role in prison administration:
[C]Jourts have, in the name of the Constitution,
become increasingly enmeshed in the minutiae
of prison operations. Judges, after all, are
human. They, no less than others in our society,
have a natural tendency to believe that their
individual solutions to often intractable problems
are better and more workable than those of the
persons who are actually charged with and
trained in the running of the particular institu-
tion under examination. But under the Constitu-
tion, the first question to be answered is not
whose plan is best, but in what branch of the
Government is lodged the authority to initially
devise the plan. * * * The wide range of “judg-
ment calls” that meet constitutional and statu-
tory requirements are confided to officials outside
of the Judicial Branch of Government.
Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 562 (1979); see also
Block v. Rutherford, 468 U.S. 576, 588 (1984).
16
It is well understood that “[{]]awful incarceration
brings about the necessary withdrawal or limitation
of many privileges and rights, a retraction justified
by the considerations underlying our penal system.”
Bell, 441 U.S. at 545-546 (citing Price v. Johnston,
334 U.S. 266, 285 (1948); Jones v. North Carolina
Prisoners’ Labor Union, 433 U.S. 119, 125 (1977);
Wolff, 418 U.S. at 555; Pell v. Procunier, 417 U.S.
817, 822 (1974)). Indeed, in Turner the Court made
clear that prison administrators must be free to run
their institutions without interference from the
courts so long as their policies are rationally related
to the safety and economic concerns of the prison
(482 U.S. at 89) and do not unduly foreclose “other
avenues” for the exercise of prisoner rights. /d. at
90. This is no less true of the right of access to the
courts. Viewed in light of this principle, the order
upheld by the court below reveals a consistent mis-
application of the “meaningful access” requirement.
1. Contents of the Law Library. Arizona should
not be required, as ordered by the courts below, to
provide the Pacific Reporter in its prisons’ law
libraries to meet the constitutional requirement that
those libraries be “adequate.” To be sure, an ade-
quate prison law library should contain the basic
resources necessary to conduct legal research. But
it does not follow that every resource that could be
useful in a legal research project must be on the
shelves of every prison law library. “[P]rison ad-
ministrators are not required to adopt every proposal
that may be thought to facilitate prisoner access to
the courts.” Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. at 420.
Here, a requirement that the Pacific Reporter be
provided in Arizona’s prison libraries cannot be justi-
fied on the grounds that it is a basic resource that
17
is necessary to conduct legal research.’ Indeed, an-
other panel of the Ninth Circuit recognized the lesser
importance of regional reporters in rejecting an argu-
ment that they had to be included in Idaho prison li-
braries that already provided the Idaho state reporter:
“the Prison need not provide its inmates with a library
that results in the best possible access to the courts.
Rather, the Prison must provide its inmates with a
library that meets minimum constitutional stand-
ards.” Lindquist, 776 F.2d at 856 (emphasis added).
Notably, the plan that was found constitutional in
Bounds did not include the regional reporter in its
law library inventory. 430 U.S. at 819-820 n.4.
2. Access to Library Stacks. The order upheld by
the Ninth Circuit requires that all prisoners be al-
lowed direct access to the library stacks, unless
prison officials can first document that such access
will pose an actual security risk. Pet. App. 67a-68a.
The Bounds “meaningful access” standard cannot
justify this requirement. The inconvenience prisoners
may experience from denial of direct access to the
library stacks is a minimal infringement on their
7 As a result of an earlier district court order, Wilkinson
v. McDougall, CIV 81-1397 (D. Ariz. Jan. 5, 1984), all 33
of Arizona’s state prison law libraries include: the United
States Code Annotated; Supreme Court Reporter; Federal
Reporter Second; Federal Supplement; Shepards U.S. Cita-
tions; Shepards Federal Citations; Local Rules for the Federal
District Court; Modern Federal Practice Digest; Federal
Practice Digest (Second); Arizona Code Annotated; Arizona
Reports; Shepards Arizona Citations; Arizona Appeals Re-
ports; Arizona Law-of-Evidence (Udall); ADOC Policy Man-
ual; 108 Institutional Management Procedures; Federal Prac-
tice and Procedure (Wright, Miller, & Cooper); Corpus Juris
Secundum; and Arizona Digest.
18
right of “meaningful” access and plainly is justified
by competing safety and administrative concerns.
A restriction on direct prisoner access to the stacks
is necessary to serve prison security. See Harper,
494 U.S. at 223; Helms, 459 U.S. at 473 (safety is
a “fundamental responsibility” of prison administra-
tion). As the Court has recognized, hardback books
are an especially effective vehicle for smuggling con-
traband. Bell, 441 U.S. at 549. It seems not only
reasonable but also prudent to deny prisoners a com-
mon ground to stash and exchange forbidden mate-
rial. Books also are an excellent place for inmates
to conceal hidden messages to one another. Again,
the Court has recognized the State’s legitimate secu-
rity interest in monitoring and controlling inmate
communications. Turner, 482 U.S. at 91-92. Addi-
tionally, prisons must carefully regulate the use of
books to prevent vandalism and theft. In light of
these obvious and legitimate security and administra-
tive justifications, it is reasonable to restrict direct
inmate access to library stacks.
These restrictions are acceptable, of course, be-
cause “other avenues” remain available for prisoners
to gain access to legal materials. A prison may, for
example, use a “call” system by which a prisoner
with access to a list of the library’s holdings requests
that a librarian retrieve particular books from the
stacks for him. Under this approach, when the pris-
oner is finished with the source he turns it in and
requests others. Other than the minimal inconven-
jence of waiting for the librarian to retrieve the
source, it is difficult to see how this system would
be any less useful than direct access to the library
collection. Furthermore, while prohibiting prisoners
from browsing through the stacks of the prison law
19
library, this system would still allow prisoners to
browse through legal materials to follow leads from
one source to another. See Toussaint v. McCarthy,
801 F.2d 1080, 1110 (9th Cir. 1986), cert. denied,
481 U.S. 1069 (1987).
For prisoners who are greater security risks, more
restrictive practices would be permissible. One
method, for example, is a “paging”? system whereby
prisoners who are not allowed to visit the law library
request legal materials or photocopies of those mate-
rials that are delivered to their cells." While this
might result in delays between request and receipt of a
book, such inconvenience, standing alone, hardly
amounts to a denial of access to the courts. Cf.
Bounds, 430 U.S. at 819 (under approved plan in-
mates would have to wait between three and four
weeks to do one day of legal research). This Court
has upheld safety practices that constitute far more
extensive intrusions on the rights of inmates than
the inconvenience of having to wait for particular
legal sources. See, e.g., Harper, 494 U.S. at 227;
Bell, 441 U.S. at 558-560.
The requirement that prison officials show a docu-
mented security risk before denying a prisoner direct
8 Of course, this would assume that the prisoners have some
reference materials or other legal assistance (such as inmate
paralegals) to help them to determine which materials they
should request. Similar systems have been upheld in Campbell
v. Miller, 787 F.2d 217, 227-228 (7th Cir. 1986); Cosby v.
Purkett, 782 F. Supp. 1824 (E.D. Mo. 1992); and Turman
v. Romer 729 F. Supp. 1276 (D. Colo. 1990). But see
Toussaint, 801 F.2d at 1108-1110; Corgain v. Miller, 708 F.2d
1241, 1250 (7th Cir. 1983) (paging system requiring exact
citations is inadequate without references for deriving cita-
tions); Kaiser v. Sacramento, 780 F. Supp. 1309, 1316 (E.D.
Cal. 1991).
20
access to the library stacks (Pet. App. 68a) also is
unjustified. ‘In the volatile atmosphere of a prison,
an inmate easily may constitute an unacceptable
threat to the safety of other prisoners and guards
even if he himself has committed no misconduct;
rumor, reputation, and even more imponderable
factors may suffice to spark potentially disastrous
incidents.” Helms, 459 U.S. at 474. Requiring docu-
mentation of a security risk invites a potential chal-
lenge every time the prison administration denies a
prisoner direct law library access. If administrators
must carefully document every risk to protect them-
selves against legal challenge, they will face a situa-
tion where “complying with * * * marginally helpful
procedural requirements” would interfere with the
efficient and safe management of the institution. /d.
at 474 n.7. See Turner, 482 U.S. at 89.
3. Time, Place, and Manner of Access. The deci-
sion below also improperly infringes on the ability of
prison administrators to regulate the time, place, and
manner in which inmates gain access to and use the
prison law library.’ “A detention facility is a unique
place fraught with serious security dangers” (Bell,
441 U.S. at 559), which necessarily requires that
“prison officials have broad administrative and dis-
cretionary authority over the institutions they man-
® Among other things, the district court: (1) set, within
limits, the operating hours and days for the law libraries,
without regard to actual use; (2) dictated where the prisoners
may sit in the libraries; (3) set the precise procedure for
the prisons’ response to library access requests; (4) set
procedures for removing prisoners who create disturbances
from the law library; (5) prohibited the reasonable restraint
of prisoners in the law library; and (6) controlled the noise
level in the library. Pet. App. 65a-68a.
ee
she —-
21
age.” Helms, 459 U.S. at 467. See Meachum v.
Fano, 427 U.S. 215, 229 (1976) (‘The federal courts
do not sit to supervise state prisons * * *.”’). While
limits on precise hours of library operation, the im-
plementation of library security measures, and the
like may create inconvenience for particular inmates,
it is difficult to see these as anything more than de
minimis restrictions that do not warrant court super-
vision. Cf. Meachum, 427 U.S. at 225.”
The related requirement that prisoners be provided
with at least ten hours of access to the law library
each week also is impermissibly intrusive. We agree
that the time allotted for a prisoner to use the library
cannot be so low as to deny “meaningful access.” No
court looking at the issue, however, has suggested
that the minimum threshold for meeting the “mean-
ingful access” standard is anywhere near ten hours
of access to the prison law library a week. See Cruz
v. Hauck, 627 F.2d 710, 720 (5th Cir. 1980) (ex-
pressing reservations about adequacy of two to three
hours a week of access); Williams v. Leeke, 584 F.2d
1336, 1340 (4th Cir. 1978) (three forty-five minute
intervals a week inadequate); Nadea v. Helgemoe,
561 F.2d 411, 418 (1st Cir. 1977) (one hour per
week inadequate); Zatko v. Rowland, 835 F. Supp.
1° This is not to say that courts should be foreclosed from
ordering a prison system to provide prisoners with “meaning-
ful access” to a law library. When the time provided for
prisoner use of the library is “meaningful,” however, the
courts have no business involving themselves in the minute
details of the time of day such access is scheduled, the seating
arrangements of prisoners using the library, and the proce-
dures used to process inmate requests for library time. These
administrative matters involve precisely the types of day-to-
day decisions that should be left to local authorities. See Bell,
441 U.S. at 563.
22
1174, 1178 (N.D. Cal. 1993) (holding a plan pro-
viding access of two hours a week, with access of
four hours a week for inmates with impending court
deadlines, reasonable as a matter of law). In fact,
the approach taken by the courts below requires far
more prisoner time in the law library than the plan
approved in Bounds itself. See 430 U.S. at 819 (pro-
viding for one full work day at a law library every
three to four weeks). Beyond the minimum require-
ments of Bounds—and absent a showing that prison-
ers are unable to make effective and meaningful use
of the library in the time allotted—it should be up
to the prison administrators, not the courts, to weigh
the costs and benefits that would attend a shift of
prison resources from other penological concerns to
providing extra library hours.
4. The Requirement of Additional Prison Librar-
ies. The order upheld by the court of appeals re-
quires, with some exceptions, that Arizona provide
fully equipped law libraries for facilities with a popu-
lation or capacity of 150 or more. Pet. App. 61a.
Bounds cannot support this mandate. So long as the
State is able to provide prisoners with “meaningful
access” to the courts, it should be free to adopt
methods other than the expensive construction of new
library facilities. The State could, for example, adopt
a plan by which prisoners without a law library in
their facility are bused to other facilities to do legal
research. That is precisely the type of plan found
adequate in Bounds. 430 U.S. at 819. Alternatively,
the State could, in lieu of a full law library, provide
these prisoners with some form of trained legal assist-
ance or a limited law library supplemented with legal
materials borrowed from elsewhere. See Campbell
23
v. Miller, 787 F.2d at 228-229 (approving a similar
plan for high-security prisoners not allowed access to
the prison law library). If a court finds that.prison-
ers in facilities without law libraries are not receiv-
ing “meaningful access” to the courts, it should allow
the State to exercise this wide discretion in creating
an access plan, rather than foreclosing innovative
solutions that could take into account both the pris-
oner’s need for “meaningful access” and the limited
resources of the state prison system. Cf. Bounds, 430
U.S. at 819.
D. The Decisions Below Exceeded The Proper Judicial
Role
As the discussion above suggests, the courts below
involved themselves in the management of the Ari-
zona prison system at a level of detail and with a
degree of intrusiveness that is quite extraordinary.
But they did so entirely without justification. While
the district court noted imperfections in Arizona’s
program (see Pet. App. 19a-41a), the courts below
expressly declined to ask the inmates to demonstrate
that they were in fact denied meaningful access to
the courts. See id. at 5a. Yet this Court repeatedly
has admonished the federal judiciary to respect the
limits of the injunctive remedy and to fashion relief
that is proportional to any constitutional violation.”
11 See generally Missouri v. Jenkins, 638 U.S.L.W. 4486,
4491 (U.S. June 12, 1995) (nature of remedy is to be deter-
mined by “nature and scope of the constitutional violation” )
(citing Milliken v. Bradley, 433 U.S. 267, 280-281 (1977));
Califano v. Yamasaki, 442 U.S. 682, 702 (1979) (“[T]he
scope of relief is dictated by the extent of the violation
established.”’); Bell, 441 U.S. at 562 (injunctive power should
be invoked to remedy only bona fide constitutional violations,
24
Although the court of appeals dutifully quoted this
principle (id. at 13a), it made no effort to implement
it in practice.
Just last term, in Missouri v. Jenkins, 63 U.S.L.W.
4486 (U.S. June 12, 1995), the Court reaffirmed the
limits of the federal judiciary’s power to order in-
junctive relief. Recognizing that “local autonomy of
school districts is a vital national tradition” (id. at
4494), the Court refused to endorse an approach that
would have allowed the district court to take over
the management of local schools to increase their
“desegregative attractiveness” (ibid.) and facilitate
the creation of a school system “with facilities and
opportunities not available anywhere else in the coun-
try.” Id. at 4488. Instead, the injunctive power of
the district court was limited to remedying the spe-
cific constitutional violation at issue.
Like school administration, management of the
local prison sysiem is of “acute interest to the States.”
Meachum, 427 U.S. at 229. “Running a prison is an
inordinately difficult undertaking that requires exper-
tise, planning, and the commitment of resources, all
of which are peculiarly within the province of the
legislative and executive branches of the govern-
not to impose judicial policy preferences on the States);
Dayton Bd. of Educ. v. Brinkman, 433 U.S. 406, 417 (1977);
Keyes v. School Dist. No. 1, Denver, Colorado, 413 U.S. 189,
213 (1973) (system-wide remedy only appropriate if system-
wide violation); Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of
Educ., 402 U.S. 1, 16 (1971) (“Remedial judicial authority
does not put judges automatically in the shoes of school
authorities whose powers are plenary.’”); Paul S. Mishkin,
Federal Courts as State Reformers, 35 Wash. & Lee L. Rev.
949 (1978).
25
ment.” Turner, 482 U.S. at 84. Thus, when state
prison systems are involved the federal courts should
be especially careful in respecting their limited role.
See Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. at 405; see also
Jenkins, 63 U.S.L.W. at 4501-4502 (Thomas, J., con-
curring). Cf. Bounds, 430 U.S. at 832-833 (praising
district court for respecting limits on its role by al-
lowing the State to fashion its own remedy despite
the court’s expressed preference for alternative ap-
proaches). But the order in question in this case
embodies the antithesis of that limited judicial role.
It involves a serious intrusion into day-to-day man-
agement of the Arizona prison system, is overreach-
ing at almost every juncture, and represents an at-
tempt to create an ideal prisoner legal aid system.
However desirable this might be as a matter of pol-
icy, such a paternalistic “approach should play no
part in traditional constitutional adjudication.”
Murray, 492 U.S. at 11 (plurality opinion).
While the court below acknowledged the intrusive-
ness of its remedy, it suggested that ‘“‘a federal
court may order relief that the Constitution would
not of its own force initially require if such relief
is necessary to remedy .. . [that] violation.’” Pet.
App. 13a (citation omitted). But whatever its valid-
ity in other circumstances, that principle has no ap-
plication here."* Even if extra-constitutional relief
12 Tronically, the decision that the Ninth Circuit cites for
this principle went on to state:
However, our goal is to cure only constitutional viola-
tions. The commission of a federal judge is not a ‘gen-
eral assignment to go about doing good.’ Accordingly,
injunctive restraints that exceed constitutional minima
must be narrowly tailored to prevent repetition of proved
26
were justified in some instances, it would not be
necessary to remedy any violation in this case. Un-
like an unconstitutionally segregated school system,
where the social effects of the wrong vastly complicate
the remedy (see Swann, 402 U.S. at 6), termination
of a denial of access to the courts provides a complete
remedy for the constitutional injury. Thus, in this
ease, there is no rationale for allowing injunctive
relief that requires more than the Constitution dic-
tates. Accordingly, this Court should find the injunc-
tion upheld by the court below to be impermissibly
overbroad.
CONCLUSION
The judgment of the United States Court of Ap-
peals for the Ninth Circuit should be reversed.
Respectfully submitted,
CHARLES ROTHFELD RICHARD RUDA *
MAYER, BROWN & PLATT Chief Counsel
2000 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. STATE AND LOCAL LEGAL
Washington, D.C. 20006 CENTER
(202) 778-0616 444 North Capitol St., N.W.
Suite 345
Washington, D.C. 20001
(202) 434-4850
* Counsel of Record for the
August 14, 1995 Amici Curiae
constitutional violations, and must not intrude unneces-
sarily on state functions.
Toussaint, 801 F.2d at 1087 (citations omitted).
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This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.