[DO NOT PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

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No. 17-13873

Non-Argument Calendar

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D.C. Docket No. 3:16-cv-00447-TJC-JRK

RONALD SEARCY, 

 Plaintiff-Appellant,

versus

PRISON REHAB INDUSTRIES & ENT, INC., 

CEO, Past and Present Presidents,

in their individual and their official capacity,

MR. R. YAX, 

"Former" Plant Management, 

in their individual and in their official capacity, 

MR. S. WALKER, 

Present Freezer Supervisor,

in their individual and in their official capacity, 

SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, 

S. B. ROSSITER, 

Assistant Warden DOC,

in their individual and in their official capacity, 

 Defendants-Appellees.

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Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Middle District of Florida

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(August 10, 2018)

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Before WILSON, ROSENBAUM, and JULIE CARNES, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

This case on appeal concerns the district court’s dismissal of pro se Florida 

prisoner Ronald Searcy’s second amended civil-rights complaint. Searcy claims 

that the district court erred in (1) dismissing his action without first requiring a 

magistrate judge to review his second amended complaint; and (2) dismissing his 

42 U.S.C. § 1983 claims asserting violations of due process and equal protection,

for failure to state a claim.1 After careful consideration, we affirm the district 

court’s dismissal of Searcy’s second amended complaint.

I.

Searcy filed the pending action against Prison Rehab Industries & ENT, Inc.

(“PRIDE”), its chief executive officer and past presidents, and seven Florida 

Department of Corrections (“FDOC”) and PRIDE officials. In his original 

complaint, Searcy alleged several constitutional and statutory violations in 

connection with his placement in administrative confinement after an altercation 

with other inmates that occurred in mid-2015, and his subsequent transfer from his 

PRIDE work assignment at “cold storage” to a different position within the prison 

 1 By failing to mention them in his brief, Searcy has forfeited the following claims that 

were present in his second amended complaint: (1) his contract and conspiracy claims under 42 

U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1985, (2) his Eighth Amendment claim of cruel and unusual punishment, 

and (3) his supervisory liability claims. See Timson v. Sampson, 518 F.3d 870, 874 (11th Cir. 

2008) (per curiam). 

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dormitory. Searcy alleged that he was exonerated of “false charges” stemming

from the altercation but that he did not receive his work assignment back even 

though several of the other inmates involved in the fight did. 

Before any of the defendants could file a response, a magistrate judge 

screened Searcy’s complaint pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915A and ordered him to 

file an amended pleading because he had failed to set forth his claims adequately. 

In the order, the magistrate judge supplied Searcy with instructions to aid him in 

his redrafting of his complaint. 

Searcy then filed an amended complaint against the same defendants. A

magistrate judge again screened the amended complaint in accordance with 28 

U.S.C. § 1915A, finding the claims to be substantially similar to those in the 

original complaint. Once again, the magistrate judge determined that Searcy’s 

complaint failed to adequately set forth claims for relief. Therefore, the magistrate 

judge ordered Searcy to file a second amended complaint. To assist Searcy, the 

magistrate judge again provided instructions on how to properly set forth 

allegations in accordance with Rule 8(a)(2), Fed. R. Civ. P.

Searcy then filed his second amended complaint against the same defendants 

in the district court. The second amended complaint again alleged that following a 

fight with other inmates, Searcy was accused of violating FDOC regulations and 

placed on administrative confinement. It also alleged, after Searcy was exonerated 

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of all charges, he was transferred to a dormitory houseman position and removed 

from his work assignment with PRIDE in “cold storage,” while the other three 

inmates involved in the altercation returned to their positions. As is pertinent here, 

Searcy claimed that several of the defendants discriminated against him on the 

basis of his race, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. Searcy also claimed 

that defendants violated his due-process rights. 

Before any review by a magistrate judge, the district judge conducted a 

screening of Searcy’s action pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(a). Upon doing so, the 

district court construed Searcy’s complaint as having raised claims under 42 

U.S.C. § 1983. The district judge ultimately dismissed the second amended 

complaint without prejudice for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be 

granted, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1) and Rule 12(b)(6), Fed. R. Civ. P. 

Searcy now appeals. As we have noted, Searcy claims that the district court 

erred in (1) dismissing his action without first requiring a magistrate judge to 

review his second amended complaint and (2) dismissing his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 

claims asserting violations of due process and equal protection, for failure to state a 

claim.

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II.

We begin with Searcy’s claim that the district judge was required to submit 

Searcy’s second amended complaint to the magistrate judge for review before 

dismissing the complaint. We find no merit to that claim.

Under 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A), a district court may designate a magistrate 

judge to hear and determine any pretrial matter, except a dispositive motion, 

including a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be 

granted. Nevertheless, a magistrate judge may issue a report and recommendation 

to the district court concerning dispositive motions. See 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(B).

Searcy has failed to show that the district court erred in dismissing the 

second amended complaint without first requiring a magistrate judge to issue a 

report and recommendation. He has provided no authority showing that he has the 

right to have any issues determined by a magistrate judge prior to the district 

court’s ruling, and we are not aware of any such authority. 

Nor, as Searcy contends, does the district court’s review of Searcy’s second 

amended complaint prior to receiving a report and recommendation from a 

magistrate judge in any way impede Searcy’s right to due process of law. First, the 

text of § 636(b)(1)(A) states as follows: “[A] judge may designate a magistrate 

judge to hear and determine any pretrial matter pending before the court . . . .” 28 

U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A) (2018) (emphasis added). That statutory section does not 

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say that the district court must designate pretrial matters to the magistrate judge. 

So the statute does not entitle Searcy to a magistrate judge’s review of his 

complaint before the district judge conducts his review. Second, the district 

court’s decision to, in the first place, conduct its own § 1915A analysis and 

subsequent dismissal of Searcy’s complaint did not infringe upon any protections 

offered to Searcy by the Constitution or by statute. The district court itself issued 

an order dismissing the case, which, as we explain below, contained a proper 

analysis of Searcy’s claims. And since the district court dismissed Searcy’s second 

amended complaint without prejudice, nothing prevented him from filing a third 

amended complaint instead of appealing.

III.

We now turn to Searcy’s arguments that the district court erred in dismissing

his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claims asserting violations of due process and equal 

protection, for failure to state a claim. A district court must review a prisoner’s 

civil complaint against a governmental entity or an officer or employee of a 

governmental entity “before docketing, if feasible or, in any event, as soon as 

practicable after docketing.” 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(a); Jones v. Bock, 549 U.S. 199, 

202 (2007). The court shall dismiss the complaint or any portion thereof that fails 

to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. Id. § 1915A(b)(1). 

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We review de novo the district court’s dismissal of a complaint for failure to 

state a claim under § 1915A(b)(1) using the same standards that govern dismissals 

under Rule 12(b)(6), Fed. R. Civ. P. Leal v. Ga. Dep’t of Corr., 254 F.3d 1276, 

1279 (11th Cir. 2001) (per curiam). 

When reviewing a dismissal for failure to state a claim, we accept all factual 

allegations in the complaint as true and view them in the light most favorable to the 

plaintiff. Starship Enters. of Atlanta, Inc. v. Coweta Cty., 708 F.3d 1243, 1252 

(11th Cir. 2013). But we need not accept legal conclusions couched as factual 

allegations. Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009). A court evaluating the 

sufficiency of a complaint should therefore (1) eliminate all allegations that are 

merely legal conclusions and (2) assume the veracity of the well-pleaded factual 

allegations and determine whether they “plausibly suggest an entitlement to relief.” 

Id. at 680-81. When conducting this analysis, although a court should liberally 

construe pro se pleadings, it is not required to “rewrite an otherwise deficient 

pleading in order to sustain an action.” Campbell v. Air Jamaica Ltd., 760 F.3d 

1165, 1168-69 (11th Cir. 2014) (quoting GJR Invs., Inc. v. Cty. of Escambia, Fla., 

132 F.3d 1359, 1369 (11th Cir. 1998)) (internal quotations omitted). 

With these principles in mind, we address Searcy’s equal-protection and 

due-process claims in turn. To prevail on an equal-protection claim, a plaintiff 

must demonstrate that (1) he is similarly situated with other persons who receive 

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more favorable treatment, and (2) the defendants acted with discriminatory intent 

based on some constitutionally protected interest, such as race. Jones v. Ray, 279 

F.3d 944, 946-47 (11th Cir. 2001) (per curiam) (citing Damiano v. Fla. Parole & 

Prob. Comm’n, 785 F.2d 929, 932-33 (11th Cir. 1986) (per curiam)).

While an equal protection claim may exist if Searcy was terminated for an 

impermissible reason, Searcy has failed to allege such an impermissible reason in 

his second amended complaint. Although Searcy asserted that the defendants 

reassigned him due to his race, he provided no additional information about the 

other inmates who allegedly returned to their original work assignments. Most 

importantly, Searcy did not include any information about their race or 

qualifications. For this reason, Searcy failed to allege how he was similarly 

situated to the other inmates who allegedly received more favorable treatment. 

Searcy also failed to make any plausible factual allegations that the defendants’ 

refusal to return Searcy to his “cold storage” assignment was based on his race. 

Under these circumstances, we find that the district court did not err when it 

dismissed Searcy’s equal-protection claim for failure to state a claim.

We now turn to Searcy’s due-process claim. The Fourteenth Amendment’s 

Due Process Clause provides two types of protection: substantive due process and 

procedural due process. McKinney v. Pate, 20 F.3d 1550, 1555 (11th Cir. 1994) 

(en banc). The substantive-due-process guarantee protects rights that are 

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fundamental, that is, rights that are “implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.”

Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319, 325 (1937). As to a procedural-due-process 

violation under § 1983, a plaintiff has the burden of alleging that, as a result of 

some state action, the plaintiff was deprived of a constitutionally protected interest, 

and the state did not afford the plaintiff adequate process to challenge the 

deprivation. Pate, 20 F.3d at 1557. 

It appears that Searcy attempts to assert a substantive-due-process claim 

based on his work reassignment following the altercation with other inmates. A 

prison inmate, however, does not have a constitutionally protected property interest 

in a particular prison job assignment and does not have an expectation of keeping a 

certain job. See Adams v. James, 784 F.2d 1077, 1079-80 (11th Cir. 1986). 

Inmate Job assignments and reassignments are “the prerogative of prison 

administrators” so, a routine reassignment of an inmate to a different job does not 

support a federal claim. Id. at 1079. We have indicated, however, that the “lack of 

entitlement to a particular privilege does not free prison administrators to grant or 

withhold the privilege for impermissible reasons.” Id. at 1080. The doctrine of 

“unconstitutional conditions” prohibits terminating an inmate’s benefits “if the 

termination is based on motivations that other constitutional provisions proscribe.” 

Id. 

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The district court correctly dismissed Searcy’s claim for failure to state a 

claim because Searcy does not have a constitutionally protected interest in 

retaining his job in “cold storage.” Searcy also failed to set forth any factual 

allegations beyond mere labels and conclusions that would entitle him to relief. 

Consequently, he has not alleged a substantive-due-process violation. Finally, 

Searcy did not allege that the defendants terminated his work assignment in “cold 

storage” for any other constitutionally-protected reason.2

 

Finally, it does not appear that Searcy sought to bring a procedural-dueprocess claim below, and we fail to see how the second amended complaint 

adequately sets forth such a claim. The allegations of the second amended 

complaint, along with the attachments thereto, demonstrate that Searcy was 

afforded the opportunity to seek an administrative remedy. Searcy detailed his 

attempts to seek relief through the FDOC’s administrative-grievance procedure, 

including appeals of administrative decisions. Accordingly, he was not deprived of 

his procedural-due-process rights. 

Furthermore, to the extent Searcy claims that the district court infringed on 

his procedural-due-process rights, we disagree. As noted above, he district court 

complied with its obligation to allow Searcy to amend his complaint prior to 

dismissing the case, as a magistrate judge ordered him to do so twice and expressly 

 

2 For instance, Searcy did not allege that he was reassigned for exercising his First 

Amendment right to free speech. See generally, Adams, 784 F.2d at 1080-81. 

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pointed out the deficiencies in his claims in the orders to amend. The district court 

also dismissed Searcy’s complaint without prejudice, affording Searcy an 

additional opportunity to amend and refile his complaint.

For the reasons discussed above, the district court properly dismissed 

Searcy’s action. Accordingly, we affirm.

AFFIRMED.

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