Opinion ID: 614205
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Silva's retaliation claim

Text: Silva next argues that the district court erred by dismissing his retaliation claim. The district court concluded that Silva failed to identify specific retaliatory acts carried out by specific Defendants and failed to describe precisely for what conduct he experienced retaliatory acts. Silva contends that to reach that determination, the district court either ignored the allegations supporting his claim or imposed an excessively detailed pleading standard. Silva alleges that each of the Defendants violated his First Amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances without retaliation. As discussed above, a prisoner retains those First Amendment rights that are not inconsistent with his status as a prisoner or with the legitimate penological objectives of the corrections system. Pell v. Procunier, 417 U.S. 817, 822, 94 S.Ct. 2800, 41 L.Ed.2d 495 (1974). Among those rights is the right to file prison grievances and the right to pursue civil rights litigation in the federal courts. Rhodes v. Robinson, 408 F.3d 559, 567 (9th Cir.2005). Because actions taken to retaliate against prisoners who exercise those rights necessarily undermine those protections, such actions violate the Constitution quite apart from any underlying misconduct they are designed to shield. Id. To state a claim for First Amendment retaliation, a prisoner must allege the following five elements: (1) a state actor took an adverse action against him (2) because of (3) the prisoner's protected conduct, and that the action taken against him (4) chilled the prisoner's exercise of his First Amendment Rights and (5) did not reasonably advance a legitimate correctional goal. See id. at 567-68. Here, Silva alleges that Di Vittorio, McKenna, Gregoire, Clarke, Thatcher, Miller, Miller-Stout, Hewson, Rainville, Arnold, Lerch, Westfall, and Archer transferred Silva despite their knowledge that Silva possessed a number of boxes of files that included evidence he planned to use in proving government misconduct in pending cases and potential proceedings. He alleges that when he was transferred, the WDOC and Corrections Corporation defendants seized all of his legal files, which included sixteen boxes of documents, record evidence, legal books, and research notes. He also alleges that Di Vittorio, McKenna, Gregoire, Clarke, Thatcher, Miller, Lucas, Miller-Stout, Archer, Ferguson, John Gay, Samuel Rogers, Hatten, Napier, Verdugo, and Corrections Corporation repeatedly refused to address Silva's complaints and his requests for the return and inventory of his stolen files. Silva further alleges that each of the Defendants engaged in the adverse actions described in order to punish and retaliate against Silva for his efforts to expose their misconduct and law violations. Specifically, he alleges that the Defendants engaged in these actions to intimidate or threaten him, to prevent him from testifying against them in his pending cases or in any future proceedings, to conceal or destroy the records necessary to prove his claims, and to hinder his ability to communicate with law enforcement. Silva also alleges that the Defendants' acts did not reasonably advance a legitimate correctional goal. Silva's allegations, if taken as true, satisfy the pleading requirements of a retaliation claim. Silva alleges that prison officials (1) arbitrarily confiscated, withheld, and eventually destroyed his property, Rhodes, 408 F.3d at 568, and transferred him to another correctional institution, (2) because he (3) exercised his First Amendment rights to file prison grievances and otherwise seek access to the legal process, and that (4) beyond imposing those tangible harms, the [defendants'] actions chilled his First Amendment rights and (5) were not undertaken to advance legitimate penological purposes. Id. This is the very archetype of a cognizable First Amendment retaliation claim. Id.; see also Rizzo v. Dawson, 778 F.2d 527, 531-32 (9th Cir.1985) (recognizing a First Amendment right of prisoners to be free from prison transfers or reassignments made in retaliation for legal activities). Further, while Silva pled some of his retaliation-related allegations in other sections of his amended complaint, when read together, Silva's allegations are specific enough to state a claim. Thus, we find that Silva has pled sufficient facts to state a claim for retaliation and we reverse the district court's order as to that count and remand.