Opinion ID: 3049904
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: First and Fourteenth Amendment Rights

Text: The Plaintiffs contend that the Defendants retaliated against them for filing lawsuits regarding conditions at Atascadero State Hospital. Specifically, the Plaintiffs claim that, as a result of preparing this suit and others regarding conditions at Atascadero, they have been subjected to access-level reductions, harassment by Atascadero personnel, and excessive room searches and seizures of property. The Plaintiffs also alleged that they have been denied library access in retaliation of their bringing suit and filing complaints. [12] The Fourteenth Amendment right to access the courts survives detention. See Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 82122 (1977) (“It is now established beyond doubt that prisoners have a constitutional right of access to the courts.”); Cornett v. Donovan, 51 F.3d 894, 898 (9th Cir. 1995) (holding that “right of access [to the courts] is guaranteed to people institutionalized in a state mental hospital regardless of whether they 8 We thus agree with our dissenting colleague that context is critical in constitutional claims. Nonetheless, this admission — that it is not clear how much more extensive the rights of SVPs are — does not inexorably lead to the conclusion that there can be no violation of clearly established law. It may not be clear exactly what due process rights are to be afforded SVPs, but surely it is clear that certain actions — forcing SVPs to live in squalid conditions, turning a blind eye to physical attacks against SVPs, and forcing SVPs to take medication as punishment or in retaliation for filing a lawsuit or for refusing to speak during treatment sessions — transgress the boundary. Surely it would not require “law train[ing]” or clairvoyance to recognize that these actions, as alleged by the Plaintiffs, do no comport with due process. 10936 HYDRICK v. HUNTER are civilly committed after criminal proceedings or civilly committed on grounds of dangerousness”). Similarly, punishment in retaliation for exercising one’s right to access the courts may constitute a First Amendment violation. See Rizzo v. Dawson, 778 F.2d 527, 531-32 (9th Cir. 1985). [13] We have held that the prohibition against retaliatory punishment is “ ‘clearly established law’ in the Ninth Circuit, for qualified immunity purposes.” Pratt v. Rowland, 65 F.3d 802, 806 & n.4 (9th Cir. 1995). Given the facts alleged,9 the Plaintiffs may be able to prove they were punished in retaliation for exercising their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights to file grievances about the conditions of their confinement. Accordingly, their claims should not be dismissed at the Rule 12(b)(6) stage. The Plaintiffs also allege that the Defendants force them to participate in treatment that violates their First Amendment rights. Specifically, the Plaintiffs allege that the Defendants bar SVPs from progressing beyond Phase One and obtaining higher access levels until they sign contracts admitting that they have an illness and need treatment. The decision to sign the contract is the ultimate Catch-22: during re-commitment hearings, the contract is used against those who sign it as an admission of illness, and used against those who do not sign it as a refusal to be amenable to treatment. The Plaintiffs also allege that SVPs who attend but do not vocally participate in group treatment sessions are found by the Defendants to be “not progressing,” Accordingly, these 9 The Plaintiffs’ original pro se complaint contains particularly persuasive narratives on this issue. It details how Atascadero personnel responded when they learned of this suit, altering schedules so that the coordinators of this action would not be able to work together, telling the Plaintiffs that their meeting in the library was an “illegal assembly,” limiting law library time, scheduling mandatory group sessions during the SVPs’ library time, and refusing to give SVPs drafting paper because it was “only for the mental patients to draft appeals.” HYDRICK v. HUNTER 10937 SVPs do not advance to other phases of the program and their access levels are restricted. The Plaintiffs argue that they have a First Amendment right to refrain from saying that they have an illness and to refuse to participate in treatment, and that the Defendants may not punish them for exercising their rights. There may be a First Amendment right not to participate in treatment, a right respected by the language of California’s SVP Act, if not in its implementation. Specifically, the SVP Act directs: Amenability to treatment is not required for a finding that any person is a person described in Section 6600, nor is it required for treatment of that person. Treatment does not mean that the treatment be suc- cessful or potentially successful, nor does it mean that the person must recognize his or her problem and willingly participate in the treatment program. Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code § 6606(b) (emphasis added). While it may be in the Plaintiffs’ interest to participate in treatment, and the State may create incentives to encourage such participation, “[t]he right of freedom of thought and of religion as guaranteed by the Constitution against State action includes both the right to speak freely and the right to refrain from speaking at all.” W. Va. State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 645 (1943) (Murphy, J., concurring). As is the case with prisoners, civilly committed persons retain those First Amendment rights not inherently inconsistent with the circumstances of their detention. See Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 89 (1987). The above statutory language strongly suggests that refusal to recognize one’s “illness” or affirmatively participate in treatment is not inherently inconsistent with the purposes for which SVPs are detained. Granted, the Plaintiffs are not actually forced to speak, but the stakes for refusing to speak are so high that the Plaintiffs’ participation in treatment is essentially compulsory. Indeed, 10938 HYDRICK v. HUNTER an SVP who exercised his right not to admit his illness could be detained indefinitely. He would never advance past Phase One of the program and his refusal could be used against him at his re-commitment hearing as a sign that he was not sufficiently “rehabilitated” to re-enter society. Several inmates who are criminally detained raised analogous arguments, on Fifth Amendment grounds, that programs that force sexual offenders to admit and discuss those offenses violate their rights against self-incrimination. In McKune v. Lile, 536 U.S. 24 (2002), the Supreme Court held that a program did not violate an SPV’s Fifth Amendment rights where it “did not extend his term of incarceration . . . [or] affect his eligibility for good-time credits or parole,” and the only adverse consequence was that he was moved to the less desirable non-treatment area of the prison. Id. at 38-39. But McKune explicitly left open the question of whether a greater deprivation of liberty might run afoul of the Constitution by essentially compelling detainees to incriminate themselves. At least one court, reading McKune, allowed an inmate to proceed past pre-trial motions on First Amendment grounds where the right to parole was conditioned on participation in treatment. See Wolfe v. Penn. Dep’t of Corr., 334 F. Supp. 2d 762, 770-73 (E.D. Pa. 2004). Similarly, in this case, where the stakes for participation in treatment are so high, the deprivations involved in refusing to participate in treatment may rise to the level of compulsion that violates the First Amendment. [14] The question at this stage, however, is not whether the right exists, but whether such a right is clearly established under the First Amendment. Given the volatility of the law on this point, we cannot say that it is. The challenged programs are facially related to the purposes for which SVPs are detained, and while SVPs may have a right to refuse to participate in such treatment, it is not yet clear the extent to which the State can condition privileges or advancement on particiHYDRICK v. HUNTER 10939 pation in such treatment. As such, these claims may be more appropriately considered for declaratory or injunctive relief. [15] Thus, we hold that the Plaintiffs’ First Amendment claims were based on clearly established law insofar as they challenge retaliation for filing lawsuits. To the extent that the claim relies on a First Amendment right not to participate in treatment sessions, the Defendants have qualified immunity, because the law on this point is not clearly established.