Opinion ID: 431115
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: right of access to detainees

Text: 89 Petitioners also contend that the government has placed extensive restrictions on contacts between outsiders and the Haitian detainees, thereby frustrating the efforts of Haitian Refugee Center (HRC) attorneys to inform them of their legal rights. Plaintiffs originally challenged these restrictions on a number of grounds, but the district court dismissed all of them prior to trial except a first amendment claim. The latter claim was dismissed by the district court after trial on grounds of mootness, since the court's final order released all the Haitians in detention at that time. Plaintiffs challenge the mootness holding and request a determination on the merits. 90 Since a substantial number of class members are now being held in detention, either because they arrived in this country after the government promulgated its new regulations under the APA or because their parole was revoked after the district court's decision, it is clear that the first amendment claim is not moot. Because the district court did not decide this issue, however, there is no factual record before us, and we conclude that it would be improper for us to reach a decision on the merits. The Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized that counsel have a first amendment right to inform individuals of their rights, at least when they do so as an exercise of political speech without expectation of remuneration, see, e.g., In re Primus, 436 U.S. 412, 98 S.Ct. 1893, 56 L.Ed.2d 417 (1978); NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415, 83 S.Ct. 328, 9 L.Ed.2d 405 (1963); NAACP v. State ex rel. Patterson, 357 U.S. 449, 78 S.Ct. 1163, 2 L.Ed.2d 1488 (1958), but this claim presents a number of questions that require the development of a factual record. We note that the restrictions challenged by plaintiffs do not amount to an absolute denial of access, and the rules involved are not of such a nature that we can strike them down as facially impermissible even without an awareness of possible countervailing considerations. Because the regulation of aliens in detention may implicate security concerns similar to those that apply in the prison context, the district court will clearly need to hear evidence on these matters to arrive at the proper balance between the government's interest in security and the HRC's interest in exercising its first amendment rights. We therefore remand this claim to the district court for its consideration in light of the principles set forth above.