Opinion ID: 614205
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Right of access to the courts and retaliation claims

Text: We turn next to Silva's argument that the district court erred by sua sponte dismissing his right to access the courts and retaliation claims for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. We review de novo a district court's dismissal of a case pursuant to § 1915A for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. See Weilburg v. Shapiro, 488 F.3d 1202, 1205 (9th Cir.2007). In reviewing a district court's decision to dismiss for failure to state a claim, we take as true all factual allegations in the complaint and draw all reasonable inferences in the plaintiff's favor. See Resnick v. Hayes, 213 F.3d 443, 447 (9th Cir.2000). We construe pro se complaints liberally and may only dismiss a pro se complaint for failure to state a claim if it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief. Weilburg, 488 F.3d at 1205 (quoting Franklin v. Murphy, 745 F.2d 1221, 1228 (9th Cir. 1984)); see also Ramirez v. Galaza, 334 F.3d 850, 854 (9th Cir.2003) (noting that pro se pleadings must be construed liberally).
Silva first argues that the district court erred when it dismissed his right of access to the courts claim. Citing Lewis, 518 U.S. at 354, 116 S.Ct. 2174 and Cornett, 51 F.3d at 898, the district court concluded that the right of access to the courts ends once a prisoner has brought his petition or complaint to the court and does not include the right to discover such claims or even to litigate them effectively once filed with a court. Accordingly, the district court concluded that because Silva's allegations related to his ability to effectively litigate his cases beyond the pleading stage, Silva failed to state a claim. We disagree. Prisoners have a constitutional right of access to the courts. See Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 821, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977). Under the First Amendment, a prisoner has both a right to meaningful access to the courts and a broader right to petition the government for a redress of his grievances. See Bradley v. Hall, 64 F.3d 1276, 1279 (9th Cir. 1995) ( overruled on other grounds by Shaw v. Murphy, 532 U.S. 223, 230 n. 2, 121 S.Ct. 1475, 149 L.Ed.2d 420 (2001)). In some instances, prison authorities must even take affirmative steps to help prisoners exercise their rights. Id. We have traditionally differentiated between two types of access to court claims: those involving prisoners' right to affirmative assistance and those involving prisoners' rights to litigate without active interference. For example, in Sands v. Lewis, 886 F.2d 1166, 1171 (9th Cir.1989), we explained that a court must first determine whether the right of access claimant alleges . . . a denial of adequate law libraries or adequate assistance from persons trained in the law. Second, if the claims do not involve such an allegation, the court must consider whether the plaintiff has alleged an `actual injury' to court access. [8] Two of our sister circuits have recognized this distinction as well. See Snyder v. Nolen, 380 F.3d 279, 290 (7th Cir.2004); John L. v. Adams, 969 F.2d 228, 235 (6th Cir.1992). With respect to the right to assistance, the Supreme Court has held that the fundamental constitutional right of access to the courts requires prison authorities to assist inmates in the preparation and filing of meaningful legal papers by providing prisoners with adequate law libraries or adequate assistance from persons trained in the law. Bounds, 430 U.S. at 828, 97 S.Ct. 1491; see also Lewis, 518 U.S. at 355, 116 S.Ct. 2174; Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 579-80, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974); Johnson v. Avery, 393 U.S. 483, 490, 89 S.Ct. 747, 21 L.Ed.2d 718 (1969). The right to litigation assistance, however, is limited to the tools prisoners need in order to attack their sentences, [either] directly or collaterally, and in order to challenge the conditions of their confinement. Lewis, 518 U.S. at 355, 116 S.Ct. 2174. Critical to the issue here, the right to legal assistance is also limited to the pleading stage. [9] Id. at 384, 116 S.Ct. 2174. In the interference line of cases, the Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment right to petition the government includes the right to file other civil actions in court that have a reasonable basis in law or fact. Snyder, 380 F.3d at 290 (citing McDonald v. Smith, 472 U.S. 479, 484, 105 S.Ct. 2787, 86 L.Ed.2d 384 (1985); Bill Johnson's Rests., Inc. v. NLRB, 461 U.S. 731, 741, 103 S.Ct. 2161, 76 L.Ed.2d 277 (1983); California Motor Transp. Co. v. Trucking Unlimited, 404 U.S. 508, 510, 92 S.Ct. 609, 30 L.Ed.2d 642 (1972); see also Monsky v. Moraghan, 127 F.3d 243, 246 (2d Cir.1997)). This right does not require prison officials to provide affirmative assistance in the preparation of legal papers, but rather forbids states from erect[ing] barriers that impede the right of access of incarcerated persons. John L., 969 F.2d at 235; Snyder, 380 F.3d at 291 (The right of access to the courts is the right of an individual, whether free or incarcerated, to obtain access to the courts without undue interference). Thus, aside from their affirmative right to the tools necessary to challenge their sentences or conditions of confinement, prisoners also have a right, protected by the First Amendment right to petition and the Fourteenth Amendment right to substantive due process, to pursue legal redress for claims that have a reasonable basis in law or fact. Snyder, 380 F.3d at 291 (citing Johnson v. Atkins, 999 F.2d 99, 100 (5th Cir.1993)). We have recognized that prisoners' First and Fourteenth Amendment rights to access the courts without undue interference extend beyond the pleading stages. See, e.g., Vigliotto v. Terry, 873 F.2d 1201, 1202 (9th Cir.1989) (a defendant is deprived of due process if prison authorities confiscate the transcript of his state court conviction before appeal); De-Witt v. Pail, 366 F.2d 682, 685 (9th Cir. 1966) (When the efforts of a state prisoner to obtain an available appellate review of his conviction are frustrated by the action of penal officials, there has been a violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment). Indeed, before the Supreme Court's decision in Bounds, when the right of access to the courts was understood only to guarantee prisoners a right to be free from interference, we held that the right to access the courts included the opportunity to prepare, serve and file whatever pleadings or other documents are necessary or appropriate in order to commence or prosecute court proceedings affecting one's personal liberty, or to assert and sustain a defense therein, and to send and receive communications to and from judges, courts and lawyers concerning such matters. Hatfield v. Bailleaux, 290 F.2d 632, 637 (9th Cir.1961) (emphasis added). In Lewis, the Supreme Court limited the right of access to the courts to the pleading stage in cases involving prisoners' affirmative right to assistance. See 518 U.S. at 354, 116 S.Ct. 2174. Lewis does not speak to a prisoner's right to litigate in the federal courts without unreasonable interference. Because the Supreme Court has not limited a prisoner's right of access to the courts to the pleading stage in this circumstance, we hold that prisoners have a right under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to litigate claims challenging their sentences or the conditions of their confinement to conclusion without active interference by prison officials. We disagree with the Defendants that Cornett v. Donovan, 51 F.3d 894 (9th Cir. 1995), controls this case. In Cornett, we held that the constitutional right of access requires a state to provide a law library or legal assistance only during the pleading stage of a habeas or civil rights action. 51 F.3d at 898. The Defendants rely on Cornett for the proposition that all access to courts claims expire after the pleading stage. This reliance is misplaced primarily because Cornett, by its own language, only refers to claims involving library access and legal assistance, rather than active interference. Along the same lines, Cornett relied on Supreme Court cases involving assistance claims, not interference claims. See generally id. at 898-99. In Cornett we did not acknowledgelet alone discussaccess claims grounded in allegations of active interference. Accordingly, Cornett does not limit our ability to determine whether the right to pursue litigation efforts without active interference extends past the pleading stage, and we see no reason why such a right would not exist throughout a prisoner's litigation efforts. Having so held, we turn to the facts alleged by Silva, bearing in mind that we are to construe his allegations generously. Weilburg, 488 F.3d at 1205. In his amended complaint, Silva alleged that the Defendants repeatedly transferred Silva between different prison facilities in order to hinder his ability to litigate his pending civil lawsuits. Silva also alleged that the Defendants seized and withheld all of his legal files. Finally, Silva alleged an actual injury: that as a result of the Defendants' actions, several of his pending suits were dismissed. We therefore reverse the district court's order dismissing Silva's access to courts claim and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
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.