Opinion ID: 751883
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Allegation of a Constitutional Right

Text: 7 A necessary concomitant to the determination of whether the constitutional right asserted ... is 'clearly established' at the time the defendant acted is the determination of whether the plaintiff has asserted a violation of a constitutional right at all. Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 232, 111 S.Ct. 1789, 1793, 114 L.Ed.2d 277 (1991). The first step in this process is critical because resolution of this purely legal question permits courts expeditiously to weed out suits which fail the test. Id. In this case, despite six years of litigation, including numerous submissions to the district court and three different arguments to this court, it is still not exactly clear what constitutional right Weiler seeks to vindicate. He has, at various times, claimed interference with his right to receive mail, obstruction of his right of access to the courts, violation of substantive due process, and denial of equal protection of the laws. Weiler has also maintained at times that the regulations themselves are invalid and at other times that the facially valid regulations were only unconstitutional as applied to him. None of these assorted allegations, however, withstands careful scrutiny.
8 The district court held that Weiler had alleged a violation of his First Amendment right to receive mail. Although it is well settled that inmates have a right to receive mail, that right may be limited by prison regulations that are reasonably related to legitimate penological interests. Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 92 & 89, 107 S.Ct. 2254, 2263 & 2261-62, 96 L.Ed.2d 64 (1987). 9 It is clear that a regulation limiting the receipt of packages is not facially invalid. In Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 555, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 1882-83, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979), the Supreme Court approved a total ban on the receipt of packages containing food or personal property except for one package of food at Christmas, saying, it is all too obvious that such packages are handy devices for the smuggling of contraband. 10 The next question is whether the regulation violated the Constitution as applied to Weiler. As earlier noted, Weiler filed an affidavit of ten Farmington inmates claiming that on unspecified dates under unstated circumstances from unidentified mailroom personnel each of them had received legal papers and transcripts from family or friends. Applying Griffin v. Lombardi, 946 F.2d 604 (8th Cir.1991), the district court, relying on our opinion in Weiler I, held that this affidavit was sufficient to subject a package regulation that otherwise passes constitutional muster under Supreme Court edict to factual uncertainty as to its reasonableness. This rationale simply misapplies Griffin and the law of this circuit. 11 Whether the ten inmates did or did not receive legal papers mailed by relatives and friends does not control whether the regulation was invalid as applied to Weiler. The ultimate legal question is whether this rule is reasonably related to legitimate penological interests. Turner, 482 U.S. at 89, 107 S.Ct. at 2261. 12 We find it beyond dispute that packages may easily conceal contraband, and that the control of contraband is a legitimate penological interest. Thus, even if 100 inmates had received legal papers through a breakdown in mailroom procedures, and were willing to so state by affidavit, the reasonableness of legal mail or package regulations, designed to control receipt of contraband to inmates, would be no less constitutional. There is no evidence that the ten inmates who received packages in contravention of prison rules also did not receive contraband concealed in those packages. Given the great deference we owe to prison authorities in their administration of state prison systems, id. at 85, 107 S.Ct. at 2259-60, we cannot say that this regulation is an exaggerated response to the prison's security concerns. Therefore, the defendants did not violate the Constitution when they applied the rule to Weiler. Weiler has not alleged a violation of his constitutional right to receive mail.
13 A prison policy that obstructs privileged inmate mail can violate inmates' right of access to the courts. See, e.g., Jensen v. Klecker, 648 F.2d 1179, 1182-83 (8th Cir.1981). Weiler, however, has not established any interference with legal mail. The regulation defines legal mail as correspondence from an attorney, judge or elected official. This type of formulation has been expressly approved by the Supreme Court. Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 576, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 2984-85, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974) (We think it entirely appropriate that the State require [legal mail] to be specially marked as originating from an attorney ...). The Farmington rule, even more generous to inmates than the Wolff requirements, passes constitutional muster as a matter of law. Since the package came from a family member, not a person or entity specified in the rule, it was not legal mail. 3 Weiler has not alleged a violation of his constitutional right of access to the courts.
14 Substantive due process prevents the government from engaging in conduct that shocks the conscience or interferes with rights implicit in the concept of ordered liberty. United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739, 746, 107 S.Ct. 2095, 2101, 95 L.Ed.2d 697 (1987). There are two different ways of stating a substantive due process claim. First, the state violates substantive due process when it infringes fundamental liberty interests, without narrowly tailoring that interference to serve a compelling state interest. Reno v. Flores, 507 U.S. 292, 301-02, 113 S.Ct. 1439, 1446-47, 123 L.Ed.2d 1 (1993). Second, the state violates substantive due process when it engages in conduct that is so outrageous that it shocks the conscience or otherwise offends judicial notions of fairness, [or is] offensive to human dignity. Weimer v. Amen, 870 F.2d 1400, 1405 (8th Cir.1989) (quotations omitted). We have been wary of extending substantive due process into new arenas. Brown v. Nix, 33 F.3d 951, 953 (8th Cir.1994). 15 Weiler has failed to allege either type of substantive due process claim. First, whatever the precise definition of a fundamental right may be, we are confident that Weiler has not been denied one here. A prisoner's entitlement to delivery of packages from family members is not a right rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people. Salerno, 481 U.S. at 751, 107 S.Ct. at 2103 (quotations omitted). Furthermore, Weiler has failed to point to any outrageous conduct by defendants that shocks the conscious. His burden is to establish that the government action complained of is truly irrational, that is,  'something more than ... arbitrary, capricious, or in violation of state law.'  Chesterfield Dev. Corp. v. City of Chesterfield, 963 F.2d 1102, 1104 (8th Cir.1992) (quoting Lemke v. Cass County, Nebraska, 846 F.2d 469, 472 (8th Cir.1987) (en banc) (Arnold, J. concurring)). The most that can be said of Weiler's allegations here is that the defendants did not ensure that the package rule was enforced without exception. Weiler has not alleged a violation of his constitutional right to substantive due process.
16 The heart of an equal protection claim is that similarly situated classes of inmates are treated differently, and that this difference in treatment bears no rational relation to any legitimate penal interest. Timm v. Gunter, 917 F.2d 1093, 1103 (8th Cir.1990). The Supreme Court has explained that if a law neither burdens a fundamental right nor targets a suspect class, we will uphold the legislative classification so long as it bears a rational relation to some legitimate end. Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620, 631, 116 S.Ct. 1620, 1627, 134 L.Ed.2d 855 (1996). 17 Weiler has not identified any classification system by which the defendants determined who would receive nonconforming packages and who would not. A few individual examples of unequal treatment are insufficient to provide more than minimal support to an inference of classwide purposeful discrimination. Inmates of Neb. Penal and Correctional Complex v. Greenholtz, 567 F.2d 1368, 1381 (8th Cir.1977). Weiler has presented no evidence that any difference in treatment was motivated by his membership in a protected class nor that it burdened a fundamental right. Weiler has not alleged a violation of his constitutional right to equal protection. 18