Opinion ID: 77923
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Taylor and Guajardo

Text: In Taylor, prison officials challenged a restriction, imposed by a district court order, forbidding them from opening an inmate's attorney mail except in that inmate's presence. Taylor, 532 F.2d at 464. The Taylor Court concluded that an inmate's constitutional right of access to the courts supports that portion of the district court's order requiring that incoming prisoner mail from . . . attorneys . . . be opened only in the presence of the inmate. Id. at 475. [19] In reaching this result, the Taylor Court weighed the burden on the prisoner's access to the courts against the legitimate governmental interest of prison security. Id. at 472. The Court noted that [b]efore procedures that impede a prisoner's access to the courts may be constitutionally validated, it must be clear that the state's substantial interests cannot be protected by less restrictive means. Id. The government interest was jail security as affected by the introduction of contraband into the jail and by the communication of escape plans or other . . . criminal activities. Id. at 473. The Court identified the basic prisoner interest in uninhibited communication with attorneys. Id. at 475. The Taylor Court concluded that [a]llowing the inspection of incoming inmate mail from [attorneys] only in the presence of the inmate accomplishes a compromise of [those] two important interests without sacrificing either of them. Id. at 477. [20] Prisoners are not inhibited in using this traditional communication medium to pursue their defense or to present their legal grievance. And jail officials are not denied the use of any mail procedure shown to be essential to jail security. Id. In other words, the inmate's presence insures that attorney mail will not be read and prison officials are assured that the mail contains no contraband. [21] Similarly, in Guajardo, prison officials appealed a district court's ruling that incoming attorney mail could be opened and inspected for contraband only in the inmate's presence. Guajardo, 580 F.2d at 757. The Guajardo Court followed Taylor 's holding that incoming [legal] mail could be opened only to inspect for contraband and in the presence of the inmate recipient. Id. at 758. The Court noted that Taylor 's requirement derived from the nature of the correspondence involved and that [t]he protection afforded extends only to attorneys representing or being asked to represent an inmate in either a criminal or civil matter. Id. at 758. The Court dismissed concerns about inmates using attorneys to violate prison rules because attorneys are bound by professional standards and would face criminal sanctions. Id. at 758-59. The Court concluded that [t]he danger to prison security, order and rehabilitation does not outweigh the right of access to the courts. Id. at 759.