Court Opinion

ID: 9460458
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:50:45.433377+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:37.411613
License: Public Domain

SWYGERT, Chief Judge
(concurring).
I join with Judge Stevens in his concurrence, but desire to express some additional views.
Judge Pell would require “that the State must show on challenge that such restriction [of First Amendment rights] is related both reasonably and necessarily to the advancement of a justifiable purpose of imprisonment.” I would add to Judge Pell’s formulation by requiring the State to assume a heavy burden of justification. This, in my opinion, would require that prison officials demonstrate the restriction is not only reasonable but there is a substantial necessity for it. This more forceful standard would be less than a compelling State interest but clearly more than a rational relationship between the restriction and prison discipline and rehabilitation.
While agreeing with Judge Stevens as to the desirability of regulations rather than ad hoc determinations in this area, I suggest that prison regulations covering procedure in addition to rules relating to mail and other means of communication might help answer the question posed by Judge Stevens concerning the difficulty of formulating rules that would not be subject to constitutional at*89tack. If the State prescribed regulations that permitted the prisoner or parolee to challenge either ad hoc decisions or decisions under prescribed rules in an administrative proceeding, such procedure could have the effect of avoiding the risk of a constitutional attack on the rules themselves and at the same time afford the prisoner or parolee the right to challenge such decisions at an administrative level. A regulation of this sort would aid the prisoner or parolee, the State, and the courts since less resources would be required for all concerned if a matter such as here be first considered at an administrative level rather than in a court.