Court Opinion

ID: 9492416
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:40:58.8167+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:18.029257
License: Public Domain

B. FLETCHER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I concur fully in Judge Schroeder’s dissenting opinion. The regulation at issue prohibits material ranging from art books displaying Michelangelo’s David to issues of Sports Illustrated depicting male Olympic swimmers. As Judge Schroeder amply demonstrates, such a prohibition is of unprecedented breadth and cannot pass constitutional muster. The majority’s attempt to avoid this infirmity by adopting an unduly narrow reading of the regulation is without support either in the text of the regulation or in the County’s expressed understanding of the regulation.1
I also agree with Judge Kleinfeld that on the specifics of this case, summary judgment should not have been granted for the County. As Judge Kleinfeld rightly points out, the County may not attempt to “reform” or “punish” pretrial detainees. See Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 535, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979). The majority responds that Mauro did not raise the issue of whether the regulation is imposed for the purpose of punishing pretrial detainees, and that he has therefore waived it. See Majority Opinion at 10 n.2. In so concluding, the majority ignores the essence of Mauro’s suit. Throughout this case, Mauro has referred to himself as a pretrial detainee. In addition to challenging the regulation as facially overbroad, he challenges the application of the regulation to him. By claiming that the regulation may not validly be applied to him, Mauro necessarily contends that the purpose of the regulation does not justify its application to him. That is, he claims that the purpose of the regulation does not justify its application to a pretrial detainee. Only by ignoring the obvious fact, reflected in the record, that Mauro is (or was at the relevant time) a pretrial detainee can the majority conclude that he has waived the claim most central to his suit.
Last, I agree with Judge Kleinfeld that conventional jail and prison disciplinary measures — unit segregation, full restriction, and reclassification — are more appropriate responses to the harassment of female guards by inmates. The county of course has a legitimate interest in preventing the harassment of its employees. But by choosing to ban such an astonishingly broad range of material, the county imposes a substantial and unjustifiable burden on the First Amendment rights of even those who have no history of harassment, and who have not yet been convicted of any criminal offense. Such an imposition is totally out of proportion to the problem at hand.
The majority apparently concludes that the First Amendment does not protect the right of, for example, a nonviolent, non-harassing pretrial detainee to pursue his general equivalency diploma by reading a Western Civilization textbook containing a chapter on the art of the Renaissance. Surely the Constitution’s prohibition on laws “abridging the freedom of speech,” U.S. Const, amend. I, means more than that. Because the majority concludes it does not, I respectfully dissent.

. The Deputy Chief of the Maricopa County Custody Bureau confirmed the breadth of the regulation in his deposition:
Q: So if somebody was just topless with their bottom covered and that was depicted in a photograph or picture, that would be considered frontal nudity?
A: Yes.
Q: And it doesn't distinguish between male or female nudity, correct?
A: Correct.