Court Opinion

ID: 9486279
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:42:58.51496+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:37.094064
License: Public Domain

NOONAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
As a preliminary and decisive question, this court should have decided whether the appeal was moot. On May 11,1993 the court was notified by counsel for LeMaire that LeMaire had been transferred to a prison in Nevada. On June 14, 1993 the Superintendent responded to this suggestion by agreeing that on May 1, 1993 LeMaire had been transferred to a Nevada prison. The Superintendent went on to substantially agree that the case was moot. He observed, first, that the case has not been certified as a class action. Second, he noted that it would be inappropriate to remand for such certification since “the physical facilities and the regulatory means for controlling the disruptive inmates have changed.” Third, he noted that whether the conduct complained of would recur turned on whether it was reasonably likely that LeMaire would “once again be placed in disciplinary segregation in Oregon and again be subjected to the practices that he challenged.” It did not seem to the Superintendent reasonably likely that' he would be returned; in his opinion “that possibility is at best uncertain.” Moreover, since there were new rules and a new' segregation facility it was apparent that it was difficult to say that the same measures would be taken if he were returned to Oregon.
We, of course, have no jurisdiction to render advisory opinions. This limitation on our jurisdiction is fundamental. It is not to be evaded for the sake of educating the prison authorities of Oregon. Preiser v. Newkirk, 422 U.S. 395, 401, 95 S.Ct. 2330, 2334, 45 L.Ed.2d 272 (1975). Consequently, we should follow our normal procedure and vacate both the decision and the judgment below. United States v. Munsingwear, 340 U.S. 36, 39-40, 71 S.Ct. 104, 106-107, 95 L.Ed. 36 (1950).
As the court has proceeded to judge the merits, I add the following:
First. We have no business resolving the issues on this case on this appeal. The majority opinion notes forthrightly that the governing standard was established by the Supreme Court at a time after the district court had made its decision. Consequently, the district court has never been given the opportunity to apply the standard. The opportunity should be given. LaDuke v. Nelson, 796 F.2d 309, 310 (9th Cir.1986).
The concession of LeMaire’s counsel that we could decide without remand cannot alter the fundamental error in an appellate court resolving serious factual issues as to which the district court has made no findings. Pullman-Standard v. Swint, 456 U.S. 273, 291-292, 102 S.Ct. 1781, 1791-1792, 72 L.Ed.2d 66 (1982). The majority opinion states in so many words: “The district court’s opinion contains no specific findings of fact or conclusions whatsoever as to the requisite state of mind of the officials accused by LeMaire.” The obvious inference from this statement is that we should remand for *1464specific findings of fact. We err in deciding without the benefit of the district court’s examination of the evidence in the light of the recent decisions of the Supreme Court.
Our imprudence is made worse in the particular instance of “in-cell restraints,” as to which the majority opinion admits that it is not clear as to whether the district court was referring to “full mechanical restraints” or a lesser form of in-cell restraint. To me it is startling that it makes no difference to the court, whether the restraints used are mechanical, “strap down,” restraints involving the virtual immobilization of the prisoner or whether the restraints are somewhat less total. The desire to decide the issue, whatever the type of restraint, seems to me to lead to an abandonment of judicial restraint in favor of an impulse to give approbation to the full range of discipline in the prison.
Second. Occasions exist as to which Wilson v. Seiter, — U.S.-,-, 111 S.Ct. 2321, 2326, 115 L.Ed.2d 271 (1991) requires for relief that the prison officials act “maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm.” Then we are not to critique in hindsight the exercise of judgment of a particular officer on a specific occasion. Jordan v. Gardner, 986 F.2d 1521, 1528 (9th Cir.1993) (en banc). Deliberate indifference remains the appropriate standard with regard to allegations of inhumane conditions of confinement or inadequate medical care. See Wilson, — U.S. at-, 111 S.Ct, at 2326. The majority opinion erroneously expands the standard intended to be applied in the case of a prison riot or an immediate face-to-face confrontation of a prisoner with a prison official and finds this standard to be the one governing the application of measures deliberately taken by prison officials when no emergency exists.
Here we are not considering ad hoc response to an emergency, but a penological policy of punishing harshly the disruptive conduct of a prisoner. The kind of measures used — serving unpalatable food, denying outside exercise, using shackles in the shower and full restraints in the cell, keeping the person naked in the cell, isolating the prisoner in a special sound-proofed and constantly lighted cell — are measures correctly described as conditions of prison life for this prisoner and for other prisoners similarly situated. Each of these measures involves the infliction of pain under the standard set by Jordan v. Gardner, supra at 1526. Each of the measures may, depending on the finding of the district court, involve deliberate indifference on the part of the prison officials and so constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Id. at 1528.
Third. The majority opinion makes a dramatic showing that LeMaire has on occasion acted like a beast. As . the district court judge aptly remarked: “Prisoners who complain about the condition of their confinement do not generally get much sympathy from society, but sympathy is not the issue here. From society’s long-term perspective, there are sound reasons for prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.” The Eighth Amendment, prohibiting such punishment, draws its life' from the religious and humane traditions of our country. The message of the majority opinion appears to be that a beast deserves beastly treatment. A wiser spirit, more in conformity with Eighth Amendment traditions, informed the opinion and decision of the district judge.. He should be given the opportunity to reconsider the case in the light of the new standard set by the Supreme Court.