Court Opinion

ID: 9554429
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-08 21:01:04.409154+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:33:42.280527
License: Public Domain

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                                                               [PUBLISH]
                                     In the
                 United States Court of Appeals
                          For the Eleventh Circuit

                            ____________________

                                  No. 21-14230
                            ____________________

        RICKEY LEE CHRISTMAS,
                                                        Plaintiﬀ-Appellant,
        versus
        LIEUTENANT J. NABORS,
        Individual and Oﬃcial capacity,
        SERGEANT MARSHA HILL,
        Individual and Oﬃcial capacity,

                                                    Defendants-Appellees.

                            ____________________

                  Appeal from the United States District Court
                       for the Middle District of Florida
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        2                          Opinion of the Court                         21-14230

                       D.C. Docket No. 8:20-cv-00259-TPB-AAS
                             ____________________

        Before ROSENBAUM, BRANCH, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges.
        ROSENBAUM, Circuit Judge:
               Henry L. Stimson said, “Gentlemen don’t read each other’s
        mail.” Henry L. Stimson & McGeorge Bundy, On Active Service in
        Peace and War 188 (1947). 1 He had a point. After all, no one likes it
        when someone else reads their mail. And as it turns out, even the
        possibility that a jail official could read a prisoner’s legal mail can
        violate the prisoner’s First Amendment rights.
               This case is about that possibility at the Polk County Jail.
        When Plaintiff-Appellant Rickey Christmas was a pretrial detainee
        at that Jail, the Jail required him to scan his legal mail into a com-
        puter that contained a memory chip. Though Christmas does not

        1 Henry L. Stimson is known for many things. Among others, he served twice

        as the United States Secretary of War: ﬁrst, from 1911 to 1913 in President
        William Howard Taft’s administration, and then again more than 25 years
        later, in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration, from 1940
        through September 1945. Henry L. Stimson (1911-1913), U. VA. MILLER CTR.,
        https://perma.cc/X6ZT-MTJJ. That second term included the entirety of
        World War II. Stimson also did a stint as Secretary of State, from 1929 to 1933,
        in President Herbert Hoover’s administration. Id. He is remembered in that
        role for many things, including his articulation of the Stimson Doctrine, which
        refuses to recognize any situation, treaty, or agreement procured by the un-
        lawful use of armed force. David Turns, The Stimson Doctrine of None-Recogni-
        tion: Its Historical Genesis and Inﬂuence on Contemporary International Law, 2 Chi-
        nese J. Int’l L. 106–07 (2003).
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        21-14230                   Opinion of the Court                                 3

        know whether anyone other than he read his mail, he worried that
        the Jail could and may have, since it had access to the computer
        into which he had scanned his mail.
               So Christmas sued Polk County and two employees who
        worked at the Jail. He alleged, among other things, that the Jail
        and its employees interfered with his right to communicate freely
        and confidentially with his attorneys by forcing him to scan his le-
        gal mail into a computer with a memory chip. Because that claim
        is plausible on its face, we hold that the district court erred in dis-
        missing it. Otherwise, we affirm the district court’s dismissal of
        Christmas’s complaint.
                                                I.
                 Christmas was once a pre-trial detainee at the Polk County
        Jail. 2 When he arrived there, he was still recovering from a gunshot
        wound to his stomach. For that reason, the Jail initially placed him
        in a medical unit.
               During his time at the Polk County Jail, Christmas ﬁled sev-
        eral grievances. After spending two years in the medical unit, he
        complained that he lacked access to outdoor recreation. Lieuten-
        ant J. Nabors, an employee at the Polk County Jail, responded by

        2 This case arrives here after the district court screened and dismissed Christ-

        mas’s amended complaint under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1) for failing “to state a
        claim upon which relief may be granted.” So for purposes of review, we ac-
        cept the factual allegations in his complaint as true. Henley v. Payne, 945 F.3d
        1320, 1331 (11th Cir. 2019); K.T. v. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd., 931 F.3d 1041,
        1043 (11th Cir. 2019).
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        4                      Opinion of the Court                 21-14230

        telling Christmas that he would “be medically eligible to go to out-
        side recreation” once he relocated to the prison’s general popula-
        tion. Christmas twice repeated his request for outdoor recreation.
        Each time Nabors told Christmas that he was not eligible for out-
        door recreation until the Jail’s medical staﬀ cleared him to relocate
        into the Jail’s general population.
               When Christmas was ﬁnally relocated from the medical
        dorm to the Jail’s general population, he accused Nabors of pun-
        ishing him. But Nabors allegedly denied that accusation and told
        Christmas that he no longer “qualif[ied] for medical housing” and
        that he was “housed appropriately” based on his medical classiﬁca-
        tion.
                Separate from his grievances and requests for outdoor rec-
        reation, Christmas ﬁled a grievance about the Jail’s policy of copy-
        ing his legal mail using a machine with a memory chip. Sometimes,
        the Jail provided Christmas with only a copy of his legal mail; other
        times, Nabors and Sergeant Marsha Hill, who also worked at the
        Jail, uploaded the mail to a central database, which Christmas could
        then access via a “computer called a kiosk.”
               Based on these claims, Christmas ﬁled a pro se complaint in
        the district court, invoking 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and asserting that Lieu-
        tenant Nabors and Sergeant Hill violated his constitutional rights
        in several ways. In particular, he alleged that Lieutenant Nabors
        violated his First and Sixth Amendment rights by opening and scan-
        ning his mail into a computer. As a result, Christmas complained,
        Lieutenant Nabors and other employees at the Jail were able to
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        21-14230               Opinion of the Court                          5

        read the contents of Christmas’s mail when Christmas wasn’t
        around. According to Christmas, Lieutenant Nabors handled
        Christmas’s legal mail—including discovery and anything his attor-
        neys sent him—the same way.
                Upon Christmas’s ﬁling of his lawsuit, the district court en-
        tered an order screening Christmas’s complaint under 28 U.S.C. §
        1915A. Construing Christmas’s legal-mail claim “under either or
        both the First and Sixth Amendments,” the district court found
        Christmas’s “allegations suﬃcient to proceed to service of process
        on Defendant Nabors.” As for Christmas’s remaining claims, the
        district court dismissed them without prejudice and granted
        Christmas leave to ﬁle an amended complaint.
                So Christmas ﬁled an amended complaint. In it, he reiter-
        ated his legal-mail claim and added new factual allegations. The
        district court referred Christmas’s amended complaint to the mag-
        istrate judge, who recommended dismissing all Christmas’s claims,
        including his legal-mail claim, under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1) for fail-
        ure to state a claim.
               Although Christmas ﬁled extensive objections to the magis-
        trate judge’s recommendation, the district court overruled them
        and dismissed his complaint. In so doing, the district court did not
        explain why it concluded that Christmas’s legal-mail claim, which
        the court previously had found suﬃcient to proceed, warranted dis-
        missal.
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        6                      Opinion of the Court                  21-14230

                                          II.
               When a district court sua sponte dismisses a complaint for
        failure to state a claim under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1), our review is
        de novo. Leal v. Ga. Dep’t of Corrs., 254 F.3d 1276, 1278–79 (11th Cir.
        2001). In conducting that de novo review, we apply the same stand-
        ard as when a district court dismisses a complaint under Federal
        Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). Henley, 945 F.3d at 1331. We
        therefore view the allegations in the complaint as true and draw all
        reasonable inferences from it in the plaintiﬀ’s favor. Royal Caribbean
        Cruises, 931 F.3d at 1043.
               In addition, because Christmas drafted his own complaint,
        we hold his pleadings to “a less stringent standard” than we would
        if an attorney drafted his pleadings. Leal, 254 F.3d at 1280 (quoting
        Tannenbaum v. U.S., 148 F.3d 1262, 1263 (11th Cir. 1998) (per cu-
        riam)).
                                         III.
               Christmas asks us to ﬁnd that the district court erred in six
        ways when it dismissed his complaint. We think the district court
        got it mostly right. But we agree with Christmas that the district
        court erred by dismissing his legal-mail claim.
               A. Christmas stated a claim that Defendants violated his
                  First Amendment rights.
              Because Christmas alleged that Lieutenant Nabors and Ser-
        geant Hill could access his legal mail while outside his presence, we
        ﬁrst hold that Christmas stated a claim under the First
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        21-14230                    Opinion of the Court                                  7

        Amendment. We also hold that Christmas stated a First Amend-
        ment claim against Nabors in his oﬃcial capacity and against both
        Nabors and Hill in their individual capacities.
                    1. Christmas alleged suﬃcient facts to allow for the rea-
                       sonable inference that the Jail’s mail-scanning policy
                       infringed on his free-speech rights.
                 “A simple rule has governed prison mail procedures in our
        Circuit for nearly 50 years: a prison oﬃcial may not open an in-
        mate’s properly marked legal mail outside of his presence.” Mitch-
        ell v. Peoples, 10 F.4th 1226, 1228 (11th Cir. 2021). 3 If a prison oﬃcial
        does so, that oﬃcial violates the inmate’s First Amendment “right
        to free speech.” Id. at 1230 (citing Al-Amin v. Smith, 511 F.3d 1317,
        1334 (11th Cir. 2008)). Of course, the legal-mail rule anticipates
        that a prison oﬃcial may open a prisoner’s mail in the prisoner’s
        presence—but only for the purpose of permitting that oﬃcial to
        check the mail for contraband, not for allowing the oﬃcial to read
        the mail. Id. This longstanding rule strikes a balance that enables
        inmates to “trust that their legal communications” remain “conﬁ-
        dential,” while still permitting “jail oﬃcials” to “preserve security.”
        Id. (citing Taylor v. Sterrett, 532 F.2d 462, 477 (5th Cir. 1976)). 4

        3 This rule applies as much to pretrial detainees (like Christmas) as it does to

        convicted prisoners. Id. at 1229 (citing Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 545 (1979)).
        4 The decisions of the former Fifth Circuit handed down before October 1,

        1981, are binding on this Court. Bonner v. City of Prichard, 661 F.2d 1206, 1209
        (11th Cir. 1981) (en banc).
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        8                        Opinion of the Court                     21-14230

                Lieutenant Nabors and Sergeant Hill urge us to aﬃrm the
        district court’s dismissal of Christmas’s legal-mail claim because he
        failed to allege that they “actually read his legal mail.” But that’s
        irrelevant here.
               Our cases applying the legal-mail rule hinge on whether a
        prison oﬃcial’s conduct “suﬃciently chills, inhibits, or interferes
        with” an inmate’s “ability to speak, protest, and complain openly
        to his attorney so as to infringe his right to free speech.” Id. at
        1230–31 (quoting Al-Amin, 511 F.3d at 1334). Although Christmas
        did not allege that Lieutenant Nabors and Sergeant Hill opened his
        mail outside of his presence, he did allege that they could access his
        legal mail outside of his presence in the future. In particular, he
        asserted that Nabors and Hill made him open his legal mail in their
        presence and scan it into a computer that allegedly contains “a
        memory chip.” That kind of technology stores a prisoner’s mail
        and, at least on the allegations in Christmas’s complaint, enables
        jail oﬃcials to access a prisoner’s mail outside his presence. So we
        can reasonably infer that Nabors and Hill could read Christmas’s le-
        gal mail outside his presence. 5
                And it’s easy to understand why that kind of ability could
        “chill, inhibit, or interfere with” a prisoner’s “ability to speak, pro-
        test, and complain openly to his attorney so as to infringe his right

        5 Our plausibility determination here is limited to instances when a prisoner

        alleges that his legal mail was scanned and uploaded onto a “memory chip” or
        other electronic storage medium that enables prison employees to later access
        that mail outside the prisoner’s presence.
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        21-14230                  Opinion of the Court                                9

        to free speech.” Mitchell, 10 F.4th at 1230–31 (quoting Al-Amin, 511
        F.3d at 1334). For that reason, Christmas plausibly alleged a First
        Amendment claim.
                   2. Christmas stated a First Amendment claim against
                      Nabors in his oﬃcial capacity.
                By suing Lieutenant Nabors in his oﬃcial capacity as the
        Lieutenant of the Polk County Jail, Christmas eﬀectively sued Polk
        County. E.g., Ireland v. Prummell, 53 F.4th 1274, 1288 (11th Cir.
        2022). 6 “The ‘touchstone of [a] § 1983 action against a government
        body is an allegation that oﬃcial policy is responsible for a depriva-
        tion of civil rights protected by the Constitution.’” Hoeﬂing v. City
        of Miami, 811 F.3d 1271, 1280 (11th Cir. 2016) (alteration in original)
        (quoting Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Servs., 436 U.S. 658, 690 (1978)). A
        plaintiﬀ can establish that an oﬃcial policy caused the deprivation
        of his constitutional rights by identifying “a widespread practice
        that, although not authorized by written or express municipal pol-
        icy, is so permanent and well settled as to constitute a custom or
        usage with the force of law.” Baxter v. Roberts, 54 F.4th 1241, 1270
        (11th Cir. 2022) (quoting Griﬃn v. City of Opa-Locka, 261 F.3d 1295,
        1308 (11th Cir. 2001)).
               As we’ve noted, Christmas alleged that Jail oﬃcials scan all
        the incoming legal mail and upload it to “a computer called a ki-
        osk.” That computer allegedly has “a memory chip” that stores

        6 Christmas’s complaint also asserted a claim against Sergeant Hill in her offi-

        cial capacity. But Christmas has abandoned that claim on appeal.
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        10                     Opinion of the Court                 21-14230

        copies of inmates’ legal mail. We think these allegations establish
        that an oﬃcial policy caused Christmas’s alleged constitutional dep-
        rivation. After all, it’s hard to imagine why the Jail would even have
        this technology if not for an oﬃcial policy.
                Lieutenant Nabors contends that Christmas failed to plausi-
        bly allege that Lieutenant Nabors “had decision-making authority
        for the jail.” But Christmas need not assert that Lieutenant Nabors
        had ﬁnal decision-making authority. Indeed, “identifying and prov-
        ing that a ﬁnal policymaker acted on behalf of a municipality is ‘an
        evidentiary standard, and not a pleading requirement.” Hoeﬂing,
        811 F.3d at 1280 (quoting Swierkiewicz v. Sorema, N.A., 534 U.S. 506,
        510 (2002)). Christmas needed only to “allege a policy, practice, or
        custom of the [County] which caused the [violation of his First
        Amendment rights].” Id. And as we’ve explained, Christmas
        cleared that bar.
                  3. Christmas stated First Amendment claims against Na-
                     bors and Hill in their individual capacities.
                Christmas also asserted legal-mail claims against Lieutenant
        Nabors and Sergeant Hill in their individual capacities. But the dis-
        trict court dismissed those claims, reasoning that Christmas’s alle-
        gations connect neither Lieutenant Nabors nor Sergeant Hill to his
        asserted constitutional deprivation. We disagree.
                A supervisor may be liable for the unconstitutional acts of
        his subordinates when he personally participates in those acts or
        when a causal connection exists between his actions and the con-
        stitutional deprivation. Douglas v. Yates, 535 F.3d 1316, 1322 (11th
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        21-14230                   Opinion of the Court                                11

        Cir. 2008) (citation omitted). A causal connection exists, in turn,
        when the “facts support an inference that the supervisor directed
        the subordinates to act unlawfully or knew that the subordinates
        would act unlawfully and failed to stop them from doing so.” Id.
                 Here, Christmas alleged not only that Lieutenant Nabors
        and Sergeant Hill failed to stop their subordinates from acting un-
        lawfully, but also that Nabors and Hill directed their subordinates
        to act unlawfully. In fact, Christmas alleged that Lieutenant Nabors
        and Sergeant Hill continued to direct their subordinates to enforce
        the Jail’s mail-scanning policy even after Christmas ﬁled grievances
        and complained about the policy’s illegality. As a result, Christmas
        has stated a First Amendment legal-mail claim against Nabors and
        Hill in their personal capacities. See Mitchell, 10 F.4th at 1231 (hold-
        ing that a prisoner stated a claim under the legal mail rule against
        a prison’s mailroom supervisor when the latter “apparently knew
        about the illegal conduct after [the prisoner] ﬁled grievances, but
        still failed to stop that” conduct from continuing).7

        7 As we’ve mentioned, Christmas’s legal-mail claim is at the § 1915A stage,

        where we must accept the facts as he has alleged them and draw all reasonable
        inferences in his favor. Henley, 945 F.3d at 1331; Royal Caribbean Cruises, 931
        F.3d at 1043. On top of that, Christmas filed a pro se complaint, so we hold
        his pleadings to “a less stringent standard.” Leal, 254 F.3d at 1280. Of course,
        in a review of an order dismissing claims at the § 1915A stage, our ruling that
        a plaintiff has stated a plausible claim does not purport to opine on the ultimate
        merits of the claim. Should the actual facts turn out to differ from the facts
        we’ve assumed here, obviously, that could bear on the outcome of Christ-
        mas’s legal-mail claim.
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        12                      Opinion of the Court                  21-14230

               B. We aﬃrm the district court’s dismissal of Christmas’s
                  claim under the Due Process Clause.
              Christmas also argues that the district court erred by dis-
        missing his claim that Lieutenant Nabors violated his rights under
        the Due Process Clause when Nabors denied Christmas access to
        outdoor recreation for two years. We cannot agree that the district
        court erred because Christmas failed to address—and thus con-
        ceded—an element necessary to prevail on his Due Process Claim.
                We have held that “in regard to providing pretrial detainees
        with such basic necessities as food, living space, and medical care[,]
        the minimum standard allowed by the due process clause is the
        same as that allowed by the eighth amendment for convicted per-
        sons.” Hamm v. DeKalb Cnty., 774 F.2d 1567, 1574 (11th Cir. 1985);
        see also Ireland, 53 F.4th at 1287 n.4 (noting that “decisional law in-
        volving prison inmates applies equally to cases involving arrestees
        or pretrial detainees” (quoting Cottrell v. Caldwell, 85 F.3d 1480, 1490
        (11th Cir. 1996)).
               The Eighth Amendment’s standard requires a plaintiﬀ to sat-
        isfy both objective and subjective components. See, e.g., Farmer v.
        Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 834 (1970); Hoﬀer v. Sec’y, Fla. Dep’t of Corr.,
        973 F.3d 1263, 1270 (11th Cir. 2020) (quoting Farrow v. West, 320 F.3d
        1235, 1243 (11th Cir. 2003)). So a prisoner claiming that the condi-
        tions of his conﬁnement violate the Eighth Amendment must ﬁrst
        show that the condition objectively exposes the prisoner to “a sub-
        stantial risk of serious harm.” Farmer, 511 U.S. at 834. If the pris-
        oner can satisfy that objective inquiry, he must then satisfy a
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        21-14230                Opinion of the Court                          13

        subjective one by showing that the prison oﬃcial who imposed the
        challenged condition had a “suﬃciently culpable state of mind.” Id.
        (quoting Wilson, 501 U.S. at 297).
               Because Christmas was a pretrial detainee, and because his
        claim involves the deprivation of a “basic necessity” like access to
        recreational activity, he must satisfy the Eighth Amendment’s ob-
        jective and subjective standards to prevail on his claim under the
        Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. And that’s where
        his problem arises, as he argues only that the conditions of his con-
        ﬁnement were objectively unreasonable.
               Invoking our decision in Bass v. Perrin, 170 F.3d 1312 (11th
        Cir. 1999), Christmas asserts that the “complete denial of outdoor
        exercise may” violate the Constitution when there’s no “penologi-
        cal justiﬁcation” for that condition. Id. at 1316–17 (citation omit-
        ted).
               That argument misapprehends Bass, though. Even if a pris-
        oner alleges prison oﬃcials completely denied a prisoner access to
        outdoor exercise without any penological justiﬁcation (the objec-
        tive inquiry), Bass still requires the prisoner to assert that prison of-
        ﬁcials acted with deliberate indiﬀerence to a serious risk of harm
        to the prisoner (the subjective inquiry).
               Bass involved two prisoners who claimed that prison oﬃcials
        violated their Eighth Amendment rights by “complete[ly]” denying
        them access to “outdoor exercise,” id. at 1317. We rejected those
        claims because the plaintiﬀs satisﬁed neither the objective nor sub-
        jective inquiries.
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        14                     Opinion of the Court                  21-14230

                The prisoners in Bass failed to satisfy the objective inquiry
        because the prison oﬃcials denied them access to outdoor exercise
        to enhance “the safety and security of the prison.” Id. at 1316.
        Those prisoners received sentences for “violent crimes”: one “for
        robbery, kidnapping, and armed burglary;” and the other “for
        armed robbery.” Id. Worse still, those prisoners “continued to en-
        gage in violent behavior” after being incarcerated. Id. One pris-
        oner stabbed another prisoner. Id. And during their allotted time
        for outdoor exercise, both prisoners “scaled a fence, comman-
        deered a dump truck (by ejecting the driver at knifepoint), and
        drove through the perimeter fence in an attempt to escape.” Id. at
        1315. As a result, prison oﬃcials suspended those inmates’ access
        to “outdoor exercise,” id. Although we acknowledged that the
        complete denial of outdoor exercise involved the “inﬂiction of
        pain,” we concluded that the pain inﬂicted was not “totally without
        penological justiﬁcation.” Id. at 1316 (quoting Gre, 428 U.S. at
        183). “On the contrary,” we continued, “it would be hard to imag-
        ine a situation in which two persons had shown a greater threat to
        the safety and security of the prison.” Id.
               The prisoners in Bass also failed to satisfy the subjective ele-
        ment because the prison oﬃcials were not deliberately indiﬀerent
        “to a substantial risk of serious harm to” the prisoners. Id. at 1317
        (quoting Farmer, 511 U.S. at 836). We noted that the record was
        “ﬁlled with evidence indicating that prison oﬃcials were very con-
        cerned” that the plaintiﬀ-prisoners might harm other prisoners if
        the plaintiﬀ-prisoners were permitted to exercise outdoors. Id. We
        also noted that the plaintiﬀs received “daily” medical attention and
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        21-14230                Opinion of the Court                         15

        “weekly cell-front psychological evaluations.” Id. We therefore
        concluded that the prison oﬃcials did not act with deliberate indif-
        ference. Id.
               Bass is thus consistent with our Eighth Amendment cases
        that require a plaintiﬀ to satisfy both objective and subjective in-
        quiries. And as we’ve noted, that’s problematic for Christmas be-
        cause he argues only that Lieutenant Nabors denied him access to
        outdoor recreation without “any legitimate reason.” For our pur-
        poses at the § 1915A stage, we can assume without deciding that
        Christmas is right—that is, we can assume that Lieutenant Nabors
        denied him access to outdoor recreation without any legitimate
        reason. See, e.g., Spain v. Procunier, 600 F.2d 189, 200 (9th Cir. 1979)
        (Kennedy, J.) (holding that neither security, cost, nor inconvenience
        are “adequate justiﬁcation[s] for failing to provide resources for
        outdoor exercise during [inmates’] long period of conﬁnement”).
               But even if that’s so, that satisﬁes only the objective inquiry.
        And Christmas’s briefs altogether ignore the subjective prong,
        which, again, requires a showing that the prison oﬃcial who im-
        posed the challenged condition had a “suﬃciently culpable state of
        mind.” Farmer, 511 U.S. at 834 (quoting Wilson, 501 U.S. at 297).
        Nor can we address that prong for him; “the law is by now well
        settled in this Circuit that a legal . . . argument that has not been
        briefed before the court is deemed abandoned and its merits will
        not be addressed.” Access Now, Inc. v. Sw. Airlines Co., 385 F.3d 1324,
        1330 (11th Cir. 2004); see also, e.g., U.S. v. Nealy, 232 F.3d 825, 830
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        16                     Opinion of the Court                 21-14230

        (11th Cir. 2000) (“Parties must submit all issues on appeal in their
        initial briefs.”).
               Without pleading facts that we can reasonably infer establish
        that Lieutenant Nabors intended to punish him, Christmas cannot
        show that the district court erred in dismissing his claim under the
        Due Process Clause. We therefore aﬃrm the district court’s dis-
        missal of Christmas’s claim under the Due Process Clause.
              C. The district court did not err by failing to construe
                 Christmas’s complaint as stating claims under either
                 the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Rehabilita-
                 tion Act.
               Christmas also argues that the district court erred by failing
        to construe his complaint as stating claims under the Americans
        with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and the Rehabilitation Act. In his
        view, his complaint made such claims by alleging that Lieutenant
        Nabors, while acting in his oﬃcial capacity, implemented a policy
        that denied recreation time to detainees in the medical unit, includ-
        ing those with disabilities. We cannot agree with Christmas,
        though, because he again failed to address an element necessary to
        prevail on his discrimination claim.
               Title II of the ADA prohibits public entities from discrimi-
        nating against qualiﬁed individuals with disabilities. See 42 U.S.C. §
        12132; see also Bircoll v. Miami-Dade Cnty., 480 F.3d 1072, 1081 (11th
        Cir. 2007) (observing that this prohibition applies to prisons and
        that a disabled prisoner can state a claim under the ADA if a state
        prison denies that prisoner access to an activity because of his
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        21-14230                Opinion of the Court                          17

        disability). Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act contains an anal-
        ogous prohibition. See 29 U.S.C. § 794. So we assess discrimination
        claims under both statutes using “the same standards,” J.S., III ex
        rel. J.S. Jr. v. Houston Cnty. Bd. of Educ., 877 F.3d 979, 985 (11th Cir.
        2017); see also Cash v. Smith, 231 F.3d 1301, 1305 n.2 (11th Cir. 2000)
        (“Cases decided under the Rehabilitation Act are precedent for
        cases under the ADA, and vice versa.”).
               To prevail on a claim under either Title II or Section 504, a
        plaintiﬀ must satisfy three elements:
               (1) that he is a qualiﬁed individual with a disability; (2)
               that he was either excluded from participation in or
               denied the beneﬁts of a public entity’s services, pro-
               grams, or activities, or was otherwise discriminated
               against by the public entity; and (3) that the exclusion,
               denial of beneﬁt, or discrimination was by reason of
               the plaintiﬀ’s disability.
        Houston Cnty. Bd. of Educ., 877 F.3d at 985 (quoting Bircoll, 480 F.3d
        at 1083). Besides these requirements, because Christmas seeks
        damages, he “must clear an additional hurdle: he must prove that
        the entity that he has sued engaged in intentional discrimination,
        which requires a showing of deliberate indiﬀerence.” Ingram v. Ku-
        bik, 30 F.4th 1241, 1257 (11th Cir. 2022) (quoting Silberman v. Mia.
        Dade Transit, 927 F.3d 1123, 1134 (11th Cir. 2019)). Put diﬀerently,
        Christmas must show that the Jail had “actual knowledge of dis-
        crimination in the entity’s programs” and failed to adequately re-
        spond. Id. at 1250 (quoting Silberman, 927 F.3d at 1134).
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        18                     Opinion of the Court                  21-14230

                That additional hurdle proves fatal here because Christmas
        contends neither that the Jail knew about Lieutenant Nabors’s al-
        leged discrimination nor that it failed to respond adequately. As a
        result, we cannot say that the district court erred when it did not
        construe Christmas’s complaint as stating claims under the ADA
        and the Rehabilitation Act.
               D. The district court did not err by failing to construe
                  Christmas’s complaint as alleging a First Amendment
                  retaliation claim.
               Christmas also argues that the district court erred by failing
        to construe his complaint as stating a First Amendment retaliation
        claim against Lieutenant Nabors and Sergeant Hill. In Christmas’s
        view, he stated such a claim by alleging that Nabors and Hill
        stripped him of his “medically necessary cane” and prematurely
        moved him from the Jail’s medical dorm into its general population
        as retaliation for his ﬁling grievances and asking for access to out-
        door recreation.
               Prison oﬃcials violate a prisoner’s “First Amendment rights
        to free speech and to petition the government” by punishing that
        prisoner “for ﬁling a grievance concerning the conditions of his im-
        prisonment.” Yates, 535 F.3d at 1321 (quoting Boxer X v. Harris, 437
        F.3d 1107, 1112 (11th Cir. 2006)). To prevail on such a claim, a plain-
        tiﬀ must satisfy three elements: “ﬁrst, that his speech or act was
        constitutionally protected; second, that the defendant’s retaliatory
        conduct adversely aﬀected the protected speech; and third, that
        there is a causal connection between the retaliatory actions and the
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        21-14230              Opinion of the Court                       19

        adverse eﬀect on speech.” Id. (quoting Bennett v. Hendrix, 423 F.3d
        1247, 1250 (11th Cir. 2005)).
               Christmas’s allegations satisfy the ﬁrst element because he
        engaged in protected speech when he ﬁled grievances and asked for
        access to outdoor recreation. E.g., Smith v. Mosley, 532 F.3d 1270,
        1276 (11th Cir. 2008) (observing that an inmate exercises “his First
        Amendment right of freedom of speech when he complains to the
        prison’s administrators about the conditions of his conﬁnement”).
               We can also assume that Christmas satisﬁes the second ele-
        ment, which turns on whether the discipline he received for engag-
        ing in protected speech “would likely deter a person of ordinary
        ﬁrmness from engaging in” that speech. Brannon v. Finkelstein, 754
        F.3d 1269, 1274 (11th Cir. 2014).
               This brings us to the causal-connection requirement. To es-
        tablish a causal connection between the retaliatory actions and the
        adverse eﬀect on speech, Christmas must show that Lieutenant Na-
        bors and Sergeant Hill “were subjectively motivated to discipline
        [Christmas] because [he] complained of some of the conditions of
        his conﬁnement.” Mosely, 532 F.3d at 1278.
               The allegations in Christmas’s complaint undercut his claim
        that Nabors and Hill were subjectively motivated to discipline
        Christmas because he ﬁled grievances when they relocated him
        from the Jail’s medical dorms into its general population. When
        Christmas asked to sign up for outdoor recreation, Nabors denied
        his request and told him that the Jail’s medical staﬀ had “deter-
        mined that” Christmas was “not ﬁt for outside recreation.” When
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        20                     Opinion of the Court                21-14230

        Christmas repeated that request, Nabors told him that he would
        “be medically eligible to go to outside recreation” once the Jail’s
        medical staﬀ cleared him for relocation into general population.
        And when Christmas repeated his request for outdoor recreation a
        third time, Nabors responded that Christmas needed to convince
        the Jail’s medical staﬀ “to clear [him] for normal dorms” to gain
        access to outdoor recreation. Then, when Christmas was ﬁnally
        relocated from the medical dorm to the Jail’s general population,
        he accused Nabors of punishing him. But according to Christmas,
        Nabors not only denied that accusation, but he also told Christmas
        that Christmas no longer “qualif[ied] for medical housing” and that
        he was “housed appropriately” based on his medical classiﬁcation.
        In other words, Christmas alleges no facts to support his conclu-
        sory allegation that Christmas removed Nabors from the medical
        unit in retaliation for Christmas’s complaints. To the contrary, all
        his allegations support the conclusion that Christmas was trans-
        ferred to general population because he no longer required medical
        housing, and the medical unit—not Nabors—was responsible for
        making that decision.
               To be sure, Christmas also contends that his cane was taken
        as retaliation for ﬁling grievances. But he alleged that his cane was
        taken when he was transferred from the Jail’s medical unit into its
        general population. And allowing Christmas to take his cane into
        the general population, according to Lieutenant Nabors and Ser-
        geant Hill, would have jeopardized the Jail’s safety and security. We
        ﬁnd that explanation more than plausible. See, e.g., Kiman v. N.H.
        Dep’t of Corr., 451 F.3d 274, 285–86 (1st Cir. 2006) (noting that “a
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        21-14230                Opinion of the Court                          21

        cane . . . could be used as a weapon”). And Christmas has failed to
        allege any facts suggesting it was pretextual.
                At bottom, Christmas failed to plausibly allege that Lieuten-
        ant Nabors and Sergeant Hill retaliated against him for ﬁling griev-
        ances. Instead, his allegations suggest that he was relocated to the
        Jail’s general population because the medical unit found it medi-
        cally appropriate to do so. And taking Christmas’s cane was neces-
        sary to preserve the Jail’s safety and security. For these reasons, we
        cannot say that the district court erred in failing to construe Christ-
        mas’s complaint as stating a claim for retaliation under the First
        Amendment.
               E. The district court did not err by failing to construe
                  Christmas’s complaint as stating a claim for deliberate
                  indiﬀerence.
               Finally, Christmas argues that the district court erred by fail-
        ing to construe his complaint as stating a claim for deliberate indif-
        ference under the Eighth Amendment. Christmas asserts that he
        stated such a claim by alleging that Lieutenant Nabors and Ser-
        geant Hill acted with deliberate indiﬀerence when they took his
        cane, even though they knew he had a serious medical need that
        required him to use a cane.
               Like prisoners, pretrial detainees “have a right to receive
        medical treatment for their illnesses and injuries.” Taylor v. Hughes,
        920 F.3d 729, 732–33 (11th Cir. 2019). Deliberate indiﬀerence to a
        pretrial detainee’s serious medical needs “is therefore a constitu-
        tional violation.” Id. at 733 (citing Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 103
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        22                      Opinion of the Court                   21-14230

        (1976)). To state a claim for deliberate indiﬀerence, Christmas
        needed to have alleged (1) that he had a serious medical need; (2)
        that Nabors and Hill exhibited deliberate indiﬀerence to that need;
        and (3) that Nabors’ and Hill’s deliberate indiﬀerence caused
        Christmas’s injury. Id. (citing Mann v. Taser Int’l, Inc., 588 F.3d 1291,
        1306–07 (11th Cir. 2009)).
                Christmas failed to allege that he suﬀered any injury when
        Nabors and Hill took his cane. Instead, he contends that he “devel-
        oped complications from his gunshot wound, including hernias,”
        while at the Jail. But he failed to allege a causal link between those
        complications and his inability to use a cane after being relocated
        to the Jail’s general population. So even assuming that Nabors and
        Hill acted with deliberate indiﬀerence when they took his cane,
        Christmas still failed to allege an essential element of his claim:
        that is, that Nabors’ and Hill’s deliberate indiﬀerence caused his in-
        juries. As a result, we cannot say that the district court erred by
        failing to construe Christmas’s complaint as stating a claim for de-
        liberate indiﬀerence.
                                          IV.
              For these reasons, we REVERSE the district court’s judg-
        ment and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this
        opinion.