Court Opinion

ID: 9490354
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:40:47.406569+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:02.827745
License: Public Domain

RYAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
The majority opinion arrives at what I believe to be the correct end point, but in my view, the analytical route taken to get there is mistaken. Simply put, Cale v. Johnson, 861 F.2d 943 (6th Cir.1988), is not the map to follow. I must therefore concur separately.
As the majority opinion recognizes, Jack MeLaurin’s lawsuit asserts that the defendant, Russ Cole, issued a misconduct ticket to MeLaurin solely in retaliation for an administrative grievance that MeLaurin had earlier filed against Cole. This type of claim is founded on the First Amendment, which provides a constitutional guarantee of access to the courts. See Crocker v. Tennessee Secondary Sch. Athletic Ass’n, 980 F.2d 382, 387 (6th Cir.1992); cf. Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 821, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 1494, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977). This First Amendment right has been held to extend to prisoners who pursue legal claims against prison officials, see Johnson v. Avery, 393 U.S. 483, 483, 89 S.Ct. 747, 21 L.Ed.2d 718 (1969), including those prisoners who utilize the prison administrative process, see Franco v. Kelly, 854 F.2d 584, 589-90 (2d Cir.1988); Wolfel v. Bates, 707 *412F.2d 932, 933 (6th Cir.1983) (per curiam). Thus, it is a violation of the First Amendment to discipline a prisoner because he has filed a complaint in accordance with prison procedures, see Wolfel, 707 F.2d at 933-34, and discipline that is otherwise proper is actionable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 if it is done in retaliation for filing a grievance under established prison procedures, see Sprouse v. Babcock, 870 F.2d 450, 452 (8th Cir.1989); Wright v. Newsome, 795 F.2d 964, 968 (11th Cir.1986) (per curiam). This is the type of substantive due process claim that the plaintiffs complaint attempts to make out.
As the Supreme Court explained in Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S. 327, 331, 106 S.Ct. 662, 664, 88 L.Ed.2d 662 (1986), the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment bars “certain government actions regardless of the fairness of the procedures used to implement them.” This is “the concept embodied in the phrase ‘substantive due process.’ ” Lewellen v. Metropolitan Gov’t of Nashville, 34 F.3d 345, 346 (6th Cir.1994). And the majority is correct that the standard applied by this court to some substantive due process claims is the “shocks the conscience” standard, a criterion of dubious semantic clarity under any circumstances. See Cassady v. Tackett, 938 F.2d 693, 698 (6th Cir.1991); Braley v. City of Pontiac, 906 F.2d 220, 224-25 (6th Cir.1990). But as this court has also held, there are two distinct categories of substantive due process rights, and only one of them implicates the “shocks the conscience” standard:
Substantive due process claims are of two types. The first type includes claims asserting denial of a right, privilege, or immunity secured by the constitution or by federal statute other than procedural claims under “the Fourteenth Amendment simpliciter.”
The other type of claim is directed at official acts which may not occur regardless of the procedural safeguards accompanying them. The test for substantive due process claims of this type is whether the conduct complained of “shocks the conscience” of the court.
Mertik v. Blalock, 983 F.2d 1353, 1367 (6th Cir.1993). The latter type of claim does not “require[ ] a claim that some specific guarantee of the Constitution apart from the due process clause be violated.... This is a substantive due process right akin to the ‘fundamental fairness’ concept of procedural due process.” Wilson v. Beebe, 770 F.2d 578, 586 (6th Cir.1985) (en banc).
In contradistinction, when a plaintiff alleges that a constitutional right specifically enumerated in the Bill of Rights has been denied him, for example, his right to be free from unreasonable seizures under the Fourth Amendment, or, as here, his First Amendment right of access to the courts, he has then alleged a substantive due process violation of the sort first described in Mertik. This important analytical difference between the two varieties of substantive due process claims should amply illustrate why the “shocks the conscience” standard is not appropriately applied in the type of claim implicated here. The “shocks the conscience” standard developed as a safeguard against frivolous substantive due process claims of this ill-defined, non-enumerated, generalized variety. Only this category of generalized substantive due process claims not rooted in any specific enumerated provision of the Bill of Rights need meet the “shocks the conscience” standard in order to survive dismissal.
And the logic of this is apparent. If a plaintiff has adequately alleged a willful violation of, for example, the First Amendment, it simply makes no sense for the court to require further that the particular unconstitutional action in question be one that is shocking to the conscience of the court. The constitutional violation has occurred, and there is no necessity — or justification — for erecting an additional shocks-the-eonscience hurdle. Now, it may be that some violations of a citizen’s specifically enumerated constitutional guarantees are so de minimis as to be frivolous or otherwise not actionable; but we have never held that such an injury must either “shock the conscience” or face dismissal.
The majority declares that Cale v. Johnson supports the application of the shocks-the-*413conscience test, but this is incorrect. First, Cale does not hold that the shocks-the-con-seience test is the appropriate standard for that case; it simply mentions that standard in passing, as a dictum. See Cale, 861 F.2d at 949. But second, and more importantly, Cale is not a “retaliation” case in the sense that this case is a retaliation case. The plaintiffs claims in Cále were founded on the second type of substantive due process, and the word “retaliation” was mentioned in the opinion only in the general sense, as a motive for a guard’s behavior. See id. at 949-50; see also id. at 951 (Nelson, J., concurring). There was no suggestion that the guard’s action in Cole was taken in retaliation for the plaintiffs attempt to gain access to the courts or utilize the administrative grievance process, or any other exercise of a First Amendment right. I know of no published authority from this court relying on Cale for the proposition that the shocks-the-conscience standard is appropriately applied in First Amendment retaliation claims; the majority’s reliance on unpublished ease law may be interesting as an academic matter, but those cases simply do not have the weight of authority. See 6th Cir. R. 24.
Despite my disagreement with the majority’s approach to this case, I do agree that the plaintiff failed to present any evidence whatsoever that his filing of a grievance played any role in the defendant’s decision to issue a misconduct ticket. The district court correctly, therefore, granted summary judgment to the defendants, and I concur in the majority’s decision affirming the district court’s judgment.