Court Opinion

ID: 9448204
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:25:24.956931+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:19.351252
License: Public Domain

EDGERTON, Circuit Judge
(concurring in the result).
Appellant is a nearly illiterate prisoner in the District of Columbia jail. His ineptly drawn petition pro se alleges that because his religion is “islam” and because of an application he made to a District of Columbia Commissioner, he was kept in solitary confinement for a time and has since been denied hot food and necessary medication. I think this charge of religious persecution is sufficiently definite without amendment. In order that “unlettered prisoners without friends or funds” may be protected, “legalistic requirements in examining applications” should be disregarded. Darr v. Burford, 339 U.S. 200, 203, 70 S.Ct. 587, 94 L.Ed. 761.
*174An indigent must be allowed to proceed in forma pauperis unless the issues he raises are “plainly frivolous”. No “preliminary showing of any particular degree of merit” is required. Ellis v. United States, 356 U.S. 674, 78 S.Ct. 974, 2 L.Ed.2d 1060. Ellis was a criminal case and directly determined only the right to appeal, not the right to file a petition in the District Court. But 28 U.S.C. § 1915, which the Supreme Court cited, is not restricted to criminal cases or to appeals but applies to “any suit, action or proceeding, civil or criminal, or appeal therein * * *.” It may be that the Ellis principle does not extend to the filing of complaints in all sorts of civil suits, but a recent decision of the Supreme Court leaves little room for doubt that it applies to the filing of the present petition for relief.
Smith v. Bennett, decided April 17, 1961, holds that “to interpose any financial consideration between an indigent prisoner of the State and his exercise of a state right to sue for his liberty is to deny that prisoner the equal protection of the laws” and that an indigent must therefore be allowed to file without fee a petition, which a non-indigent might file, for a writ of habeas corpus. 365 U.S. 708, 709, 81 S.Ct. 895, 6 L.Ed.2d 39. Though the equal protection clause of the Constitution applies in terms only to the states, “it would be unthinkable that the same Constitution would impose a lesser duty on the Federal Government.” Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U.S. 497, 500, 74 S.Ct. 693, 98 L.Ed. 884. It may follow that a federal court’s refusal to file the non-frivolous petition of an indigent in circumstances in which a non-indigent might file would deny a constitutional right. But we need not reach any constitutional question, because 28 U.S.C. § 1915 covers the case.1
Appellant’s petition does not speak in terms of habeas corpus but of mandamus, which was “abolished” by F.R.Civ.P. Rule 81(b), 28 U.S.C. But “The availability of a procedure to regain liberty lost through criminal process cannot be made contingent upon a choice of labels.” Smith v. Bennett, supra, 365 U.S. at page 712, 81 S.Ct. at page 897, 6 L.Ed.2d 39. Although the decision in that case does “not necessarily” apply to “all habeas corpus or other actions involving civil rights”, it does apply to “those involving indigent convicted prisoners”. 365 U.S. at page 713, 81 S.Ct. at page 898, 6 L.Ed. 2d 39.
In holding that a man committed to a mental hospital may use habeas corpus to test his complaint that he is kept in a part of the hospital where he is assaulted by psychotic inmates, we said: “Mandamus or injunction might also lie * Miller v. Overholser, 92 U.S.App.D.C. 110, 116, 206 F.2d 415, 421.2 We cited a Sixth Circuit decision that “A prisoner is entitled to the writ of habeas corpus when, though lawfully in custody, he is deprived of some right to which he is lawfully entitled even in his confinement, the deprivation of which serves to make his imprisonment more burdensome than the law allows or curtails his liberty to a greater extent than the law permits. * * * The judge is not limited to a simple remand or discharge of the prisoner, but he may remand with directions that the prisoner’s retained civil rights be respected.” Coffin v. Reichard, 6 Cir., 1944, 143 F.2d 443, 445, 155 A.L.R. 143.3 *175The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals directed the District Court not only to file the prisoner’s petition but also to appoint counsel for him.
“It is beyond dispute that certain rights and privileges of citizenship are withdrawn from prisoners, but it has never been held that upon entering a prison one is entirely bereft of all of his civil rights and forfeits every protection of the law.” Sewell v. Pegelow, 4 Cir., 1961, 291 F.2d 196. The Supreme Court has declared that a state prison regulation requiring a prisoner’s legal documents to be approved by officials before they are forwarded is invalid. Ex parte Hull, 312 U.S. 546, 549, 61 S.Ct. 640, 85 L.Ed. 1034. A prisoner is denied equal protection of the laws if officials prevent him from taking a timely appeal. Cochran v. State of Kansas, 316 U.S. 255, 62 S.Ct. 1068, 86 L.Ed. 1453; Dowd v. United States ex rel. Cook, 340 U.S. 206, 71 S.Ct. 262, 95 L.Ed. 215. This court has recognized by way of dictum that “The Attorney General and other officers in the line of authority over penal institutions do not have the power arbitrarily to deny a prisoner communication with the outside world * * Dayton v. McGranery, 92 U.S.App.D.C. 24, 25, 201 F. 2d 711, 712. A district court has held that the right of access to courts is infringed by prison regulations which restrict use of law books, severely limit law study, and suppress documents addressed to courts. Bailleaux v. Holmes, D. C.D.Or., 177 F.Supp. 361. A prisoner’s allegations of beating and torture have been held to state a claim under the Civil Rights Acts. Gordon v. Garrson, D.C. E. D.Ill., 77 F.Supp. 477; Siegel v. Ragan, D.C.N.D.Ill., 88 F.Supp. 996. Cf. Coleman v. Johnston, 7 Cir., 247 F.2d 273. The Court of Appeals of the Fourth Circuit has recently held that a prisoner’s allegations of religious persecution state such a claim. Sewell v. Pegelow, supra. Cases denying prisoners the relief they sought have sometimes recognized that in extreme cases it should be granted. United States ex rel. Yaris v. Shaughnessy, D.C.S.D.N.Y., 112 F.Supp. 143; Nichols v. McGee, D.C.N.D.Cal., 169 F. Supp. 721, appeal dismissed 361 U.S. 6, 80 S.Ct. 90, 4 L.Ed.2d 52; Tabor v. Hardwick, 5 Cir., 224 F.2d 526.
Any showing that appellant was guilty of conduct that might justify as discipline the treatment he says he received, and that he was disciplined for that reason only, would probably defeat his charge of religious persecution. But his petition, like the more detailed complaint in Sewell v. Pegelow, supra, alleges deprivations and hardships inflicted not for infraction of any rule but solely because of his religion. The petition, unanswered because he was not allowed to file it, says his “prison record” is “spotless”.
Appellee contends that his superior officers, the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, must be joined as defendants. But a Postmaster General who has issued a fraud order need not be joined as a defendant in a suit to enjoin a local postmaster from carrying out the order. The Supreme Court laid down the rule that “the superior officer is an indispensable party if the decree granting the relief sought will require him to take action, either by exercising directly a power lodged in him or by having a subordinate exercise it for him.” Williams v. Fanning, 332 U.S. 490, 493, 68 S.Ct. 188, 92 L.Ed. 95. Because the relief sought in that case would not require the Postmaster General to take any action, his presence was not indispensable. The relief sought in this case would not require the District Commissioners to take any action, and therefore their presence is not indispensable. The Director of the Department of Corrections, although “under the direction and control of a Commissioner”, has “full authority over such Department and all personnel assigned thereto”. Reorganization Order No. 34— Department of Corrections, D.C.Code, Supp. VIII, 1960, p. 50.
The Corporation Counsel devoted a page of his brief to attributing certain views to “Black Muslims”. This irrelevant and prejudicial matter is not in the record and should not be in the brief. *176The record says nothing about “Black Muslims” or color. It says nothing about appellant’s views or associations except that his religion is “islam”.

. 28 U.S.C. § 1915(d) provides that the court may dismiss an indigent’s case “if satisfied that the action is frivolous * * This seems to imply that even a frivolous petition in forma pauperis may be filed so that there may be orderly procedure and a proper record on appeal. But that question does not arise in this case.

. We said “Except in circumstances so extreme as to transgress constitutional prohibitions, the courts will not interfere with discipline or treatment in a place of legal confinement * * 92 U.S. App.D.C. at page 115, 206 E.2d at page 420.

. See also 6 Cir., 148 F.2d 278, certiorari denied 325 U.S. 887, 65 S.Ct. 1568, 89 L.Ed. 2001.