Kekai Watanabe v. Estela Derr

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

KEKAI WATANABE, No. 23-15605

Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No. 1:22-cv-00168- v. JAO-RT

ESTELA DERR; K. ROBL, Mr.; NIELSEN, Nurse; KWON, Dr., ORDER

Defendants-Appellees.

Filed June 5, 2025

Before: RICHARD A. PAEZ, MILAN D. SMITH, JR., and LUCY H. KOH, Circuit Judges.

Order; Statement by Judges Paez and Koh; Dissent by Judge R. Nelson; Dissent by Judge Collins SUMMARY*

Prisoner Civil Rights

The panel denied a petition for panel rehearing and a petition for rehearing en banc in a case in which the panel reversed the district court’s dismissal of a Bivens action brought by federal inmate Kekai Watanabe, who alleged that his Eighth Amendment rights were violated when the medical staff were deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs. Respecting the denial of rehearing en banc, Judge Paez and Judge Koh wrote that the majority opinion correctly concluded that under the two-step framework governing Bivens actions, Watanabe’s Eighth Amendment deliberate indifference claims are cognizable. The…