Gilmore

ORDER GRANTING RELIEF

Plaintiffs herein are prisoners at various facilities administered by the California Department of Corrections. They challenge certain rules and regulations of the Department concerning inmate access to law books, legal materials, and lay assistance in preparing prisoner writs and complaints. Also attacked are procedures of the California State Law Library regarding circulation of legal materials to prisoners. Since plaintiffs ask that the enforcement of these rules be enjoined on constitutional grounds, and since the rules are of state-wide applicability, a three judge court was mandated by the Court of Appeals for this Circuit. Gilmore v. Lynch, 400 F.2d 228 (9 Cir. 1968), cert. den. Lynch v. Gilmore, 393 U.S. 1092 , 89 S.Ct. 854 , 21 L.Ed.2d 783 (1968); 28 U.S.C. § 2281 ; Okl. Natural Gas Co. v. Russell, 261 U.S. 290 , 43 S.Ct. 353 , 67 L.Ed. 659 (1923); Ala. Pub. Service Comm. v. Southern Ry. Co., 341 U.S. 341, 343 (footnote #3), 71 S.Ct. 762 , 95 L.Ed. 1002 (1951).

Some of the prison rules originally brought into question by plaintiffs have since been suppressed or amended in response to changed institutional situations and in light of recent court…