Narviez Alexander v. State of Nevada

MEMORANDUM

1. The district court properly, granted summary judgment to defendants on Alexander’s Eighth Amendment claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 . Even if we assume, as did the district court, that Alexander has a serious medical need (whether on account of his sickle cell trait or for other reasons), there is no genuine dispute as to whether prison medical personnel were deliberately indifferent to it. Prison doctors ran a battery of tests, including repeated tests of the oxygen saturation of Alexander’s blood, before concluding that there was no objective medical support for Alexander’s theory that the elevation at Ely State Prison caused him severe pain associated with his sickle cell trait. In the absence of any objective correlate to Alexander’s pain complaints, no reasonable jury could find the doctors deliberately indifferent to Alexander’s condition.

2. The district court properly granted summary judgment to defendants on Alexander’s due process claim. He has not alleged an “atypical and significant hardship ... in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life,” Sandin v. Conner, 515 U.S. 472, 484 , 115 S.Ct. 2293 , 132 L.Ed.2d 418 (1995). Placement in administrative…