Hearns

Plaintiff-Appellant Clarence Leonard Hearns, Jr., is a Muslim inmate at Calipat-ria State Prison. In June 1999, Hearns filed a pro se complaint alleging violations of his civil rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 . Specifically, Hearns alleged that several Calipatria State Prison officials violated his Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment when they failed to protect him from being attacked by fellow Muslim inmates. Hearns also claimed that he was subjected to inhumane conditions when he was later placed in protective confinement for nine months in Calipatria’s disciplinary segregation unit.

In February 2002, the district court sua sponte dismissed Hearns’s original complaint for failing to state a claim, but granted him leave to amend. After Hearns filed his first amended complaint, the prison officials moved to dismiss that complaint under Federal Civil Procedure Rule 12(b)(6). In July 2002, the district court granted the motion to dismiss, ruled that Hearns’s amended complaint failed to state a claim, and dismissed the complaint and the § 1983 action with prejudice. Hearns now appeals. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we reverse and…