John James Sherman v. Ellis MacDougall

John Sherman, a prisoner in an Arizona State Prison, brought this action against prison officials under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 . He alleged that the prison officials were not allowing him to receive copies of the American Rifleman through the mails and, as to three issues, that they had failed to give him notice that the issue had arrived at the prison. In a supplementary complaint he alleged that some of his legal mail was opened before it was delivered to him. The district court entered summary judgment for the defendants. We affirm as to the magazines, but remand for a hearing on the question of the opening of legal mail.

Summary judgment was correct as to the magazines. They were withheld because each individual issue contained detailed exploded views of the inner mechanisms of guns. The prison officials judge these illustrations to pose a direct and immediate threat to the security, safety or order of the prison. We are unwilling to contradict the judgment of the prison officials on this issue. See Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners’ Union, 1977, 433 U.S. 119 , 97 S.Ct. 2532 , 53 L.Ed.2d 629 .

Sherman complains that in three instances he was not told that issues of American…