Demont R.D. Conner v. Theodore Sakai

DeMont R.D. Conner, a Hawaii state prisoner serving a thirty-years-to-life sentence, appeals pro se the district court’s grant of the state’s motion for summary judgment, and the district court’s denial of his cross-motion for summary judgment, on his § 1983 suit against a number of prison officials and the State of Hawaii. We reverse, as to certain of the defendants, the district court’s grant of summary judgment in the state’s favor on certain of Conner’s claims: that he was improperly subjected to disciplinary segregation, that he was punished for praying aloud in Arabic with a fellow inmate, and that he was denied access to the law library or to persons trained in the law. We affirm the remainder of the district court’s order, including the denial of Conner’s cross-motion for summary judgment.

I.

A. State’s Motion for Summary Judgment

1. Sovereign Immunity

The state correctly contends that the eleventh amendment bars Conner’s suit against the State of Hawaii, Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U.S. 1 , 10 S.Ct. 504 , 33 L.Ed. 842 (1890), Quern v. Jordan, 440 U.S. 332, 338-41 , 99 S.Ct. 1139, 1143-45 , 59 L.Ed.2d 358 (1979), and Conner’s suit against the other defendants in their…