Wright

MEMORANDUM *

Robert L. Wright, Superintendent of the Clallam Bay Correctional Center (“CBCC”), appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment to Joseph Lehman, manager of the Washington State Department of Corrections (“DOC”), on the ground that Lehman enjoyed qualified immunity from Wright’s 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim. We affirm on the ground that Wright cannot establish that he was deprived of a constitutionally protected liberty interest, and therefore cannot state a § 1983 claim and do not reach the issue of qualified immunity. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 .

To succeed in his § 1983 defamation-based claim, Wright must satisfy the “stigma plus” test. This requires showing harm to his reputation and the loss of a constitutionally recognized property or liberty interest. Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, *656 712 , 96 S.Ct. 1155 , 47 L.Ed.2d 405 (1976) (“[H]owever seriously [petitioners’ defamatory publications] may have harmed respondent’s reputation, [they] did not deprive him of any ‘liberty’ or ‘property’ interests protected by the Due Process Clause.”); Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 233 , 111 S.Ct. 1789 , 114 L.Ed.2d 277 (1991) (“Defamation, by itself, is…