Ross W. Sorrels v. Ronald McKee David Buss Cly Evans Archie Grant Loreli, Cruthers Kay Walter Jim Blodgett Joseph Lehman

In 1996, a district court in the Eastern District of Washington declared unconstitutional a policy of the Washington State Penitentiary prohibiting inmates from receiving books and magazines that they did not pay for themselves from their prison accounts. That decision was subsequently upheld on appeal. Crofton v. Roe, 170 F.3d 957 (9th Cir.1999). Meantime, while the appeal in Crofton was pending, prison officials at a different Washington prison continued to enforce a similar “no gift publication” policy and sent back two publications mailed to plaintiff Ross Sorrels as gifts. Sorrels then brought this lawsuit against the prison officials involved in rejecting the items. The officials defended on grounds of qualified immunity, arguing that until the Ninth Circuit upheld the district court decision in Crofton , the law with respect to the “no gift publication” policy was not “clearly established.” We agree, and affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of' the defendants.

I. BACKGROUND

Ross Sorrels was a prisoner at the Airway Heights Corrections Center (“AHCC”) in the state of Washington. In June 1997, Doubleday, the publisher of The Partner by…