Cameron v. Mills

645 F. Supp. 1119, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20450
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Iowa
DecidedSeptember 15, 1986
DocketCiv. 86-229-E
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 645 F. Supp. 1119 (Cameron v. Mills) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cameron v. Mills, 645 F. Supp. 1119, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20450 (S.D. Iowa 1986).

Opinion

ORDER

DONALD E. O’BRIEN, Chief Judge.

This matter is before the Court on plaintiff’s resisted motion for a preliminary injunction. After hearing the parties’ arguments and having carefully considered the briefs filed in this matter, the Court grants plaintiff’s motion, based on the strong language contained in the Iowa Interstate Corrections Compact and the agreement between Iowa and Kansas. 1

*1121 1. Facts.

Plaintiff is presently incarcerated at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. He was originally convicted and sentenced in Kansas, but was transferred to Iowa pursuant to the provisions of the Interstate Corrections Compact, Iowa Code Supp. Chap. 247 (1985) (formerly Chapter 218B), and § 76-3001 et seq., of the Kansas statute. These statutes provide for interstate prisoner transfers in order to “[serve] the best interests of such offenders and of society and effecting economies in capital expenditures and operational costs.” Iowa Code § 247.2. Iowa and Kansas entered into a contract to implement these statutes on May 8, 1985.

Plaintiff was involved in a prison uprising at the Iowa State Penitentiary (ISP) in January of 1986. ISP officials found plaintiff guilty of rule violations in disciplinary proceedings conducted pursuant to Iowa Department of Corrections regulations. Plaintiff alleges violation of his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights in the disciplinary proceedings, stating that the Interstate Compact statutes and the contract between Iowa and Kansas mandate that the disciplinary procedures and rules of the sending state (Kansas) should have been followed instead of Iowa rules. Plaintiff has requested this Court to enter a preliminary injunction requiring Iowa officials to afford him a hearing under the Kansas Department of Corrections regulations and to award him damages for unlawful disciplinary sanctions.

II. Jurisdiction.

Defendants have raised the threshold question of whether this Court has jurisdiction to enjoin ISP officials. Therefore, the Court must decide this issue before determining the merits of plaintiff’s preliminary injunction request.

Defendants contend that this Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction to enjoin state officials on the basis of state law, citing Pennhurst State School & Hospital v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 104 S.Ct. 900, 79 L.Ed.2d 67 (1984). In Pennhurst, the district court awarded injunctive relief based in part on a state statute which it held provided a right of mental patients to adequate habilitation. 2 The plaintiffs had alleged that conditions at the hospital violated the state act as well as plaintiff’s constitutional rights under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Id. at 92-93, 104 S.Ct. at 903-04. The Court of Appeals affirmed on the basis of a federal statute, and the Supreme Court reversed, holding that the federal statute did not create any substantive rights. Pennhurst State School & Hospital v. Halderman, 451 U.S. 1, 101 S.Ct. 1531, 67 L.Ed.2d 694 (1981). On remand, the Court of Appeals affirmed its prior judgment, but instead of relying on a federal statute or the Constitution, based its decision solely on a state law which required the state to adopt the least restrictive environment approach for the care of the mentally retarded. Pennhurst, 465 U.S. at 95, 104 S.Ct. at 905. The Supreme Court reversed again, holding that the Eleventh Amendment deprives a federal court of jurisdiction to enjoin state officials on the basis of state law. Id. at 106, 104 S.Ct. at 911.

In the instant case, defendants argue that plaintiff is requesting this Court to enjoin state officials on the basis of the Iowa and Kansas Interstate Compact statutes. The Court disagrees with defendants’ characterization of the relief requested here. Certainly, the Iowa Interstate Compact statute is implicated in plaintiff’s request for relief. However, it is not the sole, nor even the main, basis upon which plaintiff bases his request for injunctive relief. Plaintiff’s main contention here is that by failing to abide by the Iowa statute, ISP officials have violated his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights. That is quite different from requesting injunctive relief merely because state officials are not following a state court’s interpretation of state law, which was what the Court of *1122 Appeals attempted to do in Pennhurst. See, Pennhurst, 673 F.2d at 651.

Nothing in the Supreme Court’s Pennhurst opinion precludes this Court from requiring state officials to abide by the Constitution. Indeed, Justice Powell specifically noted that the Court of Appeals did not consider the constitutional issues. Pennhurst, 465 U.S. at 94, 104 S.Ct. at 904. It is clear that the Eleventh Amendment does not bar a federal court from granting injunctive relief against state officials on the basis of federal claims. Ex Parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908). That case held that a suit challenging the constitutionality of a state official’s action is not one against the state and that, therefore, such a suit is not barred by the Eleventh Amendment. Id. at 160, 28 S.Ct. at 454. Therefore, the Court concludes that it does not lack subject matter jurisdiction and rejects that portion of defendants’ argument.

III. Preliminary Injunction.

Plaintiff has requested that this Court enter an order (1) mandating the application of Kansas regulations to plaintiff’s disciplinary hearings at ISP, (2) prohibiting Defendant Harper from rendering final decisions in disciplinary hearings, and (3) removing plaintiff from disciplinary and administrative segregation until such status is issued in accordance with the laws of Kansas.

The Eighth Circuit has enunciated a four-part standard of review in determining whether a preliminary injunction should issue:

[i]n such, whether a preliminary injunction should issue involves a consideration of (1) the threat of irreparable harm to the plaintiff, (2) the state of balance between this harm and the injury that granting the injunction will inflict on the other parties litigant, (3) the probability that the plaintiff will succeed on the merits, and (4) the public interest.

Dataphase Systems, Inc. v. C L Systems, Inc., 640 F.2d 109, 113 (8th Cir.1981). Therefore, the Court will proceed to analyze plaintiff's motion under this standard.

A. Irreparable Harm.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
645 F. Supp. 1119, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20450, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cameron-v-mills-iasd-1986.