Davis v. Clinton

74 F. App'x 452
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedAugust 4, 2003
DocketNo. 02-6323
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 74 F. App'x 452 (Davis v. Clinton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. Clinton, 74 F. App'x 452 (6th Cir. 2003).

Opinion

ORDER

Ulysses S. Davis, III, proceeding pro se, appeals a district court judgment dismissing his civil rights complaint filed pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. This case has been referred to a panel of the court pursuant to Rule 34(j)(l), Rules of the Sixth Circuit. Upon examination, this panel unanimously agrees that oral argument is not needed. Fed. R.App. P. 34(a).

Seeking monetary and equitable relief, Davis sued over sixty defendants, including former United States President (Clinton), former Vice President (Gore), the Attorney General, the Governor and Lieutenant Governors of Kentucky, and numerous prison officials employed at three separate facilities where Davis has been incarcerated (the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex (LLCC), the Green River Correctional Complex (GRCC), and the Kentucky State Prison (KSP)). The defendants were sued in their official and individual capacities. Davis, who is currently housed at the LLCC, filed a twenty-nine page complaint, in which he alleged that the defendants have violated his First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Essentially, Davis claimed that: 1) the defendants violated his right to freely exercise his religion by denying him properly prepared and handled Halal meals; 2) the defendants violated his right to freely exercise his religion by forcing him to wear prison garb as opposed to his religious clothing, and by denying Muslim’s fairly allocated funding for Muslim “objectives and goals,” and by preventing Muslims from funding their own programs; 3) the defendants discriminated against him based on his race (African-American) and religious beliefs by providing better meals and treatment to white inmates (both Jewish and Catholics), and by denying him various prison jobs; 4) the defendants lost, destroyed, or stole various items of his personal property; 5) the defendants interfered with his mail by not delivering it; [454]*454and 6) the defendants retaliated against him for filing grievances and complaining about his treatment by frequently transferring him between facilities, by engaging in the above mentioned conduct, and by convicting him of “bogus” misconduct charges.

Upon initial review, the district court concluded that Davis did not establish that former President Clinton, former Vice President Gore, the Attorney General, the Governor or Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky were personally involved in the alleged violations or that they had condoned the alleged violations. The court also concluded that Davis did not state a claim with regards to prison attire, his failure to obtain certain prison jobs, or the loss of his personal property. Hence, the court dismissed these claims and the defendants associated with the claims. The court ruled that the action could proceed with respect to Davis’s claims concerning his religious diet and the alleged religious discrimination. The court did not specifically address Davis’s retaliation and mail interference claims. Subsequently, the district court dismissed Davis’s remaining claims against the defendants to the extent that Davis sued them in their official capacities, dismissed his “religious meal” claim because Davis did not exhaust his administrative remedies concerning that claim, and dismissed his religious discrimination claim as barred by Kentucky’s one-year statute of limitations.

Davis has filed a timely appeal, essentially reasserting his claims. He also argues that the district court improperly denied his request for the appointment of counsel.

Initially, we note that Davis has waived appellate review of his claims that he was convicted of bogus misconduct charges in retaliation for seeking redress from improper treatment and that the defendants interfered with his mail. This is so because he has not reasserted these claims on appeal. Issues which were raised in the district court, yet not raised on appeal, are considered abandoned and not reviewable on appeal. Buziashvili v. Inman, 106 F.3d 709, 719 (6th Cir.1997).

In addition, the district court did not err by denying Davis’s request for counsel because a review of the complaint reflects that he failed to state a claim for which relief can be granted. As such, there are no exceptional circumstances to justify the appointment of counsel in this civil action. See Lavado v. Keohane, 992 F.2d 601, 605-06 (6th Cir.1993).

The district court properly dismissed Davis’s complaint for a number of reasons. See McGore v. Wrigglesworth, 114 F.3d 601, 604 (6th Cir.1997). The Prison Litigation and Reform Act requires district courts to screen and dismiss complaints that are frivolous, fail to state a claim upon which relief may be granted, or that seek monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from such relief. 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b). In determining whether Davis’s complaint fails to state a claim, the court must construe the complaint in a light most favorable to the plaintiff, accept all the factual allegations as true, and determine whether Davis undoubtedly can prove no set of facts in support of his claims that would entitle him to relief. See Brown v. Bargery, 207 F.3d 863, 867 (6th Cir.2000).

The district court properly dismissed Davis’s claims against former President Clinton, former Vice President Gore, the Attorney General, and the Governor and Lieutenant Governors of Kentucky because he did not allege any facts indicating that these defendants participated in or encouraged the alleged misconduct. See Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Servs. of New York, [455]*455486 U.S. 658, 691-95, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978) Bellamy v. Bradley, 729 F.2d 416, 421 (6th Cir.1984).

The district court also properly dismissed Davis’s claim that he was improperly prevented from wearing religious garb on a daily basis. Although inmates retain their First Amendment right to exercise their religion, Cruz v. Beto, 405 U.S. 319, 322, 92 S.Ct. 1079, 31 L.Ed.2d 263 (1972), an inmate’s constitutional rights may be impinged by a prison regulation if the regulation is reasonably related to legitimate penological interests. Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 89, 107 S.Ct. 2254, 96 L.Ed.2d 64 (1987); accord Spies v. Voinovich, 173 F.3d 398, 403 (6th Cir.1999). Here, Davis acknowledged that the policy limiting the wearing of religious garb to religious holidays was imposed for security reasons, and thus the new policy is reasonably related to legitimate penological interests.

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

Related

Howe v. Howell
M.D. Tennessee, 2021
Moore v. Washington
E.D. Michigan, 2020

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
74 F. App'x 452, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-clinton-ca6-2003.