Jordan v. Pugh

425 F.3d 820, 34 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1089, 62 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1025, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 20230, 2005 WL 2293799
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 21, 2005
Docket04-1095
StatusPublished
Cited by63 cases

This text of 425 F.3d 820 (Jordan v. Pugh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jordan v. Pugh, 425 F.3d 820, 34 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1089, 62 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1025, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 20230, 2005 WL 2293799 (10th Cir. 2005).

Opinion

McCONNELL, Circuit Judge.

Bureau of Prisons regulations say inmates may not “act as [a] reporter” or “publish under a byline.” 28 C.F.R. § 540.20(b). Plaintiff Mark Jordan is a federal inmate who was punished for publishing under a byline after he successfully submitted two articles for publication in a magazine. In this lawsuit, Mr. Jordan challenges the BOP regulations on several grounds, including unconstitutional overbreadth and vagueness. The district court granted the Defendants’ motion for summary judgment on Plaintiffs facial vagueness claim and on the individual defendants’ qualified immunity defense, which left Mr. Jordan with claims that the regulation is overbroad, that it is vague as applied, that it violates his First Amendment rights as applied, and that BOP officials punished him in retaliation for protected speech. - After entering final judgment on the facial vagueness claim and the qualified immunity defense, the court stayed the litigation pending appeal of summary judgment.

Rule 54(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure permits the district court to enter separate final judgment on one or more but fewer than all claims in a lawsuit if the claims are separable and distinct from the remaining claims and if there is no just reason for delay. Because the facial vagueness claim is not separable and distinct from the claims that remain before the district court, we lack subject matter jurisdiction and DISMISS the appeal.

I.

Mr. Jordan was a federal prisoner at the United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum (ADX), in Florence, Colorado at all times relevant to this lawsuit. During his incarceration at ADX, Mr. Jordan published two articles in OFF! magazine, a publication of Off Campus College at the State University of New York at Bingham-ton. After each article was published, officials at ADX sanctioned Mr. Jordan for violating the following regulation:

(a) An inmate may write through “special mail” to representatives of the news media specified by name or title (see § 540.2(b)).
(b) The inmate may not receive compensation or anything of value for correspondence with the news media. The inmate may not act as reporter or publish under a byline.
(c) Representatives of the news media may initiate correspondence with an inmate. Staff shall open incoming correspondence from representatives of the media and inspect for contraband, for its qualification as media correspondence, and for content which is likely to promote either illegal activity or conduct contrary to Bureau regulations.

28 C.F.R. § 540.20. According to prison officials, Mr. Jordan’s publications violated the rule that inmates may not “publish under a byline.”

Mr. Jordan describes his first article as an “experiential essay” in which he criticized the criminal justice system and complained about his conditions of confinement, including his treatment by BOP staff. Mr. Jordan submitted the essay sometime before April 3, 2001, and it was published in the Spring 2001 issue of OFF! under the title, “The Social Bonds of the Have-Nots.” The publication credited “Mark Jordan” as the author. Id. at 3, paras. 4-5.

*823 On April 3, 2001, several copies of the Spring 2001 issue of OFF! arrived in the ADX mail- room. The next day, Defendant Sellers issued an incident report informing Mr. Jordan that

several pamphlets entitled OFF! were received at this institution’s mail room ... addressed to several inmates housed at this facility, including yourself. [The pamphlet] contained an article written by yourself with the byline, “Mark Jordan.” In accordance with § 540.20(b), inmates may not act as a reporter or publish under a. byline. An inmate’s contact with the news media is regulated to insure the orderly and safe operation of the institution.

Incident Report, Apr. 4, 2001, Motion.to Dismiss, R. Doc. 47, Attachment 4, at 1. The incident report charged Mr. Jordan with violations of Code 327, “Unauthorized Contact with the Public,” and Code 399, “Conduct which Disrupts or Interferes with the Security or Orderly Running of the Institution.” See id.; 28 C.F.R. § 541.13, tbl. 3. On April 6, 2001, the Unit Discipline Committee (“the Committee”) found Mr. Jordan guilty of unauthorized contact with the public under Code 327 but found him not guilty of disruption or interference with prison security under Code 399. The Committee sentenced Mr. Jordan to 30 days of commissary restriction, which it suspended pending 180 days of clear conduct. After his disciplinary hearing, Mr. Jordan received his copy of OFF!.

During the disciplinary hearing, Mr. Jordan asked the Committee chairman, Defendant Rowlett, what he had done to violate the regulation. Mr. Jordan believed that submission of a manuscript was authorized by § 540.20(a) and (c), which allow inmates and the news media to correspond. Mr. Rowlett told Mr. Jordan that he could not publish articles under, his own name because inmates who might be offended by their contents could then identify the author, creating a security risk. Mr. Jordan proposed that in the future he would use a pseudonym in correspondence with the media in order to shield his identity. Mr. Rowlett told him that would be good.

Mr. Jordan appealed the Committee’s decision to the warden, Defendant Pugh, who denied the appeal on the basis of Mr. Jordan’s admission that he “mailed a personal experiential essay [he] had written to the editor of a publication titled ‘OFF.’ ” BP-229 Response, April 27, 2001, R. Doc. 47, Attachment 1 at 2. On May 1, 2001, Mr. Jordan appealed the warden’s decision to the regional office of the BOP. Id. at 3. The regional director denied the appeal on the grounds that Mr. Jordan received due process in the disciplinary action and the Committee’s ruling was supported by evidence that he was “the reporter of an article,” despite the policy that an “inmate may not act as [a] reporter or publish under a byline.” Reg. Admin. Remedy App. Resp., June 11, 2001, R. Doc. 47, Attachment 1, at 4. Mr. Jordan’s final appeal was denied on August .24, 2001. Central Office Admin. Remedy Appeal, Aug. 24, 2001, R. Doc. 47, Attachment 1, at 6.

In early September 2001, Mr. Jordan sent the editor of OFF! a second essay, which criticized the DNA Backlog Elimination Act of 2000, U.S. law enforcement schemes, and prison officials. Mr. Jordan requested that the essay appear under the pseudonym “Josef Shevitz” if the editor chose to publish it. The essay was published in the Fall 2001 issue of OFF! as “Beware! Surveillance Society, by Josef Shevitz.” It has also appeared in translation in two German publications, although Mr. Jordan never submitted the article to them for publication.

Despite Mr.

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425 F.3d 820, 34 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1089, 62 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1025, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 20230, 2005 WL 2293799, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jordan-v-pugh-ca10-2005.