Sisney v. Kaemingk

CourtDistrict Court, D. South Dakota
DecidedJune 24, 2020
Docket4:15-cv-04069
StatusUnknown

This text of Sisney v. Kaemingk (Sisney v. Kaemingk) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. South Dakota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sisney v. Kaemingk, (D.S.D. 2020).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF SOUTH DAKOTA SOUTHERN DIVISION ***************************************************************************** * CHARLES E. SISNEY, * CIV 15-4069 * Plaintiff, * * vs. * MEMORANDUM OPINION * AND ORDER DENNY KAEMINGK, in his official * capacity as the South Dakota * Secretary of Corrections; * DARIN YOUNG, in his official * capacity as the Warden of the * South Dakota State Penitentiary; * SHARON REIMANN, in her official * capacity as an SDSP designated * Mailroom Officer; and * CRAIG MOUSEL, in his official * capacity as an SDSP designated * Property Officer, * * Defendants. * * ****************************************************************************** This case is upon remand from Sisney v. Kaemingk, 886 F.3d 692 (2018). Subsequently the case has been briefed and argued to the Court. Sisney makes both as applied and facial challenges to the current South Dakota Department of Corrections (DOC) pornography policy. Count V deals with Defendants’ rejection of seven specific publications which were to be delivered to Mr. Sisney, those being: Pretty Face Manga Comics, Volumes 3, 4, 5, 6, a book entitled Thrones of Desire, and another book, Pride and Prejudice: The Wild and Wanton Edition, and an art book entitled Matisse, Picasso and Modern Art in Paris. Count VI deals with Defendants’ rejection of nine pictures: ! Paradise by Michelangelo ! The Expulsion from the Garden by Michelangelo (Sistine Chapel ceiling painting, bay 4) ! Statute of David by Michelangelo ! Bronze The Creation of Adam and Eve by Lorenzo Ghiberti ! The Fall and Expulsion from the Garden of Eden by Michelangelo (Sistine Chapel ceiling painting) ! Study of the Resurrection of the Dead by Michelangelo ! Paradise Bronze by Michelangelo

The Report and Recommendation details the factual history of the case and those factual findings are adopted unless stated otherwise. The 2014 DOC “Pornography” policy in question “prohibits the purchase, possession and attempted possession and manufacturing of pornographic material by offenders in its institutions.”

The definitions are: Pornographic Material: Includes books, articles, pamphlets, magazines, periodicals, or any other publications or materials that feature nudity or "sexually explicit" conduct. Pornographic material may also include books, pamphlets, magazines, periodicals or other publications or material that features, or includes photographs, drawings, etchings, paintings, or other graphic depictions of nudity or sexually explicit material. Nudity: "Nudity" means a pictorial or other graphic depiction where male or female genitalia, pubic area, buttocks or female breasts are exposed. Published material containing nudity illustrative of medical, educational or anthropological content may be excluded from this definition. Sexually Explicit: "Sexually Explicit" includes written and/or pictorial, graphic depiction of actual or simulated sexual acts, including but not limited to sexual intercourse, oral sex or masturbation. Sexually explicit material also includes individual pictures, photographs, drawings, etchings, writings or paintings of nudity or sexually explicit conduct that are not part of a book, pamphlet, magazine, periodical or other publication. 2 DISCUSSION In reviewing the 2014 DOC Policy, the policy as applied is what must be considered. Even though the current policy does still contain the word “feature,” the policy as applied is that one word or one image is enough to get a book or other publication banned even though nudity or pornography is not “featured” in the publication or the image. This Court previously approved another prison publication review policy in 2003. King v. Dooley, 4:00-cv-04052-LLP, Docket No. 34 (D.S.D. June 16, 2003). How the King policy would apply to the publications in question is dicta. The only consideration of the King policy is to dismiss the Defendants’ claim that the King policy is essentially the same as the 2014 policy now under consideration and as an alternative policy. See Report and Recommendation detailing the differences, pp 36-41 (Doc. 105). In brief, the King policy did not apply to written materials nor to the manufacturing of images or objects. The King policy under its definition of “features” looked at the item in question in its entirety rather than, for example, censoring an entire book because of one page in the book even if that page was present not for its prurient interest but instead was a part of the narrative in the theme of the book. An example is the book Some Luck by Pulitzer prize winning author Jane Smiley. The book is a 395 page novel published in 2014 as the first of a trilogy dealing with the life of an Iowa farm family starting in 1920. The book was selected by the South Dakota Humanities Council for the One Book South Dakota program and thus read by a variety of reading groups. A couple of short scenes in the narrative theme of the maturation of Frank, one of the principal characters. The scenes would get the book banned under the current policy as it is applied. Those scenes are an integral, albeit brief part of the book and a part of Frank’s early experiences and not presented for any prurient interest. An as applied as well as a facial challenge is being analyzed where there has been no separate justification for the 2014 policy put forth by the Defendants other than broad general arguments. Court approval of the King policy is no basis for the approval of the present policy as they differ significantly. In addition, Defendants have not shown another approved policy in another jurisdiction that is as restrictive as this policy as it is applied. Turner analysis is applicable to both as applied and facial challenges. Thornburgh v. Abbott, 490 U.S. 401, 403, 109 S.Ct. 1874 (1989) 3 (considering both a facial and as applied challenge); Bahrampour v. Lampert, 356 F.3d 969, 975 (9th Cir. 2004). The ultimate Turner reasonable relation to legitimate penological interests test will be applied to each item. Turner provides four factors for the reasonable relations test. The factors have the same analysis for each of the items except as otherwise noted. The four factors need not be each given the same weight in each analysis. Under the first Turner factor, the governmental objective underlying the regulations is legitimate and neutral. The pornography policy is related to a governmental objective, but not reasonably so except in the instances of Manga Comics and Coppertone®. As for the second factor, there is no alternate means by which prisoners can exercise their First Amendment rights unless prisoners were evaluated individually and provided access according to their profile. For example, prisoners inclined to violence would get no violence related materials. See Murchison v. Rogers, 779 F.3d 682 (8th Cir. 2015) (single issue of Newsweek magazine banned to all the prison population for its strong depiction of gang violence). Child sex offenders would not get Coppertone® type ads or other similar materials. Although such specific limitations are possible, it is not reasonable for the courts to require that level of specificity from prison administrators. As a result, there are no reasonable alternate means by which prisoners could exercise their First Amendment rights. Third, what impact would the accommodation of Mr. Sisney’s asserted constitutional right have on others (guards and inmates) inside the prison.

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Sisney v. Kaemingk, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sisney-v-kaemingk-sdd-2020.