Shaw v. Murphy, 532 U.S. 234

Case citation

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 (2001) is a decision of the United States Supreme Court

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

 rejecting the First Amendment right of prisoners to provide legal assistance to other prisoners.

Facts

While incarcerated, Murphy learned that a fellow prisoner was charged with assaulting a correctional officer. Murphy authored a letter to the accused prisoner offering legal assistance in his defense. The letter was intercepted pursuant to prison regulations and was reviewed, at which point Murphy was sanctioned for violating the prison's rule against interference in due process hearing. Murphy sought declaratory and injunctive relief from the district court, which applied the Supreme Court precedent from Turner v. Safley

Turner v. Safley

Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78 , was a U.S. Supreme Court decision involving the constitutionality of two prison regulations. Citing the reduced liberty and greater security needs of the prison context, the Court declined to use the strict scrutiny standard of review...

, 482 U.S. 78

Case citation

Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...

and ruled against the petitioner. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit reversed the decision.

Holding

Writing for a unanimous Court, Justice Thomas found that the district court had correctly applied the Turner standard, which upheld regulatory impingements on the constitutional rights of prisoners where the regulation is reasonably related to a legitimate penological interest. Under Turner, prisoner communication may be monitored and regulated, and the content of the communication (i.e., the legal advice) makes no difference in the assessment of the legality of the regulation.

Ginsburg's concurrence

Justice Ginsburg noted in her concurrence that the respondent argued on appeal before the Ninth Circuit that the regulation under which he was charged was vague and overbroad. Because the Ninth Circuit did not rule on the merits of that argument, Ginsburg argued that the remand for which the Court provided should not impede Murphy's ability to raise the issue of vagueness and overbreadth again.

External links

• Full text of the decision