LEGAL MAIL POLICY
SHAVAR JEFFRIES, Clinic Fellow Jessica Yager and several of their
students in the Civil Litigation Clinic, Tom Dyas, Richard Giordano,
Risa David, and Kelly Day, also obtained a recent success in Allah
v. Brown. The case challenges the New Jersey prison system’s policy,
in place since the anthrax attacks of 2001, of opening legal mail
outside the presence of prisoners because of a purported threat of
anthrax contamination. On October 26, 2004, New Jersey District
Court Judge William H. Walls granted Plaintiffs’ Motion for Judgment
on the Pleadings with respect to their free speech and association
claim. The Judge held that the legal mail policy violated
Plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights. The Court found that “there is
no reasonable connection between the legal mail policy and the
Defendants’ asserted interest [in prison security].” Slip Op. at 6.
The Court ordered that the state “immediately cease and desist the
practice of opening inmates’ legal mail outside of their presence.”
Slip Op. at 8. Shortly after the issuance of the Court’s order,
Defendants filed a notice of interlocutory appeal and moved to stay
the order pending the appeal. The Center for Social Justice defeated
the motion to stay the order. Currently, Defendants have filed a
motion to stay the case with the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. We
have again opposed that motion. We are hopeful that we will
ultimately prevail, both on the stay application and the merits of
the appeal.
The case was featured in the New Jersey Law Journal. |
