article: On January 13, 2012, the Prison Legal News (PLN) filed a civil rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Oregon under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Columbia County. The plaintiff, represented by Human Rights Defense Center and private counsel, asked the court for declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as damages, claiming that the defendants' "postcard only" and "no magazine" policies for inmate mail violated the plaintiff's First Amendment rights, as well as the First Amendment rights of inmates at the Jail and their correspondents. Specifically, the plaintiff claimed that the policy resulted in the unlawful censorship of PLN's books and magazines, which are sent to individual subscribers in custody at the Columbia County Jail. The plaintiff claimed that these mailings were protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The plaintiff also alleged the defendants' "notice and appeal" policy for rejected inmate mail violated the plaintiff's Fourteenth Amendment procedural due process rights and the procedural due process rights of inmates and their correspondents. On May 29, 2012, Judge Michael H. Simon granted the plaintiff's motion for preliminary injunction in part, holding that the jail's policy likely violated the First Amendment. Judge Simon ordered the defendants to stop restricting all incoming and outgoing inmate personal mail to postcards only and to stop refusing to deliver or process inmate mail solely on the grounds that it is not on a postcard. Prison Legal News v. Columbia Cnty., 2012 WL 1936108 (D. Or. May 29, 2012). Judge Simon rejected the jail's arguments that the policy was rationally related to both safety and the efficient use of the jail's limited resources. On September 13, 2012, PLN moved for partial summary judgment on the claims for declaratory and injunctive relief and on the defendants' affirmative defense of failure to mitigate damages. These issues went to two separate trials in 2013: a bench trial and a jury trial. From February 5 to February 8 the parties argued before Judge Simon in the bench trial. The defendants argued that the rationale behind the policy was preventing the introduction of contraband and saving time during mail inspection. Following the trial, Judge Simon found that this rationale was not supported by the evidence. This was the first time a postcard-only policy went to trial, so it is the first available legal precedent that can be used in future litigation against postcard-only policies. On February 8, after the bench trial, Judge Simon asked the parties to submit post-trial briefing on several issues relating to the plaintiff's request for injunctive relief, including: the legal criteria for a permanent injunction; the application of the trial evidence to the legal standard; whether the Sheriff's credibility and limited political term impact the Court's analysis; and whether the injunction should be permanent or a limited term. On April 24, 2013, Judge Simon held that the jail's policy was unconstitutional. Judge Simon issued a Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law and entered the Final Judgment in favor of the plaintiff and against all defendants on May 28, 2013. Judge Simon permanently enjoined the defendants from restricting incoming and outgoing inmate personal mail to postcards only. Judge Simon also declared that inmates have a First Amendment right to receive magazines, and publishers have a First Amendment right to send magazines to inmates and have their magazines delivered. As such, the defendants' policy and custom of prohibiting magazines violated the First Amendment. Judge Simon also declared that that inmates and their unincarcerated correspondents have a Fourteenth Amendment right to procedural due process when the defendants reject their mail and that the defendants must notify an inmate and the unincarcerated correspondent when the defendants reject correspondence written by or addressed to the inmate, including a description of the rejected mail and the basis for the rejection. Prison Legal News v. Columbia Cnty., 942 F. Supp. 2d 1068 (D. Or. 2013). Subsequently, the plaintiffs moved to recover attorney fees and costs. On June 25, 2013, the defendants moved for the court to amend its Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, as well as for relief from the judgment. They claimed that the plaintiffs lacked standing for the claims, that the claims were moot based off of corrective actions taken, and that the postcard policy is not a violation of the First Amendment. They sought to have the declaratory judgment removed and claimed that the preliminary injunction should be found an unnecessary remedy by the court. On July 31, 2013, the court denied the motions and the findings and conclusions were left in place. The defendants appealed this decision to the Ninth Circuit in August 2013. While the appeal was pending, the court sent the parties to mediation. On March 24, 2014, Judge Simon in the district court granted the plaintiff's motion for attorney fees in part, awarding the plaintiff a total of $802,176.46 in attorney fees and expenses. 2014 WL 1225100 (D. Or. 2014). The appellate court then stayed its proceedings in order to give the defendants time to appeal the attorney fees decision. The defendants filed the second appeal in April 2014 and in June 2014, the appeals were consolidated. However, the defendants subsequently moved, unopposed, to dismiss the appeal. The parties may have engaged in settlement talks, but it is unclear why the defendants sought voluntary dismissal. The Ninth Circuit dismissed the appeal with prejudice on July 1, 2014 and the case is now closed. Each party paid its own costs for the appeal.
summary: On January 13, 2012, the Prison Legal News filed a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Oregon under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Columbia County. After a bench trial, the Court ordered the defendants to stop restricting all mail that was not on a postcard and to implement a notification process when mail is denied, and awarded the plaintiffs $802,176.46 in attorney fees and expenses.