Cert. Granted In Case That May Impact Prisoner Free Exercise Claims

Today the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Minneci v. Pollard, (Docket No. 10-1104) (Order List) to determine the extent to which prisoners may bring Bivens actions for violation of their constitutional rights against employees of private companies that contract with the federal government to operate federal prisons where the company employees have no direct employment relationship with the government. (Petition for certiorari.)  The 9th Circuit held that an action could be brought by an inmate against guards employed by the private contractor who failed to take account of plaintiff's injured arm in their treatment of him. (Background from SCOTUS Blog.) While the case does not directly raise prisoner free exercise issues, many prisoner free exercise claims involve religious diets in prisons where the food service is handled by outside contractors. The availability of a free exercise claim against these employees may well be impacted by the court's ultimate decision in Minneci. However, separately, damage claims in these free exercise cases are significantly limited by the provision in 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(e) that precludes a prisoner from bringing an action for mental or emotional injury without a showing of physical injury as well.