On July 24, 1996, Donald W. Miliken, an inmate at the Airways Heights Corrections Center (AHCC) in Washington, filed a lawsuit pro se under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington against the Attorney General of Washington. Plaintiff eventually retained a private attorney. He claimed that the defendant violated his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights by failing to deliver the Prison Legal News, a publication to which he subscribed, without any notice of mail rejection. He had been previously receiving the publication while he was incarcerated at another facility, the Washington State Penitentiary. Miliken claimed that AHCC's bulk mail policy, which prohibited subscription publications from nonprofit organization, was unconstitutionally applied to his subscription to Prison Legal News.

On August 26, 1997, the district court (Judge Justin Lowe Quackenbush) granted plaintiff's motion for summary judgment and enjoined the defendant from prohibiting delivery of the Prison Legal News. Miniken v. Walter, 978 F.Supp. 1356 (E.D.Wash. 1997). The court also denied defendant's motion for summary judgment regarding qualified immunity and directed the parties to file statements as to an appropriate damage award. On October 15, 1997, Judge Quackenbush awarded plaintiffs nominal damages, attorneys' fees, and costs and stayed the request for punitive damages. Miniken v. Walter, 1997 WL 778753 (E.D.Wash. Oct. 15, 1997). On November 2, 1998, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed the appeal pursuant to stipulation of the parties that each would pay its own costs and fees.

Angela Heverling - 04/17/2006


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