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Brandon S. LaVergne v. Michael Vaughn, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, No. 19-30272 · judgment March 12, 2020


Certiorari denied · December 14, 2020
Pre-decision estimate: 0% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Questions presented

  1. Can a prisoner’s 1st amendment right to correspondence be totally “revoked” without a hearing or due process? This included all religious mail, educational mail, and some l egal mail while the prisoner was in solitary confinement.

  2. Should a state actor be granted qualified immunity for the mail block stated in question 1, especially when he wrote a false report to get that mail block?

  3. If a person allegedly sends out unwanted mail, is there a “reasonable relationship” under the “Turner Test” to block ah his incoming mad?

  4. Does the “Turner Test” apply to outgoing mail?

  5. If a prisoner in solitary confinement has no access to religious gatherings, is it a violation to block all his incoming and outgoing religious mail?

  6. Can a federal district court ignore a rule 56(c)(2) FRCP challenge to a motion for summary judgement?

  7. If a letter forms the basis of a prison disciplinary report, and the prisoner disputes the contents of the letter, was his due process rights violated when the prison refused to produce the letter at his disciplinary hearing, which lead to 6 months of disciplinary solitary confinement?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Brandon Scott Lavergne

For respondent
Elizabeth Baker Murrill
Office of the Attorney General

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Dec 14 2020
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Nov 24 2020
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 12/11/2020.
  3. Nov 17 2020
    Waiver of right of respondent Michael Vaughn, et al. to respond filed.
  4. Sep 05 2020
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due November 16, 2020)