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A Rough Day for Commissioner Fabian

By E.L. Lipman

On Monday, the same panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals rendered defeats to the Commissioner of Corrections, Joan Fabian, in two separate appeals.

In the first of the two appeals, the panel reversed a lower court dismissal of a suit for injunctive relief and money damages following the Commissioner?s denial of parole to one Lillian Simmons. The District Court had earlier dismissed these claims on the grounds that the Commissioner was absolutely immune from suit in such circumstances.

In the second of the two appeals, the panel affirmed a lower court ruling that the Commissioner could not sanction those inmates who were serving sentences for crimes that occurred before August 1, 1993, if those inmates refused to participate in prison-based sex offender treatment. The panel held that as to inmates like James John Rud, who was sentenced to a 463-month prison term in 1985, a 1993 statute that provided for the discipline of inmates who refuse to participate in prison-based treatment programs operated as an ex post facto law.

While the analysis and result in each case was no doubt constrained by parallel sets of existing U.S. Supreme Court precedent, both opinions narrowly frame the challenges (and powers) of the Commissioner of Corrections when administering the state prison system. In the Simmons case, for example, the panel credits the view that the judicial function of the state courts is particularly vulnerable to the chilling effect of claims for injunctive relief, but does not point to this same hazard when the Commissioner decides which inmates are to be released on parole. Similarly, in the Rud case, the panel discounted the Commissioner?s argument that prison-based treatment for convicted sex offenders was related to the maintenance of order in the state prisons or enhancing the safety of other inmates and prison staff.

Dicta aside, the win in each case adds to the many successes of Bradford Colbert and his team of lawyers and law students at LAMP ? Legal Assistance for Minnesota Prisoners.

The panel?s analysis in the Simmons case is accessible here and the Rud case, here.

Full post as published by Within the Scope on January 02, 2008 (boomark / email).