Inmate exonerated from prison disciplinary violation cannot bring federal due process claim

I know that federal judges love their jobs because they write opinions like this which parse constitutional case law in determining whether state prison regulations governing gang symbols violate the Constitution. The Court of Appeals sides with the state in this case, but not before taking a deep dive into whether an inmate was properly disciplined for possessing photographs of family and friends depicting perceived signs of gang affiliation.

The case is Williams v. Korines, issued on July 20. This case arose from Shawangunk Correctional Facility, which five or six miles down the country road from where I write this. Plaintiff was sent to solitary confinement for six months after a prison hearing found him guilty of possessing "gang insignia or materials" in the form of these photographs. The photos showed people with their hands in certain configurations that prison officials thought promoted the Crips. I note that one way that plaintiff defended himself at the hearing was to introduce magazine pictures of celebrities posing with their hands in the same position, to prove that there was nothing gang-related about these pictures.

Plaintiff wisely challenges his punishment on the basis that the state rules governing this misconduct are too vague and did not place him on notice that the photos were illegal. The Court of Appeals agrees the regulations contain broad language, but it also finds any reasonable inmate would have interpreted them to prohibit material associated with the Crips, as he had previously been punished in 2012 for possessing a birthday card that referenced the Crips' favorite color, blue. While the rules also prohibit the possession of "gang-related material," the court is not sure that rule prohibits non-written materials such as photographs,  but it finds that someone like plaintiff would have known that it included photographs.

Plaintiff also brings a due process challenge to the disciplinary findings of guilt. After the first hearing,  a state court granted his Article 78 challenge to those findings, and the case returned to the prison for a second hearing, where he was again found guilty. But the second findings of guilt were actually vacated by the Director of Special Housing because "circumstances surrounding the incident raise questions [about the] inmate's culpability." So plaintiff was cleared, a rare occurrence in the state prison system, I can tell you that.

While the first hearing may have been a due process violation, his confinement in solitary resulted from the second, undisturbed, finding of guilt. So the first hearing's challenge is moot. As for the second hearing, while plaintiff was ultimately cleared, that does not mean he has a due process claim under the Constitution. Innocence of any state regulatory violation does not translate to a constitutional violation, the Court of Appeals says, and plaintiff has not established, at least for due process purposes, that he did not receive proper notice of the disciplinary violation, or that the documentary evidence against him was tainted or unreliable for constitutional purposes.