United States Third Circuit

In plaintiff's 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit against a state-run juvenile detention center and several of its staff members, claiming various constitutional violations for sustaining a tragic spinal cord injury while attempting to make a tackle during a "pick-up" football at the center, district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants is affirmed where: 1) district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the center and its staff in their official capacities is affirmed because the center is an arm of the state entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity; 2) district court's grant of summary judgment for the individual defendants on the merits of plaintiff's Eighth Amendment claim is affirmed because plaintiff has failed to show a substantial risk of serious harm that violates contemporary standards of decency and failed to show deliberate indifference; and 3) the court's adoption of the more-specific-provision rule obviates the need to address plaintiff's Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process claims.

Appellate Information

• Argued 05/18/2010
• Decided 09/13/2010
• Published 09/13/2010

Judges

• HARDIMAN

Court

• United States Third Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Robert Ross, John G. Knorr, III