United States Fifth Circuit

Retaliation against a prisoner is actionable only if it is capable of deterring a person of ordinary firmness from further exercising his constitutional rights. Summary judgment for defendants-prison officials in an inmate's suit brought under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 for alleged retaliation for his exercise of his First Amendment right to use the prison grievance system is vacated in part where the district court erred in finding that plaintiff's claims failed to allege more than a de minimis retaliatory act so as to establish a constitutional violation.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/15/2006
• Published 05/16/2006

Judges

• JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge:, Before SMITH, GARZA and PRADO, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• David Gene Morris, Tennessee Colony, TX, pro se.


• For Appellees:
  
• Seth Byron Dennis, Asst. Atty. Gen., Law Enforcement Defense Div., Austin, TX, for Defendants-Appellees.