United States Ninth Circuit

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit asserting that correctional officials denied plaintiff early release into community custody without affording him due process of law, grant of qualified immunity to defendants is affirmed where: 1) although Washington state law creates a liberty interest in an inmate's early release into community custody that is protected under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; nevertheless, 2) this right was not clearly established at the time of the facts giving rise to the case at hand.

Appellate Information

• Argued 04/17/2007
• Decided 06/09/2008
• Published 06/09/2008

Judges

• Before:  STEPHEN REINHARDT, RICHARD C. TALLMAN, and MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Tyler A. Baker, Todd Gregorian, and Heather N. Mewes, Fenwick & West, LLP, Mountain View, CA, for the plaintiff-appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Rob McKenna, Sara J. Olson, and Gregory J. Rosen, Office of the Washington Attorney General, Criminal Justice Division, Olympia, WA, for the defendants-appellees.