379 F.

3d 122

Marc RAMIREZ, Appellant

v.
Michael V. PUGH, Warden, LSCI-Allenwood; Janet Reno,
Attorney General; Kathleen Hawk, Dr., Director of the Bureau
of Prisons.
No. 02-2101.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued May 27, 2004.
Filed August 12, 2004.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of
Pennsylvania, James F. McClure, J. COPYRIGHT MATERIAL
OMITTED Vijay Shanker, (Argued), Covington & Burling, Washington,
DC, for Appellant.
Marc Ramirez, Allenwood LSCI, White Deer, PA, Appellant, pro se.
August E. Flentje, (Argued), United States Department of Justice, Civil
Division, Appellate Staff, Washington, DC, for Appellees.
Before RENDELL and COWEN, Circuit Judges and SCHWARZER, *
District Judge.
COWEN, Circuit Judge.

A federal prisoner at the low-security correctional institution in Allenwood,

Pennsylvania brought this action pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1331, challenging a
Congressional ban on the use of federal funds to distribute certain sexually
explicit material to prisoners, along with its implementing regulation. The
District Court rejected plaintiff's argument that the ban violates the First
Amendment and dismissed his complaint, finding the prohibition to be
reasonably related to the legitimate penological goal of prisoner rehabilitation.
Because we find that the District Court erred in resolving the constitutional
issue without an adequate factual basis, we will reverse and remand for further
proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I.
2

The Ensign Amendment, originally enacted as part of the Omnibus

Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1997, prohibits the use of funds
appropriated for the United States Bureau of Prisons (the "BOP") to "distribute
or make available any commercially published information or material to a
prisoner ... [when] such information or material is sexually explicit or features
nudity." Pub.L. No. 104-208, 614, 110 Stat. 3009-66 (1996). The amendment
has been reenacted in each subsequent appropriations act, and is now codified
at 28 U.S.C. 530C(b)(6). An implementing regulation promulgated by the
BOP defines the key terms of the amendment as follows: "sexually explicit"
means "a pictorial depiction of actual or simulated sexual acts including sexual
intercourse, oral sex, or masturbation"; "features" means that the publication in
question "contains depictions of nudity or sexually explicit conduct on a routine
or regular basis or promotes itself based upon such depictions in the case of
individual one-time issues"; and "nudity" means "a pictorial depiction where
genitalia or female breasts are exposed." 28 C.F.R. 540.72(b).1 The definition
of "features" includes an exception for material that contains nudity "illustrative
of medical, educational, or anthropological content." Id. As examples of
publications that do not "feature nudity," a 1996 program statement released by
the BOP cites National Geographic, Our Body, Our Selves, the swimsuit issue
of Sports Illustrated, and the Victoria's Secret catalog. Fed. Bureau of Prisons
Program Statement 5266.07 (Nov. 1, 1996). The regulations are clearly targeted
to the receipt by inmates of softcore and hardcore pornography.

Plaintiff Marc Ramirez filed suit in the Middle District of Pennsylvania in 1997,
naming as defendants the United States Attorney General, the director of the
BOP, and the warden of the Allenwood institution (collectively, the
"government"). Alleging that magazines addressed to him were rejected as
either being "sexually explicit" or "featuring nudity," Ramirez challenged the
constitutionality of the Ensign Amendment and its implementing regulation on
First Amendment grounds. After a series of procedural delays, the District
Court finally reached the merits of Ramirez's complaint on a government
motion to dismiss. Applying the familiar test for constitutional challenges to
prison regulations set out in Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 107 S.Ct. 2254, 96
L.Ed.2d 64 (1987), the District Court determined that the amendment and
regulations passed constitutional muster because they were rationally
connected to the government's asserted interest in prisoner rehabilitation,
prisoners still had access to a broad range of materials (including materials with
sexually explicit text), accommodating the asserted right to view explicit
materials would threaten the safety of correctional staff and other inmates, and
no ready alternative existed that would accommodate Ramirez's asserted right

at a de minimus cost to valid penological interests.

4

On appeal, Ramirez argues that the District Court erred in finding a rational
connection between the ban on pornography and rehabilitation in the absence of
any factual record, and in failing to engage in a "contextual, record-sensitive
analysis" before determining the ban's overall reasonableness under Turner.
The District Court had jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. 1331, and we exercise
jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1291. We review de novo the District
Court's decision to grant the government's motion to dismiss. Pryor v. National
Collegiate Athletic Ass'n, 288 F.3d 548, 559 (3d Cir.2002).

II.
5

In Turner v. Safley, the Supreme Court recognized an enduring tension between

two conflicting principles in operation whenever a prisoner brings a
constitutional challenge to a law or regulation affecting prison policy. The first
principle, that "[p]rison walls do not form a barrier separating prison inmates
from the protections of the Constitution," must be balanced against the practical
reality that the judicial branch is ill-suited for running the country's prisons, a
task committed to the particular expertise of the legislative and executive
branches. Turner, 482 U.S. at 84-85, 107 S.Ct. 2254. To strike an appropriate
balance between prisoners' exercise of their constitutional rights and the
institutional needs of prison administrators, the Supreme Court held that a
prison regulation implicating an inmate's constitutional rights must be
"reasonably related to legitimate penological interests" to be valid. Id. at 89,
107 S.Ct. 2254. The Court developed a four-part test for assessing the overall
reasonableness of such a regulation. As a threshold inquiry, "there must be a
`valid, rational connection' between the prison regulation and the legitimate
governmental interest put forward to justify it." Id. (quoting Block v.
Rutherford, 468 U.S. 576, 586, 104 S.Ct. 3227, 82 L.Ed.2d 438 (1984)). Courts
must then determine "whether there are alternative means of exercising the
right that remain open" to prisoners, and "[what] impact accommodation of the
asserted constitutional right will have on guards and other inmates, and on the
allocation of prison resources generally." Id. at 90, 107 S.Ct. 2254. Finally, a
regulation's reasonableness may be evidenced by "the absence of ready
alternatives" that would fully accommodate the constitutional right "at de
minimus cost to valid penological interests." Id. at 90-91, 107 S.Ct. 2254. These
requirements "serve as guides to a single reasonableness standard," but the first
"`looms especially large' because it `tends to encompass the remaining factors,
and some of its criteria are apparently necessary conditions.'" Waterman v.
Farmer, 183 F.3d 208, 213-14 (3d Cir.1999) (quoting Amatel v. Reno, 156 F.3d
192, 196 (D.C.Cir.1998)).

To date, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is the only
federal appellate court to have considered the merits of a First Amendment
challenge to the Ensign Amendment and its implementing regulation. In Amatel
v. Reno, 156 F.3d 192 (D.C.Cir.1998), that court rejected the challenge, finding
the restriction on the distribution of sexually explicit material to be reasonably
related to the asserted penological interest of prisoner rehabilitation. See 156
F.3d at 202-03. After identifying prisoner rehabilitation as the legitimate
penological interest advanced by the government, the court defined that interest
broadly. It reasoned that the government's power to inculcate values in contexts
such as public education transferred readily to the context of prison
administration, implicitly identifying the promotion of "respect for authority
and traditional values" as a legitimate rehabilitative purpose in and of itself. Id.
(internal citation omitted). Having done this, it found that "Congress might well
[have] perceive [d] pornography as tending generally to thwart the character
growth of its consumers," and that, as a matter of common sense, "prisoners are
more likely to develop the now-missing self-control and respect for others if
prevented from poring over pictures that are themselves degrading and
disrespectful." Id. at 199.

The Amatel court did not see the need for an evidentiary record, holding that its
own common sense was sufficient to verify the rational connection between the
Ensign Amendment's proscriptions and the asserted rehabilitative goal. Id. It
did, however, cite a body of scholarly research to support the reasonableness of
the proposition that pornography leads to male objectification of women, and
that certain types of pornography can lead to male aggression and desensitize
viewers to violence and rape. See id. at 199-200. The court determined that
none of the three other Turner factors undermined the overall reasonableness of
the Ensign Amendment and its implementing regulation.

Our own court has considered the constitutionality of a restriction similar to the
Ensign Amendment, albeit in a different context than the one here. In
Waterman v. Farmer, 183 F.3d 208 (3d Cir.1999), we upheld a New Jersey
statute that restricted prisoners' access to pornographic materials at a facility for
sex offenders who exhibited "repetitive and compulsive" behavior. After
identifying the legitimate penological interest at stake as the rehabilitation of
the state's "most dangerous and compulsive sex offenders," we evaluated the
connection between the statute and that interest in light of an evidentiary record
that included two expert affidavits from the facility itself. Those experts
testified that sex offenders' exposure to pornography would thwart specific
rehabilitative strategies and treatments administered by prison staff. Id. at 21516. In reversing a district court that had found the prisoners' experts "more
reasonable" than the government's, we cited Amatel for the basic proposition

that "as long as [a] statute is rational, it clears [Turner ]'s first hurdle." Id. at
217. At least within the specific context of the rehabilitation of recidivist sex
offenders, we also approved the Amatel court's use of common sense with
regard to whether a ban on pornography might encourage the development of
self-control and respect for others. See id. After examining the other Turner
factors, we upheld the New Jersey statute as being reasonably related to the
legitimate penological interest of sex-offender rehabilitation.
A.
9

We addressed whether the requisite rational connection between a prison

restriction and a legitimate penological interest can be found on the basis of
"common sense" alone in Wolf v. Ashcroft, 297 F.3d 305 (3d Cir.2002). In
Wolf, we reversed a district court's decision upholding a restriction on the
showing of R-rated and NC-17-rated movies in federal prisons. The district
court in that case found that no evidentiary record was necessary because we
had endorsed Amatel' s "common sense" approach in Waterman, and
summarily concluded that the restriction was "neutral and reasonable" under
Turner. We found the district court's opinion deficient because it never stated or
described the relevant penological interest (the government had asserted three
distinct interests: prison security, crime deterrence, and rehabilitation). Id. at
308. We also noted that while a court "need not necessarily engage in a detailed
discussion" of the connection between a prison policy and that interest, a "brief,
conclusory statement" is insufficient for evaluating the application of Turner' s
first prong. Id. Finally, we rejected the government's contention that such a
connection could always be found without an evidentiary hearing:

10

While the connection may be a matter of common sense in certain instances,

such that a ruling on this issue based only on the pleadings may be appropriate,
there may be situations in which the connection is not so apparent and does
require some factual development. Whether the requisite connection may be
found solely on the basis of "common sense" will depend on the nature of the
right, the nature of the interest asserted, the nature of the prohibition, and the
obviousness of its connection to the proffered interest. The showing required
will vary depending on how close the court perceives the connection to be.

11

Id. at 308-09. On remand, we directed the district court to "describe the interest
served, consider whether the connection between the policy and interest is
obvious or attenuated and, thus, to what extent some foundation or
evidentiary showing is necessary and, in light of this determination, evaluate
what the government has offered." Id. at 309.

12

Turning to the appeal before us, we find that the District Court erred in
evaluating the Ensign Amendment and its implementing regulation under
Turner' s first prong on a motion to dismiss, without any analysis or inquiry
into the interests involved and the connection between those interests and the
restriction at issue. First, although the District Court correctly identified
rehabilitation as a legitimate penological interest, see O'Lone v. Estate of
Shabazz, 482 U.S. 342, 348, 107 S.Ct. 2400, 96 L.Ed.2d 282 (1987), it did so
without adequately describing the specific rehabilitative goal or goals furthered
by the restriction on sexually explicit materials. Second, even though the
connection between the amendment and the rehabilitation of federal sex
offenders may be obvious under Waterman, that connection becomes
attenuated upon consideration of the entire population of BOP inmates, such
that a factual record becomes necessary for determining the rationality of the
amendment's overall connection to rehabilitative interests. On remand,
therefore, the District Court must first identify with particularity the specific
rehabilitative goals advanced by the government to justify the restriction at
issue, and then give the parties the opportunity to adduce evidence sufficient to
enable a determination as to whether the connection between these goals and
the restriction is rational under Turner.

13

While the obvious end of rehabilitation is the prevention of further lawbreaking

once offenders are released from prison, the scope of the interest itself has
never been defined by the Supreme Court. See Amatel, 156 F.3d at 209
("Unlike its interest in institutional security, the contours of the government's
interest in rehabilitation are quite amorphous and ill-defined.") (Wald, J.,
dissenting). Certainly falling within the legitimate bounds of the interest are
prison policies designed to target the specific behavioral patterns that led to a
prisoner's incarceration in the first place, or behavioral patterns emerging
during incarceration that present a threat of lawbreaking activity other than that
for which the prisoner was confined. To say, however, that rehabilitation
legitimately includes the promotion of "values," broadly defined, with no
particularized identification of an existing harm towards which the
rehabilitative efforts are addressed, would essentially be to acknowledge that
prisoners' First Amendment rights are subject to the pleasure of their
custodians. See, e.g., id. at 210 (arguing that under such a broad definition of
rehabilitation, lawmakers could constitutionally engage in viewpoint
discrimination by proscribing texts expressing disfavored positions) (Wald, J.,
dissenting). To the extent that the Amatel majority defines rehabilitation in this
way, we disagree with its reasoning. See id., 156 F.3d at 209 ("[T]o proceed on
some vague assertion of an interest in `rehabilitation' without the need to define
the term or to show a connection between the proscribed activity and the
chosen definition ... runs an overwhelming risk of overregulation.") (Wald, J.,

dissenting). While the actual right to view materials subject to the Ensign
Amendment's proscriptions might be significantly narrow in this case, courts
may not abdicate their responsibility to scrutinize carefully the government's
reasons for infringing that right.2 See Thornburgh, 490 U.S. at 414, 109 S.Ct.
1874 ("[Turner' s] reasonableness standard is not toothless.") (internal
quotation omitted); Amatel, 156 F.3d at 206, 211 ("[M]ore precisely, [the
standard] is not a license for lawmakers, any more than prison wardens, to
shortchange the constitutional rights that the Supreme Court has insisted
prisoners continue to possess.... If rehabilitation is to be deemed a legitimate
penological interest, the term must be given some shape, at least when it
collides with fundamental liberties.") (Wald, J., dissenting). As a preliminary
step in determining the extent to which evidence is required under Wolf where
the penological interest advanced by the government is rehabilitation, therefore,
a district court must describe with particularity the specific rehabilitative goal
or goals relied upon by the government to justify the challenged regulation. See
Wolf, 297 F.3d at 308 (rejecting "conclusory" statements that make it difficult
to determine what connection a court sees between the advanced penological
interest and a prison restriction).
14

We may gather from the District Court's reliance upon the scholarly works
discussed in Amatel that, at the very least, it believed the government's specific
rehabilitative goals to include the prevention of sex crimes and violence against
women. See Amatel, 156 F.3d at 199-200. Were the Ensign Amendment's scope
limited to federal prisoners who have committed sex crimes or violence against
women, the means-end connection would be sufficiently obvious such that the
first prong of Turner could be resolved on the basis of common sense. In
Waterman, we found the prohibition against sexually explicit material to be
clearly connected to the rehabilitation of recidivist sex offenders whose
demonstrated inability to control their sexual impulses had led to their
incarceration at the facility in question. See Waterman, 183 F.3d at 217 (noting
that restrictions on pornography foster the "deferring of sexual gratification, [ ]
sublimation of sexual impulses, [and] channeling of sexual expression into
long-term relationship of caring and affection" related to the "now-missing selfcontrol and respect for others") (quoting Amatel, 156 F.3d at 199). However,
we do not find the connection between the Ensign Amendment and the
government's rehabilitative interest to remain obvious upon consideration of the
entire federal inmate population, including those prisoners not incarcerated for
sex-related crimes. In this case, therefore, we believe Wolf necessitates the
development of a factual record. See Wolf, 297 F.3d at 309 (requiring an
evidentiary showing roughly corresponding to the degree to which the required
means-end connection is "attenuated").

15

By no means do we wish to suggest that the only legitimate target of the Ensign
Amendment is the class of convicted federal sex offenders. We recognize that
the government has wide latitude in pursuing legitimate rehabilitative goals;
courts may not substitute their own judgment in place of that of the legislative
or executive branches where the position advanced by the government is not
"irrational or unreasonable" but simply "less reasonable" than that of the
prisoner-plaintiffs. See Waterman, 183 F.3d at 216. In the absence of a factual
record, however, we cannot ignore the possibility that the proscription
rationally applies to such a small percentage of the BOP inmate population that
its connection to the government's rehabilitative interest "is so remote as to
render [it] arbitary or irrational." Turner, 482 U.S. at 89-90, 107 S.Ct. 2254;
Waterman, 183 F.3d at 213 (holding that the Turner test subsumes traditional
overbreadth and vagueness analyses). Determining whether there is a rational
link between sexually explicit material and the harms toward which the
government's overall rehabilitative efforts are directed requires more than a
conclusory assertion that the "consumption of [sexually explicit] publications [
] implicitly elevate[s] the value of the viewer's immediate sexual gratification
over the values of respect and consideration for others" and a generalized
statement that sexual self-control is relevant to the rehabilitation of the entire
class of federal prisoners.3 Amatel, 156 F.3d at 199.

B.
16

As to whether an evidentiary basis is required for the remaining three Turner

prongs, we repeat our observation that "we have historically viewed these
inquiries as being fact-intensive... [requiring] `a contextual, record-sensitive
analysis.'" Wolf, 297 F.3d at 310 (quoting DeHart v. Horn, 227 F.3d 47, 59 n. 8
(3d Cir.2000) (en banc)). Where the link between the regulation at issue and
the legitimate government interest is sufficiently obvious, no evidence may be
necessary to evaluate the other Turner prongs. See, e.g., Waterman, 183 F.3d at
217; but see Wolf, 297 F.3d at 310 (observing that the first prong does not
subsume the rest of the inquiry). In this case, however, we agree with Ramirez
that the third and fourth Turner factors cannot be adequately assessed in the
absence of an evidentiary foundation.4

17

The third and fourth Turner factors require consideration as to whether

accommodating the asserted right would have an adverse impact "on guards
and other inmates[ ] and on the allocation of prison resources," as well as a
determination as to whether alternatives exist that can accommodate the right
"at de minimus costs to valid penological interests." Turner, 482 U.S. at 90-91,
107 S.Ct. 2254. The District Court's apparent factual conclusion that
accommodation "would increase the risks of sexual crimes and misconduct

within the prison walls," is speculative and unsupported. The existence of a

possible "ripple effect" on the rehabilitation of prisoners legitimately targeted
by the Ensign Amendment could reasonably be disputed; certainly relevant to
this inquiry is whether those prisoners are housed separately from inmates
whose rehabilitation would not be affected. For the same reason, it does not
follow from our decision in Waterman that limited distribution can never be
conducted at de minimus costs to valid penological interests. See Waterman,
183 F.3d at 219 (finding the third and fourth Turner prongs satisfied because
the facility in question was insufficiently staffed to conduct case-by-case
reviews and prisoners were "more than likely" to pass materials among one
another); cf. Amatel, 156 F.3d at 213 (arguing that a return to the case-by-case
review embodied in the previously BOP regulation might not constitute an
additional administrative burden because prison officials are required under the
Ensign Amendment to examine each publication and determine whether it is
"sexually explicit or features nudity") (Ward, J., dissenting). Contrary to the
decision in Amatel, we believe this to be a case in which factual development is
necessary for evaluating the Ensign Amendment and its implementing
regulation under Turner. See Wolf, 297 F.3d at 310 ("[C]ourts of appeals
ordinarily remand to the trial court where the Turner factors cannot be assessed
because of an undeveloped record.") (citing Doe v. Delie, 257 F.3d 309, 317
(3d Cir.2001)).
III.
18

For the reasons discussed above, we find that the District Court erred in
determining that the Ensign Amendment and its implementing regulation were
reasonably related to the legitimate government interest of rehabilitation
without an adequate factual basis for so doing. 5 Accordingly, we will reverse
the judgment of the District Court entered on February 28, 2002 and remand
with instructions to conduct an appropriate proceeding before reevaluating the
amendment and regulation under Turner.

Notes:
*

Honorable William W Schwarzer, Senior United States District Judge for the
Northern District of California, sitting by designation

Before the Ensign Amendment's passage, BOP regulations governing the

distribution of sexually explicit publications permitted the warden of an
institution to reject material that "by its nature or content poses a threat to the
security, good order, or discipline of the institution, or facilitates criminal

activity." 28 C.F.R. 540.71(b)(7). These regulations are still in place to the

extent that they involve material falling outside the scope of 540.72(b)
2

Inmates have no right to receive materials that constitute obscenityMiller v.

California, 413 U.S. 15, 23, 93 S.Ct. 2607, 37 L.Ed.2d 419 (1973) ("[O]bscene
material is unprotected under the First Amendment."). However, materials that
constitute indecent sexual expression not rising to the level of obscenity are
constitutionally protected. Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U.S.
844, 874-75, 117 S.Ct. 2329, 138 L.Ed.2d 874 (1997). To the extent that the
Ensign Amendment and its implementing regulation target non-obscene
material, therefore, its proscriptions must satisfy the requirements of Turner. In
considering the evidence on remand, the District Court should be sensitive to
arguments that draw legitimate distinctions between prohibited materials that
are constitutionally protected. See, e.g., Amatel, 156 F.3d at 207-08
(maintaining that the government had provided no evidence that nonpornographic nudity has any effect on long-term rehabilitative interests) (Wald,
J., dissenting).

We further note that, "while a court can bolster its finding of a connection by
reference to decisions of other courts on the same issue," it must engage in at
least some independent analysis of whether the connection is rationalWolf, 297
F.3d at 309. We are unclear from its passing reference to "the scholarly findings
detailed in Amatel" whether the District Court actually examined and
considered the scholarship at issue, and therefore reject the argument that its
reliance on these findings was sufficient for establishing the requisite rational
connection.

With regard to the "availability of alternate means of exercising the right at

stake," factual development does not appear necessary because the relevant
right "must be viewed sensibly and expansively."Waterman, 183 F.3d at 219
(quoting Thornburgh, 490 U.S. at 417, 109 S.Ct. 1874). In the context of a
prison ban on certain publications, this criterion is met if the regulations
"permit a broad range of publications to be sent, received, and read."
Thornburgh, 490 U.S. at 418, 109 S.Ct. 1874. Concerns that such a ban is
overbroad because it does not further the rehabilitation of particular classes of
prisoners are appropriately addressed to Turner' s other three prongs.

We have not addressed the government's contention that the Ensign

Amendment and its implementing regulation satisfy theTurner criteria because
they are reasonably related to the legitimate penological interests of prison
security, deterrence, and punishment. Although the District Court mentioned
"institutional security" as an interest to which the ban on sexually explicit
materials was rationally connected and stated that accommodating the right

"would increase the risks of sexual crimes and misconduct," its analysis focuses
on the rehabilitative interest discussed in Amatel and Waterman. Cf. Mauro v.
Arpaio, 188 F.3d 1054 (9th Cir.1999) (finding a restriction on inmates'
possession of sexually explicit materials to be reasonably related to institutional
security under Turner). Therefore, whether other legitimate penological
interests might justify the Ensign Amendment's proscriptions is not properly
before us.