U.S. District Court: LITERATURE PUBLICATIONS.

• Position: Prisoners and prisons - Brief Article

Aiello v. Litacher. 104 F.Supp.2d 1068 (W.D.Wis. 2000). Prisoners brought an action on behalf of themselves and as representatives of a class of similarly situated prisoners contending that a policy enacted by the state corrections department that prohibited access to allegedly sexually explicit materials violated their rights to freedom of speech and due process of law. The district court denied summary judgment in favor of the defendants, finding that the regulation was an impermissible violation of the prisoner's First Amendment rights and that the defendants failed to establish that the regulation was not unconstitutionally vague. According to the court, the regulation prohibited access to "such great works of art and literature as Michelangelo, the Bible and Walt Whitman, as well as countless others whose depictions of nudity and sexual intimacy were enlightening and inspiring rather than 'degrading and disrespectful.'" The court found that the prisoners did...