Walker v. Cuomo

Mr. Walker suffered an onslaught of retaliation by prison guards, including physical abuse, loss of employment, and a murder threat, for attempting to file a federal civil rights complaint about the prison conditions. The district court erroneously held that the prison officers’ course of retaliation didn’t satisfy the adverse action element. The MacArthur Justice Center is fighting to ensure people in prison are not retaliated against for exercising their fundamental First Amendment rights. 

Mr. Walker brought a civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 alleging violations of his First Amendment rights. Mr. Walker was carrying his draft civil rights complaint when a prison guard read it, ripped it apart, and began an onslaught of retaliation against Mr. Walker. The draft civil rights complaint that the prison guard destroyed was an amended complaint in an ongoing federal civil rights action. When Mr. Walker told the prison guard he would complain about the destruction of his complaint, the prison guard threatened Mr. Walker that if he ever complained he would make sure that Mr. Walker would “end up dead or in the box.” Thereafter, this guard along with others, began an onslaught of retaliation against Mr. Walker including physical violence, death threats, loss of employment, and continued abuse and harassment. Mr. Walker was injured, terrified, and humiliated, all for trying to exercise his constitutional rights. 

In granting the motion for summary judgment, the district court erroneously concluded that the course of abuse failed to satisfy the adverse action element. It broke apart the entire course of retaliation and asked whether each separate act satisfied the adverse action element when it should have considered the entire course together to ask whether in total the actions would deter an ordinary person in prison from exercising their constitutional rights.  The MacArthur Justice Center represents Mr. Walker on appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to ensure that prisons do not retaliate against people for exercising their First Amendment rights.