McGowan v. United States

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER

COGAN, District Judge.

This case raises some novel issues concerning the availability of remedies for the alleged violation of a prisoner’s right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment and corresponding remedies under the common law. Plaintiffs fundamental problem is that he approaches the case as if he were an ordinary citizen. He is not. Whether in a federal prison or a halfway house, he was at all relevant times a convicted felon in the custody of the United *384States, and any rights of redress have to be viewed from that perspective. I hold that on the…