Tripati v. Henman

Appellant Tripati presents us with the interesting question of whether a prisoner’s constitutional right of access to the courts encompasses the right to an adequate law library, to enable the prisoner to defend civil forfeiture actions. Unfortunately, he presents it on the wrong appeal.

In June 1986, Tripati filed a complaint against federal prison officials (action # 1), alleging the inadequacy of the law library at the Federal Correctional Institution at Tucson. On April 14, 1987, the district court, in granting the officials’ cross-motion for summary judgment, ruled that the law library…