Thiel v. Nelson

OPINION and ORDER

CRABB, District Judge.

These are civil actions for injunctive and declaratory relief in which plaintiffs Dennis Thiel and Steve Burgess challenge a smoking ban enacted recently at the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston, Wisconsin. Plaintiffs are involuntarily committed at Sand Ridge pursuant to Wisconsin’s sexually violent persons statute, Wis. Stat. ch. 980. On December 7, 2005, defendants Helen Nelson and Steve Watters removed the actions to this court from the Circuit Court for Dane County, asserting jurisdiction under the federal question statute, 28 U.S.C. §…