A Nebraska appeals court has affirmed a trial court's decision to dismiss a prison inmate's lawsuit against staff for confiscating his artwork because it contained nudity.
Christopher Payne, 37, accused the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services and three employees of violating his rights by not allowing him to keep the artwork or to mail it to someone outside of the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution where he was being housed.
He alleged that an operational memorandum that prohibits inmates from making items that depict nudity suppressed inmates' artistic expression of free speech and that prison staff violated his First Amendment rights by not allowing him to send and receive mail.
Payne sought monetary damages, punitive damages, an order releasing his artwork and invalidating the prison memo.
In 2015, Lancaster County District Court Judge Karen Flowers dismissed his suit, finding that Payne couldn't sue the department for damages, and that the Corrections Department had not violated his First Amendment rights when it prohibited him from possessing and sending the artwork in question.
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The judge found that the memo at issue was a preventative measure aimed at maintaining prison security.
Payne appealed.
On Tuesday, the Nebraska Court of Appeals affirmed Flowers' order, saying Payne hadn't shown he had a right to possess the drawings.
"Maintaining institutional security and preserving internal order and discipline are essential prison goals which may require the limitation of some of a prisoner's constitutional rights," Chief Judge Frankie Moore wrote in the opinion, citing a 1987 case.
Payne is serving a 40- to 50-year sentence on child sexual assault charges out of Douglas and Sarpy counties. He is at the Lincoln Correctional Center now, according to prison records, and isn't eligible for parole until 2025.