THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 16, 1996 TAG: 9610160441
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 46 lines
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to free Virginia prison officials from having to notify a magazine's publisher each time an issue is withheld as inappropriate for inmate subscribers.
The justices, without comment, let stand a federal appeals court ruling that requires such notice.
Virginia's policy had been to notify affected inmates only, but the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last April said that policy violated a magazine publisher's free-speech rights.
The state's policy came under attack after two Keen Mountain Correctional Center inmates - Michael Flora and Donald Hodges - were told they would not be allowed to receive two 1992 issues of Gallery magazine.
Along with fiction and commentary, the magazine features photographic layouts of naked women. The magazine never has been deemed to be legally obscene, however.
Montcalm Publishing Corp., which publishes Gallery, intervened in the case after learning of the censorship.
A federal judge upheld the state prison policy, but the 4th Circuit court disagreed. ``We hold that publishers are entitled to notice and an opportunity to be heard when their publications are disapproved for receipt by inmate subscribers,'' the appeals court ruled.
In sending the case back to the trial judge to determine just how the notification process should work, the appeals court suggested that a copy of the notice given to inmates could be sent to the magazine's publisher.
The 4th Circuit court relied heavily on a 1989 Supreme Court decision that upheld federal prison regulations allowing inmates to subscribe to publications but allowing authorities to reject publications deemed harmful to security, order or discipline.
Those regulations require notice and independent review of the censorship decisions.
The case is Murray vs. Montcalm Publishing Corp., 96-156.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA PRISONS U.S. SUPREME COURT RULING
MAGAZINES by CNB