Paulley v. Wilson

WELLFORD, MILBURN and NELSON, Circuit Judges. WELLFORD, Circuit Judge. Plaintiffs-appellants Michael Paulley and Mary Phelps are currently inmates incarcerated at minimum security institutions in Lexington, Kentucky and PeeWee Valley, Kentucky, respectively. Appellants requested permission to be married to each other, but officials denied the request because the Kentucky Corrections Cabinet Policies and procedures do not allow an inmate to marry another inmate. Appellants then filed a pro se action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 seeking a declaratory judgment that the rule denying inmates the right to marry is unconstitutional. The district court dismissed the case sua sponte as frivolous, because of this court's prior ruling in Hudson v. Rhodes, 579 F.2d 46 (6th Cir. 1978) (per curiam), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 919 (1979). Hudson summarily ruled that an Ohio policy forbidding the marriage of prison inmates was not unconstitutional. See 579 F.2d at 46. We reverse on the authority of the recent Supreme Court decision in Turner v. Safley, U.S. , 55 U.S.L.W. 4719 (June 1, 1987), which calls into question the continued validity of Hudson v. Rhodes.