By Declan McCullagh
CNet.com
FRACKVILLE, Pa. — A Pennsylvania prison inmate is waging a novel legal battle -- for a supposed First Amendment right to Facebook.
Mark Nixon, who is incarcerated in Frackville, Pa., filed a federal civil rights lawsuit after he was denied access to printouts of Facebook pages sent through the U.S. mail, which prison officials labeled “unacceptable correspondence” and discarded. A federal appeals court rejected his lawsuit on Friday, ruling that Nixon had not demonstrated that his First Amendment rights -- which are limited during his incarceration -- have been violated.
“Inmates’ right to receive and send mail can be restricted for legitimate penological interests,” the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. The judges noted the Facebook page rejections didn’t relate to Nixon’s “ability to access the courts to challenge his sentence or conditions of confinement,” and dismissed his complaint as merely “a single, isolated interference with his personal mail.”
Full story: Inmate sues over the ‘right’ to read Facebook from prison