Prisoner rights group prevails over Minnesota book policy

MINNEAPOLIS — A federal court in Minnesota sided with the Human Rights Defense Center in its First Amendment lawsuit against the state’s correctional department, which maintains a policy barring certain publications from being distributed to prisoners that is “not necessarily content neutral.” The state agency must develop guidelines for determining whether a book publisher or nonprofit may be a facility’s vendor, and may no longer ask potential vendors whether they provide books to other facilities or have had their permission to provide material revoked at another facility.Read the ruling here.Read our coverage of the hearing on this motion here and read about another Human Rights Defense Center win here.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads