A nonsmoking prisoner brought a civil rights action, alleging that prison officials violated his constitutional rights by denying him effective access to the courts and exposing him to ETS.  The District Court for the District of Colorado granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of the motion for summary judgment, ruling that Barry “presented no evidence that the levels of ETS to which he was exposed constituted ‘an unreasonable risk of serious damage to his future health.'”  The court also ruled that Barry produced no evidence that the prison officials were deliberately indifferent to his complaints about smoke.

1996 U.S. App. LEXIS 15937 (U.S.D.C. D. Colo. 1996).