A district court judge dismissed a civil rights suit brought pro se by an Ohio state prisoner who claimed that the prison officials violated her constitutional rights by housing her with various smoking inmates and housed her with smokers in retaliation for exercising her right of access to the courts.  The Court of Appeals concluded that the defendants met their burden re. the secondhand smoke claim by presenting evidence that they were not deliberately indifferent to Johnson” exposure to secondhand smoke.  The Court of Appeals also ruled that the defendants also met their burden of showing an absence of evidence to support the plaintiff’s claim of retaliation.  “Johnson was required, yet failed, to present significant probative evidence in support of the complaint to defeat the motion for summary judgment.”

(U.S.C.A. 6th Cir. 1999), 1999 U.S. App. LEXIS 4355.