Johnson v. Moore

A nonsmoking inmate brought a civil rights action against the superintendent of a state correctional facility on the grounds, inter alia, that he was being double-celled with a smoker.  The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington entered summary judgment against the inmate.  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, ruling that the inmate had failed to establish deliberate indifference to his medical needs arising out of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke in that the prison authorities placed him “in a single cell where he would not be exposed to a cellmate’s smoking.  Accordingly, there has been no showing of ‘deliberate indifference’ to Johnson’s needs as is required to establish an eighth amendment violation.”