A nonsmoking prisoner brought a civil rights claim against the Governor of Rhode Island and officials at the Adult Correctional Institution in Cranston, RI, alleging that the defendants have a policy permitting inmates to smoke in their cells, thereby subjecting Pulley and other similarly situated prisoners to secondhand tobacco smoke.  The complaint, which  alleges violations of the Fifth, Eighth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments, states that Pulley suffers from sarcoidosis of the lungs and that his involuntary exposure to ETS aggravates his condition.  Pulley seeks an injunction to prevent the defendants “from exposing Plaintiff and all other similarly situated prisoners to the ‘toxic effect’ of environmental tobacco smoke.”

(U.S. Dist. Ct., Dist. of R.I.)(1996).