Prisoner was barred from pursuing, in Indiana state court proceeding, claims challenging prison policies prohibiting him from having more than 25 stamped envelopes and which did not allow him to possess a squeezable hygiene bottle in his cell, when the same claims had previously been rejected by a federal appeals court. He could not relitigate already decided issues. Higgason v. Lemmon, No. 77A01-0402-CV-71, 818 N.E.2d 500 (Ind. App. 2004). [N/R]
     Disciplining of prisoner for alleged assault on another inmate in a new disciplinary proceeding approximately a year after he had been found not to be the perpetrator in a prior proceeding was improper, as the issue was previously decided. An intercepted letter by the victim of the assault, which was ambiguous, was insufficient to constitute newly discovered material evidence sufficient to depart from this principal and reopen the case. Hernandez v. Selsky, 773 N.Y.S. 2d 178 (A.D. 3rd Dept. 2004). [N/R]
     Tennessee prisoner who unsuccessfully pursued prior federal lawsuit asserting essentially the same claim that his constitutional rights were violated by housing him in conditions exposing him to second-hand tobacco smoke and that he was subject to retaliatory transfer to a facility without a non-smoking section barred his present lawsuit in state court since the issues presented had already been decided. Sweatt v. Tennessee Dept. of Correction, 88 S.W.2d 567 (Tenn. App. 2002). [N/R]
     Prisoner could not pursue her claim that her retention in "TB hold" segregated housing, due to her refusal to submit to a tuberculosis test and prison's refusal to give her a requested vegetarian diet violated her right to religious freedom under the First Amendment. Both these claims could have been made in a prior civil rights lawsuit involving the same facts and same parties, but she did not raise them. Plaintiff, who had filed five "essentially similar" suits challenging these actions was enjoined from filing further lawsuits without prior court approval. Word v. Croce, 230 F. Supp. 2d 504 (S.D.N.Y. 2002). [N/R]