UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
ANDREW JOHN WALKER,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
GEORGE W.SUMNER;
JOHN V. IGNACIO; LT. MILE E. LONG;
SGT. P.C. JOHNSTONE; H.L. WHITLEY,
Defendants-Appellees.
No. 92-15297
1993 U.S. App. Lexis 26517
July 14, 1993, ** Submitted, San Francisco, California
** The panel
unanimously finds this case suitable for submission on the record and briefs
and without oral argument. Fed. R. App. P. 34(a) and Ninth Circuit Rule 34-4.
October 6, 1993, Filed
NOTICE:
THIS DISPOSITION IS NOT APPROPRIATE FOR
PUBLICATION AND MAY NOT BE CITED TO OR BY THE COURTS OF THIS CIRCUIT EXCEPT AS
PROVIDED BY THE 9TH CIR. R. 36-3.
MEMORANDUM
In 1986, Andrew John Walker filed a complaint pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1982), alleging that his constitutional rights were violated when state prison guards forced him to submit to a blood test for AIDs by threatening to shoot him with a taser gun. Walker moved for summary judgment in 1991 after we reversed and remanded the district court's earlier grant of summary judgment in favor of the appellees. Walker v. Sumner, 917 F.2d 382 (9th Cir. 1990). Our decision to reverse was based on the fact that the state prison officials failed to show a legitimate governmental interest to justify a mandatory AIDS test, which required taking blood from all prisoners. Id. at 385-88. We declined to decide whether the threatened use of the taser gun to withdraw Walker's blood was unconstitutional since there was no proof of a legitimate governmental interest. Id. at 388 n.4.
Upon remand,
the district court found that the government had a legitimate interest in
mandatory AIDs testing and granted the appellees' motion for summary judgment.
Walker appeals.
For the
reasons stated in the district court's Memorandum Decision and Order filed
February 4, 1992, we agree that the defendants have established that the blood
test was reasonably related to a legitimate governmental objective. Moreover,
we conclude that given the compelling need to prevent the spread of the AIDs
virus, the threatened use of the taser gun did not violate Walker's
constitutional rights. See Michenfelder v. Sumner, 860 F.2d 328, 334-336 (9th
Cir. 1988) (threatened use of a taser to enforce compliance with a search
had a reasonable security purpose and
was not unconstitutional).
AFFIRMED.