Steven v. Summers, Plaintiff-appellant, v. Gary W. Deland, Gerald Cook, John Does 1-6, Captain Tom Bonaand Richard Fischer, Defendants-appellees, 956 F.2d 278 (10th Cir. 1992)

Appellant Summers appeals the district court's granting of summary judgment to the appellees on his claim arising under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Because we conclude that the district court correctly granted summary judgment, we will affirm.

The appellant was a prisoner in Utah State Prison when he originally filed his complaint; he has since been released. Although the appellant based his complaint on several grounds, the only issue raised on appeal is that prison officials violated the appellant's civil rights by opening his privileged and nonprivileged mail.

As noted by the district court, the opening of nonprivileged mail does not violate the prisoner's constitutional rights if necessary to protect any of several valid government interests. Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U.S. 396, 413 (1973). The appellant also alleged in his complaint that one defendant opened a privileged letter. This defendant denied this allegation in a sworn affidavit. The appellant offered no evidence to challenge the affidavit. Therefore, for substantially the reasons articulated by the district court in its Memorandum Decision of July 1, 1991, summary judgment was appropriate. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(e).

Finding no error in the district court's granting of summary judgment, we AFFIRM the district court.¹  The mandate shall issue forthwith.