Doe v. Stover, et al., No. 13-10280 (11th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs challenged the district court's order dismissing as moot his lawsuit alleging that two Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officials violated his rights under the Eighth Amendment by being deliberately indifferent to the protection he required after he assisted the BOP in the investigation of its own officer in another city. The court concluded that the district court applied the wrong standard for rebutting the government actor's presumption. Applying the correct legal standard to the facts of plaintiff's case, the court concluded that his request for injunctive relief was not moot. The BOP has not met its "formidable" or "heavy" burden of establishing "that it is absolutely clear the allegedly wrongful behavior could not reasonably be expected to recur" or that the challenged conduct has been unambiguously terminated. The BOP has not met its burden to show that plaintiff would not be returned to a high-security BOP facility. Considering all the circumstances of plaintiff's case and applying the proper standard for evaluating voluntary cessation by a government actor, the court concluded that the BOP failed to carry its burden to demonstrate unambiguous termination of the challenged conduct. Accordingly, plaintiff's suit was not moot. The court reversed and remanded.
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