Norbert v. City and County of San Francisco, No. 20-15341 (9th Cir. 2021)
Annotate this Case
San Francisco pretrial detainees filed a putative class action challenging conditions of confinement under 42 U.S.C. 1983, citing the denial of access to outdoor recreation and direct sunlight. The court enjoined some of the jail’s practices, finding the evidence inconclusive as to whether the lack of direct sunlight created a medical risk and that plaintiffs had not shown a likelihood of success in seeking exercise time outdoors. The policy of permitting general population inmates to receive 4.5-8 hours of day room time and 30 minutes of gym time daily was constitutionally sufficient but forcing pretrial detainees to live without direct sunlight for years was simply punishment. The court ordered the jail to provide one hour per week of direct sunlight to inmates who had been incarcerated for more than four years. The court dismissed the Sheriff’s Department as a superfluous defendant and dismissed individual defendants based on qualified immunity.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part. The government’s appeal was moot because the preliminary injunction order expired after 90 days, The district court did not err in denying greater preliminary injunctive relief; there is no bright-line test to determine if and when inmates are entitled to outdoor exercise. Plaintiffs did not show a likelihood of success on their “direct sunlight” claim given the district court’s extensive factual findings. The court held that it lacked appellate jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ cross-appeal of the dismissal of the Sheriff’s Department and the individual defendants.
Court Description: Prisoner Civil Rights. The panel (1) dismissed as moot defendants’ appeal from the district court’s preliminary injunction order; (2) affirmed, on cross-appeal, the district court’s denial of plaintiffs’ request for more expansive preliminary injunctive relief; and (3) dismissed, for lack of jurisdiction, plaintiffs’ appeal from the district court’s order dismissing certain defendants in an action brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by seven inmates at county jails in San Francisco alleging, among other things, violations of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, based on the City’s allegedly unconstitutional NORBERT V. CITY & CNTY. OF SAN FRANCISCO 3 practice of denying inmates housed in County Jail 5 access to outdoor recreation time and direct sunlight exposure. Plaintiffs challenged the City’s “complete deprivation of access to outdoor recreation and sunshine.” They requested that all inmates be given three hours per week of “outdoor recreation time” and one hour per day of out-of-cell time. The district court granted in part and denied in part plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction. The district court found that the evidence was inconclusive as to whether the lack of access to direct sunlight created a medical risk and that plaintiffs had not shown a likelihood of success on their constitutional claims seeking exercise time outdoors. Applying a totality of the circumstances framework, the district court held the City’s policy of permitting CJ5’s general population inmates to receive between 4.5 and 8 hours of day room time and 30 minutes of gym time per day was constitutionally sufficient. The district court also found, however, that under the Fourteenth Amendment, relevant to pretrial detainees, forcing people to live without direct sunlight for many years was simply punishment. The district court ordered the City to provide one hour per week of direct sunlight (which it defined as light “not filtered through a window”) to inmates in CJ5 who had been incarcerated for more than four years. In the same order, the district court dismissed the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department as a superfluous defendant and dismissed all the individual defendants based on qualified immunity. The panel first held that the City’s appeal was moot because, under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, the district court’s preliminary injunction order expired ninety days after entry, and there was no indication that plaintiffs moved the district court to extend its injunction past the 90-day period. Plaintiffs’ cross-appeal, however, was not moot 4 NORBERT V. CITY & CNTY. OF SAN FRANCISCO because plaintiffs were appealing the district court’s order to the extent it denied their motion for a preliminary injunction, which sought broader relief than what the district court issued. The panel held that, in light of this court’s precedents and on this record, the district court did not err in denying plaintiffs greater preliminary injunctive relief. Addressing the claim that plaintiffs were entitled to three hours per week of outdoor exercise time, the panel held that the district court correctly explained that there is no bright line test to determine if and when inmates are entitled to outdoor exercise. Outdoor exercise can be required, however, when otherwise meaningful recreation is not available. Here, the district court validly determined that the conditions at CJ5 did not resemble those extreme and degrading circumstances in which outdoor exercise has been required. Most inmates in CJ5 spend eight hours per day out of their cells between free time and programming. They can exercise in both the day rooms and gyms. And they have cell windows that permit in outside natural light, and gyms that allow in both outside light and ambient air. The district court reasonably concluded on this record that inmates were given constitutionally sufficient recreation time. The panel also rejected plaintiffs’ argument that the district court should have imposed a broader preliminary injunction that required three hours of direct sunlight per week for all inmates incarcerated more than six weeks. The panel concluded that on this record, plaintiffs had not shown a likelihood of success on their “direct sunlight” claim given the district court’s extensive factual findings, following an evidentiary hearing, that plaintiffs and their expert had not demonstrated a risk of material harm to human health arising from the light exposure in CJ5. NORBERT V. CITY & CNTY. OF SAN FRANCISCO 5 The panel held that it lacked appellate jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ cross-appeal as it pertained to the dismissal of the Sheriff’s Department and the individual defendants because orders appealing the dismissal of some defendants, but not all, are ordinarily not appealable and the requirements for pendent appellate jurisdiction were not met in this case.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.