Stephen L. Ustrak, Cross-Appellant v. James W. Fairman, Cross-Appellee

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• ruling that inmate’s letter to warden calling guards “stupid lazy assholes” and inviting them to “bring their fat asses around the gallery at night” was unprotected
• stating that nominal damages alone suffice “if only the fact and not the extent of injury is proved.”
• explaining that for claims sounding in tort, in order to recover more than nominal damages, plaintiff must establish both fact and extent of injury
• finding that a prison rule prohibiting “being disrespectful to any employee of the institution ... swearing, cursing, or us[ing] ... any other vulgar, abusive, insolent, threatening, or improper language” did not violate an inmate's First Amendment rights
• reversing award of compensatory damages because of “a complete failure of proof’

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).