Thomson v. Washington

The complaint in this Illinois state prisoners civil rights suit, filed pro se under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, charges prison officials with having confiscated the plaintiffs legal papers (including a brief in the Supreme Court of Illinois) thereby causing him to lose a number of lawsuits, denied him daily physical exercise and a prescribed diet (and incidentally caused him to lose 30 pounds in two months), subjected him to ambient cigarette smoke even though he is allergic to cigarette smoke, and retaliated against him for complaining about these and other conditions of his confinement by first placing him in solitary confinement and then a higher-security prison, all in violation of the federal constitutional rights of prisoners. The district judge dismissed the suit on his own initiative, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1), on the ground that the complaint failed to state a claim.