Tennessee prison regulations establish the inmates' fourteenth amendment liberty interest in visitation under the reasoning in both
Bills, 631 F.2d 1287, and the later, stricter requirements of
Thompson, 490 U.S. 454, 109 S.Ct. 1904.
The Tennessee prison regulations state that inmates “shall” have visitation rights and that visits “shall be limited only by the institution's space and personnel resources.”
Id. at No. 507.01, V.B. The Tennessee prison regulations require the warden to establish a visitation schedule “which includes at least the hours of one evening per week, Saturdays, Sundays and state holidays.” Tenn. Dep't. of Corrections Policy No. 507.01, VI.C.
In addition, the Tennessee regulations allow visitation rights to be suspended only upon a showing of “good cause.” Tenn. Dep't. of Corrections Policy No. 507.01, VI, Procedures, § E(5);
cf. Logan v. Zimmerman Brush Co., 455 U.S. 422, 430, 102 S.Ct. 1148, 1155, 71 L.Ed.2d 265 (1982) (“The hallmark of property, ... is an individual entitlement grounded in state law, which cannot be removed except ‘for cause’ ”). Because the plaintiffs' visitation rights were mandatory and could not be removed without good cause under the Tennessee prison regulations, they were liberty entitlements under the fourteenth amendment. Threats to remove this visitation right, in retaliation for the visitors' refusal to submit to an illegal strip search, violated clearly established law. Thus, qualified immunity does not bar plaintiffs' action for this alleged constitutional deprivation.