PRISON OFFICIALS LOSE APPEAL OVER QUAYLE ALLEGATIONS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two former government officials trying to fend off a
lawsuit by an inmate who says he once sold marijuana to Dan Quayle lost a
Supreme Court appeal Monday.

The court, without comment, turned down the officials' argument that they
are entitled to immunity from the lawsuit. Inmate Brett Kimberlin says he
was wrongly disciplined just before the 1988 election to stifle his
allegation about Quayle.

In 1988, Kimberlin was being held at the federal prison in El Reno, Okla.,
for drug conspiracy and involvement in eight Indiana bombings.

Four days before Quayle was elected vice president on Nov. 8, the Bureau of
Prisons director at the time, J. Michael Quinlan, canceled a prison news
conference at which Kimberlin planned to say he sold marijuana to Quayle in
1972.

Quinlan ordered Kimberlin placed in special detention. On Nov. 7, the day
before the election, Kimberlin again was placed in special detention after
he tried to set up a telephone conference call with reporters in Washington.

Kimberlin sued Quinlan and former Justice Department spokesman Loye Miller,
saying they violated his constitutional free-speech rights.

A federal appeals court dismissed the lawsuit, but the Supreme Court
revived the case in 1995. Quinlan and Miller contended they were entitled
to immunity from the lawsuit, but a federal judge ruled against them in 1998.

Public officials are immune from being sued over their official acts unless
their conduct violated someone's clearly established rights.

Last December, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia ordered the lower court to consider whether there were disputed
issues about the officials' motives. If such issues exist, the court said,
the case should proceed to trial with no further pretrial appeals on
immunity questions.

In the appeal acted on Monday, the former officials' lawyers said the
appeals court's ruling placed an "unwarranted burden" on them and that the
court should have resolved the immunity issue itself. There is an
"uncontroverted record establishing that Quinlan and Miller acted
reasonably, and with no ill motive," their lawyers said.

The case is Quinlan v. Kimberlin, 00-13.