August Term, 2021

(Argued: March 30, 2022 Decided: March 20, 2023)

Docket No. 21-956-pr ______________

LEROY PEOPLES,

Plaintiff-Appellee,

–v.–

GINA R. LEON, OFFENDER REHABILITATION COORDINATOR/ORC; CLINTON CORRECTIONAL FACILITY, ELLEN E. ALEXANDER, BOARD OF PAROLE/COMMUNITY SUPERVISION, TINA M. STANFORD, CHAIRWOMAN; CHAIR/BOARD OF PAROLE,

Defendants-Appellants,

JANE DOE, COMMISSIONER; BOARD OF PAROLE/COMMUNITY SUPERVISION, JOHN DOE, COMMISSIONER; BOARD OF PAROLE/COMMUNITY SUPERVISION,

Defendants.

______________

Before: LIVINGSTON, Chief Judge, PARKER, and ROBINSON, Circuit Judges. ______________ Appeal from an interlocutory order of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (Kahn, J.) declining to grant Defendants- Appellants summary judgment with respect to their claim that the New York Board of Parole Commissioner who voted to impose special conditions of release and the Offender Rehabilitation Coordinator who recommended the conditions were absolutely or qualifiedly immune from suit. Because the Commissioner’s challenged acts were quasi-judicial, we conclude that she is absolutely immune from Plaintiff’s claims for damages. We do not address the Offender Rehabilitation Coordinator’s claim of absolute immunity, but conclude that she is qualifiedly immune from Plaintiff’s damage claims because the challenged conditions were not clearly unlawful at the time she recommended them. We REVERSE the order and REMAND for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

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KATE L. DONIGER, Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP, New York, NY (Joshua A. Matz, Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP, Washington, D.C.; Margaret M. Turner, Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP, New York, NY; Samuel Weiss, Rights Behind Bars, Washington, D.C., on the brief), for Leroy Peoples.

KEVIN HU, Assistant Solicitor General (Barbara D. Underwood, Solicitor General, Jeffrey W. Lang, Deputy Solicitor General, Kate H. Nepveu, Assistant Solicitor General, on the brief), for Letitia James, Attorney General State of New York, Albany, NY, for Gina R. Leon, Ellen E. Alexander, Tina M. Stanford. ______________ ROBINSON, Circuit Judge:

At issue in this appeal is whether a corrections professional who recommended that the Parole Board issue certain special conditions of release,

2 Defendant Gina Leon (“Leon”), and a Parole Board Member on the panel that imposed the conditions, Defendant Commissioner Ellen Alexander (“Alexander”), are absolutely or qualifiedly immune from claims challenging the constitutionality of those conditions and seeking monetary or injunctive relief. Plaintiff-Appellee Leroy Peoples (“Peoples”) sued Defendants-Appellants for violating his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights by recommending and imposing certain special conditions of post-release supervision that he contends are unconstitutional. The United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (Kahn, J.) denied in part Def