Inmate Loses Suit, but It Wasn’t Worth Two Bits

WASHINGTON — An inmate’s 20-cent lawsuit claiming prison officials overcharged him a penny per postage stamp was dismissed Friday by a federal judge, but not without some thought.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said he was tempted “to simply put two dimes in an envelope and mail them” to Michael Johnson at the District of Columbia’s Lorton prison in neighboring Virginia.

But he quipped that he felt constrained to write a three-page opinion on his reasoning behind the dismissal “lest the eagle eyes” of an appeals court “conclude there might be some merit” and open up a whole new area of constitutional rights.

He said Johnson, who is serving a sentence on a conviction of taking indecent liberties with a minor, pointed to no law or regulation that would prohibit the prison canteen from charging an extra penny for the 29-cent stamps it sells to inmates.