United States Court of Appeals
                      For the First Circuit


No. 16-2444

                          JWAINUS PERRY,

                       Plaintiff, Appellant,

                                v.

     LUIS S. SPENCER, Commissioner; THOMAS DICKHAUT, Former
     Superintendent; ANTHONY M. MENDONSA, Former Deputy of
 Classification; JAMES J. SABA, Superintendent; ABBE NELLIGAN,
 Deputy of Classification; PATRICK TOOLIN, Correctional Program
    Officer; KRISTIE LADOUCEUR; CAROL MICI; THOMAS NEVILLE,

                      Defendants, Appellees,

                 JENS SWANSON, Property Officer,

                            Defendant.


          APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
               FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

              [Hon. M. Page Kelley, Magistrate Judge]


                              Before

                      Barron, Chief Judge,
    Lynch, Howard, Thompson, Kayatta, Gelpí, Circuit Judges.


     Rosalind E. Dillon, with whom Daniel Greenfield, Alexis
Garmey Chardon, Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center, and
Terry Garmey & Associates were on brief, for appellant.

     Nancy Ankers White, Special Assistant Attorney General, with
whom Sheryl F. Grant, Counsel, and Mary Eiro-Bartevyan, Counsel,
were on brief, for appellees.
     Claudia Pare, Melissa Giangrande, Matthew Marchiori, and
Hogan Lovells US LLP on brief for amici curiae Former Corrections
Officials.

     John P. Bueker on brief for amicus curiae Prisoners' Legal
Services.

     Mary B. McCord, Kelsi Brown Corkran, Amy Marshak, Seth Wayne,
Shelby Calambokidis, and Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and
Protection on brief for amici curiae Current and Former Prosecutors
and Department of Justice Officials.

     Nancy Gertner on brief for amici curiae Center for Law, Brain,
and Behavior and Neuroscientists.

     John J. Butts, Nina B. Garcia, Hannah E. Gelbort, and Wilmer
Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP on brief for amici curiae Terry
Kupers, Craig Haney, Pablo Stewart, and Stuart Grassian.

     Jennifer A. Wedekind, Carol J. Garvan, Zachary L. Heiden,
Gilles R. Bissonnette, Matthew R. Segal, Jessie J. Rossman, Areeba
Jibril, and Lynette Labinger on brief for amici curiae American
Civil Liberties Union and its state affiliates.

     Jaime A. Santos, William E. Evans, and Goodwin Procter LLP on
brief for amicus curiae Professor John F. Stinneford.

     Clark M. Neily III and Jay R. Schweikert on brief for amicus
curiae Cato Institute.


                        February 21, 2024


                         Opinion En Banc
            BARRON,   Chief    Judge.         This    appeal   concerns   Jwainus

Perry's challenge to the grant of summary judgment on his claim

under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the

United States Constitution.            See U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1

("[N]or shall any state deprive any person of . . . liberty . . .

without due process of law.").               Perry brought the claim in the

United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts

pursuant to 

 against officials of the Massachusetts

Department of Corrections ("DOC").                   He alleges that the DOC

officials violated his right to procedural due process by depriving

him of "liberty . . . without due process of law" during a portion

of his life sentence for first-degree murder under Massachusetts

law.   He alleges that the DOC officials did so by placing him in

solitary confinement for a total of nearly two years without

affording   him    either    notice     of    the    factual    basis   for    that

confinement or an opportunity for rebuttal.

            The   District    Court    granted       summary   judgment   to    the

defendants based on qualified immunity after determining that, at

the relevant time, clearly established law did not treat such

prolonged solitary confinement as a deprivation of a liberty

interest that the Due Process Clause protects.                 Perry v. Spencer,

No. 12-CV-12070, 

, at *16 (D. Mass. Sept. 30, 2016).

A panel of this Court affirmed that ruling.              Perry v. Spencer, 

 (1st Cir. 2018).           But the panel also ruled that, even


                                      - 3 -
if Perry's confinement did implicate a liberty interest that the

Due Process Clause protects, Perry failed to show that he had been

denied the process that he was due under clearly established law

at the relevant time.     

.       Rehearing the case en banc, we

affirm the District Court's grant of summary judgment to the

defendants based on qualified immunity.           We do so on the ground

that,   while   Perry   supportably    has   shown   that    his   segregated

confinement implicated a liberty interest and that the defendants

denied him the process that was due to him before depriving him of

that interest, there is no basis for concluding on this record

that it would have been clear to a reasonable corrections officer

that the confinement implicated a liberty interest. In so holding,

we clarify both the circumstances in which the use of solitary

confinement results in a deprivation of a liberty interest that

the Due Process Clause protects and the process that is due in

consequence of such a deprivation.

                                      I.

                                      A.

           On December 10, 2010, while Perry was confined in the

general   prison     population   at       the   DOC's      Souza-Baranowski

Correctional Center ("SBCC"), DOC officials "received an anonymous

informant letter."      Perry, 

, at *8.             The letter

alleged that "Perry had made threats against an inmate who was a

suspected gang member," would "'get anybody' from" a different


                                  - 4 -
gang "in retaliation for [a] knife fight he had been involved in"

two years prior, and had "motivated" another attack that had

occurred in the prison the previous month.               

             The same day, and following the letter's receipt, DOC

officials moved Perry from the general prison population within

SBCC to a Special Management Unit ("SMU") in that same facility.

.    The then-operative DOC regulations described an SMU as

"[a] separate housing area from general population . . . in which

inmates may be confined for reasons of administrative segregation,

protective custody, or disciplinary detention."                  103 MASS. CODE

REGS. § 423.06 (2007).

             The parties agree that prior to Perry's placement in the

SMU he was seen by medical staff and cleared for SMU placement, as

required by the DOC regulations.               See id. § 423.08(2)(a).         The

parties agree that Perry was thereafter held in an SMU for a total

of fifteen consecutive months -- spanning his time at both SBCC

and   another         DOC      facility,       Massachusetts      Correctional

Institution-Cedar Junction ("MCI-Cedar Junction") -- on "awaiting

action status."       Perry, 

, at *1, *9.

             The regulations then in place defined confinement on

"awaiting action       status"    as "confinement of an inmate in an

individual    cell,    which     may   be   . . .   in   a[n   SMU],   until   an

investigation is completed or hearing is held relative to a

disciplinary, administrative, or classification matter." 103 MASS.


                                       - 5 -
CODE REGS. § 902.01 (2007).         The regulations further provided that

an inmate may be placed in an SMU in various "instances," such as

when       the   inmate    is   "pending     investigation    for    disciplinary

offenses,"         "pending     transfer,"     or   "for     the    inmate's   own

protection."1        Id. § 423.08(1).      Perry was told at various points

during the fifteen months that he was confined in an SMU at either

SBCC or MCI-Cedar Junction            that he was      so confined       "pending

investigation," "pending classification," or "pending an out-of-

state placement."          Perry, 

, at *1.

                 Both the District Court and the panel in this case

described the conditions that Perry experienced in the SMUs during

the fifteen months as "akin to solitary confinement."                  Perry, 751

F. App'x at 8;            see also Perry,      

, at *1 n.3



       We note that inmates thought to pose "a substantial threat
       1

to the safety of others" or to "the operation of [the] facility"
could be placed in a Departmental Segregation Unit ("DSU") instead
of an SMU. 103 MASS. CODE REGS. § 421.09 (2007). Under the DSU
regulations, inmates could also be placed on "awaiting action"
status   in   "restrictive   confinement"   while   awaiting   the
Commissioner's decision regarding placement in a DSU, but in such
a case, the applicable regulations entitled inmates to receive
notice and a hearing or be released within fifteen or thirty days.
Id. § 421.08.     The defendants contend that these regulatory
requirements regarding confinement in a DSU did not apply to
Perry's confinement in SMUs.       We do not understand Perry's
procedural due process claim to be premised solely on the
understanding that the DSU regulations did not authorize his
segregated confinement, see infra note 12, and insofar as he may
be understood to be contending in part that there was a procedural
due process violation simply because the DSU regulations did not
authorize the confinement, that contention is without merit, see
infra Section III.A.1.


                                       - 6 -
("Notwithstanding         the      bureaucratic         nomenclature,        as     Justice

Kennedy has said, 'administrative segregation' is better known as

'solitary confinement.'" (quoting Davis v. Ayala, 

 (2015) (Kennedy, J., concurring))).                  Specifically, Perry spent

up    to   twenty-three       or   twenty-four        hours    per   day     alone      in   a

windowless cell,2 in which he ate his meals alone and from which

he was permitted to leave                 only for certain limited reasons,

including for outdoor exercise alone one hour per day five days

per week.      Perry, 

, at *4 & n.7, *5.                      He also had

limited visitation and phone privileges.                   

              The regulations required Perry to receive "SMU Reviews"

while he was in an SMU.              See 103 MASS. CODE REGS. § 423.08(2)(b)

(2007).       Those reviews ensured that "Perry received periodic

written notifications that he was on awaiting action status . . .

and    that   administrative         reviews       of    his   placement          had   been

conducted."         Perry, 

, at *11.

              The    regulations      did    not   require       that   Perry       receive

either notice of the factual basis for his placement in the SMUs

on    "awaiting      action     status"     or   an     opportunity     to    rebut      his

placement in them on that basis.                 See 103 MASS. CODE REGS. § 423.08



       The parties dispute whether, as Perry asserts, he was
       2

sometimes placed on "solid door status" while in the SMUs, meaning
that, as opposed to his cell being closed with a grille door, it
was closed with a solid door, such that he was surrounded by walls
on all four sides.


                                          - 7 -
(2007).      The regulations also did not place a limit on the time

that an inmate could be kept in an SMU on "awaiting action status."

See id.

             In March 2012, while Perry was still in the SMU at SBCC,

he   was    transferred      to   an   out-of-state    prison   facility   in

Connecticut.      Perry, 

, at *1 & n.4.          Approximately

six months later, he was sent back to DOC custody, at which point

DOC officials returned Perry to the SMU at MCI-Cedar Junction for

another four and a half months, from September 2012 to February

2013.      

   Then, too, the parties agree, Perry was held in the

SMU on "awaiting action status" and in conditions akin to those

that he experienced during his initial fifteen-month period of

confinement in SMUs.3

             In November 2012, two months after Perry was returned to

the SMU at MCI-Cedar Junction, the Supreme Judicial Court of

Massachusetts      ("SJC")    held     in   LaChance   v.   Commissioner   of

Correction that "an inmate confined to administrative segregation

on awaiting action status . . . is entitled, as a matter of due

process, to notice of the basis on which he is so detained; a


     3 Perry does not allege conditions of confinement more severe
than those outlined in the regulations.     The defendants allege
that "from July 28, 2011 through January 12, 2012," while Perry
was in the SMU at MCI-Cedar Junction for five months during his
initial fifteen-month stint in SMUs, he received some benefits
beyond those provided in the regulations, namely "the ability to
participate in GED Distance Learning" and "to purchase and possess
items" beyond those outlined in the regulations.


                                       - 8 -
hearing at which he may contest the asserted rationale for his

confinement; and a post[-]hearing written notice explaining the

reviewing authority's classification decision."           

 (Mass. 2012).       The SJC also held in LaChance that "in no

circumstances may an inmate be held in segregated confinement on

awaiting action status for longer than ninety days without a

hearing."    

.    A few months after LaChance was decided,

on February 19, 2013, DOC officials returned Perry to the general

prison population of a medium-security facility: MCI-Shirley.

Perry, 

, at *1 n.4.

                                     B.

            While Perry was still in the SMU at MCI-Cedar Junction,

he filed a handwritten pro se complaint in the United States

District Court for the District of Massachusetts on November 5,

2012, against various DOC officials.              Later, he filed a first

amended complaint on March 5, 2013.         Then, over a year later, and

with assistance of counsel, he filed a second amended complaint on

April 30, 2014, which we refer to as the "complaint."

            The complaint alleges that the defendants, collectively,

violated Perry's "right to due process, as secured by the Fifth

and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and 

,"   "his    right   to    equal    protection"   under   the

Fourteenth Amendment, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, 

 et seq., by placing Perry in SMUs in the conditions


                                    - 9 -
to which he was subjected for fifteen consecutive months and then

over four months thereafter without affording him the process that

the Due Process Clause requires.           The District Court on February

12, 2015, dismissed all the claims in Perry's complaint except for

his   procedural    due     process   claim,   which   the   District   Court

concluded   had    "set[]    forth    sufficient   factual   allegations   to

warrant discovery."         Perry v. Spencer, No. 12-CV-12070, 

, at *1, *6 (D. Mass. Feb. 12, 2015) (Sorokin, J.).4

            Following discovery on Perry's procedural due process

claim, the defendants filed a motion in December 2015 for summary

judgment based on qualified immunity.          The District Court granted

that motion. See Perry, 

, at *1 (Kelley, U.S.M.J.).

A panel of this court affirmed that ruling, Perry, 751 F. App'x at

8, and Perry thereafter filed a petition for rehearing en banc.

We granted the petition, vacated the judgment of the panel,

requested supplemental briefing, and then heard oral argument

following the parties' submission of such briefing.5




      The case thereafter proceeded before a magistrate judge upon
      4

consent of all the parties. See 

(c).
      5We acknowledge with appreciation the assistance of amici
curiae Former Corrections Officials; Prisoners' Legal Services;
Current and Former Prosecutors and Department of Justice
Officials;   the  Center   for   Law,   Brain,  &   Behavior   and
Neuroscientists; Terry Kupers et al.; the American Civil Liberties
Union and its state affiliates; Professor John F. Stinneford; and
the Cato Institute.


                                      - 10 -
                                   II.

            We often follow "a two-step approach" to decide whether

a defendant is entitled to summary judgment based on qualified

immunity.   Stamps v. Town of Framingham, 

 (1st Cir.

2016).    The first step addresses whether there is a genuine issue

of disputed fact that would allow a reasonable finder of fact to

determine that the defendant violated the plaintiff's federal

constitutional rights.    See 

    If there is, then we move on to

the second step, which addresses          whether the right that the

plaintiff    can   supportably   show     was   violated   was   clearly

established at the time of the defendant's alleged violation.        See

            We have discretion to bypass the first step           if we

conclude that the right was not clearly established at the time of

its alleged violation.     See Tolan v. Cotton, 

(2014) (per curiam); Pearson v. Callahan, 

 (2009)

(overruling Saucier v. Katz, 

 (2001)).         We decline to

bypass that first step     here,    however,    because of the stakes

involved in the use of prolonged solitary confinement and the

concomitant need to provide legal clarity in this area.              See

Pearson, 

.6


      6 Although Massachusetts prisoners do now enjoy more
procedural protections than Perry did, we are not barred here from
exercising our discretion to "clarify the legal standards



                                 - 11 -
                                    III.

          With   respect    to    the   first   step,   we    will   start   by

addressing whether Perry has supportably shown that a reasonable

juror could find that the defendants deprived him of a "liberty"

interest that the Due Process Clause protects. Because we conclude

that Perry has made that showing, we then will address whether he

has supportably shown that a reasonable juror could find that the

defendants   denied   him   the   "process"     that    he   was   due   before

depriving him of that liberty interest.           We conclude that Perry

has made this latter showing as well.           Our review at this first

step of the analysis is de novo.           Wilber v. Curtis, 

 (1st Cir. 2017).    We consider "the evidence in the light most

favorable to" Perry and "draw all reasonable inferences in h[is]

favor."   Hicks v. Johnson, 

 (1st Cir. 2014).


governing public officials" in this Circuit. Camreta v. Greene,

 (2011). Perry's claim presents a question that
will not "frequently arise in cases in which a qualified immunity
defense is unavailable," Pearson, 

, as we have no
reason to expect that it will often arise outside actions that,
like his, seek damages for at least some time spent in segregated
confinement.    Our step-two analysis also benefits from our
clarifying what the ordinary incidents of prison life are, the
kinds of segregated confinement that mark a dramatic departure
from them, and what the record shows about the kind of confinement
Perry endured.   

 (quoting Lyons v. Xenia, 

(6th Cir. 2005) (Sutton, J., concurring)) (recognizing that it is
proper to address step one when it is "difficult to decide" whether
the claimed right is "clearly established without deciding
precisely what the existing constitutional right happens to be")).
Moreover, in clarifying the applicable federal constitutional
framework, we resolve no contested point of state law. See, e.g.,
Tremblay v. McClellan, 

 (1st Cir. 2003).


                                   - 12 -
                                     A.

            In assessing the "liberty interest" component of the

inquiry, we will begin by reviewing the controlling case law that

establishes the standard that we must apply to determine whether

the solitary confinement at issue implicates such an interest.              As

we will explain, that standard requires that Perry show that the

confinement constitutes an "atypical and significant hardship"

relative to the "ordinary incidents of prison life."             We then will

review   the    precedent   that   helps    define     what   constitute   the

"ordinary   incidents   prison     life,"   before     also   addressing   the

precedent that helps define what constitutes an "atypical and

significant hardship." With those pieces of the analysis in place,

we will explain why we conclude that Perry has supportably shown

that the solitary confinement that he endured constituted an

"atypical and significant hardship."

                                     1.

            A   "liberty"   interest      that   the   Due    Process   Clause

protects "may arise from two sources -- the Due Process Clause

itself and the laws of the States."              Hewitt v. Helms, 

 (1983) (citing Meachum v. Fano, 

, 223–27

(1976)).    The Supreme Court of the United States has held that the

imposition of a condition of confinement in prison implicates the

first type of liberty interest -- one rooted in the "Constitution

itself, by reason of guarantees implicit in the word 'liberty,'"


                                   - 13 -
Wilkinson v. Austin, 

 (2005) -- only if the

condition "exceed[s] the sentence" in a particularly "unexpected

manner," Sandin v. Connor, 

 (1995).

              The Court has held that the imposition of a condition of

confinement implicates a liberty interest of this first kind in

the case of an inmate being placed in a mental hospital pursuant

to a transfer.        See Vitek v. Jones, 

 (1980).               It

has also held that          imposition of        a condition      of confinement

implicates a liberty interest of this first kind in the case of an

inmate being involuntarily administered psychotropic drugs.                      See

Washington v. Harper, 

 (1990).

              The Court has not held that a prison system's segregated

confinement      of    an   inmate     --   whether    for   administrative      or

disciplinary reasons -- implicates this first kind of liberty

interest.      See Wilkinson, 545 U.S. at 221–22.             But the Court has

held that the use of segregated confinement in some circumstances

implicates the second kind of liberty interest -- that arising

"from    an   expectation        or   interest   created     by   state   laws   or

policies."      

 at 221 (citing Wolff v. McDonnell, 

,

556–58   (1974)       (finding    liberty   interest    in    avoiding    loss   of

good-time credits earned under state-created system)).                    That is

the kind of liberty interest that Perry asserts is implicated here.

              The Court's path to this conclusion about segregated

confinement begins with Sandin.             There, the Court held that the


                                       - 14 -
thirty days of segregated confinement that the Hawaii state prison

system had imposed on an inmate as a disciplinary measure did not

implicate a state-created liberty interest.            Sandin, 

.   The Court reached this conclusion on the ground that

state-created liberty interests are implicated only by conditions

of confinement that "impose[] atypical and significant hardship on

the inmate in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life,"

, and that the segregated confinement at issue did not

impose such an "atypical and significant hardship," 

 at 486–

87.

          Sandin began the analysis that resulted in that key

"atypical and significant hardship" formulation by rejecting an

earlier line of cases that started with Hewitt.            The Hewitt line

of authority held that state regulations that restricted the prison

administrator's    discretion   to   impose   a   specific    condition   of

confinement in and of themselves could suffice to show -- by so

limiting the administrator's discretion -- that the imposition of

the condition implicated a state-created liberty interest of the

inmate who was subjected to it.        See 

 at 479–83 (describing

such cases).

          Sandin    explained   that   the    Hewitt   line   of   authority

wrongly "shift[ed] the focus of the liberty interest inquiry to

one based on the language of a particular regulation, and not the

nature of the deprivation." 

. Sandin therefore rejected


                                 - 15 -
any contention that the limitations that the Hawaii prison system's

regulations   placed    on    the       discretionary    imposition    of   the

segregated confinement at issue in that case in and of themselves

sufficed to demonstrate that the imposition of the confinement

implicated a state-created liberty interest.             See 

.

           Sandin went on to assess, however, whether the nature of

the segregated confinement at issue nonetheless meant that the

imposition of that kind of confinement implicated a state-created

liberty interest.     The Court then concluded that the imposition of

the segregated confinement there at issue did not because it "did

not present the type of atypical, significant deprivation in which

a State might conceivably create a liberty interest."               

.

Sandin    explained    that      the     imposition     of   such   segregated

confinement   --   given   the    confinement's       nature,   including   its

limited duration, and the prevailing conditions in Hawaii's prison

system -- was not a "deprivation" of that kind because it "did not

work a major disruption in [the inmate's] environment," 

 or a

"dramatic departure from the basic conditions" of the inmate's

sentence, 

.

           Sandin pointed in part to the "significant amounts of

'lockdown time' even for inmates in the general population."                

.   It pointed as well to the "conditions imposed upon inmates

in administrative segregation and protective custody," which the




                                       - 16 -
Court described as "totally discretionary" forms of confinement.7

           Thereafter, in Wilkinson, the Court applied Sandin's

"atypical and significant hardship" test for assessing when the

imposition of a condition of confinement implicates a state-

created liberty interest.      See Wilkinson, 

.          In

doing so, Wilkinson held that placing Ohio inmates in that state's

"supermax" prison based on their assessed "threat" levels did so.

See 

.       The Court explained that such placement

resulted   in   the   imposition   of   "an   atypical   and   significant

hardship" under "any plausible baseline."         

.    That was

so, according to the Court, because the placement of the inmates

in that facility subjected them to conditions at least as severe

as those akin to "most solitary confinement facilities"; did so

for an indefinite period; and, in doing so, rendered the inmates

ineligible for parole.     

.




      7 As Sandin's reference to "administrative segregation"
reveals, the terminology used to describe forms of segregation may
matter.    In some instances, courts will use "administrative
segregation" as Sandin did to distinguish it from either
disciplinary segregation or "protective custody," while in other
instances courts use the term "administrative segregation" to
refer to all forms of non-disciplinary segregation, see, e.g.,
Skinner v. Cunningham, 

 (1st Cir. 2005). In using
the term "administrative segregation" in what follows, we refer to
all non-disciplinary forms of segregation unless otherwise
specified.


                                   - 17 -
                                          2.

             It   is    clear    from    this       precedent,       then,     that   the

determination      of    when,   if     ever,       the   imposition      of     solitary

confinement less onerous than that at issue in Wilkinson implicates

a state-created liberty interest is partly a function of the

baseline that the "ordinary incidents of prison life" establish.

We thus need to describe what those "incidents" are.                          That is not

an easy task, given the available precedent.                         But, as we will

explain, certain clear principles do exist to guide the inquiry.

                                          a.

             Wilkinson observed that "the Courts of Appeals have not

reached consistent conclusions for identifying the baseline."                         

.       And, following Wilkinson, we similarly described

there   being     no    consensus     view:     "[s]ome     circuits      compare     the

confinement conditions to those of the general prison population,"

by   which   we   meant    those    faced      by    inmates       not   in   segregated

confinement; "others look to the conditions of nondisciplinary

administrative segregation;" and "[the Fifth Circuit] holds that

disciplinary      segregation       never     implicates       a    liberty     interest

unless it lengthens a sentence."               Skinner, 

.

             In addition, we note, the Second Circuit has adopted a

fact-specific baseline that, in assessing whether the severity of

the conditions makes them not ordinary, looks to the conditions in

both administrative segregation and the general population within


                                        - 18 -
the prison system at issue.     See Sealey v. Giltner, 

 (2d Cir. 1999).    And the D.C. Circuit, for its part, looks

to   the   most   restrictive   conditions   routinely   imposed   for

administrative reasons on inmates serving similar sentences in the

prison system at issue to determine what the ordinary incidents of

prison life are in that system.    See Aref v. Lynch, 

 (D.C. Cir. 2016). Finally, the Seventh Circuit, at least prior

to Wilkinson, looked to the conditions of the harshest facility in

the prison system at issue.     See 

 at 253-54 (citing Wagner v.

Hanks, 

 (7th Cir. 1997) (Posner, J.)).

           We have not purported in the wake of Skinner to assess

which, if any, of the baselines described above is the proper one

for defining the "ordinary incidents of prison life."     Nor have we

identified comprehensively what those "incidents" are.8




     8  Perry argues that our statement in a case regarding
revocation of supervised release that "Sandin's 'atypical
hardship' standard remains our lodestar" when "the baseline
liberty being deprived is that of the general prison population,"
González-Fuentes v. Molina, 

, 889 (1st Cir. 2010)
(emphasis added), established as the First Circuit's baseline the
conditions to which the "general prison population" is subject
when not held in administrative segregation. But that statement
served to distinguish prison-confinement cases in which Sandin
applies from cases involving "parole-like arrangement[s]" in which
Sandin does not apply at all. Id. Thus, González-Fuentes's dicta
about the baseline that Sandin deployed does not speak to the
question of whether the conditions of "the general prison
population" do or do not include periods of administrative
segregation to which members of that population may be subjected.


                                - 19 -
             We note, however, that although we attempted to describe

the various approaches of other circuits in Skinner, a careful

review of the state of the precedent from other circuits reveals

the limits of relying on the labels that have been ascribed to

baselines that the circuits have in fact identified.                     Indeed, even

when a circuit has been identified as having adopted a certain

baseline -- and thus a certain account of which incidents of prison

life   are   ordinary    --    a    fuller    review    of   that    circuit's      own

precedents    can   reveal     that     the   circuit    has   not       always   been

consistent in following that baseline.              See, e.g., DiMarco v. Wy.

Dept. of Corr., 

 (10th Cir. 2007) ("We note[]

that our circuit, in analyzing whether segregation is atypical and

significant,     has    used       inconsistent    standards        in   applying    a

comparative baseline.").

             We thus find it most fruitful, with respect to the

baseline issue,        to begin by reviewing the key Supreme Court

precedents in this area: Sandin and Wilkinson.                  As we will next

explain, that review reveals certain features of the "ordinary

incidents of prison life" -- and thus the baseline -- that other

circuits turn out to agree upon, no matter how they otherwise may

differ in describing that baseline.               And, as we will see, our own

approach in Skinner is itself consistent with that out-of-circuit

case law, thus affording clarity to the applicable law in that

respect.


                                       - 20 -
                                     b.

          As an initial matter, Sandin and Wilkinson lead us to

conclude that the "ordinary incidents of prison life" include only

the conditions of confinement for inmates within the state prison

system at issue, rather than the conditions of confinement that

may be imposed by other states on inmates in their custody.9              This

conclusion follows from Sandin's focus on whether the state itself

had   "create[d]"   the   asserted        liberty    interest   through   the

reasonable   "expectations"   to     which     the    state's   own   actions

(whether in the form of practices or policies) gave rise.             Sandin,

, 486 n.9.     This conclusion follows as well from



      9Although the Seventh Circuit early on suggested in dicta
that Sandin's logic "implies" that an inmate's conditions of
confinement might also be compared to the conditions in out-of-
state prisons to which they might be transferred, the Seventh
Circuit explicitly declined to "decide whether logic should be
pressed so far." Wagner, 

. Moreover, no circuit
has ever so held, and the Seventh Circuit, even when mentioning
this dicta, has consistently applied a state-specific standard,
see, e.g., Lekas v. Briley, 

, 609–10 (7th Cir. 2005),
and has cast some doubt on whether Wagner survived Wilkinson, see
Westefer v. Snyder, 

 (7th Cir. 2005)
(reversing district court's pre-Wilkinson finding of no liberty
interest based on Wagner and holding that, even if the conditions
at issue did not impose an "atypical and significant hardship under
any plausible baseline" as in Wilkinson, the district court would
have to "confront the issue of what does constitute the appropriate
baseline for the Illinois system").     We add only that a state-
specific standard for conditions of confinement makes sense, given
that, even if a state creates certain expectations related to out-
of-state transfers for inmates in its custody, the conditions that
inmates would then face when transferred to those other states are
determined solely by those other states themselves and the
expectations they in turn create.


                                - 21 -
Sandin's comparison in that case of the conditions of confinement

at issue there to only the conditions that other inmates in the

same state prison system might face.                

 at 486–87.     And this

conclusion     is     further   supported      by     Wilkinson,     which,    in

characterizing the "ordinary incidents of prison life," referred

to   a   "baseline    from   which   to   measure     what   is    atypical   and

significant in any particular prison system."             Wilkinson, 

 (emphasis added).

            Next, a review of Sandin, Wilkinson, and case law from

our sister circuits leads us to the conclusion that, within a given

prison system, segregated confinement (even when it amounts to

solitary confinement) may in some circumstances be an "ordinary

incident of prison life."         Indeed, Sandin itself concluded that

thirty days of segregated confinement did not impose an "atypical

and significant hardship" in relation to the "ordinary incidents

of prison life."      We note that Sandin based the determination that

the thirty days of disciplinary segregation at issue there "did

not work a major disruption in [the inmate's] environment" in part

on a comparison of those conditions to the "conditions imposed

upon     inmates     in   administrative      segregation     and    protective

custody."    Sandin, 

.         In fact, we know of no circuit

that holds that segregated confinement -- regardless of its nature

and length -- can never itself be an "ordinary incident of prison

life."


                                     - 22 -
              On the flip side, however, Sandin also indicates that

segregation less severe than that involved in Wilkinson is not

always an "ordinary incident of prison life," no matter its nature

and duration.           After all, segregation is often, in practice, a

form of solitary confinement, see Davis, 

 (Kennedy,

J., concurring), and solitary confinement is known to have serious

adverse psychological effects on those subjected to it, even when

it    persists    for     less   than   thirty      days,   see    Brief    of    Former

Corrections Officials as Amici Curiae at 18 ("Put simply, 'there

is not a single published study of solitary or supermax-like

confinement . . . for longer than 10 days . . . that failed to

result in negative psychological effects.'" (quoting Porter v.

Clarke, 

 (4th Cir. 2019))); see also In re Medley,

    (1890)     (commenting        regarding        solitary

confinement facilities nationwide that "[a] considerable number of

the prisoners fell, after even a short confinement, into a semi-

fatuous    condition       . . .    and    others     became      violently      insane;

others, still, committed suicide").                  For this reason, solitary

confinement, even if it takes a form that is less severe than the

form it took in Wilkinson, cannot be equated with those conditions

of confinement that Sandin considered to be so minor in their

adverse impact on inmates as to always be, by their nature, either

"ordinary        incidents         of      prison      life"        or     materially

indistinguishable         from     them.     See     Sandin,      

                                        - 23 -
(criticizing    cases     based   on    Hewitt     that    found     state-created

liberty interests in "receiving a tray lunch rather than a sack

lunch" or "receiving a paperback dictionary").

          In fact,        no circuit now holds that the bare legal

possibility    that   a    prison    administrator        may    impose   solitary

confinement less severe than that at issue in Wilkinson on a member

of the general prison population in and of itself makes any form

of solitary confinement an "ordinary incident of prison life" in

that prison system regardless of the nature and duration of that

confinement.     Rather, the         circuits agree that           even when the

conditions of confinement at issue in a given case are no harsher

than   those   that     may   obtain     in   "most       solitary    confinement

facilities,"   Wilkinson,      

,    and     even   when   the

regulations in a particular prison system permit officials to

subject members of the general population to solitary confinement

for administrative rather than only disciplinary reasons, the use

of solitary confinement can still constitute an "atypical and

significant hardship" rather than an "ordinary incident of prison

life" in that prison system.              See Aref, 833 F.3d at 254–55

("[D]uration itself is widely regarded as a crucial element of the

Sandin analysis." (citation omitted)).

          For example, even those circuits that purport to look to

"administrative segregation" as the baseline (rather than, say,

the conditions of confinement that members of the general prison


                                     - 24 -
population     experience         when    not      subject     to    such    segregated

confinement) have found in some circumstances that very lengthy

periods   of     segregation        imposed      an    atypical      and    significant

hardship solely based on their length.                 See, e.g., Shoats v. Horn,

 (3d Cir. 2000) (holding that eight years of

administrative        segregation        imposed      "atypical      and    significant

hardship"); Harris v. Caruso, 

 (6th Cir. 2012)

(same).     And, the Fifth Circuit, which is often cited for having

held that administrative segregation can never implicate a liberty

interest,      has    recognized         that   "extraordinary"         durations      of

administrative segregation are indeed not "ordinary incidents of

prison    life,"      and    that    district         courts    must    consider      the

combination      of    the    length     and    conditions      of     confinement    in

determining      whether      a     prisoner's        administrative        segregation

implicates a liberty interest.                  Compare Pichardo v. Kinker, 

 (5th Cir. 1996) ("[A]dministrative segregation as

such, being an incident to the ordinary life as a prisoner, will

never be a ground for a constitutional claim . . . ."), with

Wilkerson v. Goodwin, 

, 853–55 (5th Cir. 2014) (holding

that   39-year       stay    in   administrative        segregation         imposed   "an

atypical and significant hardship"), and Carmouche v. Hooper, 

 (5th Cir. 2023) (holding that district court

must "look[] at the length and conditions of confinement on a case-

by-case basis to determine whether they give rise to a liberty


                                          - 25 -
interest" and that there is no minimum period of time a prisoner

must be held in administrative confinement before he can show

atypicality,    and    reversing      a   district     court's    dismissal       for

frivolousness of pro se prisoner's claim for a violation of

procedural     due     process      arising     from    his    being      held    in

administrative confinement for over 300 days after serving a 30-

day disciplinary sentence).

            Moreover, our own precedent in Skinner -- though it does

not purport to take a position on the baseline debate -- is to

similar effect.        It rejected the claim that the forty days of

administrative segregation imposed on an inmate while he was being

investigated for murdering another inmate was an "atypical and

significant hardship."           430 F.3d at 486–87.      But Skinner did not

do so simply because the prison system regulations there at issue

permitted    administrative        segregation    of    that     duration    to   be

imposed for that reason.          Nor did Skinner suggest that forty days

of administrative segregation was somehow too short in duration

ever to qualify as an "atypical and significant hardship." Rather,

Skinner held as it did only after assessing the nature and duration

of the segregated confinement in relation to the reason for it,

ultimately concluding that "six weeks is hardly an excessive time

to conduct a preliminary inquiry into a murder."                  See 

(considering whether confinement at issue "was rational," whether

"its   duration      was   not    excessive,"    and   whether     "the     central


                                      - 26 -
condition -- isolation from other prisoners -- was essential to

its purpose").       Skinner therefore supports the notion that some

forms of administrative segregation of a certain nature or duration

may not be "ordinary incidents of prison life."

                                          c.

             The question therefore is this: Under what circumstances

does   a   particular      form    of   segregation        --    given    its   nature,

duration,      or      the        combination         of        its      nature       and

duration -- constitute an "ordinary incident of prison life" in a

particular prison system rather than an "atypical and significant

hardship" relative to those incidents?                     Here, too, Sandin is

instructive. It indicates that our focus must be on distinguishing

what is "ordinary" and "normally expected" from what is a "major

disruption" or a "dramatic departure" from the "basic conditions"

of the inmate's sentence.           515 U.S. at 485–87.               In other words,

Sandin     shows    that    segregation        will   constitute         an   "ordinary

incident of prison life" within a prison system if such confinement

(accounting    for    its    specific      nature     and       duration)     would   be

"normally expected" by            such an inmate in the general prison

population of that prison system.                Sandin, 

; see

also, e.g., Griffin v. Vaughn, 

 (3d Cir. 1997)

("[T]he baseline . . . is ascertained by what a sentenced inmate




                                        - 27 -
may reasonably expect to encounter as a result of his or her

conviction . . . ." (emphasis added)).10

               The ordinary incidents of prison life that would be

"normally expected," Sandin, 

, are those forms of

confinement that would "likely" be faced, Hatch, 184 F.3d at 858.

And, by "likely," we mean "not that the combination of events must

be more probable than not, but that there must be a substantial

chance    of    its   occurrence."     Id.    (emphasis   added);   see   also

Kalwasinski v. Morse, 

 (2d Cir. 1999) ("[T]he

district court must consider the periods of comparable deprivation

typically endured by other prisoners in the ordinary course of

prison administration, including general population prisoners and

those in various forms of administrative and protective custody."

(emphasis added) (internal quotations omitted))).




     10The D.C. Circuit is "unique in considering the duration of
confinement relative to similarly situated prisoners," Aref, 

, meaning those "serving similar sentences," Hatch v.
District of Columbia, 

 (D.C. Cir. 1999)
(articulating baseline as "the most restrictive confinement
conditions that prison officials, exercising their administrative
authority to ensure institutional safety and good order, routinely
impose on inmates serving similar sentences"). Given that, as we
hold below, Perry can supportably show that his confinement
implicated a liberty interest regardless of whether the baseline
is limited to similarly situated prisoners, we do not decide
whether the baseline may be narrowed in this way. We also do not
address circumstances in which a certain type of offender is
categorically consigned to solitary confinement for reasons that
are not specific to the individual prisoners.


                                     - 28 -
                                           3.

            Based    on     this   review       of    the   precedent      as   to   what

constitute "the ordinary incidents of prison life," we now turn to

the question of what the precedent shows with respect to when

segregated confinement constitutes an "atypical and significant

hardship" relative to those incidents.                      As is evident from our

review of the precedent thus far, the determination of whether a

specific form of segregation, at least when it amounts, as it often

does, to "solitary confinement," Davis, 

 (Kennedy,

J.,     concurring),      constitutes       an        "atypical      and   significant

hardship" usually will turn on specific showings regarding the use

of such confinement in the prison system at issue, Sandin, 

.     Nonetheless, some general observations are possible,

even for cases involving forms of segregated confinement that are

materially less severe than the form involved in Wilkinson, which,

of course, was a form of segregated confinement that the Court

there held constituted an "atypical and significant hardship."

See Wilkinson, 

.

            First,     at   least    when       the    solitary      confinement     that

grounds an inmate's procedural due process claim exceeds thirty

days,     that   confinement        will        constitute      an     "atypical     and

significant hardship" per Skinner if, in relation to the reason

for that confinement, it is "[ir]rational," "[in]essential," or

"excessive" in duration.            

.           This presumption is


                                      - 29 -
warranted because solitary confinement for longer than thirty days

imposes a meaningful hardship, and a member of the general prison

population would not reasonably expect to be subjected to such

unreasoned    uses     of    it.    This   is     not    to   say,    though,   that

confinement beyond thirty days constitutes a per se due process

violation.

             Second,    the    length     of    segregated     confinement      that

amounts to solitary confinement may make that confinement an

"atypical and significant hardship," based on the length alone,

when the inmate can show that "few" members of the general prison

population     have         experienced        similar    durations       of    such

confinement.11       See, e.g., Shoats, 

 (noting that

eight-year    stay     in    administrative       segregation        is   "atypical"

because "very few Pennsylvania prisoners have been confined in

administrative custody for periods of eight years or more"); 

(citing prison officials' testimony that only "one percent of the

inmate population at [the facility had] been confined in restricted

housing for such lengthy periods of time"); see also Jones v.

Baker, 

 (6th Cir. 1998) (Gilmin, J., concurring)


     11 We do not suggest, of course, that there are no other
circumstances in which such confinement could be shown to be an
"atypical and significant hardship." Additionally, a showing that
the prison system at issue rarely uses solitary confinement for a
comparable length for administrative purposes suffices to show
that confinement of such length in that system implicates a state-
created "liberty" interest where the challenged confinement was of
that kind.


                                     - 30 -
(finding liberty interest implicated because segregation for two-

and-a-half years "is clearly a rare occurrence" (emphasis added));

Lee v. Coughlin, 

 (S.D.N.Y. 1998) (holding

that 376-day stay in segregated confinement was atypical because

it   "was   longer   in   duration    than     99%    of    the    general   inmate

population who are ever sentenced to [segregated confinement]").

Although in so concluding we do not identify a minimum length of

confinement to which a plaintiff must have been subjected, we do

agree   that   the   showing   can    be   made      when    the   length    of   the

confinement is as long as the lengths identified in the cases that

we have cited for this proposition.

            After all, the procedural due process claim in such cases

seeks only to secure a procedural opportunity to challenge the

basis for the continuation of the challenged confinement, not to

bar the confinement's use for any length of time or purpose.                      And

we agree with the cases cited above that solitary confinement that

persists    for   the     lengths    at    issue     in     them   constitutes     a

"significant hardship."

            Third, as a matter of procedure and burden allocation,

the solitary confinement at issue also may be shown to constitute

an "atypical and significant hardship" based on its prolonged

nature even when the inmate makes no empirical showing as to the

frequency with which the prison system at issue imposes solitary

confinement of comparable length.             See Colon v. Howard, 215 F.3d


                                     - 31 -
227, 231 (2d Cir. 2000) ("Confinement . . . for 305 days is in our

judgment a sufficient departure from the ordinary incidents of

prison life to require procedural due process protections under

Sandin. . . . As to atypicality, we are unaware of any data showing

that New York frequently removes prisoners from general population

for as long as [] 305 days. . . . If New York could have shown

that [305 days was not atypical] . . . its opportunity to do so

occurred at trial.").      Indeed, even some circuits that look to

administrative segregation as the baseline have proceeded on the

understanding that long durations of segregated confinement are

"atypical" based simply on the lengthy nature of the duration

itself and thus without the inmate having made any additional

showing regarding the frequency of the use of such confinement.

See,   e.g.,   Harris,   

   (concluding   without

reference to empirical evidence that eight years of administrative

segregation was of "atypical duration" and so implicated state-

created liberty interest).

           We do not identify a minimum length for grounding such

a solely length-based showing that the segregated confinement

constitutes an "atypical and significant hardship."               But we do

agree with the precedents cited above that the lengths that were

involved in them were long enough supportably to show, based on

length alone and without any empirical showing by the inmate that




                                    - 32 -
such    confinement    is    used    only    rarely,    that     the    segregated

confinement was an "atypical and significant hardship."

             Of course, when the inmate's showing is based solely on

the length of the confinement, defendants -- who have greater

access to evidence concerning ordinary practices in a prison

system -- are free to attempt to rebut that showing.                   And they may

do     so   with    evidence    that        the   solitary      confinement      at

issue -- prolonged though it was -- is indeed an "ordinary incident

of prison life" in that state's prison system.                But, in the absence

of   the    defendants'     conclusively      making    any    such    showing   in

rebuttal, the length of the confinement itself can be long enough

to show supportably that the inmate subjected to it would not have

reasonably expected to be subjected to solitary confinement for

that length of time.

             Fourth, and again as a matter of procedure and burden

allocation, the state's own regulations, while not the source of

any liberty interest themselves, can inform the inquiry into

whether the solitary confinement at issue persisted long enough to

ground such a solely length-based showing that the confinement

constituted    an   "atypical       and   significant    hardship."        Indeed,

Wilkinson explains that Sandin's overruling Hewitt signaled a

"return to the due process principles . . . established in . . .

Wolff and Meachum," and those precedents treated the language of

state regulations, while not determinative, as relevant evidence


                                      - 33 -
in determining whether the state had "create[d] liberty interests

. . . protected by the Due Process Clause."                 Wilkinson, 

 (quoting Sandin, 515 U.S. at 483–84).

                Such a regulations-informed inquiry also accords with

how the SJC has applied Sandin.                   Specifically, as we noted up

front, the SJC considered in LaChance whether the ten months of

administrative segregation at issue in that case "exceeded the

bounds of reasonable confinement in administrative segregation."

.           In concluding that the ten months did exceed

those bounds, the SJC explained that ten months far exceeded any

of the ranges of time otherwise expressly contemplated by the then-

operative DOC regulations for how long an inmate could be held in

segregated confinement (including as discipline) before being

afforded notice and an opportunity for rebuttal, as the longest

such range spanned only ninety days.                

 at 1206–07, 1207 n.14.

Thus,     the    SJC   went    on   to   explain,    the   ten   months   of   such

confinement constituted an "atypical and significant hardship" in

that prison system because it lasted for more than ninety days.

.12


     12 Following Sandin's approach of looking to other forms of
segregated confinement if their conditions of confinement are
"substantially similar" or "mirror[]" each other, Sandin, 

 n.2, 486, the SJC in LaChance also looked to the DOC
regulations governing segregated confinement in a DSU, as the lower
court in that case had found that the conditions of confinement in
the DSU were essentially equivalent or even more severe than those



                                         - 34 -
            Using a state's own regulations to inform the durational

inquiry as the SJC did in LaChance helps to focus the inquiry on

the   reasonable     "expectations"     that     the    state's     own   laws   and

policies have generated about what an inmate reasonably should

understand to constitute the basic experience of prison life.                     A

condition of confinement constitutes an "atypical and significant

hardship" such that its imposition implicates a state-created

liberty    interest    when    that   condition        represents     a   "dramatic

departure"    from    those    state-generated     expectations.           And   the

state's own regulations may reasonably engender such expectations.

See Wilkinson, 

 (rooting state-created liberty

interests in individual "expectation[s]" created by "state laws or

policies"); Vitek, 

 (analyzing Meachum and related

prison-confinement cases from the perspective of whether "state

law" gave prisoners "justifiable" and "objective" expectations).

            Such a regulations-informed inquiry also accords with

Sandin's     admonition       "to   afford      appropriate       deference      and

flexibility    to    state    officials   trying        to   manage   a   volatile

environment."        

.          It does so by grounding the

determination about whether a particular duration of solitary




in the SMU. LaChance, 

. We agree with the SJC
that, under Sandin's logic, regulations governing "substantially
similar" forms of segregated confinement can also bolster the
conclusion that a particular duration of segregated confinement
would be "atypical."


                                      - 35 -
confinement is atypical due to its length alone in the state's own

judgments about how long such "totally discretionary" uses of

solitary confinement should be permitted to persist in related

contexts.    Id. at 486.

            We recognize that -- as was the case in LaChance -- there

may be no cap in the relevant state regulations on the length that

solitary confinement may be imposed for the specific reason that

the state has given for imposing solitary confinement in the case

at hand.    But we do not understand the absence of such a cap to

demonstrate that solitary confinement when imposed for that reason

is therefore an "ordinary incident of prison life" regardless of

its length or nature.          As we have explained, Sandin does not

suggest that solitary confinement -- at least when it exceeds

thirty days -- may be deemed an "ordinary incident of prison life"

just   because    there   is    a    bare    legal   possibility   under   the

regulations that lengthy solitary confinement may be imposed for

administrative reasons.        What matters under the Sandin standard is

whether the specific solitary confinement at issue -- given its

duration and nature -- would constitute a "dramatic departure from

the basic conditions" of prison life.            Id. at 485.

            Thus, we conclude, in accord with LaChance, that a

plaintiff   may   rely    on   the   state    prison   system's    regulations

supportably to show that the solitary confinement at issue is

atypical due to its length alone, at least when the challenged


                                     - 36 -
confinement is longer than thirty days.           A plaintiff may do so by

showing that such confinement exceeds the longest defined period

of time that the state's own regulations specify as the time by

which an inmate subject to comparable confinement must receive

notice    of   the   factual   basis   for   it   and   an   opportunity   for

rebuttal.13     When such a showing has been made, it is fair to

proceed on the understanding (if not rebutted) that such solitary

confinement is not an "ordinary incident of prison life" within

the state's prison system.       In addition, we agree with the SJC in

LaChance that state regulations need not speak directly to the

specific type of confinement or reason for confinement at issue to

show it to be an atypical and significant hardship; indeed,

LaChance, in considering a prisoner's confinement in an SMU while

on awaiting action status -- like the segregation faced by Perry

in this case -- drew on DOC regulations governing segregation in

a DSU pending a disciplinary investigation or proceeding.            See 

 n.14; cf. Haverty v. Comm'r of Corr., 

 We do not understand Sandin to foreclose the possibility
that solitary confinement for less than thirty days could in some
situations constitute "an atypical and significant hardship,"
whether because the conditions of the confinement at issue are
particularly severe, the "ordinary incidents of prison life" in
the prison system at issue are notably less severe than those that
the Court found characterized Hawaii's prison system at the time
of Sandin, or the use of the confinement is unreasoned.       Given
that the duration of Perry's confinement significantly exceeded
thirty days, we need not determine in what circumstances that might
be true.


                                   - 37 -
973, 991 (Mass. 2002) ("[T]he procedural protections contained in

[the DSU-specific regulations] must be afforded to all prisoners

before they are housed in DSU-like conditions.").

            None of this is to say that such state regulations

necessarily create a liberty interest (regardless of what showing

the defendants make) or that no such interest exists in the absence

of such regulations.      Sandin, as we have noted, rejected a purely

regulations-based focus in overturning Hewitt.          In that regard, we

agree with the Second Circuit that, wholly apart from what a

state's regulations provide, a "more fully developed record" might

show that "even relatively brief confinements" of more than thirty

days    "under   normal   [segregation]    conditions   [are],   in   fact,

atypical" in the prison system at issue.14       See Palmer v. Richards,

 (2d Cir. 2004).        Indeed, we note that the Second

Circuit has observed that "[i]n the absence of a detailed factual

record," it has affirmed dismissal of due process claims like



       Perry does not allege conditions of confinement more severe
       14

than those outlined in the regulations governing confinement in an
SMU.   However, we note that especially severe conditions of
confinement can also render an otherwise typical duration of
segregated confinement an "atypical and significant hardship."
See Aref, 

 ("[E]specially harsh conditions endured
for a brief interval and somewhat harsh conditions endured for a
prolonged interval might both be atypical." (quoting Sealey, 

)); cf. Hutto v. Finney, 

 (1978) ("[T]he
length of confinement cannot be ignored in deciding whether the
confinement meets constitutional standards. A filthy, overcrowded
cell and a diet of 'grue' might be tolerable for a few days and
intolerably cruel for weeks or months.").


                                 - 38 -
Perry's    "only    in   cases       where   the    period    of     time   spent    in

[segregated confinement] was exceedingly short -- less than the 30

days that the Sandin plaintiff spent in [segregated confinement]

-- and there was no indication that the plaintiff endured unusual

. . . conditions."         

       And, precisely because of the various

ways in which discovery might yield a record showing that more

than    thirty   days    of    confinement      "under      normal    [segregation]

conditions [are], in fact, atypical," 

 we can see why that

would be so.

                                          4.

            Against this legal backdrop, we now turn back to Perry's

contention that his segregated confinement implicates a state-

created liberty interest.              He makes various arguments in this

regard.

            Perry    first       argues      that    the     conditions      of     his

confinement "were essentially on all fours with those in Wilkinson,

and where they deviated, they were more severe."                     On that basis,

he   contends    that    Wilkinson      compels     the     conclusion      that    his

segregated confinement was "atypical and significant under any

plausible baseline."          Wilkinson, 

.

            The defendants respond that the solitary confinement in

Wilkinson differed from Perry's.                They point to the fact that,

among   other    things,      that    confinement     was    "indefinite,"        while




                                       - 39 -
Perry's was dependent on a named contingent event (his transfer

out of state).

           We need not resolve this dispute at this first step of

the   qualified   immunity   inquiry.     And   that   is   because   Perry

separately contends, and we agree, that the record supportably

shows that the solitary confinement to which he was subjected

constituted an "atypical and significant hardship" due to the

length of its duration and the absence of any showing by the

defendants as to how typical such a lengthy use of solitary

confinement was in the DOC.15

           As to this aspect of Perry's contention, the record

supportably shows that, as both the District Court and the panel

found, Perry's administrative segregation is properly understood

to constitute solitary confinement.       Perry, 

, at *1

n.3; Perry, 751 F. App'x at 8.          The record also shows that the

form of the segregated confinement was at least as severe as the




      15As to Perry's separate argument that the basis for his
initial and continued placement in the SMU was pretextual, we agree
with the District Court that Perry "has presented no facts to
support this assertion," and that there are therefore "no facts or
reasonable inferences sufficient to raise a genuine issue on the
propriety of placing and keeping Perry in the SMUs." Perry, 

, at *13 & n.31. We also note that, for reasons we will
explain in our analysis of step two of the qualified immunity
inquiry, there is no merit to Perry's contention -- raised for the
first time in his en banc briefing -- that the state's conduct
violated clearly established law based on our pre-Sandin ruling in
Stokes v. Fair, 

 (1st Cir. 1986). See infra at 25.


                                 - 40 -
segregated confinement at issue in Sandin;16 indeed, the record

shows     that   the   segregated   confinement    that   Perry   endured     is

comparable to conditions of confinement that the Supreme Court has

otherwise described as constituting "solitary confinement."                  See

Davis, 

 (Kennedy, J., concurring) (describing

inmate's "'administrative segregation' or, as it is better known,

solitary confinement," as his "be[ing] held . . . in a windowless

cell no larger than a typical parking spot for 23 hours a day; and

in the one hour when he leaves it, he likely is allowed little or

no opportunity for conversation or interaction with anyone"); see

also Wilkinson, 

.

             In addition to the nature of the confinement being

solitary     confinement,    the    record    shows,   with   respect   to   the

solitary confinement's length, that the length was "prolonged."

Perry, 

, at *15. Indeed, the segregated confinement

far exceeded the thirty days involved in Sandin.


     16 The confinement at issue in Sandin involved similar periods
of isolation and contained similar restrictions on exercise and
personal visits. See Petitioner's Brief, Sandin, 

,

, at *7-*8; compare 

 at *48A–*71A, with 103 MASS.
CODE REGS. § 423.09 (2007).    The record in Sandin also did not
reflect any use of "solid door status," which Perry alleges he
endured during at least part of his stay in the SMUs.           See
Petitioner's Brief, Sandin, 

, 

, at *48A–
*71A. Moreover, the Sandin court pointed to the twelve to sixteen
hours a day of "lockdown time" endured by members of the general
prison population as comparable to the confinement at issue there,
Sandin, 

 & n.8, which is significantly less than
the amount of time that Perry was required to spend in his cell
every day.


                                     - 41 -
           The defendants do contend in response to Perry's focus

on the length that the record conclusively shows that Perry's

confinement was necessary to its purpose even given its substantial

length.     The     defendants   emphasize   in   this   regard   that   the

segregated confinement was initially imposed, and then persisted,

due   to   safety     concerns   relating    to   Perry's   alleged      gang

affiliation.

           But, even if a reasonable juror could not find the

duration of the solitary confinement "irrational," "inessential,"

or "excessive" in relation to its purpose, Skinner, 

, there still is force to Perry's contention that the duration

of the solitary confinement was nonetheless "excessive" in the

sense that it imposed on him an "atypical and significant hardship"

due to its length.        True, Perry has not introduced empirical

evidence about how frequently (if at all) inmates under DOC custody

are held in administrative segregation for as long as he was.17

But, his fifteen months of solitary confinement -- even prior to

his initial out-of-state transfer -- is of such a length that it

suffices supportably to show that it imposed on him an "atypical


      17After the conclusion of supplemental en banc briefing and
oral arguments, Perry submitted a letter to this Court pursuant to
Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 28(j) contending that since
2015 -- which was after the SJC decided LaChance -- less than three
percent of Massachusetts state prisoners endure fifteen or more
consecutive days in solitary confinement, and that such
confinement is therefore "rar[e]."     Because this data was not
presented below, we do not consider it here.


                                  - 42 -
and significant hardship" in the absence of the defendants making

any contrary showing regarding the frequency of use of such

prolonged solitary confinement for administrative reasons.

           This conclusion accords with those conclusions that have

been reached by courts that have applied a baseline like the one

that we have now adopted.      See, e.g., Colon, 215 F.3d at 230-31

(holding   that     approximately     ten   months     of   administrative

segregation constituted an "atypical and significant hardship"

based on the extent of the duration itself).         And, we note, nothing

in the record indicates that a member of the DOC's general prison

population stands a "substantial chance" of being subjected to

administrative segregation for that long.            See id. (noting that

nothing in the record rebutted the conclusion that approximately

ten   months   of   administrative    segregation     was   "a   sufficient

departure from the ordinary incidents of prison life to require

procedural due process protections under Sandin").

           This conclusion draws independent support from the DOC

regulations that governed administrative segregation in the SMU at

the time of Perry's confinement. Those regulations did not provide

that the inmates in DOC who were on "awaiting action status" had

to receive notice of the factual basis for their confinement and

an opportunity for rebuttal.        Nor did those regulations place any

cap on how long such confinement could persist for inmates being

held while on that status.      See 103 MASS. CODE REGS. § 423.08(2)


                                - 43 -
(2007).    Those regulations, however, did entitle inmates confined

in the SMU for disciplinary investigation to be either formally

charged with a disciplinary offense -- thus entitling them to

notice and a hearing, id. § 430.11 -- or released from the SMU

within ninety days, id. § 430.21(2).       Moreover, those regulations

provided that even inmates subjected to disciplinary detention in

an SMU upon a formal finding of wrongdoing could not be so detained

for more than fifteen days for one offense or thirty days for

multiple     offenses   "unless   specifically   authorized   by     the

commissioner" after a disciplinary proceeding. Id. § 423.06. And,

finally, the DOC regulations then in place provided that inmates

who were on awaiting action status while awaiting a final decision

regarding their potential placement in a DSU had to be afforded a

hearing within fifteen days, or within thirty days if they were

under investigation for a possible disciplinary offense.           Id. §

421.08(3).    We thus conclude that, given the regulations then in

place, a duration of solitary confinement of more than ninety days

is certainly long enough to make such confinement an "atypical and

significant hardship" within the prison system at issue in Perry's

case, at least in the absence of a showing by the defendants

regarding the frequency with which inmates in that system are

subjected to such lengthy confinement for administrative reasons.

           We note, too, that insofar as the defendants "could have

shown" that it was not "atypical" for members of the general prison


                                  - 44 -
population to be held in administrative segregation of the sort

that    Perry   endured   for    a   comparable   period,   they   have   not

identified evidence in the record that conclusively does so.              See

Colon, 215 F.3d at 231.         Therefore, their "opportunity to do so"

would "occur[] at trial."        Id.

                                       B.

            Having established that Perry has supportably shown that

his confinement implicated a "liberty" interest, we next must

determine -- still at the first step of the qualified immunity

inquiry -- whether a reasonable juror also could find that Perry

was denied the process that he was due in consequence under the

Due Process Clause.18       As we will explain, we conclude that a

reasonable juror could.




       The defendants contend that Perry has waived this objection
       18

because his pro se brief to the panel argued only that "he should
have been afforded process outlined in" certain state regulations
that did not apply to his particular placement, and that he did
not otherwise argue what process was "mandated by the
Constitution."   But Perry did in his opening brief cite both
Mathews and Wilkinson to argue that he received "no notice or
opportunity to be heard," and quoted Wilkinson to contend that
"the defendants provided [him] with no procedural safeguard[s]" or
"a basis for objection before the next decisionmaker or in a
subsequent classification review," such that the process he
received "did not satisfy" the Mathews test. These arguments are
more than sufficient to preserve the claim more fully developed in
his counseled supplemental briefing. See Erickson v. Pardus, 

 (2007).


                                     - 45 -
                                    1.

            Based   on   the   three-factor   framework   of    Mathews v.

Eldridge, 

 (1976), Wilkinson held that inmates

subjected to solitary confinement in a manner that implicates a

liberty interest must be afforded the "informal, nonadversary

procedures" set forth in both Hewitt and Greenholtz v. Inmates of

Neb. Penal & Corr. Complex, 

 (1979).       See Wilkinson, 

.      Those procedures require at a minimum "[n]otice of

the factual basis" for the confinement, 

, and "an

opportunity to present [the inmate's] views" to the official

charged with the decision to confine the inmate, Hewitt, 

.19

            With respect to the latter, the Court explained in

Greenholtz that permitting the inmate to "appear before the Board

and present letters and statements on his own behalf" gave the

inmate an "effective opportunity" both to ensure that the Board's

records were "in fact the records relating to his case," and to

"present    any   special   considerations"   that   could     inform   the

decision.    

.     And Wilkinson described the required

process in this respect as one that affords the inmate a "fair

opportunity for rebuttal."      

.


     19Sufficient process must also provide inmates with a "short
statement of reasons" for the ultimate decision following a
hearing, Wilkinson, 

, and meaningful periodic
reviews of ongoing confinement, Hewitt, 

 n.9.


                                  - 46 -
                                 2.

            Perry contends that he can supportably show on this

record that he did not receive the required "opportunity to be

heard."    If Perry is right on that score, then he can show that he

was denied the process that was due, even if we were to assume

that he cannot supportably show that he was deprived of the

required notice of the factual basis for his confinement.   We thus

begin and end our analysis at the first step of the qualified

immunity inquiry into the process component of Perry's procedural

due process claim with his contention regarding the "opportunity

for rebuttal" afforded to him.        For, as we will explain, we

conclude that Perry can supportably show on this record that he

was denied that opportunity.

            In arguing otherwise, the defendants first point to the

"SMU Reviews," which were conducted approximately three times per

week and which the defendants claim "reflect[ed] periodic updates"

about Perry's status "as relevant changes or issues arose."     But

Perry asserts in a sworn affidavit that he "received no notice

that [the SMU Reviews] occurred prior to their occurrence, nor any

opportunity to be heard" or to "participate in writing or in

person."

            The defendants' sole response is that "[i]nmates were

free to provide staff with any information during their time in

the SMU."     Perry, 

, at *7 n.19.      The relevant


                               - 47 -
regulations, however, did not require officials to consider such

information as part of their SMU Reviews.           See 103 MASS. CODE REGS.

§ 423.08 (2007).     Furthermore, the SMU Review entries that appear

in the record do not acknowledge any statements made by Perry.

Thus, a juror could reasonably find that, while SMU Reviews might

constitute   the    "periodic   review"    that    due   process     separately

requires, Hewitt, 

 n.9, they did not give Perry an

"opportunity to present his views," 

, and the defendants

do not point to anything in the record that suggests that Perry

was in fact given an opportunity to present his views during those

SMU Reviews.

           The     defendants   separately    argue       that   a     grievance

procedure was available to Perry and that it provided him with the

required   opportunity    for   rebuttal.         But    the   state    has   not

conclusively shown that the grievance procedure was available for

this issue or that the grievance procedure provided an opportunity

for such rebuttal.      See Rodi v. Ventetuolo, 

 (1st

Cir. 1991); see also Black v. Parke, 

, 449 n.5 (6th Cir.

1993). And, we note, Sandin itself pointed to grievance procedures

as a form of "other protection" prisoners "retain" when they are

not protected by the Due Process Clause.          See 

 n.11.

Finally, the record supportably shows that DOC officials either

declined to entertain or summarily denied every grievance in the




                                  - 48 -
record in which Perry attempted to contest his confinement, often

by stating that his concerns were "non-grievable."20

                 We come, then, to the defendants' contention that the

classification          hearing    that    Perry    received   on   December   17,

2010        --    one   week      after    his     initial   placement   in    the

SMU -- indisputably afforded him the required "fair opportunity

for rebuttal."21          That hearing was not governed at the relevant

time by the SMU regulations; instead, the hearing was governed by

separate regulations applicable to all DOC inmates.                 See 103 MASS.

CODE REGS. §§ 420.06–420.09 (2007).              That latter set of regulations

required that inmates "undergo an initial classification process"

upon commitment to the DOC, then receive another reclassification

"at least annually."           Perry, 

, at *6.




        The record shows that Perry submitted at least eight
       20

grievances challenging his segregated confinement in the SMU. Four
of those were dismissed as "non-grievable."     One was denied as
duplicative.   Three were denied with summary citations to the
regulations governing awaiting action status, with a note that
Perry was "pending a transfer," but without engaging with his
substantive challenges to his designation under those regulations.
       Given our conclusion that Perry has supportably shown that
       21

his segregated confinement implicated a liberty interest after
ninety days, we do not consider Perry's second and third
classification hearings (on December 16, 2011, and October 31,
2012, respectively). Those hearings occurred over one year after
Perry's placement in the SMU, and the defendants do not argue that,
even if the first classification hearing did not provide Perry
with a sufficient opportunity to be heard, the second and/or third
hearings did, and that Perry therefore received sufficient
process.


                                          - 49 -
              The   classification       process     determined     an     inmate's

"security level" and, consequently, the DOC facility in which the

inmate should be placed.         103 MASS. CODE REGS. § 420.07 (2007).           The

record      supportably   shows,      however,   that     the   process    did   not

determine      whether    an   inmate    would     be     placed   in    segregated

confinement -- including whether such confinement was to be in an

SMU -- once assigned to a facility within the system.                   Indeed, the

regulations reveal that it was officials at the facility in which

an inmate was placed pursuant to the classification process and

that contained SMUs -- such as facilities like SBCC and MCI-Cedar

Junction in which Perry was housed in SMUs -- who separately

determined, as issues arose, whether to isolate that inmate in an

SMU.    Compare 103 MASS. CODE REGS. § 423.00 et seq. (2007), with 103

MASS. CODE REGS. § 420.00 et seq. (2007).

              The   record     does    clearly     show    that    Perry's    first

classification hearing occurred only one week after his initial

placement in the SMU.          But nothing in the record indicates that,

beyond this coincidence of timing,22 the classification hearing and



        Perry had been transferred from a Department Disciplinary
       22

Unit ("DDU") at MCI-Cedar Junction to the general population at
SBCC on November 18, 2010, and DOC regulations required that
inmates receive a reclassification hearing "within thirty business
days of release from the DDU." 103 MASS. CODE REGS. § 420.09 (2007).
Perry then spent three weeks in the general population at SBCC
before being transferred to the SMU on December 10, at which time
he was already "also awaiting a classification hearing," Perry,

, at *9, making it possible that this hearing had



                                       - 50 -
the SMU placement were related in that the former could be used to

contest the latter.

           To   the   contrary,   the   "Classification     Report"     from

Perry's hearing stated, "Inmate Perry is requesting placement at

MCI Concord and this writer concur[s] with inmate request," and

the    Classification    Board    recommended     only   that   Perry     be

transferred to the general population at MCI Concord, a medium-

security facility.      The record then shows that it was not until

two months later that Lori Cresey, the "Commissioner's designee"

responsible for making the final determination, see 103 MASS. CODE

REGS. § 420.08(i)–(j) (2007), concluded that Perry's placement in

any Massachusetts facility would lead to gang-related tensions,

and so made "a final decision to screen Perry for an out-of-state

placement due to security concerns," Perry, 

, at *9-

*10.   And yet, this final decision did not state that Perry would

have to remain in the SMU until he could be transferred.          Rather,

the    record   supportably   shows     that    this   determination    was

communicated to Perry only ten days later, when the Superintendent

of SBCC at the time wrote to Perry that he had decided "to hold

[Perry] in the [SMU] for the safety and security of the facility

as well as [Perry]," and that Perry "w[ould] not be allowed to

enter General Population at [SBCC]" while he awaited out-of-state


been scheduled, and that Perry had received notice of the hearing,
even before his placement in the SMU.


                                  - 51 -
transfer.     See also Supplemental Brief of Defendants-Appellees at

6 ("Ultimately, the Classification Division determined . . . that

Perry required an out-of-state placement.                 SBCC staff deemed it

necessary that Perry remain in the SMU to ensure the safety and

security of the institution." (emphases added)).

             In other words, the record does not indisputably show

that   the    pre-scheduled        classification       hearing     afforded       the

required opportunity for rebuttal.                  Rather, a reasonable juror

could find on this record that this hearing was dedicated to

determining which facility Perry should be housed in, not whether

he should be housed in an SMU within such a facility, and so did

not afford him the requisite rebuttal opportunity.

                                         C.

             Thus, despite the various forms of process that the

record indisputably shows that the defendants offered Perry, the

record supportably shows that he was not given the opportunity to

contest   the    factual     basis     for    his    confinement    in    the     SMU.

Moreover,    because    of   our     previous       conclusion    that    Perry   has

supportably     shown   that     his   solitary      confinement    implicated      a

state-created liberty interest by virtue of its extended duration

(at least given the absence of any showing by the defendants to

the contrary), Perry has also supportably shown that he was

entitled to such an opportunity to contest the factual basis for

his    confinement      as   a     matter     of     procedural     due    process.


                                       - 52 -
Accordingly, a reasonable juror could find that Perry was denied

the procedural due process right that he claims.23

                                      IV.

          Having specified the contours of the right at issue and

the specific grounds on which Perry rests his claim that the record

supportably shows that he was deprived of a state-created liberty

interest without due process, we are now well-positioned to turn

to step two of the qualified immunity inquiry.              Here, our focus is

on whether the defendants are entitled to summary judgment based

on qualified immunity because the law under which a reasonable

juror could supportably find that Perry was denied the right to

procedural due process was not clearly established at the time of

the denial.    Savard v. Rhode Island, 

 (1st Cir.

2003).

          The defendants contend, as the panel ruled, that the law

as to both the liberty interest and process issues was not clearly

established   as   of   the   time   of     the   alleged   violation   of   the

constitutional right that Perry claims.              Perry, 751 F. App'x at



     23Of course, jurisdictions in our Circuit are free to limit
solitary confinement beyond what constitutes an atypical hardship
under this opinion and jurisdictions are free, also, to provide
more process than today's holding would require.     However, our
decision today establishes, clearly, the baseline for analyzing
when prisoners' state-created liberty interests are curtailed by
solitary confinement and the procedural protections that must
follow from such curtailments.


                                     - 53 -
11–12.   But we need not decide whether, if officials knew that

Perry's confinement implicated a liberty interest, they could have

reasonably believed that they provided him with constitutionally

sufficient process.   And that is because we conclude, reviewing de

novo, Savard, 

, that the law was not clearly

established that Perry's solitary confinement implicated a liberty

interest.

                                A.

            "'Clearly established' means that, at the time of the

officer's conduct, the law was 'sufficiently clear' that every

'reasonable official would understand that what he is doing' is

unlawful."    District of Columbia v. Wesby, 

(2018) (quoting Ashcroft v. al-Kidd, 

, 741 (2011)).

"This demanding standard protects 'all but the plainly incompetent

or those who knowingly violate the law.'"   Id. (quoting Malley v.

Briggs, 

 (1986)).

            To be clearly established, the law "must define 'the

right allegedly violated . . . in a particularized sense so that

the contours of the right are clear to a reasonable official.'"

Eves v. LePage, 

 (1st Cir. 2019) (en banc)

(quoting Reichle v. Howards, 

 (2012)). "[G]eneral

statements of the law" may give "fair and clear warning, and in

other instances a general constitutional rule already identified

in the decisional law may apply with obvious clarity to the


                              - 54 -
specific conduct in question."         United States v. Lanier, 

 (1997); see also Hope v. Pelzer, 

 (2002).

Furthermore, "[a]mbiguity in the law cannot be manufactured by

borrowing   from    factually    and   legally      distinguishable       cases."

Marrero-Méndez v. Calixto-Rodríguez, 

 (1st Cir.

2016).

            "A   rule   is   clearly   established        either   when    it    is

'dictated by controlling authority or a robust consensus of cases

of persuasive authority.'"       Irish v. Fowler, 

 (1st

Cir. 2020) (quoting Wesby, 

), cert. denied, 

 (2021).        "A 'robust consensus' does not require the

express agreement of every circuit," and can be established by

"sister circuit law" that "would provide notice to every reasonable

officer that his conduct was unlawful."             

                                       B.

            Perry   certainly    cannot     show     that    it    was    clearly

established at the time of his confinement that a reasonable juror

could conclude from the nature of the DOC's regulations that

solitary confinement of greater than ninety days is excessive in

duration and so for that reason alone imposes "an atypical and

significant hardship" on a DOC inmate.           Indeed, other courts as of

that time had held to the contrary.           Griffin, 112 F.3d at 708–09

(finding, based on Pennsylvania prison regulations, that "one can

conclude    with    confidence    that      stays    of     many   months       [in


                                   - 55 -
administrative   custody]    are    not   uncommon,"   despite   fact    that

regulations also "confer[red] upon an inmate in [the plaintiff's]

position a right to be released from administrative custody to

general population after 20 days in the absence of a misconduct

charge").    And, we note, the SJC in LaChance, looking back, did

not itself understand the legal landscape at that time to be clear

in establishing such a principle.              See 978 N.E.2d at 1207–08

(granting qualified immunity to defendants             regarding 10-month

confinement due to this conflicting case law).

            Nor was it clearly established at the relevant time that

the length of the solitary confinement that Perry served -- given

the conditions that he endured during it -- made it, even if only

when not rebutted, an "atypical and significant hardship."              As we

have seen, length alone can suffice to establish that solitary

confinement is a hardship of that sort.          Indeed, today no circuit

holds otherwise.    But we had not made clear prior to 2010 that

administrative   segregation       --   even   involving   conditions   like

Perry's -- was an atypical and significant hardship if it persisted

for as long as his did.     See Skinner, 

; Judgment,

Dávila v. Maloney, No. 05-2520 (1st Cir. Oct. 2, 2007).             Indeed,

we had explained, prior to that time, that the baseline from which

to measure what is such a hardship was the subject of dispute

throughout federal circuits in the wake of Sandin.               And we had

done so in explaining our reasons for              rejecting claims that


                                   - 56 -
prolonged periods of such confinement were hardships of that kind.

See Skinner, 

; Judgment, Dávila v. Maloney, No.

05-2520 (1st Cir. Oct. 2, 2007).        True, Perry's confinement was

quite lengthy.       But, even still, the state of the case law within

our own circuit as of the time of Perry's solitary confinement was

such that it was not clearly established from our own precedents

that his confinement was an "atypical and significant hardship."

            Moreover, as we have seen, those circuits that as of

2010   treated   administrative     segregation   as   the    baseline      for

measuring whether prolonged administrative segregation constituted

an atypical and significant hardship had, as of that time, held

that comparable and even longer periods of solitary confinement

did not implicate a liberty interest.          See, e.g., Griffin, 112

F.3d at 706–08 (3d Cir. 1997) (no liberty interest for fifteen

months     because    conditions   matched   those     of    administrative

confinement in that prison system); Jones, 155 F.3d at 812–13 (6th

Cir. 1998) (no liberty interest for thirty months); DiMarco, 

 (10th Cir. 2007) (no liberty interest for fourteen

months).    And, as of that time, one circuit had appeared to hold

that   administrative     segregation   is   essentially      incapable     of

creating a liberty interest, see Pichardo, 

 (5th

Cir.   1996)   ("[A]dministrative     segregation    as     such,   being   an

incident to the ordinary life as a prisoner, will never be a ground

for a constitutional claim . . . ."), which Skinner itself pointed


                                   - 57 -
out, 430 F.3d at 486–87.       So, there was no robust consensus of

out-of-circuit precedent then in place that supported his claim to

have endured an "atypical and significant hardship" insofar as

that claim was based on the confinement's length alone.24

          Thus,   like   the   District   Court,   see   Perry,   

, at *14, and the panel, Perry, 751 F. App'x at 9–11, we

agree that, Wilkinson aside, it was not clearly established at the

time of the alleged violation of Perry's right to procedural due

process that he had been deprived of a liberty interest.          He thus

needs to show that there is some other basis for concluding that

the confinement that he endured implicated a liberty interest in

a way that would have been clearly established at the relevant

time.25


     24 In light of Wilkinson, we do not rely on the Seventh
Circuit's baseline of "the most restrictive prison" in a state's
system, Wagner, 

, in concluding that the violation
of Perry's rights was not clearly established. Indeed, although
the Seventh Circuit has, at times, post-Wilkinson continued to
invoke the "most restrictive prison" baseline, see, e.g., Marion
v. Columbia Corr. Inst., 

 (7th Cir. 2009), it has
also, at least once, vacated a district court's ruling in the
immediate wake of Wilkinson on the ground that the district court
analyzed the baseline under Wagner "without the benefit of the
Supreme Court's decision in Wilkinson," Westefer v. Snyder, 

 (7th Cir. 2005).
     25We also reject Perry's arguments, raised for the first time
on appeal in his en banc briefing, that our pre-Sandin circuit
precedent in Stokes or his mental illness "further tip[] the scale
toward a liberty interest" being clearly established.     Stokes's
broadly worded holding that Massachusetts DOC "regulations[]
created a liberty interest entitling [a prisoner] to procedural
due process in the initiation and continuance in awaiting action



                                 - 58 -
                                    C.

           To make that showing, Perry argues that the conditions

of his confinement were "on all fours with those in Wilkinson, and

where   they   deviated,   they   were   more   severe,"   such   that   his

confinement was also "atypical" under "any plausible baseline."

Perry is right in principle that if he can supportably show that

his confinement was clearly comparable to the confinement at issue

in Wilkinson, then he can supportably show that he was deprived of



status detention," 

, has not been cited since Sandin
was issued and depended entirely on the specific language of the
then-applicable regulations, see 

. The fact that the
regulations in effect when Perry was in solitary confinement, as
he puts it, "generally track the regulations at issue in Stokes"
cannot clearly establish that he had a protected liberty interest
given that Stokes does not describe the nature or length of the
confinement at issue in that case and given that Sandin "abrogated"
the exact methodology on which Stokes was decided. Wilkinson, 

; see also LaChance, 978 N.E.2d at 1207–08 (concluding
that DOC regulations did not clearly establish that a 10-month
period of administrative confinement implicated state-created
liberty interest).
     Perry does also contend he can show what he must, based on
the fact that he was in the challenged confinement while suffering
from mental illness.    But, beyond the fact that Perry may have
waived this argument, as the defendants argue, we agree with the
defendants that the cases Perry cites are not sufficient to clearly
establish, at least as of the time of his confinement, "if, when,
or how mental illness would be pertinent to the liberty interest
analysis." See Hamner v. Burls, 

, 1178–80 (8th Cir.
2019) (granting qualified immunity because "[w]hile it is possible
. . . that a combination of circumstances involving solitary
confinement could curtail a liberty interest, it is not beyond
debate that the defendant officials did so by segregating a
prisoner with [borderline personality disorder, post-traumatic
stress disorder, antisocial personality disorder, anxiety, and
depression] for 203 days under the conditions alleged" (citations
omitted)).


                                  - 59 -
a liberty interest under clearly established law.            After all, his

prolonged solitary confinement post-dated Wilkinson.

           We did not address at step one of the qualified immunity

inquiry whether Perry can supportably show on this record that his

confinement is "on all fours with Wilkinson."         But we must address

that contention here, given that it is the sole remaining basis on

which he may show that he was deprived of a liberty interest under

clearly established law.          As we will explain, though, Perry's

contention falters, notwithstanding that we have no reason to doubt

that the conditions in the general prison population in Ohio during

the time of the confinement at issue in Wilkinson are comparable

to those of the general prison population in the DOC during the

time of Perry's confinement.

           In     Wilkinson,     the   Supreme   Court     identified   five

conditions   of    confinement    that   supported   its   conclusion   that

confinement in the Ohio "supermax" facility imposed an "atypical

and significant hardship under any plausible baseline."            

.   The Court explained that the first three conditions --(1)

"almost all human contact [was] prohibited"; (2) "the light, though

it [could] be dimmed," was on for twenty-four hours; and (3)

inmates were permitted to exercise for only "1 hour per day" and

"only in a small indoor room," 

 at 223–24 -- "likely would apply

to most solitary confinement facilities," 

.               But the

Court then identified "two added components" that supported its


                                   - 60 -
conclusion:    fourth,     that   the   "duration"   of   confinement   was

"indefinite"; and fifth, that the "placement disqualifie[d] an

otherwise eligible inmate for parole."         

           The Court explained that the confinement at issue in

Wilkinson was "indefinite" because it was "limited only by an

inmate's sentence" and because it was "reviewed just annually."

   at   214–15,   224    (emphasis    added).     Perry's    segregated

confinement,   by    contrast,    was   contingent   on   an   identifiable

event -- his transfer to an out-of-state facility -- that in its

nature would precede the end of his sentence.         Thus, even assuming

that Perry's confinement is otherwise materially indistinguishable

from that in Wilkinson,26 the question is whether it was clearly


      26The record does not supportably show that the light in
Perry's cell was left on throughout his entire confinement, even
if there is some evidence in the record showing that it may have
been left on for at least some period of it. Some courts, however,
have commented that the lack of this factor does not necessarily
"prove[] that conditions of confinement at the [Ohio supermax
facility in Wilkinson] are significantly more restrictive than the
conditions of confinement" at issue in a given case. See Westefer
v. Snyder, 

 (S.D. Ill. 2010), vacated on
other grounds by Westefer v. Neal, 

 (7th Cir. 2012).
     The record also does not supportably show that Perry's
confinement rendered him ineligible for parole, given that he was
already ineligible. Perry contends, however, that this does not
weaken the similarity between his case and Wilkinson because in
Wilkinson, too, several of the plaintiffs were ineligible for
parole, but the Court still found that all the plaintiffs had a
liberty interest in avoiding confinement.      See Am. Compl. at
¶ 62(d), Austin v. Wilkinson, No. 4:01-CV-071, 

("Plaintiffs Benge and Robb are among more than a dozen death row
inmates who are housed at OSP in violation of AR 5120-9-12.");
Austin v. Wilkinson, 

, 348 n.1 (6th Cir. 2004) (naming



                                   - 61 -
established    as    of    the   time   of   that   confinement   that   it   was

"indefinite" within the meaning of Wilkinson, notwithstanding that

an endpoint -- contingent though that endpoint was -- had been

identified for it.         We agree with the defendants that it was not

clearly established that such confinement was indefinite.

          There is no doubt that, in this case, Perry's confinement

was at least "prolonged."           Perry, 

, at *15.           And

Perry maintains that he did not know "when, or even whether, his

solitary confinement would end," given that his confinement's

termination depended on a contingency not within his control: the

availability    of    an     out-of-state        placement.      Moreover,    the

uncertainty as to duration persisted for over a year until his

out-of-state transfer occurred in March 2012.                 We also recognize

that the exercise of a prison administrator's wholly discretionary

choice to cut short solitary confinement prior to the sentence's

end cannot count as a contingency that makes such confinement

definite rather than indefinite: that same contingency existed in

Wilkinson itself.         See Wilkinson, 

.

          Here, however, there is no supportable basis for finding

that the end of Perry's solitary confinement was dependent only on

the prison administrators' discretionary choice to bring that


these death row plaintiffs).
     We need not resolve either of these issues, however, because
we hold that it was nonetheless unclear whether Perry's confinement
was "indefinite" within the meaning of Wilkinson.


                                        - 62 -
confinement to an end.   There is nothing in the record to indicate

that Perry's designation as an inmate awaiting an out-of-state

transfer was clearly a pretext for holding him for however long

prison administrators wished.    Perry, 

, at *13.

Moreover, far from containing evidence that indicates that prison

officials did not take action to pursue the transfer, the record

shows without dispute that one defendant, Thomas Neville, reached

out to at least five states regarding Perry's potential transfer,

beginning with a request to Virginia on April 20, 2011 (two months

after the initial February 4, 2011 decision to screen Perry for

out-of-state transfer), and requests to New Jersey and Idaho on

July 12, 2011.

           The record also contains undisputed evidence purporting

to explain the timeframes both for sending initial requests to

other states as well as receiving responses from those states.

For example, Neville explained in a sworn affidavit that the out-

of-state transfer process in Perry's case "included trying to

determine which states might be more appropriate than others,

considering various factors, including whether the other states

have issues with the same [gangs] and/or whether other [DOC]

inmates with [gang] ties have already been transferred to other

states."   His affidavit further attests that he "made phone calls

to other states inquiring as to referrals and to ascertain which

inmates those states would refer to the [DOC] in return -- because


                               - 63 -
it is typically a one-to-one swap, meaning [Neville] would then

have to review information on any inmate the other state wishes to

send to Massachusetts."    Finally, Neville's affidavit states that

referring an inmate to another state "includes providing a lot of

information," and that after making the referrals for Perry he

"periodically made phone calls to officials in the other states to

inquire as to the status of their review."

            We recognize that Neville's affidavit does indicate that

the length of Perry's solitary confinement depended in part on the

willingness of other states to facilitate his transfer.        But the

record also shows     without dispute     that in January 2012,       the

Virginia Department of Corrections indicated to Neville that it

was considering accepting Perry and requested more information,

and that Perry, after learning of this, sent Neville a letter in

which he threatened to kill himself if transferred outside New

England.    The record also shows, again without dispute, that from

then on DOC officials only pursued transfer within New England,

which the defendants argue without dispute likely delayed Perry's

transfer and further prolonged his confinement.

            That Perry, upon learning that his confinement in an SMU

might soon be coming to an end, took action that may have further

prolonged    his   confinement   supports   the   conclusion   that    a

reasonable officer could have understood that Perry's segregated

confinement was not indefinite within the meaning of Wilkinson.


                                 - 64 -
See Eves, 

.      As we have explained, the confinement

there by design could last as long as prison administrators chose

to permit it to extend.

            Indeed, as of the time of Perry's confinement, one other

circuit had found that a period of segregated confinement that was

comparable to Perry's but was limited only by the inmate's sentence

was itself not "indefinite" within the meaning of Wilkinson, given

the limited duration of the sentence (which was itself two to four

years) and that the inmate's placement in segregated confinement

was reviewed more than annually.          See DiMarco, 473 F.3d at 1343–

44.     Nor had this Circuit or any other -- or for that matter any

other court -- held that solitary confinement pending an out-of-

state transfer was indefinite within the meaning of Wilkinson.          In

fact, while LaChance was decided in 2012 -- and thus after Perry's

initial fifteen months of solitary confinement had ended -- it did

have the benefit of the case law as it had developed as of that

time.     And LaChance held that ten months of solitary confinement

pending out-of-state transfer did not implicate a liberty interest

under clearly established law as it stood at that time (even though

the   SJC   held   that   solitary    confinement   pending   out-of-state

transfer would implicate such a liberty interest going forward if

it lasted for more than ninety days).           LaChance, 

 & n.8, 1207–08.      The available precedent, therefore, did not




                                     - 65 -
clearly   establish     that     Perry's       segregated    confinement      was

"indefinite" under Wilkinson.27

                                        D.

          Accordingly, we agree with the defendants that it would

not have been clear to a reasonable corrections officer at the

time of Perry's confinement that, under Sandin and Wilkinson, such

confinement implicated a state-created liberty interest under the

Due Process Clause.       The defendants are thus entitled on this

ground to summary judgment based on qualified immunity.

                                        V.

          We   therefore       affirm    the    District    Court's   grant    of

summary judgment for the defendants.

                      -Concurring Opinions Follow-




     27 Perry does argue, for the first time on the final page of
his en banc brief, that the defendants are not entitled to
qualified immunity for the less-than-ninety-day period that he
remained in the SMU after LaChance was decided on November 27,
2012.   But Perry develops no argument as to why it was clearly
established following LaChance that the defendants were required
to act faster in returning him to the general prison population or
in providing him with the hearing required by LaChance. We also
note that the defendants have represented that after LaChance was
decided the DOC expeditiously began conducting hearings in
accordance with that decision, that they prioritized hearings for
prisoners who had been continuously held for the longest periods
of time (which did not include Perry who had only returned to
Massachusetts custody a couple months before LaChance was
decided), that a hearing had been scheduled for Perry, and that he
was returned to the general prison population at MCI-Shirley before
his hearing was scheduled to occur.


                                   - 66 -
           LYNCH J., concurring in part.           Appellant Jwainus Perry,

convicted in 2004 of first-degree murder, and so confined in a

maximum-security prison in Massachusetts, was initially placed in

administrative confinement based on information that he posed a

lethal threat to other inmates were he not segregated from the

general    population.        For     various     other     reasons,   Perry's

administrative confinement was continued, including in different

prisons.   In this lawsuit, he asserts his due process rights under

the United States Constitution were violated.

           I concur only in the court's holding under the second

prong that the defendant state prison officials are entitled to

qualified immunity.      I do not concur in the remainder of the

majority opinion.

           In Pearson v. Callahan, 

 (2009), the Supreme

Court rejected the "two-step protocol" set forth in Saucier v.

Katz, 

 (2001), under which courts had to first decide

whether alleged facts "ma[de] out a violation of a constitutional

right" when resolving the issue of qualified immunity.                 Pearson,

. The previous requirement of resolving the federal

constitutional question first was rejected because, among other

reasons,   it   violated      "the    general     rule    of    constitutional

avoidance" and "result[ed] in a substantial expenditure of scarce

judicial   resources     on    difficult       questions"      unnecessary   to

resolving the case.    

.         The Pearson Court held instead


                                     - 67 -
that judges should "exercise their sound discretion in deciding

which of the two prongs of the qualified immunity analysis should

be addressed first in light of the circumstances in the particular

case at hand."    

.

            The majority has chosen to exercise this discretion to

address the first prong of the qualified immunity analysis before

addressing the second prong.        Under the second prong, in my view,

the grant of qualified immunity is plainly compelled.         I do not

join the majority's choice to exercise that discretion here, not

only because I have doubts about the correctness of its analysis

and its proposed guidelines, but because I think that choice is

both mistaken and inappropriate under the circumstances of this

case.

            This court should "think hard, and think hard again,"

before using its discretion to address the first prong of qualified

immunity analysis when its holding depends solely on the second

prong of the test.      Camreta v. Greene, 

 (2011).

This is in accordance with the "longstanding principle of judicial

restraint     [which]    requires     that   courts   avoid   reaching

constitutional questions in advance of the necessity of deciding

them."   

 at 705 (quoting Lyng v. Nw. Indian Cemetery Protective

Ass'n, 

 (1988)).

            There are many reasons in this case why the court "should

address only the immunity question." 

 First, because the court


                                - 68 -
finds    that   the   appellees   are   entitled   to   qualified   immunity

protections on the basis that the law was not clearly established,

the first prong analysis "ha[s] no effect on the outcome of the

case."    Pearson, 

.       This is not a case where it is

"difficult to decide whether a right is clearly established without

deciding precisely what the existing constitutional right happens

to be."    

 at 236 (quoting Lyons v. City of Xenia, 

 (6th Cir. 2005) (Sutton, J., concurring)). Indeed, the court's

ultimate holding that the law was not clearly established in no

way depends upon the majority's determination as to the first

prong.    The court should therefore decline to "engag[e] in the

'essentially academic exercise' of determining whether that right

exists at all."       Walker v. Prince George's County, 

 (4th Cir. 2009) (quoting Pearson, 

).

            The majority's first prong analysis moreover turns what

would be a "small case[] into [a] large one[]."          Camreta, 

.    Where an immunity question is "one that we can 'rather

quickly and easily decide,'" Rasul v. Myers, 

(D.C. Cir. 2009) (quoting Pearson, 

), principles of

judicial restraint counsel against wading into "the more difficult

question whether the facts make out a constitutional violation at

all," Pearson, 

.             The majority opinion easily

disposes of the clearly established question, noting that, on

multiple occasions prior to the appellant's confinement, this


                                   - 69 -
court had suggested that the issue at hand "was the subject of

dispute."      Maj. Op. at 56.

              Indeed,   it    is   "far    from    obvious"      that    Perry's

confinement constituted a constitutional violation.               Pearson, 

.      As the majority concedes, it "is not an easy task,

given   the    available     precedent,"   to    determine     whether   Perry's

confinement implicated a state-created liberty interest.                 Maj. Op.

at 18; see Aref v. Lynch, 

 (D.C. Cir. 2016)

(holding that the Supreme Court has "not define[d] the baseline

from which to measure what is 'atypical and significant' in a

particular prison system," and characterizing the circuit split on

the issue). Because the appellees are "plainly entitled to prevail

at the second step" of qualified immunity analysis, we should

exercise our "discretion to skip the first step."               Orn v. City of

Tacoma, 

 (9th Cir. 2020).

              Further, this court should refrain from "explor[ing] the

first prong of the qualified-immunity test" where it involves "a

task that the [Massachusetts] legislature and courts are better

equipped to handle than this court."              Waeschle v. Dragovic, 

 (6th Cir. 2009).        The majority opinion explains that

the liberty interest that Perry asserts is implicated here arises

"from   an    expectation     or   interest     created   by   state     laws   or

policies."      Maj. Op. at 14 (quoting Wilkinson v. Austin, 

 (2005)). Accordingly, the majority's first prong analysis


                                    - 70 -
involves an inquiry into the practices of the Massachusetts prison

system, the Massachusetts prison system's regulations, and the

expectations the Massachusetts "laws and policies have generated

about what an inmate reasonably should understand to constitute

the basic experience of prison life."      Maj. Op. at 35.       These are

matters within the expertise of the Massachusetts legislature and

courts.

           In fact, Massachusetts state law provides protection to

inmates in various forms of administrative segregation which goes

beyond any federal due process requirements.        Perry himself has

benefited from the 2012 decision of the Massachusetts Supreme

Judicial Court (SJC) in LaChance v. Comm'r of Corr., 

 (Mass. 2012).    The SJC held in that case that

           an   inmate    confined   to    administrative
           segregation on awaiting action status, whether
           such confinement occurs in an area designated
           as an SMU [special management unit], a DSU
           [departmental     segregation     unit],    or
           otherwise, is entitled, as a matter of due
           process, to notice of the basis on which he is
           so detained; a hearing at which he may contest
           the asserted rationale for his confinement;
           and a posthearing written notice explaining
           the   reviewing   authority's   classification
           decision.

.

           Since LaChance, Massachusetts inmates in various types

of   administrative   segregation   have   been   given   even    greater

protections than those afforded by the federal Constitution, both



                               - 71 -
as   a   matter   of   Massachusetts   Department       of    Correction   (DOC)

regulations and as a matter of state court decisions.                 Both these

regulations and those judicial rules were established before this

court granted en banc rehearing.         In Cantell v. Comm'r of Corr.,

 (Mass. 2016), the SJC reaffirmed that LaChance was

decided under federal constitutional principles, but that, as a

matter of state law, inmates had additional rights derived from

state law under longstanding judicial precedent in Haverty v.

Comm'r of Corr., 

 (Mass. 2002).                Cantell, 

.       The SJC stressed that these protections arise as a

matter of state law independent of any federal constitutional

protections.      See 

            In addition to these judicial decisions, inmates in all

types of correctional facilities have had the added protection of

Massachusetts      DOC   regulations    governing       any    form   of   "non-

disciplinary      Restrictive     Housing."       103    Mass.     Code    Regs.

§§ 423.00, 423.04 (2019).           The regulations set forth notice,

hearing, and durational requirements for such non-disciplinary

segregation.      They also significantly limit when such segregation

may take place. For example, the regulations provide that "[e]very

inmate in Restrictive Housing for 30 days or more shall be provided

with" a "review" hearing "within 30 days of his or her Restrictive

Housing placement."         Id. § 423.09(3)(a).   The inmate must receive

"48 hours written notice prior to the review . . . stat[ing] the


                                    - 72 -
basis upon which the inmate is housed in Restrictive Housing,"

"the opportunity to participate in the review in person," and "a

written statement as to the evidence relied on and the reasons for

the placement decision if no placement change is ordered."                 Id.

At the hearing, "the inmate may offer a verbal and/or written

statement and/or submit documentation."         Id.   "Within two calendar

days of the review," the officer who conducted it must issue a

written   "recommendation,"    "served     on   the   inmate,"   which    must

include a "description of the underlying basis that led to"

placement and a "determination whether the inmate's return to

general   population   would   pose   an   unacceptable    risk    to    life,

property, staff or other inmates, or to the security or orderly

running of the institution."      Id.      The recommendation must also

"generally describe [its] factual basis or bases . . . , including

a brief description of any evidence relied upon," and "document

whether the inmate made or submitted any statements or documents."

Id.   The inmate may appeal the recommendation.            Id.    For longer

placements, additional review hearings with the same protections

are provided "[w]ithin 90 days of . . . initial placement . . .

and within every 90 days thereafter."           Id. § 423.09(3)(c).        For

reviews "conducted 180 days after initial placement, and every 180

days thereafter, the inmate may request that the [review hearing]

be recorded."   Id.




                                 - 73 -
           These regulations provide additional protections.                 They

provide   that    inmates    in    such    administrative      segregation   must

receive daily visits "by a member of the medical staff (unless

medical attention is needed more frequently)."                    Id. § 423.12.

Also, "[a]n inmate diagnosed with [a serious mental illness]"

cannot be confined longer than 30 days unless it is determined

that "the inmate poses an immediate and present danger to others

or to the safety of the institution."            Id. § 423.09(3)(b).         Those

inmates' status is reviewed three times a week, and the inmates

may "participate in [those] review[s] in writing."                 Id.   Similar

additional      procedures   apply    to    inmates    being    segregated   from

general population "to protect [them] from harm by others," and,

in addition, those inmates may not be placed in Restrictive Housing

longer "than 72 hours unless the Commissioner or a designee" makes

certain certifications.       Id.

           For     inmates   who     are   "awaiting    the    adjudication    of

disciplinary charges," there are additional placement reviews

"held every 15 days," for which notice must be provided and in

which the inmate may "participate . . . in writing."28 Id. Inmates

in Restrictive Housing "for [o]ther [r]easons," like "pending


           28  Inmates who are segregated in a Department
Disciplinary Unit as the result of a disciplinary sanction are
subject to the different procedures in 103 Mass. Code Regs. § 430
(2019). All uses of Restrictive Housing appear to be covered by
the combination of 103 Mass. Code Regs. § 430 (2019) and 103 Mass.
Code Regs. § 423 (2019), both promulgated in 2019.


                                     - 74 -
investigation,      pending    classification,     pending        transfer,   or

refusing housing placement," have their status reviewed three

times a week (and are, of course, entitled to participate in person

at the 30-day and 90-day hearings that are afforded to all inmates

regardless of the reason for their placement).              Id.

              The regulations also provide that Restrictive Housing

may not be imposed in certain instances. Before placement, inmates

must be screened by mental health professionals for serious mental

illness "or to determine if Restrictive Housing is otherwise

clinically contraindicated," id. § 423.08, in which case they

cannot   be    segregated     unless   the   Commissioner     makes     certain

certifications, id. § 423.09(2)(a).            Inmates with a "permanent

physical      disability    that   precludes   placement     in     Restrictive

Housing" and pregnant inmates also cannot be placed in Restrictive

Housing.      Id. §§ 423.08-09.

              Because   Massachusetts        inmates   in     administrative

segregation receive greater protection under state law than is

required by federal due process, any future case on administrative

segregation in Massachusetts is likely to "resolve[] into whether

[Massachusetts] law authorize[s] the officer's action," and so

likely will not benefit from our attempts to "clarify the law for

the future."      Tremblay v. McClellan, 

 (1st Cir.

2003).




                                    - 75 -
             For an additional reason, recognized in Pearson, the

majority's analysis of the first prong constitutional question

poses the risk of being both "premature[] and incorrect[]" due to

inadequate briefing by the parties to this case.29                      Pearson, 

     (quoting      Lyons,    

   (Sutton,      J.,

concurring)).           The      majority's        determination       that    Perry's

confinement constituted an "atypical and significant hardship" is

based in part on what it calls the defendants' failure to make

"any contrary showing regarding the frequency of use of such

prolonged solitary confinement for administrative reasons."                          Maj.

Op. at 43.        The majority's decision not to "confine [its] inquiry

to   the    clearly     established        prong    of     the   qualified-immunity

analysis" therefore "pos[es] a risk that [it has] decide[d] the

[first prong] issue incorrectly."             Barber v. Miller, 

 (6th Cir. 2015); see Evans v. Skolnik, 

, 1070

(9th Cir. 2021) ("As Pearson makes clear, we should not address an

avoidable constitutional issue when the briefing is inadequate.").

             As    Chief   Justice      Roberts      recently      wrote:     "out    of

adherence     to    a   simple    yet   fundamental        principle    of    judicial


             29The briefing from both parties, in my view, is
inadequate. For example, Perry's briefs to the en banc court never
even mentioned the 2019 DOC regulations described above. Further,
the defendants-appellees mentioned the regulations only in one
line and without further argument in their reply brief to the en
banc court. And their briefing was focused on the second prong.




                                        - 76 -
restraint[,] [i]f it is not necessary to decide more to dispose of

a case, then it is necessary not to decide more."30      Dobbs v.

Jackson Women's Health Org., 

 (2022) (Roberts,

C.J., concurring).




          30   Indeed, the panel opinion, withdrawn when en banc
review was granted, was correct in its analysis holding that the
defendants were protected by qualified immunity because the law
was not clearly established at the time. See Perry v. Spencer,

 (2018).


                             - 77 -
            HOWARD, Circuit Judge, concurring.                I agree with the

unanimous judgment of the court that qualified immunity applies in

this   case.      I   write   separately    to     note    that,    while   I    have

reservations      about   the   necessity     of    going    further      than   the

qualified      immunity   holding,   I   agree     in     large    part   with   the

majority's analysis of the liberty interest issue, and I agree

that an inmate's solitary separation from the general prison

population lasting longer than 30 days ordinarily implicates a

liberty interest sufficient to require that the deprivation of

that liberty must be attended by due process.




                                     - 78 -