UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

TENTH CIRCUIT

JOHN WALKENBACH

Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.

KATHLEEN M. HAWK; JANET RENO; G. L. HERSCHBERGER; J.W. BOOKER; WALTER C. CLARK; MARNE BOYLE, EARL H. ANDERSON, and BOB BOSTON

Defendants-Appellees.

Case No. 99-3032

(D.C. CIV-98-3181-CIV)

(District of Kansas)

ORDER AND JUDGMENT*

Before SEYMOUR, Chief Judge, BALDOCK, and HENRY, Circuit Judges,

John Walkenbach, a federal prisoner, appeals the district court's dismissal of his civil rights action for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Mr. Walkenbach alleged that the denial of his request for a transfer to the federal correctional facility in El Reno, Oklahoma violated his constitutional rights to due process and equal protection.1

We agree with the district court that prisoners "enjoy no constitutional right to placement in any particular penal institution." See Rec. doc. 15, at 2 (citing Olim v. Wakinekona, 461 U.S. 238, 244-48 (1983)); see also Brown-Bey v. United States, 720 F.2d 467, 470 (7th Cir. 1983) ("Due process does not require a hearing before federal prisoners may be transferred from one federal correctional institution to another."). Here, Mr. Walkenbach has not alleged that his request for a transfer was denied on the basis of a constitutionally impermissible motive. Instead, he argues that other inmates have been granted transfers and that his mother's illness constitutes a valid reason for transferring him to the Oklahoma facility. These allegations are insufficient to state a claim for violation of the federal constitution.

Accordingly, we AFFIRM the district court's dismissal of Mr. Walkenbach's complaint.2

Entered for the Court,

Robert H. Henry

Circuit Judge