Hartmann v. Cal. Dep't of Corr.
| Citation | 707 F.3d 1114 |
| Decision Date | 19 February 2013 |
| Docket Number | No. 11–16008.,11–16008. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit) |
| Parties | Shawna HARTMANN and Caren Hill, Plaintiffs–Appellants, v. CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND REHABILITATION; California State Personnel Board; Division of Adult Institutions; Division of Community Partnerships; Central California Women's Facility; Matthew Cate; Sean Harrigan; Richard Costigan; Patricia Clarey; Tom Maely; Anne Sheehan; Suzan Hubbard; Del Sayles–Owen; Barry Smith; Nola Grannis; Mary Lattimore, Warden; Arnold Schwarzenegger; and the State of California, Defendants–Appellees. |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
David C. Kiernan (argued), Jones Day, San Francisco, California; Thomas Ritchie, Jones Day, Chicago, Illinois; and Barbara McGraw, Moraga, California, for Plaintiffs–Appellants.
Michael D. Gowe (argued), Deputy Attorney General, and Fiel D. Tigno, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, for Defendants–Appellees State Personnel Board, Sean Harrigan, Richard Costigan, Patricia Clarey, Tom Maely, and Anne Sheehan.
Kenneth T. Roost (argued), Deputy Attorney General; Jonathan L. Wolff, Senior Assistant Attorney General; and Thomas S. Patterson, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, for Defendants–Appellees California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Division of Community Partnerships, Central California Women's Facility, Matthew Cate, Del Sayles–Owen, Barry Smith, Mary Lattimore, and the State of California.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, Lawrence J. O'Neill, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. 1:10–cv–00045–LJO–SMS.
Before: RONALD M. GOULD and MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judges, and KEVIN T. DUFFY, District Judge.**
California prisoners enjoy state and federal constitutional rights to exercise their religious beliefs. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (“CDCR”), in an effort to meet the religious exercise needs of prison inmates, maintains paid full-time and part-time chaplain positions for adherents of five faiths: Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Native American, and Protestant (the “Policy”). Inmates adhering to religions other than these five faiths are permitted to exercise their religious beliefs with the assistance of paid staff chaplains or volunteer chaplains.
Plaintiffs–Appellants Caren Hill and Shawna Hartmann (“Plaintiffs”) claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 that various entities and individuals violated their rights under the First Amendment's Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses, the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”), and the California State Constitution, by refusing to hire a paid full-time Wiccan chaplain and by failing to apply neutral criteria in determining whether paid chaplaincy positions are necessary to meet the religious exercise needs of inmates adhering to religions outside the five faiths.
The district court dismissed each of Plaintiffs' federal claims for failing to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm the district court's dismissal of Plaintiffs' Free Exercise, Equal Protection, and RLUIPA claims. We reverse and remand to the district court Plaintiffs' claims under the Establishment Clause and the California State Constitution for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Plaintiff Hill is currently a Wiccan inmate in CDCR custody and incarcerated at the Central California Women's Facility (“CCWF”) in Chowchilla, California. Plaintiff Hartmann was a Wiccan inmate in CDCR custody during the period when the alleged harms occurred, but has since been released.1
Plaintiffs filed three amended complaints under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The First Amended Complaint named eighteen defendants,2 many of whom are state officials sued in their official and individual capacities, and included claims that defendants violated Plaintiffs' rights under the Free Exercise, Establishment, and Equal Protection Clauses; RLUIPA; and the California State Constitution. The district court dismissed Plaintiffs' First Amended Complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (“Rule”) 12(b)(6) and granted leave to amend the Establishment Clause claim and the state constitutional claim. The district court struck Plaintiffs' Second Amended Complaint for failing to comply with a court order and again granted leave to amend. Plaintiffs filed a Third Amended Complaint naming only the CDCR and CDCR Secretary Cate, which the district court dismissed under Rule 12(b)(6) with prejudice.
Plaintiffs allege that the Policy as maintained in CDCR Operations Manual (“Operations Manual”), § 31060.6.1, deprives them of a paid full-time Wiccan chaplain. They claim that the absence of such a chaplain results in “[i]nfringments, violations, and burdens” that include, among other things, the prevention or limitation of access to clergy, religious services, religious rights, chapel, communal activities with other Wiccans, religious literature and artifacts, available funds for religious activities, time off work for religious holidays and services, and counseling in times of personal crisis. Plaintiffs assert that inmates provided with paid chaplains of their faith either do not suffer such limitations on their religious exercise or that such limitations are greatly mitigated because paid staff chaplains “are available to address such issues as they arise.”
The CDCR permits inmates of all religions to seek counsel from volunteer chaplains and from paid staff chaplains of other faiths. Plaintiffs claim that “[t]he CCWF Wiccan volunteer goes to CCWF intermittently, substantially less than once a month.” They also allege that “there are no chaplains at CCWF who are knowledgeable about Plaintiff Hill's Wiccan religion or are otherwise sufficiently informed to provide religious counseling or other religious accommodation services to Wiccans.”
Plaintiffs further state that “[t]here are no neutral, equitable, and unbiased criteria that are applied or methods used by the CDCR or any other defendant to determine which religions should have paid chaplains or what other types of accommodations should be provided to inmates of various faiths.” They submit that “there are more inmates practicing the Wiccan religion at CCWF than there are practicing Jewish and Muslim inmates at CCWF, and the number of inmates practicing the Wiccan religion is more than or comparable to the number of practicing Catholic inmates.”
Plaintiffs seek, among other things, to require defendants to hire a qualified Wiccan chaplain and to enjoin them from applying non-neutral criteria in determining future chaplain-hiring needs. They also seek declaratory relief providing that the Policy is facially and as-applied unconstitutional and that it violates RLUIPA.
On December 18, 2008, Plaintiff Hartmann filed a complaint in the Eastern District of California. On October 8, 2009, she filed a First Amended Complaint as a matter of right under Rule 15(a), naming Caren Hill as a co-plaintiff. The First Amended Complaint alleged that under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 defendants' Policy violates the Free Exercise, Establishment, and Equal Protection Clauses; RLUIPA; and the California State Constitution.
The SPB Defendants and all other defendants together each filed a motion to dismiss the First Amended Complaint under Rule 12(b)(6). The SPB Defendants argued that Plaintiffs lack standing under Article III because there were no allegations of misconduct against the SPB Defendants and that the SPB Defendants were not necessary parties to the action because complete relief could be accorded in their absence. The remaining defendants moved for dismissal on grounds that the First Amended Complaint failed to meet federal pleading standards under Rule 8 and failed to link the named defendants to the alleged harm. Plaintiffs opposed the motions while seeking, in the alternative, permission to amend the First Amended Complaint.
On April 23, 2010, the district court dismissed the SPB Defendants from the action with prejudice on the basis that Plaintiffs failed to link them to the alleged harms.
On June 11, 2010, the district court dismissed with prejudice and without leave to amend ten defendants from the action as well as Plaintiffs' Free Exercise, Equal Protection, and RLUIPA claims. The district court dismissed with leave to amend Plaintiffs' Establishment Clause claim because “substitution of an appropriate defendant would render the claim cognizable.” The district court also retained pendent jurisdiction over the state constitutional claim, provided that Plaintiffs successfully amended the Establishment Clause claim.
Plaintiffs filed a Second Amended Complaint on August 9, 2010. The district court struck the complaint because Plaintiffs renamed defendants whom the court had previously dismissed and because the complaint provided little additional factual support for Plaintiffs' allegations. The district court, “[o]ut of an abundance of caution,” granted Plaintiffs leave to file a third amended complaint.
On March 4, 2011, Plaintiffs filed a Third Amended Complaint naming Cate as a defendant in his official and individual capacities in the Establishment Clause claim and CDCR and Cate as defendants in the state constitutional claim. The CDCR and Cate moved for dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6), and the district court dismissed Plaintiffs' action with prejudice on grounds that it “fail[ed] to satisfy [Rule] 8 requirements to state a short, plain statement of plaintiffs' claims and to provide simple, concise and direct allegations.” The court also reasoned that “[t]he absence of facts to connect Secretary Cate to an alleged constitutional violation dooms a section 1983 claim against him.”
Plaintiffs timely appealed the dismissal of their claims as to each of the...
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