Wall v. Wade
| Decision Date | 03 February 2014 |
| Docket Number | No. 13–6355.,13–6355. |
| Citation | 741 F.3d 492 |
| Parties | Gary WALL, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. James WADE, Food Services Manager, ROSP; Robert Rowlette, Assistant Warden of ROSP; T. Ray, Warden of ROSP; J. Stallard, Counselor of ROSP, Defendants–Appellees, and C. Selyers, Food Services Supervisor, ROSP; Captain K. McCoy, Employee of ROSP; Sergeant C. Gilbert, Employee of ROSP; Sergeant T. Adams, Investigator of ROSP; Corporal D. Lee, Employee of ROSP; Corporal D. Farmer, Employee of ROSP; Corporal Phillips, Employee of ROSP; K. Crowder–Austin, Western Regional Grievance Ombudsman for VADOC; Lieutenant J. Fannin, Employee of ROSP; Lieutenant S. Day, Employee of ROSP; Sergeant T. Hale, Employee of ROSP; Sergeant Unknown, Employee of ROSP; Corporal Barrowman, Employee of ROSP; Corporal Gibson, Employee of ROSP; Corporal D. Vandover, Property Officer of ROSP; Corporal Unkown, Employee of ROSP; R. Mullins, Grievance Coordinator of ROSP; John Garman, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
ARGUED: Elizabeth Scott Turner, College Of William & Mary, Williamsburg Virginia, for Appellant. Earle Duncan Getchell, Jr., Office of the Attorney General of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellees. ON BRIEF:Tillman J. Breckenridge, Washington, D.C., Robert M. Luck III, Reed Smith LLP, Richmond, Virginia; Patricia E. Roberts, William & Mary Law School Appellate and Supreme Court Clinic, Williamsburg, Virginia, for Appellant. Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, II, Attorney General of Virginia, Michael H. Brady, Assistant Solicitor General, Patricia L. West, Chief Deputy Attorney General, Wesley G. Russell, Jr., Deputy Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellees.
Before GREGORY, DAVIS, and WYNN, Circuit Judges.
Vacated and remanded by published opinion. Judge GREGORY wrote the opinion, in which Judge DAVIS and Judge WYNN joined.
In this appeal we review the application of a state prison's policy conditioning an inmate's request for a religious accommodation on his possession of physical indicia of faith. We also address whether the inmate's claims for equitable relief were mooted after the prison abandoned the policy. We vacate the district court's summary judgment order granting the defendants qualified immunity on the plaintiff's claims for monetary relief. We also vacate the district court's decision that the prison's abandonment of the policy mooted the claims for equitable relief. We remand to the district court for such further proceedings as may be appropriate.
The plaintiff, Gary Wall, is a state prisoner housed at Red Onion State Prison (“ROSP”) in Pound, Virginia. As a member of the Nation of Islam, in 2008 and 2009 Wall was allowed to observe the holy month of Ramadan while in state custody. To accommodate Ramadan observance, prison officials provide participating inmates with special meals served before sunrise and after sunset. While at ROSP, Wall also received “common fare” meals, which satisfied his religious beliefs.
Prior to 2010, Muslim inmates at ROSP simply had to sign up to participate in Ramadan. In 2009, approximately half of the inmate population signed up. ROSP staff later determined that a significant number of the participating inmates were not, in fact, practicing Muslims. As a result, ROSP devised a new eligibility policy for 2010: in addition to signing up, inmates had to provide some physical indicia of Islamic faith, such as a Quran, Kufi, prayer rug, or written religious material obtained from the prison Chaplain's office. 1 ROSP inmates who did not have such materials or refused to acquire them were deemed insincere in their religious beliefs and were prohibited from participating in Ramadan.2
Wall was one of the inmates who was not allowed to participate. After initially signing up, Wall was asked by defendants James Wade, C. Selyers, and J. Stallard to provide physical evidence of the sincerity of his beliefs in accordance with the new policy. Wall stated that all his belongings, including his articles of faith, had been lost during his transfer to ROSP. He showed Wade a state court judgment against the Commonwealth as proof that VDOC had lost his possessions.3 Wall also produced documents showing that he was receiving common fare meals in accordance with his faith, and he informed the officers that he had observed Ramadan in 2008 and 2009. Despite this, Wade responded, “that don't mean anything,” and instructed Stallard and Selyers to remove Wall from the Ramadan list. J.A. 139.
Wall then filed an informal complaint, again explaining that his religious materials had been lost and requesting to be allowed to participate. In a memo in response to the complaint, Wade reiterated ROSP's new policy, stating:
[ROSP] does not have religious services so the following rules apply to this institution. You are required to have religious material such as ( [ku]f[i], [Qu]r[a] n, prayer rug or religious pamphlets that pertain to the Ramadan month long fasting.) Food service went to every inmate[']s cell to inspect the above religious material. Either you had no religious material or refused to present material[.] [T]his is why you were removed from the Ramadan pass list.
On August 11, 2010, the first morning of Ramadan, Wall did not eat breakfast and concealed a portion of his meal in his cell to save until after sunset. ROSP staff found the food and threatened to charge him with possessing contraband. Faced with choosing between starvation and sanctions, Wall ate during the day and violated his religious beliefs.
On August 15, Wall filed a formal grievance, which was also denied. Six days later, he had a conversation with Wade and Assistant Warden Robert Rowlette, in which Rowlette asked if he would like to be put back on the Ramadan list provided it could be verified that he had truly lost his belongings. According to Wall, he responded that he still wanted to participate, but that he also wanted an explanation for why he was taken off the list in the first place. Rowlette replied, “[o]kay,” and then walked away while Wall shouted J.A. 140. According to the defendants, however, Wall refused Rowlette's offer to be put back on the list, saying, “[n]o, I'm going to pursue this in court.” J.A. 93. Ultimately, Wall was not allowed to participate in Ramadan in 2010.
Having exhausted his administrative remedies, Wall filed suit under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”), 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc, et seq., and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. In an amended complaint, Wall alleged violations of RLUIPA and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, in addition to several related state law claims. The amended complaint sought “[a] declaratory judgment, nominal damages, unspecified joint and several compensatory damages, $10,000 in punitive damages from each defendant, and any additional relief this court deems just, proper, and equitable.” J.A. 32–33.
Shortly after the suit was filed, Wall was transferred out of ROSP to a lower-security facility. Subsequently, the district court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment, finding that any claims for equitable relief were moot following Wall's transfer, and ruling that the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity on the plaintiff's claim for damages.
Following the district court's ruling, Wall was transferred back to ROSP. The defendants claim that ROSP has since abandoned its policy of requiring prisoners to possess physical indicia of faith in order to participate in Ramadan or other religious observations. The new policy, adopted in a September 13, 2011 memo by VDOC's Chief of Corrections Operations,4 states that inmates in segregation facilities, such as ROSP, may demonstrate sincerity by showing that they have in the past borrowed religious material such as DVDs, CDs, or literature from the Chaplain's office. The memo states that the change was made following an investigation by VDOC's Inspector General, which concluded that “it is not appropriate to require inmates to buy something which is related to exercising First Amendment [r]ights.” Following the policy change, Wall and other inmates who were prohibited from observing Ramadan in 2010 were allowed to participate in a “make-up” Ramadan in April 2012.
We review two issues in this appeal: whether the district court correctly determined that Wall's equitable claims under RLUIPA and the First Amendment were moot following ROSP's decision to abandon the 2010 Ramadan policy; and whether the district court correctly granted the defendants qualified immunity on Wall's First Amendment claim for damages.5 Both issues are questions of law which we review de novo. See Green v. City of Raleigh, 523 F.3d 293, 298 (4th Cir.2008) (mootness); Johnson v. Caudill, 475 F.3d 645, 650 (4th Cir.2007) (qualified immunity). We address the issues in turn.
In granting the defendants' motion for summary judgment, the district court found that Wall's transfer to another facility mooted his request for equitable relief.6Although Wall's subsequent return to ROSP rendered this justification obsolete, the district court also ruled that in such an event Wall's claims would remain moot in light of VDOC's decision to terminate the 2010 Ramadan policy.
It is well established that a defendant's “voluntary cessation of a challenged practice” moots an action only if “subsequent events made it absolutely clear that the allegedly wrongful behavior could not reasonably be expected to recur.” Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Envtl. Servs., Inc., 528 U.S. 167, 189, 120 S.Ct. 693, 145 L.Ed.2d 610 (2000); see Knox v. Service Employees Intern. Union, Local 1000, ––– U.S. ––––, 132 S.Ct. 2277, 2287, 183 L.Ed.2d 281 (2012) (...
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