Benning v. Georgia

• Decision Date: 02 December 2004
• Docket Number: No. 04-11044.,No. 04-10979.,04-10979.,04-11044.
• Citation: 391 F.3d 1299
• Parties: Ralph Harrison BENNING, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. The State of GEORGIA, The Georgia Department of Corrections, Defendants-Appellants, United States of America, Intervenor-Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

391 F.3d 1299

Ralph Harrison BENNING, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. The State of GEORGIA, The Georgia Department of Corrections, Defendants-Appellants, United States of America, Intervenor-Defendant-Appellee.

No. 04-10979.

No. 04-11044.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

December 2, 2004.

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Devon Orland, Atlanta, GA, for Defendants-Appellants.

Derek L. Gaubatz, Anthony R. Picarello, Jr., Eric C. Rassbach, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Washington, DC, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Michael S. Raab, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Civ. Div., Appellate Staff, Washington, DC, for Intervenor-Defendant-Appellee.

Gene C. Schaerr, Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood, Mark B. Stern, Dept. of Justice, Appellate Staff, Civ. Div., Washington, DC, Todd R. Marti, Columbus, OH, for Religious and Civil Liberties Organizations, Amicus Curiae.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.

Before EDMONDSON, Chief Judge, and PRYOR and FAY, Circuit Judges.

PRYOR, Circuit Judge:

The issues presented in this appeal are whether Congress exceeded its authority under the Spending Clause of the Constitution or violated either the Establishment Clause or the Tenth Amendment in enacting section 3 of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), which requires state prisons that receive federal funds to refrain from burdening the religious exercise of prisoners. Because Congress properly exercised its spending power by unambiguously conditioning the use of federal funds for state prisons on the related accommodation of the religious exercise of prisoners and that accommodation does not endorse a religious viewpoint, we conclude that this section of RLUIPA was validly enacted under the Spending Clause and does not violate either the Establishment Clause or the Tenth Amendment.

I. BACKGROUND

Ralph Benning is an inmate in the Georgia prison system. He asserts that he is a "Torah observant Jew" and is "compelled by [his] system of religious belief to eat only kosher food," "wear a yarmulke at all times," "observe specific holy days," and "perform specific rituals." Benning asked a number of state and prison officials to provide him with a kosher diet and permit him to wear a yarmulke. Prison officials denied Benning's requests. Benning also filed an internal prison grievance in which he specifically asserted his rights under RLUIPA. Benning's grievance failed.

Benning filed this lawsuit against Georgia, the Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC), and several Georgia officials. Georgia moved to dismiss and argued that section 3 of RLUIPA, 42 U.S.C. section 2000cc-1, exceeds the authority of Congress under the Spending and Commerce Clauses, and violates the Tenth Amendment and the Establishment Clause. The United States intervened to defend the constitutionality of RLUIPA.

The district court dismissed Benning's claims against the individual defendants, but concluded that RLUIPA does not violate the Establishment Clause and denied the motion to dismiss with regard to Georgia and the DOC. The district court certified its denial of the motion to dismiss for immediate appeal, under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b), and alternatively certified its ruling for interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. section 1292(b). We granted the petition by Georgia for permission to appeal under section 1292(b).

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review de novo the constitutionality of an act of Congress. Gulf Power Co. v. United States, 187 F.3d 1324, 1328 (11th Cir.1999). Georgia has the burden to show that section 3 of RLUIPA is unconstitutional. "Proper respect for a co-ordinate branch of the government requires the courts of the United States to give effect to the presumption that [C]ongress will pass no act not within its constitutional power. This presumption should prevail unless the lack of constitutional authority to pass an act in question is clearly demonstrated." United States v. Harris, 106 U.S. 629, 635, 1 S.Ct. 601, 606, 27 L.Ed. 290 (1883). As the Supreme Court explained in United States v. Morrison, "we invalidate a congressional enactment only upon a plain showing that Congress has exceeded its constitutional bounds." 529 U.S. 598, 607, 120 S.Ct. 1740, 1746, 146 L.Ed.2d 658 (2000). Because this is a facial challenge to section 3, Georgia must also show that there is no set of circumstances in which section 3 can be applied without violating the Constitution:

A facial challenge, as distinguished from an as-applied challenge, seeks to invalidate a statute or regulation itself. The general rule is that for a facial challenge to a legislative enactment to succeed, the challenger must establish that no set of circumstances exists under which the Act would be valid. The fact that a legislative act might operate unconstitutionally under some conceivable set of circumstances is insufficient to render it wholly invalid. This heavy burden makes such an attack the most difficult challenge to mount successfully against an enactment.

Horton v. City of St. Augustine, 272 F.3d 1318, 1329 (11th Cir.2001) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).

III. DISCUSSION

Section 3 of RLUIPA applies strict scrutiny to government actions that substantially burden the religious exercise of institutionalized persons:

No government shall impose a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person residing in or confined to an institution,... even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, unless the government demonstrates that imposition of the burden on that person —

(1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and

(2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.

...

This section applies in any case in which —

(1) the substantial burden is imposed in a program or activity that receives Federal financial assistance; or

(2) the substantial burden affects, or removal of that substantial burden would affect, commerce with foreign nations, among the several States, or with Indian tribes.

42 U.S.C. § 2000cc-1. Although we upheld section 2, the land use section of RLUIPA, 42 U.S.C. section 2000cc(a)(1) and (b), as constitutional in Midrash Sephardi, Inc. v. Town of Surfside, 366 F.3d 1214 (11th Cir.2004), the constitutionality of section 3 is an issue of first impression in this circuit.

Four of our sister circuits have considered the constitutionality of this section, and three have upheld it. The Seventh and Ninth Circuits have concluded that section 3 of RLUIPA is a valid exercise of the spending power of Congress and does not violate the Establishment Clause or the Tenth Amendment. Charles v. Verhagen, 348 F.3d 601 (7th Cir.2003); Mayweathers v. Newland, 314 F.3d 1062 (9th Cir.2002). The Fourth Circuit has also upheld section 3 under the Establishment Clause. Madison v. Riter, 355 F.3d 310 (4th Cir.2003). Only the Sixth Circuit has held that section 3 violates the Establishment Clause. Cutter v. Wilkinson, 349 F.3d 257 (6th Cir.2003).

Georgia argues that Congress, in enacting section 3 of RLUIPA, exceeded its authority under Article I, section 8, and, alternatively, violated either the First Amendment or the Tenth Amendment. Although both Benning and the United States argue that Congress acted within its authority under both the Spending Clause and the Commerce Clause, we need not address both arguments so long as Congress validly exercised either source of authority. We address the authority of Congress under the Spending Clause before turning to the objections Georgia raises under both the First and Tenth Amendments.

A. Congress Properly Exercised Its Spending Power.

The Constitution empowers Congress to "lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States." U.S. Const. Art. I, § 8, cl. 1. It is well-settled that "[i]ncident to this power, Congress may attach conditions on the receipt of federal funds." South Dakota v. Dole, 483 U.S. 203, 206, 107 S.Ct. 2793, 2795-96, 97 L.Ed.2d 171 (1987). This power can be exercised to achieve goals not within the other enumerated powers of Congress in Article I, id. at 207, 107 S.Ct. at 2796, but this power is also limited.

The Supreme Court has identified four restrictions on the spending power of Congress. First, conditions attached by Congress on the expenditure of federal funds must promote the general welfare, and not be in the service of narrow and private interests. Id. Second, conditions on the state receipt of federal funds must be unambiguous, and enable "the States to exercise their choice knowingly, cognizant of the consequences of their participation." Id. Third, the Supreme Court has "suggested (without significant elaboration) that conditions on federal grants might be illegitimate if they are unrelated to the federal interest in particular national projects or programs." Id. (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). Fourth, no condition attached to receipt of federal funds may violate other provisions of the Constitution. Id. at 208, 107 S.Ct. at 2796. Georgia does not dispute that RLUIPA serves the general welfare, so we limit our discussion to the three remaining issues.

1. The Conditions of RLUIPA Are Unambiguous.

Congress may condition the expenditures of federal funds on the furtherance of federal objectives, but when the recipient of those funds is a state the conditions imposed by Congress must be unambiguous:

[L]egislation enacted pursuant to the spending power is much in the nature of a contract: in return for federal funds, the States agree to comply with federally imposed conditions. The legitimacy of Congress' power to legislate under the spending power thus rests on whether the State voluntarily and knowingly accepts the terms of the "contract." There can, of course, be no knowing acceptance if...