Ford v. McGinnis

• Decision Date: 15 December 2003
• Docket Number: Docket No. 02-0205.
• Citation: 352 F.3d 582
• Parties: Wayne FORD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John McGINNIS, Superintendent, Patrick McGann, Deputy Superintendent of Administration, Gordon Lord, Assistant Deputy Superintendent, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

352 F.3d 582

Wayne FORD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John McGINNIS, Superintendent, Patrick McGann, Deputy Superintendent of Administration, Gordon Lord, Assistant Deputy Superintendent, Defendants-Appellees.

Docket No. 02-0205.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: September 2, 2003.

Decided: December 15, 2003.

Stuart W. Gold, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP (Rachel G. Skaistis, on the brief), New York, NY, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Marion Buchbinder, Assistant Solicitor General (Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General of the State of New York, on the brief), New York, NY, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before: SOTOMAYOR, WESLEY, Circuit Judges, and POLLACK, District Judge.^*

SOTOMAYOR, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff Wayne Ford ("Ford") is a practicing Muslim incarcerated within the New York State Department of Correctional Services ("DOCS"). This lawsuit arises out of the refusal of defendants John McGinnis, Patrick McGann, and Gordon Lord (collectively "defendants" or "prison officials"), to provide Ford one meal in January of 2000. The meal Ford claims he was denied, however, was not just any meal but the Eid ul Fitr feast, held once a year in conjunction with a daylong celebration marking the successful completion of Ramadan. Ford claims that by denying him this meal, prison officials infringed his constitutional rights under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. See U.S. Const. amend. I.

The district court (Scheindlin, J.) granted defendants' motion for summary judgment chiefly on the ground that the meal, which the prison served over a week after the period prescribed by Muslim law and tradition, had lost all objective religious significance due to its postponement and, therefore, did not warrant free exercise protection. See Ford v. McGinnis, 230 F.Supp.2d 338, 347-48 (S.D.N.Y.2002). Alternatively, the district court held that defendants were entitled to summary judgment because the denial of one religious meal is, in any event, a de minimis burden on Ford's religious exercise, id. at 348 n. 10, or because the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity, as the denial of the meal was not objectively unreasonable, id. at 348.

Ford did not cross-move for summary judgment below and does not argue on appeal that he is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, but rather he argues that his case was derailed prematurely. For the reasons discussed below, we agree and remand for the district court to determine whether the denial of the meal was reasonably related to a legitimate penological interest under the test applied in Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 107 S.Ct. 2254, 96 L.Ed.2d 64 (1987), and O'Lone v. Estate of Shabazz, 482 U.S. 342, 107 S.Ct. 2400, 96 L.Ed.2d 282 (1987).

BACKGROUND

Wayne Ford has been incarcerated within the DOCS prison system since 1989. Since 1993, he has indicated to prison officials that he is a Muslim.² The circumstances that led to Ford's failure to receive the Eid ul Fitr feast arose when Ford was transferred from Rikers Island to Downstate Correctional Facility ("Downstate") in conjunction with a court appearance on January 7, 2000. Coincidentally, this was the same day on which the Eid ul Fitr was observed at Downstate.

The Eid ul Fitr, according to the DOCS-employed religious authorities³ whose testimony was before the district court, is one of two major religious observances in Islam.⁴ On the day of the Eid ul Fitr, Muslims celebrate the successful completion of the holy month of Ramadan, during which observant Muslims fast from sun up to sun down. The end of Ramadan is signaled by the sighting of the new moon, and Muslim law and tradition dictate that the Eid ul Fitr follow thereafter within three days. Celebration of the Eid ul Fitr typically begins with a sweet breakfast, followed by prayer, and later the Eid ul Fitr feast.

In 2000, Ramadan was called to an end when the new moon was sighted on January 6, and the Eid ul Fitr was celebrated at Downstate on the following day. Muslim prisoners, therefore, awoke on January 7 to a sweet breakfast and were then permitted to congregate for prayer. The traditional feast, however, was not held on that day. Rather, the feast was postponed to January 15, pursuant to the "Religious Faith's Holy Day Calendar," a DOCS-issued calendar describing "the feats [sic] and fasts for the various religious faith groups represented and verified" in DOCS. The calendar describes the Eid ul Fitr as follows:

Family Holy Day celebration. This is an observance of thanksgiving, gift giving, etc. On the first day following the end of Ramadan, a communal prayer and feast are celebrated with family. When this day falls on a weekday, the festivities may be moved to a weekend day in order to accommodate the families who will be participating.

Imam Hamin Rashada, Downstate's Muslim Chaplain, authorized the postponement after consulting with some Muslim inmates who preferred to hold the event on a weekend so that their families could attend. The foods composing the Eid ul Fitr feast⁵ were therefore not served at Downstate on January 7, but instead were served on January 15.

Shortly after arriving at Downstate on January 7, Ford became aware that the Eid ul Fitr feast had been postponed. Although Ford was held in Downstate's Special Housing Unit ("SHU" or "keeplock"), a more restricted confinement reserved for prisoners who present disciplinary or other problems, he wrote to Imam Rashada on January 10 — three days after all aspects of the Eid ul Fitr except the feast were observed at Downstate — requesting that his name be placed on a list to receive the Eid ul Fitr feast on January 15.

Ford was apparently not the first person to express concern over the prospect of Muslim SHU prisoners missing out on their religious meals. Just months before, Imam Warith-Deen Umar, who was then the Ministerial Program Coordinator for Islamic Affairs, issued the following memorandum to all the Muslim Chaplains within DOCS regarding SHU inmates' Ramadan meals and the special meals for the Eid ul Fitr and the Eid ul Adha (collectively, the "Id meals"):

A major concern of Muslim prisoners in special housing units and keeplock status is their accommodations during the month of Ramadan fast. With Ramadan and the two Ids coming soon, this is a good time to remind you and advise you to include the service of confined Muslims in your ministerial plans for Ramadan and the Ids. These inmates, more than often, will participate in the fast. Arrangements should be made for them to receive their evening meals in time for properly breaking the fast. They should also be able to receive the Id meals.

(emphasis added). This memorandum was copied to all prison superintendents.

Although Muslim inmates in SHU at Downstate did receive their Ramadan meals throughout the holy month, Imam Rashada informed Ford that SHU prisoners were not allowed to receive the Eid ul Fitr feast. Ford then filed the following grievance with the prison's Inmate Grievance Review Committee:⁶

I am a Muslim in SHU. Today Imam Rashida brought to my attention that Downstate C.F. denies Muslims on keeplock or in SHU our meals from the Eid Al Fitra and Eid Al Ahda [sic]. The Eid Al Fitra and Eid Al Ahda are two Islamic holidays that are constitutionally protected even in prison. Downstate C.F. is the only prison in DOCS that denies Muslims in SHU or keeplock our Eid Al Fitra and Eid Al Ahda [sic] meals.

After three days passed without response, Ford sent a letter — dated January 13 — reiterating his grievance to defendant Downstate Superintendent John McGinnis. It was, however, not until five days after the January 15 Eid ul Fitr feast was served at Downstate that Ford received a letter from defendant Downstate Assistant Deputy Superintendent Gordon Lord stating that inmates in SHU do not receive the Eid ul Fitr feast, as that meal is offered to only those inmates permitted to attend the event. Ford was never served the Eid ul Fitr feast for that Ramadan season.

Ford began this lawsuit pro se, complaining under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 that the refusal to serve him the Eid ul Fitr feast denied him rights guaranteed under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. After surviving defendants' motion to dismiss, see Ford v. McGinnis, 2000 WL 1808729 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 11, 2000), 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17910, at *14, Ford was provided counsel. Following discovery, the district court granted defendants' motion for summary judgment, accepting defendants' argument that Ford's religious beliefs were not infringed because the feast, having been moved beyond the three days following the close of Ramadan, no longer carried any objective religious significance. See Ford, 230 F.Supp.2d at 347-48.

The district court found it significant that although the Eid ul Fitr is governed by DOCS Directive 4202, which sets out prison officials' obligations in accommodating prisoners' religious practices, the postponed feast is held pursuant to DOCS Directive 4022, which covers so-called "Family Day Events." Id. at 344. The Director of Ministerial and Family Services for DOCS, John Loconte, averred that DOCS does not place any religious significance on "Family Day Events" and, moreover, none of the DOCS Muslim clerics "ever stated that any inmate's religion requires attendance at the DOCS-sponsored `Family Day Events,'" and further that "no religious advisor to DOCS has ever suggested that the special `Family Day Events' observing holy days have any religiously-mandated significance."

Furthermore, the district court credited the testimony of three DOCS religious authorities, one of whom stated that "[t]he religious need [for the Eid ul Fitr feast], the religious urgency of it was within the parameters of three days [following the end of Ramadan]. Beyond that, it's a family event." Another religious authority said "[o]nce you move it, it's no longer a religious day." And still another of these religious authorities clarified that...