Kay v. Bemis
| Decision Date | 11 September 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. 07-4032.,No. 07-4081.,07-4032.,07-4081. |
| Parties | Karl Dee KAY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Nancy BEMIS, Ronald Stamper, Jeremy Heywood, FNU Green, Casey Boulter, Jan Bodily, and Esther Schube, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Karl Dee Kay, pro se.
Before HENRY, TYMKOVICH, and HOLMES, Circuit Judges.*
Karl Dee Kay, a Utah prisoner proceeding pro se and in forma pauperis (IFP), filed a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 civil rights complaint against several officials at the Bonneville Community Correctional Facility (BCCF), claiming multiple deprivations of his constitutional rights arising from his imprisonment. First, he claimed that the defendants violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000cc et seq., and his First Amendment right to freely exercise his religion by denying him tarot cards, incense, and religious books. Second, he asserted that the defendants arrested him on a parole violation using a warrant based on knowingly false information and fabricated evidence, in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Third, he argued that defendants subjected him to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment in retaliation for his seeking legal counsel. Finally, he averred his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights were violated during his parole revocation proceedings. Kay sought both an injunction and monetary damages. The district court dismissed each claim.
Having jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.
Pursuant to the court's screening function for IFP cases under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii),1 the district court dismissed Kay's complaint, concluding it failed to state a claim upon which relief may be granted on four grounds.
The district court initially dismissed two defendants from the action based on Kay's failure to show an "affirmative link" between the alleged constitutional violation and the defendants. Second, the district court dismissed the First Amendment claim based on Kay's failure to demonstrate how the practice of his religion was burdened by the denial of tarot cards and other materials. Third, the district court then dismissed Kay's remaining claims based on his failure to show that his parole revocation was invalidated by another court. See Crow v. Penry, 102 F.3d 1086, 1087 (10th Cir.1996). Finally, the district court denied his motion for an injunction because he was no longer held at the BCCF and thought that his motion presumed that he would be paroled and eventually sent back to the BCCF.
Kay appealed this decision, which resulted in the opening of Case No. 07-4032. Two days before, he also filed a timely motion for reconsideration in the district court. Construing this motion as a motion to alter or amend judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59, the district court denied in part and granted in part the motion, allowing Kay to amend his complaint with respect to the First Amendment claim. He filed a motion for additional time to amend his complaint, which the district court denied. Kay failed to amend his complaint within the time permitted, and the district court again dismissed the claim. Kay appealed this decision separately, which resulted in the opening of Case No. 07-4081. The cases have been consolidated for procedural purposes.
We review de novo the district court's decision to dismiss an IFP complaint under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii) for failure to state a claim. Perkins v. Kan. Dep't of Corr., 165 F.3d 803, 806 (10th Cir.1999). "Dismissal of a pro se complaint for failure to state a claim is proper only where it is obvious that the plaintiff cannot prevail on the facts he has alleged and it would be futile to give him an opportunity to amend." Curley v. Perry, 246 F.3d 1278, 1281 (10th Cir.2001) (internal quotation omitted). "In determining whether a dismissal is proper, we must accept the allegations of the complaint as true and construe those allegations, and any reasonable inferences that might be drawn from them, in the light most favorable to the plaintiff." Gaines v. Stenseng, 292 F.3d 1222, 1224 (10th Cir. 2002).
We apply the same standard of review for dismissals under § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii) that we employ for Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim. See Mitchell v. Farcass, 112 F.3d 1483, 1490 (11th Cir.1997) (). We recently gave fuller meaning to our standard for Rule 12(b)(6) motions in light of the Supreme Court's 2007 decisions in Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1970, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007), and Erickson v. Pardus, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 2197, 2200, 167 L.Ed.2d 1081 (2007). In the Rule 12(b)(6) context, "[w]e look for plausibility in th[e] complaint." Alvarado v. KOB-TV, L.L.C., No. 06-2001, 493 F.3d 1210, 1215 (10th Cir.2007). In particular, we "look to the specific allegations in the complaint to determine whether they plausibly support a legal claim for relief." Id. at 1215 n. 2. Rather than adjudging whether a claim is "improbable," "[f]actual allegations [in a complaint] must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level." Bell Atl. Corp., ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1965, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007).
"In addition, we must construe a pro se appellant's complaint liberally." Gaines, 292 F.3d at 1224. This liberal treatment is not without limits, and "this court has repeatedly insisted that pro se parties follow the same rules of procedure that govern other litigants." Garrett v. Selby, Connor, Maddux & Janer, 425 F.3d 836, 840 (10th Cir.2005) (internal quotation omitted).
Applying these standards, we conclude that two of Kay's claims may state a claim for relief.
Kay makes both a First Amendment free exercise claim and a statutory claim under RLUIPA.
Kay first challenges the district court's dismissal of his religious freedom claim. After reviewing Kay's original complaint, we are satisfied that he alleges facts sufficient to "plausibly support a legal claim for relief" and reverse and remand this claim to the district court.
It is well-settled that "[i]nmates . . . retain protections afforded by the First Amendment, including its directive that no law shall prohibit the free exercise of religion." O'Lone v. Estate of Shabazz, 482 U.S. 342, 348, 107 S.Ct. 2400, 96 L.Ed.2d 282 (1987). Yet such protections are not without reasonable limitations. The Supreme Court has cautioned that prison inmates are also subject to the "necessary withdrawal or limitation of many privileges and rights, a retraction justified by the considerations underlying our penal system." Id. Accordingly, the Court has held that "a prison regulation imping[ing] on inmates' constitutional rights . . . is valid if it is reasonably related to legitimate penological interests." Id. at 349, 107 S.Ct. 2400.
Thus, in order to allege a constitutional violation based on a free exercise claim, a prisoner-plaintiff must survive a two-step inquiry. First, the prisoner-plaintiff must first show that a prison regulation "substantially burdened . . . sincerely-held religious beliefs." Boles v. Neet, 486 F.3d 1177, 1182 (10th Cir.2007). Consequently, "[t]he first questions in any free exercise claim are whether the plaintiff's beliefs are religious in nature, and whether those religious beliefs are sincerely held." Snyder v. Murray City Corp., 124 F.3d 1349, 1352 (10th Cir.1997). Second, prison officials-defendants may "identif[y] the legitimate penological interests that justif[ied] the impinging conduct." Boles, 486 F.3d at 1182.2 At that point courts balance the factors set forth in Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 89-91, 107 S.Ct. 2254, 96 L.Ed.2d 64 (1987), to determine the reasonableness of the regulation:
(1) whether a rational connection exists between the prison policy regulation and a legitimate governmental interest advanced as its justification; (2) whether alternative means of exercising the right are available notwithstanding the policy or regulation; (3) what effect accommodating the exercise of the right would have on guards, other prisoners, and prison resources generally; and (4) whether ready, easy-to-implement alternatives exist that would accommodate the prisoner's rights.
The district court prematurely dismissed Kay's claim at step one. The district court denied his claim because Kay failed to sufficiently plead: (1) what religion he practices, (2) whether his religious beliefs are sincerely held, and (3) how tarot cards, incense, and religious books are necessary to the practice of his religion.4 This misconstrues the complaint.
First, Kay's complaint clearly identifies his religion as "Wicca."5 Contrary to the district court's statement that his complaint only mentions Wicca once in reference to "Wiccan books," the complaint references Wicca four times. See Kay Compl., R., Doc. 3, at 5, 7. In two of those instances, Kay refers to Wicca as "his religion." Id.
Second, the court's assessment of the sincerity of Kay's beliefs was premature at this stage of the claim. "The inquiry into the sincerity of a free-exercise plaintiff's religious beliefs is almost exclusively a credibility assessment, . . . and therefore the issue of sincerity can rarely be determined on summary judgment," let alone a motion to dismiss. Snyder, 124 F.3d at 1352-53 (internal quotation omitted). We have said that summary dismissal on the sincerity prong is appropriate only in the "very rare case[]" in which the plaintiff's beliefs are "so bizarre, so clearly nonreligious in motivation that they are not entitled to First Amendment protection." Id. at 1353 (...
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