Mayweathers v. Terhune

• Decision Date: 25 June 2004
• Docket Number: No. CIV. S-96-1582LKKGGH.,CIV. S-96-1582LKKGGH.
• Citation: 328 F.Supp.2d 1086
• Parties: Karluk M. MAYWEATHERS; Dietrich J. Pennington; Jesus Jihad; Terrance Mathews; Aswad Jackson; Ansar Kees, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiff, v. Calvin TERHUNE; A.C. Newland; Barry Smith; Bonnie Garibay; N. Fry; M.E. Valdez; N. Bennett; and F.X. Chavez, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of California

328 F.Supp.2d 1086

Karluk M. MAYWEATHERS; Dietrich J. Pennington; Jesus Jihad; Terrance Mathews; Aswad Jackson; Ansar Kees, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiff, v. Calvin TERHUNE; A.C. Newland; Barry Smith; Bonnie Garibay; N. Fry; M.E. Valdez; N. Bennett; and F.X. Chavez, Defendants.

No. CIV. S-96-1582LKKGGH.

United States District Court, E.D. California.

June 25, 2004.

Susan Dee Christian, Prison Law Office, General Delivery, San Quentin, CA.

Karluk M Mayweathers, Calipatria State Prison, Calipatria, CA.

Tami M Warwick, Attorney General's Office for the State of California, Sacramento, CA.

John K Vincent, United States Attorney, Sacramento, CA.

Marc D Stern, Not Edca Admitted, American Jewish Congress, New York City.

ORDER

KARLTON, Senior District Judge.

This matter comes before the court on plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and for a permanent injunction. I decide the motion on the basis of the papers and pleadings filed herein and after oral argument.

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs are a class of Muslim state prisoners housed at California State Prison-Solano seeking relief under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000cc et seq., and under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, for alleged violations of their First Amendment right to the free exercise of their religion, as well as their Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection of the law.

Each of plaintiffs' alleged violations has either been addressed by a settlement agreement between the parties or is subject to a preliminary injunction that has been continued by stipulation pending the ruling on the instant motion. The present motion seeks to make the stipulated injunctive relief permanent.

This court has issued fifteen preliminary injunctions in this case since July 31, 2001, with defendants unsuccessfully appealing all but one. Following the Ninth Circuit's decision to uphold RLUIPA and the Supreme Court's denial of defendants' petition for certiorari, the parties stipulated to the continued operation of the previously-ordered injunctive relief pending a final decision by this court. The relevant facts in this case have remained essentially unchanged throughout the course of this litigation and are set forth in detail in the previous orders of this court and the Ninth Circuit.

A. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Several individual and group complaints were filed by the Muslim inmates at California State Prison at Solano in 1995 and 1996. On October 16, 1997, the court appointed counsel for the plaintiffs. The actions were consolidated and a class action was certified on November 19, 1998.

Originally, plaintiffs sought relief with respect to several claims reflecting a variety of requests for accommodation of the plaintiffs' practice of Islam. An order filed on June 5, 2000, memorialized and confirmed settlement agreements reached on all issues except plaintiffs' request to attend Jumu'ah services and to wear half-inch beards without being disciplined or subjected to the loss of any sentence-reducing ("work time" or "good time") credits to which they may otherwise be entitled.

Plaintiffs' claims of violation of their religious freedom originally proceeded under the standards set forth in Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 107 S.Ct. 2254, 96 L.Ed.2d 64 (1987). The first three preliminary injunctions, all for Jumu'ah attendance, were granted under the Turner standard and affirmed by the Ninth Circuit. Mayweathers v. Newland, 258 F.3d 930 (9th Cir.2001). Plaintiffs' original motion for preliminary injunction on the grooming issue was denied under the Turner standard.

In September 2000, President Clinton signed the RLUIPA into law. Shortly thereafter, the court granted plaintiffs leave to amend in order to add a RLUIPA claim. Defendants moved to dismiss the RLUIPA claim, arguing that the statute is unconstitutional. On July 2, 2001, this court found the act to be constitutional and denied defendants' motion to dismiss.

Defendants appealed the order to the Ninth Circuit. As set forth below, defendants also appealed preliminary injunctions four through ten concerning Jumu'ah, and the first four of the five preliminary injunctions concerning grooming. All of those appeals were based only on defendants' challenge to the constitutionality of RLUIPA. Consequently, all were either consolidated with the RLUIPA appeal or were stayed pending the outcome thereof. On December 27, 2002, the Ninth Circuit upheld the constitutionality of RLUIPA and thereby affirmed the preliminary injunctions.¹ Mayweathers v. Newland, 314 F.3d 1062 (9th Cir.2002). Defendants' petition for rehearing en banc was denied. Defendants then filed a certiorari petition in the Supreme Court, which was also denied. Alameida v. Mayweathers, ___ U.S. ___, 124 S.Ct. 66, 157 L.Ed.2d 30 (2003).

B. JUMUA'AH ATTENDANCE

CSP-Solano is a medium security prison about thirty-five miles southwest of Sacramento. The vast majority of inmates are enrolled in the prison's work incentive program, in which every day of participation may reduce their sentences by one day. Under the relevant prison regulations, all able-bodied prisoners, including plaintiffs, are required to work or attend class. Cal.Code Regs., tit. 15, § 3040(a). Plaintiffs' work or class assignments are made by prison staff "with or without the inmate's consent." Id. at § 3040(c) & (f).

If inmates miss work without the approval of their supervisors, they receive an unexcused absence, known as an "A day," which can be grounds for discipline. Being late or "absent without authorization from a work or program assignment" is an "administrative rule violation," id., at § 3314(a)(d)(H), and "[r]efusal to perform work or participate in a program as ordered or assigned" is a "serious rule violation." Id. at § 3315(a)(3)(J). The punishment for such violations includes suspension of privileges, confinement to quarters, forfeiture of up to thirty days of sentence credits, change in work incentive program eligibility, and transfer to a higher level prison. Id. at § 3314(e), 3315(f), 3323(h), 3375.

According to Muslim scholars and imams who have offered evidence on behalf of the plaintiffs, attendance at the Friday Sabbath services known as Jumu'ah is commanded by the Qur'an, and the services must be held collectively under the leadership of an imam. See O'Lone v. Estate of Shabazz, 482 U.S. 342, 345, 107 S.Ct. 2400, 96 L.Ed.2d 282 (1987) ("Jumu'ah is commanded by the Koran and must be held every Friday after the sun reaches its zenith and before the Asr, or afternoon prayer."); Hamdani Depo. at 39:8-16. Plaintiffs assigned to work or class on Friday are not allowed to leave their assignments to attend Jumu'ah. Cal.Code Regs., tit. 15, § 3041(b). Plaintiffs who leave their work or class assignments to attend Jumu'ah have been, and without injunctive relief may in the future be, subjected to progressive discipline resulting in the imposition of numerous penalties and loss of privileges. 15 Cal.Code Regs., tit. 15, §§ 3044, 3315(a)(3)(j), 3315(a)(3)(f); Matthews Depo. at 103:4-105:9; Pennington Depo. at 15:6-17; Mayweathers Depo. at 76:9-19. Those plaintiffs who are entitled to earn sentence-reducing credits by working or going to class are denied those credits for each day that they leave for an hour to attend Jumu'ah. Cal.Code Regs., tit. 15, § 3045.2; Garner Decl.

Plaintiffs' first motion for preliminary injunction concerning Jumu'ah attendance was filed on October 21, 1999. Plaintiffs requested to be allowed to attend Jumu'ah without being disciplined, which was clarified as including protection from receiving progressive discipline and from denial of sentence-reducing "work time" or "good-time" credits. By order of July 31, 2000, the court adopted the magistrate judge's recommendations and granted the first preliminary injunction concerning Jumu'ah.

Every preliminary injunction in this action was subject to the automatic 90- day expiration provision of the Prison Litigation Reform Act ("PLRA"), 18 U.S.C. § 3626(a)(2). Plaintiffs have therefore filed numerous subsequent motions for identical relief over the course of the litigation. Defendants' argument that such repeated motions are barred by the PLRA was rejected by this court and affirmed by the Ninth Circuit. Mayweathers v. Terhune, 136 F.Supp.2d 1152 (E.D.Cal.2001); aff'd, Mayweathers, 258 F.3d at 936.

This court issued a second preliminary injunction on December 19, 2000, prohibiting defendants from imposing disciplinary action or the "forfeiture" of work time credits when plaintiffs attend Jumu'ah. After further briefing and additional oral argument, the court denied plaintiffs' request for the relief to be expanded to include prohibiting defendants from denying plaintiffs the opportunity to "earn" work time credits while they attend Jumu'ah. Plaintiffs' third motion for preliminary injunction, still under Turner, was granted March 30, 2001. Defendants appealed each of the first three injunctions regarding Jumu'ah. On August 2, 2001, the Ninth Circuit affirmed each of the injunctions. Mayweathers, 258 F.3d 930 (9th Cir.2001). The fourth motion for preliminary injunction was filed based upon both Turner and RLUIPA and was granted on July 5, 2001. The court expanded the relief and ordered as follows:

[P]laintiffs are allowed to attend Jumu'ah services during the pendency of this action without receiving disciplinary action, forfeiting good-time credits, or losing the opportunity to earn good-time credits.

Order of July 5, 2001.

All subsequent orders by the court granted this same injunctive relief. The court issued these orders based on the law of the case doctrine, finding that defendants had failed each time to respond to plaintiffs' further Jumu'ah motions with any new evidence or new legal argument that had not already been considered and rejected by the court. Arizona v. California, 460 U.S. 605, 103 S.Ct. 1382, 75...