Rendelman v. Rouse

• Decision Date: 25 June 2009
• Docket Number: No. 08-6150.,08-6150.
• Citation: 569 F.3d 182
• Parties: Scott Lewis RENDELMAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Nancy ROUSE, Warden; Scott Steininger, CDRM Correctional Dietary Regional Manager; Carolyn Thomas, Food Service Administrator, all defendants individually and in their official capacity, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

569 F.3d 182

Scott Lewis RENDELMAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Nancy ROUSE, Warden; Scott Steininger, CDRM Correctional Dietary Regional Manager; Carolyn Thomas, Food Service Administrator, all defendants individually and in their official capacity, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 08-6150.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: March 25, 2009.

Decided: June 25, 2009.

ARGUED: Timothy McGinn, Duke University School of Law, Durham, North Carolina, for Appellant. Phillip M. Pickus, Office of the Attorney General of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: James E. Coleman, Jr., Sean E. Andrussier, James Healy, Matthew Levy, Susan Pourciau, Duke University School of Law, Durham, North Carolina, for Appellant. Douglas F. Gansler, Attorney General of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellees.

Before MICHAEL, KING, and AGEE, Circuit Judges.

Dismissed in part and affirmed in part by published opinion. Judge MICHAEL wrote the opinion, in which Judge KING and Judge AGEE joined.

OPINION

MICHAEL, Circuit Judge:

Scott Rendelman appeals the district court's order granting summary judgment to Maryland Division of Corrections (MDOC) officials on his claims under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000cc et seq., and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. While incarcerated in MDOC, Rendelman brought this action against the Correctional Dietary Regional Manager, the Food Service Administrator, and the Warden at Maryland Correctional Institution—Hagerstown (MCI-H). Rendelman sued all defendants in their official and individual capacities, seeking injunctive relief and damages under RLUIPA and § 1983 based on defendants' refusal to make any accommodation for his kosher dietary restrictions. The district court resolved the action on the merits, holding that Rendelman was not entitled to relief under RLUIPA or § 1983.

Rendelman limits his appeal to the RLUIPA claims. His recent transfer into federal custody, however, has rendered moot his claim for injunctive relief under RLUIPA. With respect to damages, we have held previously that RLUIPA does not authorize a claim for money damages against an official sued in her official capacity. Today we hold that, when invoked as a spending clause statute, RLUIPA does not authorize a claim for money damages against an official sued in her individual capacity. We therefore affirm the district court's judgment insofar as it rejects Rendelman's claim for damages.

I.

Rendelman is an Orthodox Jew whose religious beliefs require him to abide by kosher dietary laws. On January 18, 2006, Rendelman arrived at MDOC to begin service of his sentence; he was housed temporarily at the Reception Center before being transferred on January 30, 2006, to MCI-H. MDOC offers its inmates a choice of two diets: a pork-free regular diet and a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. Although the diets are designed "to accommodate a broad spectrum of religious practices," J.A. 30, neither diet complies with the laws of kashrut (the rules derived from the Torah governing the eating of food). As a result, in order for Rendelman to follow the dictates of his religion, he is unable to eat many of the items served on either menu, including any foods cooked at the prison.

Immediately upon his incarceration and prior to his transfer to MCI-H, Rendelman requested that prison authorities make certain accommodations for his religious dietary limitations. He was informed by the chaplain that a kosher diet was unavailable. Following his transfer to MCI-H, Rendelman again requested a kosher diet or reasonable accommodation for his religious requirements. On February 14, 2006, Rendelman sent a handwritten letter to Scott Steininger, the Correctional Dietary Regional Manager, asking to speak to him about his religious dietary needs. Rendelman wrote that the Inmate Handbook he received specifically provided, under the heading "Religious Diets," that "[t]he master menu ... is designed to accommodate substitutions or alternate food selections, extra portions of acceptable menu items, etc. to conform to religious diets," and Rendelman inquired as to how this policy worked in practice. J.A. 28. He explained that due to his kosher dietary restrictions he was unable to eat most of the available foods and that "medical" had documented that he had already "lost 23 pounds because there are so few items on the regular tray [he could] eat." Id. On the same day Rendelman initiated an administrative grievance process by submitting an informal inmate complaint form. In the complaint Rendelman quoted the same passage from the Inmate Handbook and explained that he had been "repeatedly denied extra portions of items [he could] eat, such as dry cereal" and that he "need[ed] certain items served on paper plates" to comply with his religious dietary restrictions. J.A. 26.

The next day, February 15, 2006, Steininger spoke with Rendelman and "told him that it was his choice not to eat the food [and] that we do not substitute other food." J.A. 27. The staff response to Rendelman's complaint, dated February 16, acknowledged the language in the Inmate Handbook but similarly explained that "we do not substitute[;] it is up to the Inmate whether he wants [the] meal or not." J.A. 26.

Rendelman continued to seek relief through the administrative grievance process. He repeatedly requested that MDOC adhere to the policy stated in the Inmate Handbook and permit him to "assemble a common fare tray from the mainline fare." J.A. 33. He also informed MDOC that "[m]any mainline fare items are kosher if served on paper plates." Id. He was clear throughout the process that he was "not demanding a kosher diet line or that any special food be ordered for him." J.A. 39. In April 2006 Rendelman requested that his complaint be "handled expeditiously" due to the fact that his "health is at risk." J.A. 40. He noted that he weighed 154 pounds at his DOC intake physical but had already lost 30 pounds. In response to Rendelman's concerns about weight loss, Steininger wrote in May 2006 that Rendelman, who weighed 128 pounds, "presently falls within the normal limits for his height": 125-163 pounds for a person who is 5'8". J.A. 58. Steininger further responded that:

If he has experienced a great deal of weight loss in a short period of time, I would recommend he be put on a High Calorie diet, though inmate Rendelman's issue has not been a matter of enough calories on the Regular diet, but rather a refusal to eat certain foods on this diet.

Id.

Rendelman eventually exhausted his administrative remedies in February 2007, more than a year after the filing of his initial complaint. He then filed this action pro se on March 7, 2007, in the District of Maryland. Rendelman's complaint named as defendants DOC Correctional Dietary Regional Manager Steininger, Food Service Administrator Carolyn Thomas, and MCI-H Warden Nancy Rouse. Rendelman claimed that defendants' failure to make any accommodations for his religious dietary restrictions substantially burdened his religious practices in violation of RLUIPA and § 1983. Defendants were sued in both their official and individual capacities. In his prayer for relief Rendelman sought an order "to make reasonable accommodation for diet of kosher food" and "damages $300 per day" for the "ongoing" violation. J.A. 8.

Defendants filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim or, in the alternative, for summary judgment. Defendants argued, among other things, that Rendelman had failed to state a claim under RLUIPA and § 1983.

The district court granted defendants' motion for summary judgment on the merits, holding that their actions had not violated the First Amendment or RLUIPA and that Rendelman was therefore not entitled to any form of relief. The court relied on Wilkerson v. Beitzel, 2005 WL 5280675 (D.Md.2005), aff'd, 184 Fed.Appx. 316 (4th Cir.2006) (unpublished), in concluding that MDOC was not obligated under RLUIPA to accommodate Rendelman's request for a kosher diet. See Rendelman v. Rouse, No. 07-cv-580 (D.Md. Oct. 22, 2007). Rendelman appeals the court's ruling on his RLUIPA claim, and we review that ruling de novo. Doe v. Kidd, 501 F.3d 348, 353 (4th Cir. 2007).

II.

RLUIPA provides that:

No government shall impose a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person residing in or confined to an institution, as defined in section 1997 of this title, 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 government interest; and

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

42 U.S.C. § 2000cc-1(a) (2006). The term "government" as used in § 2000cc-1 is defined broadly to include:

(i) a State, county, municipality, or other governmental entity created under the authority of a State;

(ii) any branch, department, agency, instrumentality, or official of an entity listed in clause (i); and

(iii) any other person acting under color of State law[.]

Id. § 2000cc-5(4)(A).

The protections of § 2000cc-1(a) apply whenever a "substantial burden is imposed in a program or activity that receives Federal financial assistance" or whenever a "substantial burden affects, or removal of that substantial burden would affect, commerce with foreign nations, among the several States, or with Indian tribes." Id. § 2000cc-1(b)(1), (2). It is undisputed that Rendelman is in a program receiving federal financial assistance, and he bases the applicability of RLUIPA on this fact.

Rendelman contends in his complaint and on appeal that defendants' refusal to make any accommodation for his religious dietary restrictions imposed a substantial burden on his religious exercise in violation of § 2000cc-1(a) of RLUIPA, and that he is therefore entitled to injunctive and monetary relief. We consider his requests for an injunction...