Williams v. Bitner

• Decision Date: 25 July 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-1930.,05-1930.
• Citation: 455 F.3d 186
• Parties: Henry WILLIAMS, Appellee, v. Robert S. BITNER; Jay Stidd; Robert W. Meyers; Terry L. Whitman; Robin L. Kerstetter; Gregory P. Gaertner; Franklin J. Tennis; George Snedeker; Gary Emel; Scott Wyland, United States of America (Intervernor in District Court) Robert S. Bitner; Jay Stidd; Robert W. Meyers; Terry L. Whitman; Robin L. Kerstetter; G.P. Gaertner; F.J. Tennis; George Snedeker; Gary Emel; Scott Wayland, Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

455 F.3d 186

Henry WILLIAMS, Appellee, v. Robert S. BITNER; Jay Stidd; Robert W. Meyers; Terry L. Whitman; Robin L. Kerstetter; Gregory P. Gaertner; Franklin J. Tennis; George Snedeker; Gary Emel; Scott Wyland,

United States of America (Intervernor in District Court)

Robert S. Bitner; Jay Stidd; Robert W. Meyers; Terry L. Whitman; Robin L. Kerstetter; G.P. Gaertner; F.J. Tennis; George Snedeker; Gary Emel; Scott Wayland, Appellants.

No. 05-1930.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued February 28, 2006.

Filed July 25, 2006.

Barbara Adams, General Counsel, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Michael A. Farnan, Chief Counsel, Raymond W. Dorian, Assistant Counsel (Argued), Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Camp Hill, PA, for Appellants.

Michael Cooke (Argued), Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, Philadelphia, PA, for Appellee.

Before SLOVITER and FUENTES, Circuit Judges, and BRODY,^* District Judge.

FUENTES, Circuit Judge.

Henry Williams, a Muslim inmate assigned to work as a cook in his prison's kitchen, was ordered to help prepare a meal that included pork. Williams refused, explaining that his religious beliefs prohibited him from handling pork. As a result, Williams was fired from his kitchen job, cited for misconduct, and punished accordingly. Williams brought this action against numerous prison officials, alleging violations of his rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. The District Court dismissed Williams's Fourteenth Amendment claim but refused to grant qualified immunity to the prison officials with respect to the remaining claims. We are asked to determine whether, for the purposes of qualified immunity, the conduct alleged by Williams constituted a violation of his "clearly established" rights. For the reasons that follow, we will affirm the District Court's denial of qualified immunity with respect to Williams's First Amendment claim.

I. Background

Appellee Henry Williams ("Williams") is an inmate at the State Correctional Institution at Rockview ("SCI-Rockview"), a Pennsylvania corrections institution. Appellants (collectively, the "Prison Officials") are employees and officials of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections ("DOC"), the majority of whom are or were employed at SCI-Rockview.

A. Factual Background¹

Williams is a Muslim who believes that the Koran directs Muslims not to consume pork and to refrain from aiding others to consume pork in any circumstances. See The Koran, Part II, 70:173 n. 210 ("He has forbidden you ... the flesh of swine."). Williams further states that Islamic scholars endorse Chapter Eleven of Leviticus in the Old Testament, which prohibits adherents from handling swine. Williams has acted in accordance with this interpretation of his religion throughout his incarceration, and the Prison Officials do not challenge the sincerity of his religious beliefs.

The DOC requires able-bodied inmates to work when assigned to a job. SCI-Rockview officials assigned Williams to work as a cook in the prison kitchen, despite the fact that he neither applied for nor wanted that job. Upon receiving his work assignment, Williams expressed his concerns over possible contact with pork to the "head" inmate-cooks, who coordinated other inmates' daily responsibilities in the kitchen. Williams notified them that, as a practicing Muslim, he could not handle pork or assist in its preparation. They agreed to accommodate his concerns by transferring him to another assignment when pork was served for lunch. It is unclear from the record whether this accommodation was recognized by prison officials.

On Saturday, March 3, 2001, Williams began his shift as usual. He worked as a cook preparing hot cakes in the morning and later switched to another job in the kitchen when it was time to prepare roast pork for lunch. While lunch preparations were underway, defendant Scott Wyland ("Wyland"), one of SCI-Rockview's food service instructors, noticed that there was a shortage of available inmate-cooks. Although the lunch preparations would likely be finished in time for meal service, Wyland directed Williams to resume his position as cook and to help divide that day's pork rations.

Williams refused to follow Wyland's direction, citing his religious beliefs. Wyland reported Williams's refusal to defendant Gary Emel ("Emel"), the food service supervisor. Emel then approached Williams and ordered him to help ration the pork. Wyland indicated that Williams could wear gloves, an accommodation that other Muslim inmates had previously found acceptable. Williams again refused, stating that he would still be violating his faith by assisting others to consume pork. Emel fired Williams from his kitchen job and instructed Wyland to issue Williams a misconduct citation for failing to follow a direct order. Pursuant to SCI-Rockview policy, Wyland notified defendant George Snedeker ("Snedeker"), a prison captain, of the incident and Snedeker approved the misconduct citation.

On March 6, 2001, defendant Jay Stidd ("Stidd"), a corrections hearing examiner, conducted a disciplinary hearing. Prior to the hearing, Williams had submitted a written defense, in which he cited federal case law suggesting that prison officials cannot force Muslim prison inmates to assist in the preparation of pork and requested that one of the prison's Muslim chaplains be called as a witness. Stidd declined Williams's request and found him guilty of refusing to obey an order. As a sanction, Williams was placed on "cell restriction," meaning that, for a period of thirty days, he could leave his cell only for daily meals and to attend weekly Muslim religious services.

Williams appealed Stidd's decision to SCI-Rockview's "Program Review Committee," which included as members defendants Robert L. Kerstetter, Gregory P. Gaertner, and Franklin J. Tennis. The Committee affirmed Stidd's determination in a decision drafted by defendant Terry L. Whitman, deputy superintendent of SCI-Rockview. The decision noted that the Committee had contacted a member of SCI-Rockview's chaplaincy who indicated that Islamic teachings can be interpreted to allow adherents to touch pork while wearing gloves.² Williams unsuccessfully appealed the Committee's decision to defendants Robert W. Myers, superintendent of SCI-Rockview, and Robert S. Bitner, the chief hearing examiner.

Williams suffered a number of consequences as a result of the misconduct citation. He served twenty-seven days of the thirty-day cell restriction sentence, during which time he missed all but one religious observance per week, as well as the annual Islamic festival of Eid at the end of Ramadan. Although Williams had access to his religious books as well as books from the prison law library, he was forced to miss his Arabic Studies classes, which prevented him from obtaining his certification in that subject. At the conclusion of his cell restriction, Williams was reassigned to serve as a janitor in the kitchen, a position that, at 19 cents per hour, provided half the compensation of his previous job as a cook. SCI-Rockview staff placed the misconduct citation in Williams's institutional disciplinary record, and raised his security classification from "low" to "medium."

B. Procedural Background

In November 2001, Williams brought this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violations of his rights under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act ("RLUIPA"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000cc to 2000cc-5, and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Williams seeks compensatory damages, lost wages, and injunctive relief in the form of expungement of the misconduct citation, reinstatement of his pre-misconduct pay level, and cessation of similar religious harassment.

The Prison Officials filed a motion to dismiss the amended complaint, which the District Court denied. Williams v. Bitner, 285 F.Supp.2d 593 (M.D.Pa.2003). At the conclusion of discovery, the Prison Officials moved for summary judgment, arguing that Williams had not put forward sufficient evidence to sustain his claims. The District Court granted in part and denied in part the summary judgment motion: the District Court dismissed Williams's claim that the Prison Officials deprived him of his right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment, but held that Williams had offered sufficient evidence to establish a deprivation of his rights under the RLUIPA and the First Amendment. See Williams v. Bitner, 359 F.Supp.2d 370 (M.D.Pa.2005). In addition, the District Court held that the Prison Officials were not entitled to qualified immunity because Williams had adduced sufficient evidence for a jury to find that the Prison Officials violated a "clearly established" statutory or constitutional right.³ The Prison Officials appealed.

II. Jurisdiction and Standard of Review

The District Court had subject matter jurisdiction over this action under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1332. A district court's ruling denying qualified immunity is reviewable on appeal where the dispute does not turn upon "which facts the parties might be able to prove, but, rather, whether or not certain given facts showed a violation of `clearly established' law." Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 311, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995). Because the material facts here are not in dispute and the issues before this Court are purely legal, we have appellate jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 to review the District Court's denial of qualified immunity. See Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 530, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985).

We exercise plenary review of orders rejecting qualified immunity at the summary judgment stage. See Wright v. City of Philadelphia, 409 F.3d 595, 599 (3d Cir.2005). We apply the same standard that district courts apply at summary judgment. See Curley v. Klem, 298 F.3d 271, 276 (3d Cir.2002). Thus, we draw all reasonable...