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District Court Issues Wide-Ranging Prisoner RLUIPA Opinion

By Howard Friedman

Last week, a federal district court in South Dakota handed down a wide-ranging decision in a prisoner RLUIPA case. (The case raised various other claims as well.) The lawsuit-- in which the Department of Justice had intervened on behalf of the plaintiff prisoner-- raised a broad range of issues, some of which had not beeen decided yet in the Eighth Circuit. In Sisney v. Reisch, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9832 (D SD, Feb. 6, 2008), convicted murderer Charles Sisney, who began practicing Judaism while in prison, sought a number of accommodations to permit him to practice his religious faith.

The court held that RLUIPA does not create a private right of action for damages against state officials in their individual capacities, but that the state's acceptance of federal prisoner funds waived its sovereign immunity so that a prisoner can recover monetary damages in "official capacity" suits against prison officials. However under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, a plaintiff who has not suffered physical injury may recover only nominal compensatory damages and nominal attorneys' fees. The court concluded that RLUIPA is a valid exercise of Congress' power under the Spending Clause of the Constitution.

The court permitted plaintiff to proceed only on his claims for access to a Sukkah; additional time for study of Hebrew, Talmud and Kaballah; and access to a tape player in his cell for religious language studies. Among the remaining issues for trial in these claims is the sincerity of Sisney's religious beliefs.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on February 13, 2008 (boomark / email).