Eastern District of California Blog

Muslim Prison Guard Alleges Harassment At New Folsom Prison In EDCA Suit

Here is the Elhindi v CDCR civil complaint described in this SacBee, 1/5/14 story with this lede:

Alleging years of intense harassment and retaliation at New Folsom prison, Muslim correctional officer Elsiddig Elhindi has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the state Corrections Department.

The lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was filed on Elhindi’s behalf Dec. 31 by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. It alleges that Elhindi, an immigrant from Sudan married to a U.S. citizen, endured numerous anti-Muslim slurs and taunts from co-workers at California State Prison, Sacramento, from early 2006 until the fall of 2014.

Atheist Ordered To Participate In Religious-Based Drug Treatment Program Wins $2 Million Settlement

A Shasta County atheist whose parole agent required him to participate in a religious-oriented drug treatment program has settled his lawsuit against the state and a rehabilitation contractor for nearly $2 million.

Barry A. Hazle Jr. did a year in prison on a narcotics conviction. His release on parole was revoked – and he was sent back to prison for more than three months – after he complained about mandated attendance at a drug treatment program where acknowledgment of a higher power is required.

Hazle, 46, sued officials of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation six years ago in Sacramento federal court. Six weeks later, the department issued a directive that parole agents may not compel a parolee to take part in religious-themed programs. A parolee who objects should be referred to nonreligious treatment, the directive said, citing federal case law.

* * *

U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. found that compelling Hazle to attend the program ran “afoul of the prohibition against the state’s favoring religion in general over nonreligion,” and violated a constitutional right against government imposing religious beliefs on him.

But when the case went to trial on the issue of money, the jury refused to award damages for Hazle’s loss of freedom and emotional distress.

In August 2013, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw the jury’s verdict out, ruling that Hazle must be compensated for the violation of his constitutional right.

The three-judge circuit panel sent the case back to Burrell for a new trial and directed the judge to instruct the jury that Hazle is entitled to damages.

Sacramento Bee, 10/14/14

Prison Guard Harassed Over Rastafarian Dreadlocks & Beard

Solomon Stanley says he never thought his Rastafari religion — which mandates followers to wear dreadlocks and a beard — would cause him problems as a prison guard.

"It's not a radical religion," he says. "We promote peace."

But his refusal to cut his hair and beard has generated two lawsuits — one in federal court in Fresno and another in Fresno County Superior Court — that accuse prison officials in Delano of religious harassment, discrimination and retaliation.

Fresno Bee, 2/8/13

McDonalds To Pay Muslim Employee $50,000 To Settle Religious Discrimination Suit

McDonald's Restaurants of California Inc. will pay $50,000 to a Muslim employee who was fired in 2005 after one of its Fresno restaurants refused his request to grow a beard for religious reasons.

The payment is part of an agreement announced Friday by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission to settle a religious-discrimination lawsuit against the restaurant chain.

Shaheed Khan, who worked at a McDonald's restaurant on West Shaw Avenue near Valentine Avenue, asked his managers in the summer of 2005 to accommodate his religious belief to wear a beard at work, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Fresno.

The lawsuit alleged that Khan's request was denied and later terminated.

Fresno Bee, 12/20/13

Ninth Circuit Rules Atheist Parolee Entitled To Monetary Damages

An atheist parolee who was sent back to prison after he balked at participating in a religious-oriented drug treatment program must receive monetary compensation, a federal appellate court ruled Friday.

The ruling overturned the verdict of a Sacramento jury, which decided that Barry A. Hazle Jr. was not entitled to monetary damages, even though his constitutional rights had been violated.

Sacramento Bee, 8/24/13; see [Hazle v. Crofoot, 11-15354 (9th Cir. Aug. 23, 2013].

Ninth Circuit Rules Wiccan Inmates Can Sue For Chaplain

Hartmann v. Cal. Dept. of Corrections, 11-16008 (2/19/13):

A state prison inmate and former inmate who practice the Wiccan religion can  proceed with a lawsuit accusing California of discriminating by refusing to hire a Wiccan chaplain while paying for chaplains from more mainstream faiths, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The women claim that Wicca, a goddess-worshiping form of witchcraft, has more  adherents in the state women's prison at Chowchilla (Madera County) than Islam or Judaism, two of the five religions that have state-paid chaplains. 

* * *

U.S. District Judge Lawrence  O'Neill dismissed the suit in 2011, finding no violations of the inmates'  rights. The appeals court agreed with much of his reasoning Tuesday, saying the  prisons had not interfered with the women's right to practice their religion or  intentionally discriminated against them by providing only a  volunteer chaplain.

But the court said the women may be able to prove that the state Department  of Corrections and Rehabilitation is violating the constitutional ban on a  governmental "establishment of religion," which prohibits a state from endorsing  one faith over another.

SF Gate, 2/19/13

Is Fortune Telling A Religion?

"'Spiritual counselor' Stephanie Davis claims the City of Selma's demand that she get a "fortune telling" business license is an unconstitutional restraint on speech, unfairly imposed upon her but not upon traditional Christian churches, in Federal Court."  Courthouse News, 8/21/12; Civil Complaint.

Suit Challenging Minister Tax Exemption To Be Refiled To Satisfy New Standing Case

Plaintiffs in a case represented by Sacramento attorney Michael Newdow have dropped their constitutional challenge to tax exemptions for parsonages and other housing for ministers.

However, plaintiffs' attorney Richard Bolton said Tuesday, "We anticipate refiling shortly with a slightly reconfigured cast of plaintiffs."

Bolton said plaintiffs were reacting to Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn, in which a split U.S. Supreme Court dramatically narrowed rank-and-file taxpayers' standing to sue. Specifically, the court held in April that they have no standing to challenge tax credits for donations to scholarship programs offered by schools affiliated with a given religion.

Sacramento Bee, 6/22/11

EDCA Court Dismisses Suit Over Whether Waldorf Schools Linked To Religion

A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit that has kept the Sacramento City Unified School District in court for nearly 13 years fending off a challenge to the Waldorf teaching method used in two district schools.

People for Legal and Non-Sectarian Schools, or PLANS Inc., sued the district in 1998, claiming the method is inextricably linked to anthroposophy – the philosophy of Waldorf method founder Rudolf Steiner. The suit contended anthroposophy is a religion and that its use in public schools violates the First Amendment's establishment clause, which precludes mixing religion with government institutions.

A lawyer for PLANS said Saturday that an appeal is likely. School district spokesman Gabe Ross declined to comment.

John Morse Waldorf Methods School, established in 1996 with grades K-8, was the original target of the lawsuit. The district opened a small Waldorf high school – George Washington Carver School of Arts and Sciences – three years ago.

In Waldorf education, the arts are integrated into all subjects, including math and science. Students begin each school day with a two-hour main lesson, learning subjects in intensive three-to-four-week blocks. Storytelling, reading of myths and legends, and learning handcrafts, cooking, gardening, painting, music and movement are part of the method.

At a non-jury trial Aug. 31 before U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr., PLANS attorney Donald Michael Bush put on a single witness – Betty Staley, founder of the Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks – and presented the few exhibits Damrell allowed into evidence.

At the end of Staley's testimony, school district attorney Michelle Cannon asked Damrell to dismiss the lawsuit, contending Bush did not make his case. The judge allowed the lawyers to argue and then ordered further briefing.

In a 20-page order issued Friday, Damrell agreed that Bush had failed to show that anthroposophy is a religion, and he dismissed the lawsuit.

Sacramento Bee, 11/6/10

Teacher Charges Retaliation By School District For Questioning Christian-Based Materials

Confronting officials of the Yuba City Unified School District over their promotion of Christian-based religious materials — including "Character Counts" classes — led to retaliation by the school district, a Jewish teacher says.

Lisa Polonsky-Britt in a Friday filing in federal court in Sacramento said that when teaching at April Lane Elementary School in 2008 she raised concerns during a staff meeting that the Character Counts program might violate the federal and state constitutions.

Principal Angela Huerta said at the meeting that the entire faculty needed to be on board with the program that includes teaching core values — and called Polonsky-Britt into the principal's office after the meeting to ask her if she had a problem with character education, according to the federal filing.

The AppealDemocrat, 11/2/10 story has a link to this Civil Complaint.  See also CourthouseNewsService, 11/2/10.