United States Tenth Circuit

In an action brought by plaintiff, an Orthodox Jew serving time at a correctional facility, against the facility's warden under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 and the First Amendment arising from a denial of his request to wear certain religious garments while being transported to a hospital, denial of summary judgment for warden based on qualified immunity is affirmed where: 1) the uncontroverted factual allegations viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiff showed that the warden placed substantial burdens on his free exercise rights with no valid penological justification; and 2) the warden's actions were not reasonable and he was not entitled to qualified immunity as he failed to show that a regulation he relied on in denying plaintiff's request was reasonably related to a legitimate penological interest.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/24/2007
• Published 05/25/2007

Judges

• EBEL, Circuit Judge., Before PORFILIO, BALDOCK, and EBEL, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Submitted on the briefs: 


• For Appellees:
  
• John W. Suthers, Attorney General, James X. Quinn, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Colorado Attorney General, Denver, CO, for Defendant-Appellant., Sheldon E. Friedman, Isaacson Rosenbaum P.C., Denver, CO, for Plaintiff-Appellee.