United States Tenth Circuit

In an action under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), and 42 U.S.C. section 1983, setting forth claims concerning plaintiff's conditions of incarceration, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed in part where the prison administrative process was not inadequate and thus plaintiff failed to exhaust certain claims. However, the judgment is vacated in part where: 1) plaintiff remained incarcerated in the Oklahoma Department of Correction's (ODOC) custody, subject to ODOC policies, and a judgment in his favor could require ODOC to modify those policies, and thus his claims were not moot; and 2) there was no evidence in this record that plaintiff did not sincerely hold his expressed beliefs that he should eat a halal diet that includes meats, even though other Muslims may find a vegetarian or non-pork diet sufficient to satisfy Islam.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/02/2010
• Published 04/02/2010

Judges

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel