(CN) — A Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday heard two arguments from an Arizona inmate who claims the Department of Corrections violated his religious rights and subjected him to cruel and unusual punishment.
Michael Fuqua, who was sentenced in 2008 to life in state prison for murdering his girlfriend, filed the first of two lawsuits against the Department of Corrections in 2015 after he was fired from his job in the prison kitchen.
Fuqua is a devout Christian, and told prison officials that his religious beliefs prevent him from working on Sundays, new moons and eight other days recognized by his faith. Fuqua told a prison official, identified in court documents only as Sgt. Sterns, that he wouldn’t be able to work certain days he was assigned.
Fuqua claims a prison official told him “we don’t do that shit here.”
Prison officials fired Fuqua for refusing to work, and he claims prison chaplain J. Lind, in charge of processing prisoners’ religious requests, ignored his request.
A federal judge dismissed Fuqua’s claims of Fifth and 14th Amendment violations as well as the claim involving the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Person’s Act. A jury ruled in favor of the state on Fuqua’s remaining First Amendment claim in October 2020.
Fuqua appealed a month later.
Daren Zhang, representing Fuqua before the three-judge Ninth Circuit panel in San Francisco, argued that Fuqua’s Religious Land Use Act claim was incorrectly dismissed because prison officials never gave Fuqua a reason for dismissing his request not to work on sabbath days, and instead “basically ignored Fuqua’s request.”
“They basically forced Fuqua to choose between his religious beliefs and his job,” Zhang said.
Rebecca Banes, representing three prison officials named in the lawsuit, said the officials followed prison policy when they denied Fuqua’s request, because requests for religious accommodations have to be made 30 days in advance.
But Fuqua received his work schedule only three days in advance of the first sabbath day, Zhang told the panel.
Earlier in the day, Fuqua argued on a different appeal stemming from a 2018 lawsuit in which he accused the Department of Corrections and select officials of both limiting his freedom of religion and cruel and unusual punishment.
Fuqua claims in the lawsuit that his Bible and other religious literature were confiscated, that he was not allowed to eat a special diet consisting of unleavened bread on his sabbath days, that he was denied clothing and basic hygiene products, that his mail was often rifled through, and that he was put in solitary confinement with no light or toilet paper for days on end.
Like the previous case, most of his claims were dismissed in 2019, and the rest were decided on summary judgment in favor of the state in 2021.
Zhang told the panel that Lind “openly mocked Fuqua’s religion.”
“Lind’s actions deprived Fuqua of a reasonable opportunity to practice his faith, comparable to the opportunity afforded to other prisoners,” he said. “That would establish an equal protection claim.”
The claims decided in the 2021 summary judgment also involved the Religious Land Use act, which Banes argued can’t be used against individual actors who don’t receive federal funds to seek monetary damages.
Zhang disagreed, arguing that Congress clearly intended the act to apply more broadly and to be enforced against state prison officials who deny inmates’ religious rights.
“Without money damages, RLUIPA is unenforceable,” he said.
The panel was made up of Joe Biden-appointed U.S. Circuit Judge Jennifer Sung and U.S. Circuit Judges Daniel Collins and Danielle Forrest, both Donald Trump appointees. The panel didn’t indicate when it will rule on either appeal.
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