Opinion ID: 813781
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: First Amendment claim against Roberts

Text: Stewart argues that Judge Belot should not have granted summary judgment to Roberts on the Free Exercise claim because there remain genuine issues of fact regarding Roberts’s “participation, exercise of control, and supervision.” Aplt. Opening Br. at 31. But the only such fact he points to is Roberts’s summary denial of his grievance appeal. Stewart claims that when Roberts denied the appeal, he knew that Stewart was a practicing Rastafarian and had proposed less restrictive alternatives to cutting his hair. He also points out that at the time Judge Belot granted Roberts’s motion for summary judgment, he was pro se and incarcerated, and there had been no discovery. We reject these arguments. A § 1983 claim requires “personal involvement in the alleged constitutional violation.” Gallagher v. Shelton, 587 F.3d 1063, 1069 (10th Cir. 2009). The “denial of a grievance, by itself without any connection to the violation of constitutional rights alleged by plaintiff, does not establish personal participation under § 1983.” Id. Whatever knowledge Roberts may have had when he denied the appeal, his only involvement was to deny the grievance appeal, which -7- is insufficient for § 1983 liability. Further, Stewart has not suggested how his incarceration, his then-pro se status, or the lack of discovery affects this conclusion.