Opinion ID: 1196688
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Substantial Burden: First Amendment, RLUIPA and IRFRA Claims

Text: Section 1983 First Amendment, RLUIPA and IRFRA claims all use the substantial burden test to determine whether a violation of a plaintiff's religious free exercise rights has occurred. Although RLUIPA and IRFRA do not define substantial burden, both statutes have been interpreted with reference to Supreme Court free exercise jurisprudence. See, e.g., 146 Cong. Rec. S7776 (daily ed. July 27, 2000) (joint statement of Senators Hatch and Kennedy indicating that Supreme Court free exercise jurisprudence was a proper interpretational guide for RLUIPA); Diggs v. Snyder, 333 Ill.App.3d 189, 266 Ill.Dec. 478, 775 N.E.2d 40, 44-45 (2002) (using United States Supreme Court free exercise jurisprudence to determine the meaning of substantial burden under IRFRA). In its order following the bench trial, the district court held that Nelson was not substantially burdened by the denial of his request for a meatless diet. Specifically, the district court found that Nelson would receive a nutritionally adequate diet if he avoided all meat of four-legged animals served in the regular diet at Tamms. Section 3 of RLUIPA provides that: No government shall impose a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person residing in or confined to an institution, ... even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, unless the government demonstrates that imposition of the burden on that person (1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and (2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest. 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc-1(a). The essentially identical IRFRA states that: Government may not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion, even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, unless it demonstrates that application of the burden to the person (i) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and (ii) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest. 775 Ill. Comp. Stat. 35 § 15. Nelson argues that his exercise of religion was substantially burdened in two ways. First, he argues that he was substantially burdened by the requirement that he provide documentation of a religious requirement in order to receive a dietary accommodation. The district court did not analyze this argument, though Nelson appears to have raised it below. Second, Nelson argues that he was substantially burdened by the denial of his requested meatless diet. Defendant argues that Nelson was not substantially burdened on either basis because his religious exercise was not rendered effectively impracticable by defendant's policies and conduct.
Nelson contends that he was substantially burdened by the procedures for obtaining a religious accommodation; specifically, defendant's requirement that he produce documentation of a religious requirement. In Civil Liberties for Urban Believers v. City of Chicago, 342 F.3d 752, 760-61 (7th Cir.2003), we stated that in the context of RLUIPA's broad definition of religious exercise, a ... regulation that imposes a substantial burden on religious exercise is one that necessarily bears direct, primary, and fundamental responsibility for rendering religious exercise ... effectively impracticable. In Koger v. Bryan, 523 F.3d 789 (7th Cir.2008), we quoted language from the Supreme Court's decision in Thomas v. Review Bd., 450 U.S. 707, 101 S.Ct. 1425, 67 L.Ed.2d 624 (1981) to explain the substantial burden test, noting that Thomas teaches that government conduct is substantially burdensome when it `put[s] substantial pressure on an adherent to modify his behavior and violate his beliefs.' Koger, 523 F.3d at 799 (quoting Thomas, 450 U.S. at 718, 101 S.Ct. 1425). [5] Koger is similar to the instant case. In Koger, we held that it was a violation of the First Amendment and RLUIPA for prison officials to deny an inmate's request for a non-meat diet on the ground that his religion does not require such a dietary restriction. [6] Id. at 797-800. In that case, the plaintiff prisoner, Koger, belonged to a religion known as Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), which had as its central tenet only Do what though wilt. Id. at 789. But Koger nonetheless believed that his practice of OTO required him to observe a vegetarian diet. Id. at 797. In support of his request for the non-meat prison diet, Koger submitted paperwork from OTO stating that OTO had no general dietary restrictions but that each individual [follower] may from time to time, include dietary restrictions as part of his or her personal regimen of spiritual discipline. Id. The prison nonetheless denied Koger's request. Id. at 794. We held, first, that requiring a prisoner to show that his preferred diet is compelled by his religion was unlawful, as such a requirement was contrary to RLUIPA, which specifically stated that [t]he term `religious exercise' includes any exercise of religion, whether or not compelled by, or central to, a system of religious belief. [7] Koger held, second, that requiring a religious belief be verified by clergy was a substantial burden because Koger's religion lacked traditional clergy members. Id. at 799. Importantly, we opined that even if Koger had belonged to a religion with more traditional clergy, a clergy verification requirement forms an attenuated facet of any religious accommodation regime because clergy opinion has generally been deemed insufficient to override a prisoner's sincerely held religious beliefs. Id. at 799-800 (citing Ford v. McGinnis, 352 F.3d 582, 593-94 (2d Cir.2003) (holding that the role the Eid ul Fitr feast played in a prisoner's practice of Islam was determinative of whether there had been a substantial burden, and not the testimony of Muslim clerics as to the proper celebration of the feast); Jackson v. Mann, 196 F.3d 316, 320-21 (2d Cir.1999) (holding that it was the sincerity of a prisoner's beliefs, and not the decision of Jewish religious authorities, that determined whether the prisoner was an adherent of Judaism entitled to a kosher meal); see also Frazee v. Ill. Dep't of Employment Sec., 489 U.S. 829, 834, 109 S.Ct. 1514, 103 L.Ed.2d 914 (1989) (holding that in the context of a denial of unemployment benefits, the plaintiff's refusal, based on his Christianity, to work on Sundays was entitled to protection even though there are assorted Christian denominations that do not profess to be compelled by their religion to refuse Sunday work)). Koger is essentially dispositive in this case. [8] Like the prison officials in Koger, Miller required Nelson to show that his religion compelled the practice in question and to verify that compelled practice with documentation. As in Koger, the first of these requirements was unlawful under RLUIPA and the second imposed a substantial burden on Nelson's desired religious practice because it was impossible for him to show that his religion, Catholicism, required him to abstain from meat on all Fridays or avoid the meat of four-legged animals. The Catholic clergy who opined on the matter, Father Fortenberry and Father Roscioli, both opined that although not required, dietary discipline was a permissible and laudatory way for Nelson to engage in penance. Miller's demands that Nelson show a religious requirement and submit documentation to that effect thus made Nelson's desired religious exercise effectively impracticable. See Koger, 523 F.3d at 799; see also Hunafa v. Murphy, 907 F.2d 46, 47 (7th Cir.1990) (recognizing that a prisoner can bring a free exercise claim where he is put to an improper choice between adequate nutrition and observance of the tenets of his faith). Because we find that Nelson's practice of his religion was substantially burdened by Tamms's procedural requirements for obtaining a religious diet, we reverse the district court in this regard.
Nelson also argues that he was substantially burdened by the prison's actual denial of the meatless diet. We have held that a prisoner's religious dietary practice is substantially burdened when the prison forces him to choose between his religious practice and adequate nutrition. For example, in Hunafa v. Murphy , we held that IDOC's failure to ensure that the preparation of meals kept pork separate from other food substantially burdened a Muslim prisoner's religious practice because it forced him to an improper choice between adequate nutrition and the tenets of his faith. 907 F.2d at 47. Other circuit courts have likewise found such a choice to be substantially burdensome. See Love v. Reed, 216 F.3d 682, 689-690 (8th Cir.2000) (finding prison's failure to accommodate prisoner's religious diet substantially burdensome and rejecting prison's suggestion that the prisoner could fast as an alternative to the prison's accommodation of the desired diet); McElyea v. Babbitt, 833 F.2d 196, 198 (9th Cir.1987) (Inmates ... have the right to be provided with food sufficient to sustain them in good health that satisfies the dietary laws of their religion.). Here, the district court ruled that the only relevant religious tenet at issue [in Nelson's free exercise claim] is abstention [from] eating the flesh of four-legged animals on Friday and during Lent (because of plaintiff's failure to exhaust administrative remedies regarding abstention from all meat). However, as discussed in the exhaustion analysis above, and indeed, as the district court itself found in both its summary judgment and final judgment order, Nelson exhausted his grievances with regard to his request to avoid the meat of four-legged animals at all times and his request to avoid all meat on Fridays and during Lent. The district court thoroughly analyzed whether Nelson's avoidance of the meat of four-legged animals imposed a substantial burden, and we do not find that analysis to be clearly erroneous. See Trustees of the Chi. Painters & Decorators Pension, 493 F.3d at 785 (in an appeal from the district court's judgment following a bench trial, appellate courts review the district court's applications of law to its findings of fact for clear error). Bonnie Sullivan, the Tamms dietician, testified that the regular diet would still be nutritionally adequate if all meat of four-legged animals were skipped, so Nelson was not put to a choice between his religious beliefs and adequate nutrition. See Hunafa, 907 F.2d at 47. But looking to the other exhausted grievance, we find that Miller's denial of a non-meat diet on Fridays and during Lent substantially burdened Nelson's practice of religion. With regard to skipping all meat, Sullivan testified that there probably was insufficient nutrition in the regular diet if all meat were skipped. Moreover, Nelson provided undisputed testimony that during Lent in 2002, when he abstained from all meat, he lost so much weight that he had to be hospitalized. Nelson also testified that during Lent he felt hungry, his bones began to protrude, he was cold, and he was depressed and anxious. Because the undisputed evidence shows, at the very least, that Nelson would be required to forego adequate nutrition on Fridays and for the forty days of Lent in order to comply with his sincerely held religious beliefs, we hold that Miller's refusal to grant Nelson a non-meat diet for those periods imposed a substantial burden on his religious exercise. See, e.g., Love, 216 F.3d at 689-90 (refusing to accommodate prisoner's desired religious diet and consequently forcing prisoner to fast one day each week was a substantial burden on prisoner's free exercise of religion).
Because the district court found no substantial burden on Nelson's religious exercise, it did not analyze whether defendant's procedures and conduct were in furtherance of a compelling government interest and the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling government interest under Section 1983, RLUIPA and IRFRA. See Thomas, 450 U.S. at 718, 101 S.Ct. 1425; 42 U.S.C.2000cc-1(a)(1) & (2); see also Koger, 523 F.3d at 800 (first considering whether prisoner had established a substantial burden and then analyzing whether prison officials had shown that their requirements were the least restrictive means of furthering a compelling governmental interest); 775 ILCS 35/15. Neither party has briefed this matter on appeal. Thus, we remand this issue to the district court for further consideration in light of this opinion.