Court Opinion

ID: 9557561
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 16:52:18.021853+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:05:58.888171
License: Public Domain

CLAY, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the majority’s holding that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying further discovery and that Defendant was entitled to summary judgment on Cardinal’s § 1983 claims. I also agree that Cardinal’s claims for declaratory or injunctive relief are moot because Cardinal has been transferred to a different facility which provides kosher meals, and because the Michigan Department of Corrections has changed its policy to preclude transferring participants in the kosher meal program to facilities that have no such program. I write separately, however, because I do not believe that this is a case in which this Court should decide whether the doctrine of sovereign immunity bars a plaintiff from recovering monetary damages under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”), 42 U.S.C. § 2000ec et seq.
As the majority indicates, RLUIPA states that “[a] person may assert a violation of this Act as a claim or defense in a judicial proceeding and obtain appropriate relief against a government[,]” 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc, but courts are split on the issue of whether “appropriate relief’ encompasses monetary relief. Compare Smith v. Allen, 502 F.3d 1255, 1271 (11th Cir.2007) (holding that the phrase “appropriate relief’ in RLUIPA encompasses monetary as well as injunctive relief), and Price v. Caruso, 451 F.Supp.2d 889, 895 (E.D.Mich. 2006) (holding that a plaintiff “may have a cognizable claim for monetary damages ... under RLUIPA”), with Madison v. Virginia, 474 F.3d 118, 131 (4th Cir.2006) (concluding that RLUIPA’s “appropriate relief against a government” language “falls short of the unequivocal textual expression necessary to waive State immunity from suits for damages”). Prior to today’s decision, this Court, like the Supreme Court, had not expressed an opinion on the matter.
This is not a suitable case for resolving the issue of what constitutes “appropriate relief’ under the statute, or more specifically, whether “appropriate relief’ should be held to encompass money damages. This is because the factual record is woefully underdeveloped and the briefing of the legal issues is completely inadequate— undoubtedly due in large measure to the fact that Plaintiff is proceeding pro se without the benefit of legal representation, and Defendant has failed in its professional responsibilities to this Court by declining to file the requisite brief on appeal. Inexcusably, the defense’s only filing before this Court was a one-page letter brief stating that Defendant would rely upon the district court’s decision and the briefs *804filed before the district court. Cardinal, proceeding pro se, attempted to address the sovereign immunity issue in his appellate brief, but his arguments are less than a picture of clarity and Plaintiff acknowledges that he “is substantially limited in law and he has had problems with law library access.” (Cardinal’s Br. at 1.) The case was submitted on the briefs without oral argument, and this Court was left with little, if any, developed argument as to the propriety of applying the doctrine of sovereign immunity to RLUIPA claims.
Perhaps more importantly, it is not clear to me that Cardinal has raised a cognizable claim under RLUIPA, which states that “no government shall impose a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person residing in or confined to an institution....” 42 U.S.C. § 2000 cc-l(a). Beyond asserting that he required and was denied a kosher diet, Cardinal does not describe with any particularity his religious dietary needs, the actual food that was provided to him, and what injuries he actually suffered. The record is devoid of any explanation as to whether some of the food served to Plaintiff in the non-kosher prison environment, especially vegetables, might have been consumed by him without violating his kosher dietary restrictions. Nor is it al all clear whether Plaintiff, operating pursuant to the doctrine of “necessity,” would have been permitted, in the interest of preserving his health and welfare, to consume non-kosher food products, where no kosher food was available, without violating his religious tenets. In other words, the record below is woefully underdeveloped. While we are to construe pro se petitions liberally in favor of the plaintiff, see Boswell v. Mayer, 169 F.3d 384, 387 (6th Cir.1999), this record offers very little to support Cardinal’s RLUIPA claim or to justify the need to resolve on behalf of the circuit the availability of money damages under the statute.
In view of the constraints presented by the instant case, I would be inclined to instruct the court below to dismiss Cardinal’s RLUIPA claim without prejudice and to refrain from addressing whether the doctrine of sovereign immunity bars a plaintiff from recovering monetary relief under RLUIPA. I therefore respectfully dissent with regard to that portion of the majority opinion.