Allah v. Commonwealth of Virginia et al
Filing
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OPINION. Signed by Judge James P. Jones on 7/15/2016. (slt)
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA
ROANOKE DIVISION
INFINITE ALLAH,
Plaintiff,
v.
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, ET
AL.,
Defendants.
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Case No. 7:16CV00002
OPINION
By: James P. Jones
United States District Judge
Infinite Allah, Pro Se Plaintiff.
Infinite Allah, a Virginia inmate proceeding pro se, filed this civil rights
action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that prison employees have wrongfully
confiscated legal files and religious materials related to his prior civil action. Upon
review of Allah’s complaint, I conclude that the action must be summarily
dismissed with prejudice for failure to state a claim.
I.
Allah is an inmate at Augusta Correctional Center (“Augusta”). He is an
adherent of the Nation of Gods and Earths (“NGE”), a belief system that Allah
claims as a religion.
The Virginia Department of Corrections (“VDOC”),
however, has classified NGE inmates as a Security Threat Group (“STG”). VDOC
policies restrict NGE inmates from meeting communally, prohibit them from
wearing NGE-related clothing, and prohibit inmates from receiving or possessing
copies of NGE publications and writings.
Allah, through counsel, brought a
§ 1983 action in this court in 2012, seeking VDOC recognition of NGE as a
religion, accommodation of his NGE religious practices, and permission to possess
NGE publications and writings; after a bench trial, based on the record before me, I
rejected Allah’s claims.
See Allah v. Virginia, No. 2:12CV00033, 2014 WL
1669331 (W.D. Va. 2014), affirmed, 601 F. App’x 201 (4th Cir.)(unpublished),
cert. denied, 136 S. Ct. 255 (2015).
According to Allah’s current Complaint, while his Petition for a Writ of
Certiorari was pending, Allah ran short of funds to continue to retain the attorney
who had represented him in the earlier stages of the case. The attorney mailed the
entire case file to Allah on December 30, 2014. Prison officials at Augusta opened
the mailing outside Allah’s presence and seized items without giving notice to
Allah until May 12, 2015. Prison officials also allegedly seized Allah’s incoming
mail from this court on November 18, 2013, related to pending litigation. They
allowed Allah to sign a legal mail log regarding receipt of this mail, but did not
allow him to physically possess this material.
According to Allah, the two medium-sized boxes of case-related materials
that officials seized contained copies of court filings the attorney had prepared,
“strategic assessment(s) of research into the legal and anthropological particulars
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(expert witness’ deposition and writings on the subject at hand) [and] plaintiff’s
constitutional and spiritual standing in his civil action. . . .” (Compl. 4, ECF No.
1.) Allah’s partial list of these materials includes numerous NGE publications and
Allah’s letters and written arguments to the court about his NGE beliefs. (Id. at
13-14.) Allah alleges that the seized materials have both monetary and sentimental
value to him and claims several items as his own intellectual property for which he
has been unable to seek copyright protection. (Id. at 14.)
The defendants in this new § 1983 action are Lt. Peters, Sgt. Wilhelm (the
Institutional Gang Investigator at Augusta), the prison itself, and the
Commonwealth. Liberally construed, Allah’s Complaint alleges the following
claims against these defendants: (1) By confiscating Allah’s legal materials, the
defendants violated his constitutional rights (a) to substantive and procedural due
process; (b) to engage in confidential communications with counsel; and (c) to
access the court; (2) The defendants confiscated Allah’s materials in retaliation for
his prior lawsuit; and (3) Allah is entitled to recover physical possession of, or
reimbursement for, his personal property through this action in detinue under
Virginia law. As relief on Claims 1 and 2, Allah seeks compensatory and punitive
damages.
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II.
The court is required to dismiss any action or claim filed by a prisoner
against a governmental entity or officer if the court determines the action or claim
is “frivolous, malicious, or fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted.”
28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1). A court should not summarily dismiss an action for
failure to state a claim, however,
“unless after accepting all well-pleaded allegations in the plaintiff’s
complaint as true and drawing all reasonable factual inferences from
those facts in the plaintiff’s favor, it appears certain that the plaintiff
cannot prove any set of facts in support of his claim entitling him to
relief.”
De’Lonta v. Angelone, 330 F.3d 630, 633 (4th Cir. 2003) (quoting Veney v. Wyche,
293 F.3d 726, 730 (4th Cir. 2002)). Thus, before serving Allah’s case on any of
the defendants, I must determine if his allegations state any claim for relief.
Allah brings his federal claims under 28 U.S.C. § 1983, a statute that permits
an aggrieved party to file a civil action against a person for actions taken under
color of state law that violated his constitutional rights. See Cooper v. Sheehan,
735 F.3d 153, 158 (4th Cir. 2013). For reasons stated herein, I conclude that Allah
has no actionable § 1983 claim related to his confiscated materials and that all his
federal claims must be summarily dismissed under § 1915A(b)(1) with prejudice
accordingly. As such, I decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Allah’s
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state law action in detinue and will dismiss this claim without prejudice. See 28
U.S.C. § 1367(c)(3).
It is well established that “inmates retain at least some constitutional rights
despite incarceration,” but that those rights must be balanced against state interests
in maintaining prison safety and security. Washington v. Harper, 494 U.S. 210,
223 (1990) (citing Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 84-5 (1987); O’Lone v. Estate of
Shabazz, 482 U.S. 342, 348 (1987). “[T]he proper standard for determining the
validity of a prison regulation claimed to infringe on an inmate’s constitutional
rights is to ask whether the regulation is ‘reasonably related to legitimate
penological interests.’” Id. (quoting Turner, 482 U.S. at 89).
To determine whether the prison officials’ confiscation of Allah’s lawsuit
materials withstands scrutiny under this reasonableness standard, I must consider
these three Turner factors:
First, there must be a valid, rational connection between the prison
regulation and the legitimate governmental interest put forward to
justify it. Second, a court must consider the impact accommodation
of the asserted constitutional right will have on guards and other
inmates, and on the allocation of prison resources generally. Third,
the absence of ready alternatives is evidence of the reasonableness of
a prison regulation. . . . 1
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The Turner decision also discussed another factor: “whether there are
alternative means of exercising the right that remain open to prison inmates.” 482 U.S. at
90. “Where other avenues remain available for the exercise of the asserted right, courts
should be particularly conscious of the measure of judicial deference owed to corrections
officials in gauging the validity of the regulation.” Id. (internal quotation marks,
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Washington, 494 U.S. at 224-25 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).
Under these factors and the court’s decisions in Allah’s prior case, I find it evident
that the defendants’ decision to confiscate Allah’s legal materials in November
2013 and December 2014 was reasonably related to legitimate prison interests in
safety and security.
First, in April 2014, I determined that prison officials had compelling
security reasons to prohibit inmates from possessing NGE materials in their cells
and could lawfully do so. My factual findings included the following:
“. . . NGE . . . has acted as a prison gang that would pose a threat to
the safety and security of VDOC prison facilities if treated as other
religious groups. Inmates affiliated with NGE have a demonstrated
history of violence and racism.
....
NGE materials are often handwritten, and can vary from copy to copy.
Whether handwritten or typed, most contain racist and/or violent
sentiments. Additionally, most contain codes that have the potential
to aid inmates in passing messages that circumvent safety and security
in the prison.
Allah, 2014 WL 1669331, at *2. After extensive discussion of Allah’s claims and
the evidence presented at the bench trial, I made the following conclusions of law
regarding possession of NGE materials:
alterations, and citations omitted). Under the other Turner factors, however, I conclude
that Allah’s constitutionally protected interests in his lawsuit materials are outweighed by
legitimate prison interests in security, whether or not Allah retains some other means to
exercise the rights he asserts.
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Due to the inability of VDOC to review all handwritten NGE
materials, and the frequency with which typed and handwritten NGE
materials contain codes, racist sentiments, and/or violent sentiments,
the decision of VDOC to ban such NGE materials is the least
restrictive means of furthering a compelling state interest in prison
safety.
Id. at *11. I denied relief under § 1983 and granted judgment for the defendants,
and the Fourth Circuit affirmed my decision. Allah, 601 F. App’x at 205 (“[W]e
discern no reversible error. We are therefore content to affirm the judgment on the
cogent reasoning spelled out in the well-crafted Opinion of the district court.”).
Second, under the constitutional standard in Turner, the VDOC’s policies
applied to Allah’s NGE materials are lawful, based on the factual findings and
legal rulings in Allah’s previous case. Allah brought the claims in his prior lawsuit
under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, 42 U.S.C.
§§ 2000cc to 2000cc-5 (“RLUIPA”), rather than under the First Amendment. To
defeate a RLUIPA challenge to a particular prison policy, the VDOC must “prove
its policy furthers a compelling governmental interest by the least restrictive
means.” Incumaa v. Stirling, 791 F.3d 517, 525 (4th Cir. 2015). Thus, RLUIPA
requires higher degree of proof from prison officials on the effects of
accommodating an inmate’s religious practices than does the First Amendment
standard itself. See, e.g., Lovelace v. Lee, 472 F.3d 174, 198 n.8 (4th Cir. 2006)
(“. . . RLUIPA adopts a more searching standard of review than that used for
parallel First Amendment claims, strict scrutiny instead of reasonableness.”)
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(internal quotation marks and citation omitted). As a result, when a prison policy
withstands scrutiny under the RLUIPA standard, as does the VDOC’s prohibition
on possession of NGE materials, that policy also survives a constitutional
challenge without further discussion. See, e.g., Utt v. Brown, No. 5:12-CT-3132FL, 2015 WL 5714885, at *9 (E.D.N.C. Sept. 29, 2015) (finding that policy held to
withstand RLUIPA’s strict scrutiny was also “reasonably related to legitimate
penological interests” so as to withstand constitutional challenge).
Based on the foregoing, Allah has no actionable claim that confiscation of
his legal materials violated his First Amendment right to receive information. My
prior ruling upholding under RLUIPA the VDOC’s policies prohibiting possession
of NGE materials establishes that those policies are also lawful under the
Constitution. Thus, I conclude that the decisions rendered in Allah’s prior lawsuit
foreclose his First Amendment and substantive due process claims in this civil
action. Indeed, to hold otherwise would be to allow Allah to make an end run
around my prior ruling, as affirmed by the court of appeals, that prison officials
may lawfully prohibit him from possessing NGE materials and writings.
Allah’s procedural due process claim here fails for a different reason: he has
no federally protected property interest in possessing his NGE materials in a
VDOC prison. An inmate’s claim under § 1983 that state officials deprived him of
his property without due process involves two questions: whether the inmate had a
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protected right to the property with which the state interfered; and whether the
procedures attendant to that deprivation were constitutionally adequate to prevent
wrongful deprivations. See Ky. Dep’t of Corr. v. Thompson, 490 U.S. 454, 460
(1989). “Property interests . . . are not created by the [federal] Constitution.
Rather they are created and their dimensions are defined by existing rules . . . such
as state law[s] . . . that support claims of entitlement” to the property. Bd. of
Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 577 (1972). “Prison administrators have broad
discretion in the management of correctional institutions.” Bannan v. Angelone,
962 F. Supp. 71, 73 (W.D. Va. 1996) (citing Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520 (1979)).
Thus, when other rights like free exercise, free speech, and substantive due process
are not infringed, as in Allah’s circumstances here, prison officials may
“constitutionally disallow the possession of personal property” items without
implicating inmates’ federal due process rights. Id. at 74.
Allah cannot point to any entitlement or protected interest he has under
VDOC regulations to possess his NGE materials in prison. On the contrary, as
discussed, VDOC policies prohibit inmates’ possession of NGE materials.
Therefore, Allah has no state-created, protected interest in possession of the
confiscated materials and, consequently, had no federal right to procedural
protections prior to their confiscation. Moreover, as officials did provide him
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notice and an opportunity to challenge the confiscation, he has received the key
elements of procedural protection in any event.
Allah also fails to state cognizable § 1983 claims of interference with his
access to counsel and to the court in the circumstances he describes. Each of these
rights may be lawfully restricted by prison policies that are reasonably related to
legitimate penological interests, as is the VDOC restriction against possession of
NGE materials.2 See Washington, 494 U.S. at 223.
Finally, I will also summarily dismiss Allah’s § 1983 retaliation claim for
failure to state a claim. Prison officials may not retaliate against an inmate for
exercising his constitutional right to access the court. Hudspeth v. Figgins, 584
F.2d 1345, 1347 (4th Cir. 1978). On the other hand, to state a § 1983 claim here,
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Moreover, I am satisfied Allah can prove no set of facts showing that
confiscation of his NGE case file materials hampered his ability to communicate
confidentially with counsel or to litigate any viable legal claim pro se, concerning his
possession of these materials while in prison. Furthermore, I cannot find any viable
access to courts claim arising from Allah’s alleged inability to seek copyright protection
for his confiscated NGE manuscripts. See, e.g., Lewis v. Casey, 518 U.S. 343, 355
(1996). As the Supreme Court stated in the Casey decision, the right to access the court
does not guarantee inmates the wherewithal to transform themselves into
litigating engines capable of filing everything from shareholder derivative
actions to slip-and-fall claims. The tools it requires to be provided are
those that the inmates need in order to attack their sentences, directly or
collaterally, and in order to challenge the conditions of their confinement.
Impairment of any other litigating capacity is simply one of the incidental
(and perfectly constitutional) consequences of conviction and incarceration.
Id. (emphasis in original).
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Allah must present more than conclusory allegations of retaliation. Adams v. Rice,
40 F.3d 72, 74 (4th Cir. 1994). Specifically, he must allege facts showing that his
exercise of his constitutional right was a substantial factor motivating the allegedly
retaliatory action. See, e.g., Mt. Healthy City School Dist. Bd. of Educ. v. Doyle,
429 U.S. 274, 287 (1977).
Allah can make no such showing. In this case, it is clear from his own
allegations that prison officials confiscated the materials at issue because they were
NGE materials that could be lawfully withheld from Allah under the courts’
rulings against him in his prior lawsuit.
In short, prison officials clearly
confiscated Allah’s NGE materials not because he pursued the prior lawsuit, but
because that prior lawsuit was decided against him. Such actions do not provide
grounds for a § 1983 retaliation claim.
III.
For the reasons stated, I will summarily dismiss Allah’s § 1983 claims in
this lawsuit with prejudice under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A(b)(1) for failure to state a
claim. I am satisfied that even “drawing all reasonable factual inferences from [the
factual allegations in the Complaint] in the plaintiff’s favor, it appears certain that
the plaintiff cannot prove any set of facts in support of his claim entitling him to
relief” regarding the confiscation of his NGE materials. De’Lonta, 330 F.3d at
633. In light of this ruling, I also decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over
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Allah’s state law claim in detinue, see 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c)(3) and will dismiss this
claim without prejudice.
A separate Order will be entered herewith.
DATED: July 15, 2016
/s/ James P. Jones
United States District Judge
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