Akeem Muhammad v. Julie Jones

Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit·Decided August 25, 2023·No. 22-12563·Unpublished

Opinion

[DO NOT PUBLISH]

In the

United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

No. 22-12563

Non-Argument Calendar

AKEEM MUHAMMAD, Plaintiff-Appellant,

versus JULIE L. JONES, individual capacity, JOHNNY FRAMBO, in his official and individual capacity Florida Department of Corrections State Chaplain, SHANE PHILLIPS, in his individual capacity, SECRETARY, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, CHIEF, BUREAU OF CONTRACT MANAGEMENT AND

2 Opinion of the Court 22-12563

MONITORING, et al.,

Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 3:18-cv-00212-HLA-JBT

Before ROSENBAUM, JILL PRYOR, and BLACK, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM:

Akeem Muhammad, a state prisoner proceeding pro se, filed a complaint bringing claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc-1, against Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) and Florida State Prison (FSP) officials, alleging violations of his rights under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the RLUIPA. His claims centered around the timing and nutritional adequacy of meals and medication provided to inmates during Ramadan. He appeals the district court’s orders: (1) granting in part the defendants’ motion to dismiss; (2) entering summary judgment in favor of the defendants on his First Amendment and RLUIPA claims; and (3) denying his motion to reimburse service costs under Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(d)(2). Although we partially affirm

22-12563 Opinion of the Court 3

based on qualified immunity, we reverse and remand in part for further proceedings.

I. BACKGROUND

Muhammad has been a practicing Muslim since 1996. As part of his faith, he observes Ramadan, an annual month-long period of prayer and fasting. Muhammad believes he must abstain from consuming food, water, and medication during the day during Ramadan. Importantly for this case, Muhammad believes the fasting period begins at astronomical twilight, which precedes sunrise . He must consume a nutritionally adequate, meatless, Kosher diet during two meals each day—one pre-fast meal before astronomical twilight and one post-fast meal after sunset. Muhammad also takes medication for several medical conditions, which is typically provided by prison officials in the morning after astronomical twilight and in the afternoon. He must take his medication in presence of medical staff, and his doctor will discontinue treatment if he refuses his medication for three days.

When Muhammad filed this prisoner civil rights action in February 2018, he was being detained at FSP. He alleged prison officials provided his pre-fast meal and medication before sunrise but not before astronomical twilight, leaving him to choose between his religious beliefs and receiving adequate nutrition and medical care. As a result, he stopped fasting 17 days into Ramadan in 2017 and has allegedly been unable to fast in the years since then. He alleged that his qualitative religious experience was destroyed, and he suffered serious physical injuries, including “exacerbated

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hypertension, exacerbated [Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)], severe dehydration, severe physical pain, severe fatigue, and severe lethargy.”

Muhammad sued four FSP employees in their official capacities : Food Service Director Jeffery Andrews; two vocational instructors , R. Davis and H. Sellers; and a correctional officer, A. McGregor. Muhammad also sued four FDOC employees in their official and individual capacities: Julie Jones, the FDOC’s Secretary; Johnny Frambo, Chaplaincy Services Administrator; Shane Phillips , Chief of the Bureau of Contract Management and Monitoring; and Craig McCormick, Public Health Nutrition Program Manager. Three of the FDOC defendants were later substituted in their official capacities: Mark Inch for Jones; Angela Gaskins for Phillips; and Brenda Patterson for McCormick.

As for relief, Muhammad sought (1) an injunction against Jones in her official capacity only; (2) a declaratory judgment that Frambo, Phillips, McCormick, and the FSP defendants violated the RLUIPA in their official capacities; and (3) compensatory, nominal, and punitive damages from the original FDOC defendants in their individual capacities—Jones, Frambo, Phillips, and McCormick— for violating his First Amendment rights. Muhammad did not seek monetary damages under the RLUIPA, nor did he seek monetary damages against any defendant in an official capacity.

A month after filing the operative complaint, Muhammad informed the district court that he had been transferred from FSP to another state facility and conceded the transfer mooted his

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official capacity RLUIPA claims against the four FSP defendants— Andrews, Davis, Sellers, and McGregor. In response to that stipulation and the defendants’ motion to dismiss, the district court dismissed the claims against Andrews, Davis, Sellers, and McGregor as moot. It also denied qualified immunity on the First Amendment claim, but it dismissed Muhammad’s claim for compensatory damages based on the physical injury requirement under 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(e).

The defendants answered, again asserting qualified immunity as an affirmative defense to all monetary damages, and moved for summary judgment.

In March 2022, the court granted summary judgment in favor of the remaining defendants. It found they were entitled to qualified immunity as to nominal damages and that Muhammad was not entitled to recover punitive damages because it found the “Defendants’ statements made under penalty of perjury to be more credible than Plaintiffs unsubstantiated claims that these Defendants ‘maliciously participated’ in refusing to accommodate his religious beliefs during Ramadan in 2017.” With respect to the FDOC defendants on the RLUIPA claim, the district court concluded:

Statements made by the plaintiff are insufficient to establish that that plaintiff’s religious practice has been substantially burdened. . . . Because Defendants have provided support that they made substantial efforts to accommodate Plaintiff’s religious beliefs and Plaintiff has not met his burden to support that his religious

USCA11 Case: 22-12563 Document: 22-1 Date Filed: 08/25/2023 Page: 6 of 19

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exercise was substantially burdened—that his physical health was detrimentally affected by not being able to fast in the periods as required to observe Ramadan —and having no material facts at issue, judgment is due to be entered in favor of Defendants. After the court denied Muhammad’s motion to alter or amend the judgment, the defendants moved for taxation of costs. Muhammad then appealed from the final judgment, and the district court stayed the costs motion pending the outcome of this appeal . 1 II. DISCUSSION

We take the following issues in turn: (1) whether Muhammad ’s transfer from FSP to a different Florida prison mooted his claims and, if not, whether the defendants’ policies substantially burdened his religious exercise under the RLUIPA; (2) whether qualified immunity precluded Muhammad’s First Amendment claim; and (3) whether Muhammad was entitled to reimbursement for service costs. 2

1 We remand this case to the district court for further proceedings on the mer-

its, so Muhammad’s motion to relinquish jurisdiction for the district court to rule on the defendants’ motion for costs is DENIED AS MOOT. In any event, the motion to relinquish jurisdiction was unnecessary because this appeal did not prevent the district court from ruling on collateral matters. See Weaver v. Fla. Power & Light Co., 172 F.3d 771, 773 (11th Cir. 1999). 2 Our review of these issues is largely de novo. See CAMP Legal Def. Fund, Inc. v.

City of Atlanta, 451 F.3d 1257, 1268 (11th Cir. 2006) (mootness); Baker v. City of Madison, 67 F.4th 1268, 1276 (11th Cir. 2023) (motion to dismiss for failure to

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