MA Prisoner Free Exercise Claim Moves Ahead In Part

An opinion in a prisoner Free Exercise case decided by a state trial court in Massachusetts last month has just become available. Jackson v. Verdini, 2005 Mass. Super. LEXIS 279 (June 9, 2005) involved a challenge by two Muslim prisoners claiming that they were entitled to have Friday Jumuah services led by an Imam every week, instead of every second week as the prison was doing. One of the prisoners, a male, also claimed the right not to be patted down by female guards except in an emergency. The court held that the prisoners had exhausted their administrative remedies. It also held that the provision in 42 USC 1997e(e) precluding a damage action for mental or emotional injury without showing physical injury does not apply here, because a Free Exercise claim is a claim for violation of intangible rights. However the court dismissed the prisoners' claim for monetary damages under the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act (G.L.c. 12, §§ 11(H) & 11(I)), because defendant was protected by sovereign immunity.