Prisoner Alleges No Shi'ite Clergy Permitted

In Cancel v. Mazzuca, 2005 US Dist. LEXIS 16713 (SDNY, Aug. 11, 2005), plaintiff, a former prisoner, alleges that the Islamic Affairs Coordinator for the New York State Department of Correctional Services violated plaintiff's religious exercise and free expression rights by hiring only Sunnis , and no Shi'ites, to serve as imams at New York correctional facilities. He also claims that defendant directed these imams to deny non-Sunni Muslims the opportunity to practice forms of Islam other than Sunnism. In this decision, the court ordered the defendant to respond to certain interrogatories.