In Henderson v. Brush, 2006 U.S.Dist. LEXIS 8756 (WD Wis., March 6, 2006), a Wisconsin federal district court permitted a Taoist prisoner to proceed with establishment and free exercise clause claims against Wisconsin prison officials for failing to recognize Taoism as an umbrella religious group; purchasing texts for Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim inmates but not for Taoist inmates; and refusing to purchase two Taoist texts for the plaintiff.
In Lewis v. Mitchell, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40814 (SD Cal., Oct. 5, 2005), a decision from last year that has just become available, a California federal district court dealt with a Muslim prisoner's claim that his religious liberty was infringed when he was deceptively served pork disguised as turkey. The court held that the prisoner must assert more than negligence to support his claim that his constitutional rights have been infringed. It found that he had asserted conscious or intentional acts against two of the defendants, but not against a third. The earlier Magistrate Judge's recommendation in the suit, also just released, is at 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40812 (July 11, 2005).
