Federal courts have summarily dismissed two recent prisoner free exercise cases. In Foley v. Schriro, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40438 (D. Ariz., June 15, 2006), an Arizona federal district court dismissed without prejudice a prisoner's claim that he was being denied the diet required by his religion. The court found that the prisoner had failed to allege the specific religion he practices, that his religion mandates that he receive specific food items for a religious diet, or that the refusal to supply him with the requested diet substantially burdens his practice of religion.
In Berberich v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40180 (ED Mich., May 30, 2006), a Michigan federal district court dismissed on res judicata grounds a federal inmate's claim that authorities burdened his free exercise of religion by refusing to permit him to possess wooden rune staves. Plaintiff had already lost a case making the same claim against the Federal Bureau of Prisons in a South Dakota federal court.
