9th Circuit Rejects Bid For Paid Position By Wiccan Prison Chaplain

In McCollum v. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, (9th Cir., June 1, 2011), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims by a volunteer Wiccan chaplain in the California prison system that he should have been considered for one of the paid chaplaincy positions that now are given to Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and Native American clergy.  The court concluded that many of the chaplain's claims were derivative of inmate's claims, and the inmate plaintiffs were dismissed because their claims were untimely or they had failed to exhaust administrative remedies. It rejected the chaplain's claims that he had eitehr third-party or taxpayer standing to assert the religious rights of Wiccan inmates.  Finally the court concluded that the trial court had properly dismissed the chaplain's own claims that he was denied equal protection of the laws, his claims that Title VII and the California Fair Housing Act had been violated, his retaliation claim, and his claim under RLUIPA. SF Weekly reports on the decision. (See prior related posting.)