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Nebraska Prison Officials Settle before Prisoner Pagan Religion Lawsuit

Nebraska Prison Officials Settle before Prisoner Pagan Religion Lawsuit

 

by Derek Gilna

 

The Nebraska Department of Corrections (NDOC) has settled a lawsuit brought by two state prisoners seeking to hold religious services at Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Nebraska. The settlement ended a dispute between prison officials and Wolfgang Rust, 59, and Bobby Conn, 30, who had complained that they were prevented from worshiping according to the tenets of the "Theodish Belief” religion.

 

Prison officials had attempted to combine their religious services with Astru followers in what the prisoners termed as violations of their constitutional rights and federal law. Both religions are forms of heathenism practiced in northern Europe around the 5th century, but still practiced today by their respective sects.

 

The prisoners' lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska, had named various Nebraska prison officials, seeking damages, declaratory and injunctive relief under 42 U.S.C. Section 2000cc, et seq.; 42 U.S.C. Section 1983; and the hybrid-rights pursuant to the Free Exercise Clause and the Freedom of Association Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and alleged exhaustion of their administrative remedies. The court assumed supplemental jurisdiction over the plaintiffs' state law tort claim under 28 U.S.C. Section 1367.

 

The lawsuit highlights the difficulty prison officials nationwide in both the state and federal systems face in distinguishing legitimate forms of religious exercises, wherein they can be held liable for imposing what the plaintiffs termed, "substantial burden" on "religious exercise."

 

Under terms of the settlement, the NDOC was obligated to provide a separate time and place each week for plaintiffs' religious exercise, provide suitable structures, religious materials, and certain organic foods, all particular to the sect, and pay plaintiffs' attorney fees. See: Rust v. Nebraska Dept. of Corr. Serv. Religion Study Comm., U.S.D.C. (D. Neb.) Case No. 4:08-cv-3185.

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Related legal case

Rust v. Nebraska Dept. of Corr. Serv. Religion Study Comm.