Robin Combs, Sr. v. Washington State

MEMORANDUM

Robin Combs appeals the district court’s order entering summary judgment for defendants on various claims arising from Combs’s treatment by Washington state prison officials. We affirm.

The district court properly entered summary judgment for defendants on Combs’s free exercise claims brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 . See U.S. Const. amend. I. Reviewing the record de novo, Shakur v. Schriro, 514 F.3d 878, 883 (9th Cir. 2008), we agree with the district court’s conclusion that no disputed question of material fact exists as to whether prison officials intentionally and substantially burdened Combs’s right freely to exercise his fundamentalist Jewish faith. The sporadic mistakes in kosher food preparation principles here resulted from inadvertence and did not rise to the level of a constitutional violation. See Canell v. Lightner, 143 F.3d 1210, 1215 (9th Cir. 1998) (holding that “short-term and sporadic” interference with free exercise rights does not violate the First Amendment).

A prison policy that refused to provide Combs a “Shabbat sack”—a bag delivered on Fridays containing breakfast, lunch and dinner for consumption on Saturdays—worked no substantial burden on…