Ralph Countryman v. James Baca

MEMORANDUM

Nevada state prisoner Ralph Countryman appeals pro se from the district court’s summary judgment in his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging denial of the right to practice his religion in violation of the First Amendment, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Person’s Act (“RLUI-PA”), and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review de novo, Rene v. MGM Grand Hotel, Inc., 305 F.3d 1061, 1064 (9th Cir.2002) (en banc), and we affirm.

The district court properly granted summary judgment on Countryman’s claim under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment because Countryman failed to raise a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether a prison regulation that prohibited inmates from purchasing hardbound books was unreasonably related to legitimate penological interests in security, denied him all religious expression, could be maintained while accommodating his request at de minimis cost, or could be substituted with ready alternatives. See Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 89-91 , 107 S.Ct. 2254 , 96 L.Ed.2d 64 (1987); see also O’Lone v. Estate of Shabazz, 482 U.S. 342, 351-52 , 107 S.Ct. 2400…