Dawud Halisi Malik v. Neal Brown

Dawud Halisi Malik brought suit under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985, alleging that prison officials violated his statutory and constitutional rights by refusing to process mail and documents in which the plaintiff used his religious name. Plaintiff claims he was subjected to disciplinary action for using his religious name in addition to his committed name. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of defendant prison officials, and Malik appeals. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We reverse and remand.

I

Malik was committed to the Washington State Department of Corrections under the name David Washington Riggins. He converted to the Sunni Muslim faith in 1978 and legally changed his name to Dawud Halisi Malik. For the next ten years, however, Malik continued to use the name Riggins.

Malik began using his religious name in 1988. He testified that “when I started truly practicing the religion as it’s to be practiced, that’s when I started using my name to five up to the attributes of my name.... Dawud means David, and to me it means the [Prophet] David_ Halisi means genuine, sincere, and for real. Malik means king and a believer.” In 1990,…