Malik

In this qualified immunity case we decide whether a prisoner’s First Amendment right to use his religious name in conjunction with his committed name on outgoing mail was clearly established in 1990. We also determine whether a prison notary public violated a clearly established law when she refused to attest to a document on which the inmate’s signature did not match his identification.

I.

Dawud Halisi Malik brought suit pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985, alleging that prison officials violated his statutory and constitutional rights by refusing to process mail and notarize documents on which he used his religious name. When he was first incarcerated his name was David Riggins. In 1978, he legally changed his name to Dawud Halisi Malik after converting to Sunni Islam. He began to use his new name in 1988.

*727 This is the second appeal that these parties have brought before us. We previously reversed a grant of summary judgment in favor of the prison officials, holding that Malik’s use of his Muslim name was an expression of his religious faith, that he was entitled to use both his religious and his committed names, and that whether defendants violated this…

dissenting:

I do not agree that in 1990 the law was clearly established that the prison officials could not punish Malik for using his religious name on outgoing mail, and I respectfully dissent.

This appeal presents a purely legal question: Are the prison officials entitled to immunity from suit “insofar as their conduct [did] not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known[?]” Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818 , 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738 , 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982); see also Mitch *731 ell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526 , 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2815 , 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985) (“Unless the plaintiffs allegations state a claim of violation of clearly established law, a defendant pleading qualified immunity is entitled to dismissal before the commencement of discovery.”). Addressing this legal question, we assume Malik’s version of the facts is accurate. See id. at 528 , 105 S.Ct. at 2816-17 (stating that appellate court reviewing denial of claim for qualified immunity need not consider the correctness of plaintiffs version of the facts).

Malik claims that in July 1990 prison officials denied him use of mail and notary services…