Shawna Hartmann v. California Department of Corr.

California prisoners enjoy state and federal constitutional rights to exercise their religious beliefs. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (“CDCR”), in an effort to meet the religious exercise needs of prison inmates, maintains paid full-time and part-time chaplain positions for adherents of five faiths: Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Native American, and Protestant (the “Policy”). Inmates adhering to religions other than these five faiths are permitted to exercise their religious beliefs with the assistance of paid staff chaplains or volunteer chaplains.

Plaintiffs-Appellants Caren Hill and Shawna Hartmann (“Plaintiffs”) claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 that various entities and individuals violated their rights under the First Amendment’s Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses, the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”), and the California State Constitution, by refusing to hire a paid full-time Wiccan chaplain and by failing to apply neutral criteria in determining whether paid chaplaincy positions are necessary to meet the religious exercise needs of inmates adhering to…