Haley

MEMORANDUM **

Hamilton Haley, a California state prison inmate, appeals pro se from the district court’s grant of the defendant prison officials’ motion for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

We review de novo whether it was clearly established in 2001 and 2002, when Haley, a Sikh, was disciplined for refusing to cut his hair, that the California Department of Corrections (CDC) grooming regulations requiring short hair violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc-l(a) (RLUIPA). See Hydrick v. Hunter, 500 F.3d 978, 984-86 (9th Cir.2007). In Warsoldier v. Woodford, 418 F.3d 989 (9th Cir.2005), this court held that an inmate challenging the CDC regulation, 15 Cal. Code Reg. § 3062(e), had shown serious questions going to the merits of his claim that the regulation violated RLUIPA, and we reversed the district court’s denial of a preliminary injunction. The regulation imposed a substantial burden on an inmate’s practice of his religion, and although it served the compelling interest of prison security, CDC did not demonstrate that it was the least restrictive…