Magistrate Judge Leslie Foschio
State inmate Jean-Laurent accused guards Los and Damstetter with interfering with his Eighth Amendment and First Amendment Free Exercise clause rights by barring his attendance of Ramadan services after using the prison’s law library. Only Damstetter responded to documentary requests and interrogatories. Los was deemed to have agreed to Damstetter’s responses. Only partly granting his motion to compel, the court required defendants to provide Jean-Laurent with the identity of the prison’s Muslim inmate coordinator. However, his request for information if other Muslim inmates were prevented from attending Ramadan services after using the prison law library was irrelevant to his Free Exercise Clause claim. Interrogatories seeking information as to Muslim inmates’ attendance of Ramadan services, or information about non-Muslim inmates’ attendance at other religious services, was similarly irrelevant to Jean-Laurent’s claims. To the extent Jean-Laurent’s sought records concerning his attendance of Ramadan services after using the prison law library, such records were relevant to the issue of the value of Jean-Laurent’s loss of his First Amendment rights for each date of their infringement, and could be disclosed in redacted form.
