The ACLU of Colorado announced today that its attorneys will defend Deborah Davis, a Denver-area passenger on a public RTD bus who declined to produce ID and was subsequently arrested, handcuffed, and removed from the bus on September 26 by Homeland Security officers at the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood. Ms. Davis is scheduled to appear in federal district court on December 9 to face criminal charges stemming from her failure to show ID.

“Ms. Davis was not getting off the bus at the Federal Center and had no intention of entering any federal building,” said Gail Johnson, an ACLU cooperating attorney who will defend Ms. Davis in court. “Our client believes that the federal government had no right to demand that she produce identification as a condition of riding to work on a public bus that happens to pass through the Federal Center. She is willing to risk going to jail in order to take a stand as a matter of principle.”

The arrest occurred as Ms. Davis was commuting to work on RTD Route #100, which crosses through the Federal Center property. When the bus stopped at the entrance, a guard boarded and demanded that each passenger produce a photo ID for inspection. Ms. Davis, a 50-year-old mother of four children, one of whom is a U.S. Army soldier fighting in Iraq, has said that she refused to produce ID because she believes the government had no right to demand it. Federal law enforcement authorities held her for two hours, and she later received a formal notice to appear in court.

“We don’t believe that the federal government has the legal authority to put Deborah Davis in jail, or even to make her pay a fine, for declining the government’s request that she produce photo identification,” said Mark Silverstein, ACLU Legal Director. “Ms. Davis was commuting to her workplace and had no intention of exiting the bus at the Federal Center. She was doing nothing wrong, and she was not even suspected of doing anything wrong. Passengers are not required to carry passports or any other identification documents in order to ride to work on a public bus line.”

Also representing Ms. Davis as an ACLU volunteer attorney is Norman Mueller. Both Mueller and Johnson are with Haddon, Morgan, Mueller, Jordan, Mackey & Foreman, P.C.

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The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado (ACLU) announced today that the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) had agreed to resume providing kosher meals to Timothy Sheline, a Jewish prisoner whose kosher food diet was revoked for one year as punishment for allegedly violating a minor dining hall rule.

Two days ago, the ACLU filed suit on behalf of Sheline, asserting that the DOC unjustifiably revoked his kosher diet because a guard in the dining hall reported that Sheline was caught taking two packages of butter and two packages of salad dressing from his food tray and putting them in his pocket.

“DOC officials deserve praise for quickly taking action to restore Mr. Sheline’s ability to eat in the prison dining hall without violating his sincerely-held religious beliefs,” said Mark Silverstein, ACLU Legal Director. “We were ready to ask the Court for an emergency injunction this week if Mr. Sheline’s kosher meals were not restored right away. The DOC’s prompt action now makes this unnecessary.”

Restoring Mr. Sheline’s kosher meals resolves the most pressing issue in the lawsuit, Silverstein said, but it does not resolve the entire case. “The lawsuit also challenges the DOC regulation that authorizes DOC officials to revoke prisoners’ right to a religious diet for unjustifiable reasons and without due process,” Silverstein said. “Today’s action was a good first step, but problems with the DOC’s regulation remain unresolved.”

Since his kosher diet was revoked in April, the lawsuit states, Sheline has been struggling to survive on a severely-restricted diet of the few kosher foods he has been able to purchase at the prison canteen with his meager funds. As a result, he has lost over 30 pounds on a diet consisting almost entirely of peanut butter and crackers.

The ACLU lawsuit relies on the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion and a federal statute enacted in 2000, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which strengthens legal protections for prisoners’ religious activities. 

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The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado (ACLU) announced today that its attorneys had filed suit against the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) on behalf of Timothy Sheline, a Jewish prisoner whose kosher food diet was revoked for one year as punishment for allegedly violating a minor dining hall rule.

According to the lawsuit, the DOC has recognized that Mr. Sheline’s sincerely-held religious beliefs require that he maintain a kosher diet. The DOC was providing that diet until last spring, when Sheline was notified that his right to receive a kosher food tray in the prison dining hall had been revoked.

The lawsuit states that Sheline’s kosher diet was revoked because a guard in the dining hall reported that Sheline was caught taking two packages of butter and two packages of salad dressing from his food tray and putting them in his pocket.

Since his kosher diet was revoked in April, the lawsuit states, Sheline has been struggling to survive on a severely-restricted diet of the few kosher foods he is able to purchase at the prison canteen with his meager funds. As a result, he has lost over 30 pounds on a diet consisting almost entirely of peanut butter and crackers.

“The Constitution protects the right of prisoners to freely exercise and practice their religious beliefs,” said Mark Silverstein, ACLU Legal Director. “Congress recently strengthened the legal protections available to prisoners when it enacted the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, (RLUIPA). That statute places a heavy burden of proof on the government to justify any restrictions on religious practice.”

“It took extensive litigation several years ago to force the DOC to provide kosher meals to Jewish prisoners whose religious practice requires them,” Silverstein continued. “Prisoners can now receive religious diets, but the DOC claims, unjustifiably, that it has the right to revoke those diets on the basis of alleged violations of minor dining hall rules. The DOC certainly has a right to enforce its dining hall rules and to sanction prisoners who violate them. But it cannot do so by infringing and burdening the right of prisoners to practice their religion.”

The DOC revoked Mr. Sheline’s entitlement to a kosher diet on the basis of Administrative Regulation 1550-06, which sets out procedures for granting and revoking religious diets. The ACLU contends that the diet-revocation provisions violate the right of prisoners to religious freedom and due process of law.

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The lawsuit, Sheline v. Ortiz, was filed in United States District Court in Denver.