[asa] 7th Circuit Decision

I apologize for originally posting in the wrong place. I intended to start a
new thread. Gmail didn't make it obvious what the subject line was and I
clicked send too soon. Gmail didn't challenge sending because the subject
was already set, just not displayed.

Dave C

This is a short sequence of the original 7th Circuit decision in the Kaufman
case.
I will post only the parts about the establishment clause claim. And break
these into pieces in sequence. The sequence may get lengthy but the pieces
hopefully will be short.
Lets start with the reference to the case:

In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Seventh Circuit

____________
No. 04-1914
JAMES J. KAUFMAN,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
GARY R. MCCAUGHTRY, et al.,
Defendants-Appellees.
____________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Western District of Wisconsin.
No. 03-C-027-C—Barbara B. Crabb, Chief Judge.
____________
SUBMITTED OCTOBER 26, 2004OE—DECIDED AUGUST 19, 2005
____________
Before BAUER, WOOD, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.
WOOD, Circuit Judge. Wisconsin inmate James Kaufman
filed this suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, claiming as relevant
here that prison officials violated his First Amendment
rights. He raises three unrelated issues. Of the three, the
one that has prompted the issuance of this opinion is his
claim that the defendants infringed on his right to practice
his religion when they refused to allow him to create an

------------------------------

2 No.
04-1914

inmate group to study and discuss atheism. Kaufman also
argues that the defendants used an overly broad definition
of "pornography" when they prevented him from receiving
several publications containing sexual content and photographs
of nude men and that they improperly opened
outside of his presence several letters that he claimed were
"legal" mail. The district court dismissed the pornography
claim at screening, see 28 U.S.C. § 1915A, and granted
summary judgment in favor of the defendants on the other
two. On appeal, Kaufman contests the merits of those
decisions, argues that he should have been allowed to
amend his complaint to add another claim, and claims that
he should have been permitted to conduct additional
discovery. We affirm in part and vacate and remand in part.

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Received on Sun Jun 17 13:01:15 2007