RLUIPA.org
Court Rules Monetary Damages Are Available Under RLUIPA
In its recent opinion in Daker v. Ferrero, the federal district court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled that monetary damages are available under RLUIPA, allowing a prisoner’s claim for those damages to go forward. After a thorough discussion of the issue, the court rejected arguments that damages were not available under the statute:
Had Congress intended the relief available under the RLUIPA to be limited to that of an equitable or declaratory character, it could have easily said so. But instead Congress chose to provide for “appropriate relief,” and the Court discerns no basis in the statute to declare all monetary rewards categorically “inappropriate” while reaching precisely the opposite conclusion vis-a-vis injunctive remedies.
Rather, this Court reads the Act’s provision for “appropriate relief” as an incorporation by Congress of the vast body of law respecting the manifold limitations on government and government actors’ exposure to suit….
The Court based its decision upon RLUIPA Section 4(a), a section which applies to both the institutionalized persons and land use portions of the statute.
The proper cite: Daker v. Ferrero, 2006 WL 346440 (N.D.Ga. Feb. 13, 2006).
Resources & Documents
- Opinion (PDF, 4KB)