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A federal court has dismissed a religious rights lawsuit filed by Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who is seeking closer communication with his family.
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A federal court has dismissed a religious rights lawsuit filed by Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who is seeking closer communication with his family.
A federal court in Arizona has dismissed a religious rights lawsuit filed in May by convicted Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht against the Federal Bureau of Prisons, according to an order[2] signed by U.S. District Judge David Bury on December 13.
Ulbricht, 37, claimed through an attorney that prison officials at USP Tucson were burdening his right to exercise his religion[3] by barring him from using a prison email system to communicate with his father.
The suit [4]claimed Ulbricht held a sincere belief that he was “obliged to honor his father and mother,” and that the prison’s Trulincs messaging service was the only way he could communicate with his father, Kirk, who lives in Matapalo, Costa Rica. Ulbricht’s attorney claimed officials were violating the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
“Ulbricht is in a ‘catch 22’ of sorts,” Ulbricht’s attorney Brandon Sample wrote in the initial complaint. “Do not communicate with his father in violation of his sincerely held religious beliefs or communicate with his father in violation of the BOP’s [Federal Bureau of Prisons’] rules, exposing Ulbricht to penalties and sanctions.”
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), through Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Linton, claimed [5]that Ulbricht’s suit failed to clearly hash out a claim for which relief could be granted, that the BOP’s actions didn’t hinder his religious beliefs and that he failed to exhaust administrative remedies before going to court.
“All
