Judge tosses Kansas Muslim inmate’s religious-rights lawsuit

TOPEKA, Kan. – A federal judge in Kansas has thrown out a Muslim inmate’s lawsuit that accused a county jail and its administrators of violating the convicted killer’s religious rights.

U.S. Magistrate Judge David J. Waxse dismissed Eddie Gordon Sr.’s case involving the Shawnee County Jail after Gordon missed a court-imposed deadline to submit any evidence the alleged misconduct harmed him physically or intentionally interfered with his religion, the Topeka Capital-Journal (http://bit.ly/2bzDoQK ) reported Tuesday.

Acting as his own attorney, Gordon alleged in his handwritten 2014 lawsuit that he wasn’t fed for 28 hours during the 30-day season of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn until after sunset. Gordon, 27, also said jail officials served him cold, unbearable meals so close to his prayer time that he couldn’t eat them before fasting.

Waxse, in March of last year, gave Gordon 30 days to argue in writing why his lawsuit shouldn’t be dismissed. Gordon didn’t file his amended lawsuit until April of this year.

“After comparing the original complaint with the amended complaint, the court finds no significant difference in their contents,” Martens wrote in his ruling last month. “Thus, even if the court excused Gordon’s untimeliness in responding to the order to show cause, because the proposed amendments do not cure the deficiencies the court previously discussed, amendment would be futile.”

Gordon was sentenced in October 2011 to 23 years in prison for intentional second-degree murder related to a November 2010 shooting death in Topeka.

Gordon, now imprisoned in Lansing, was being temporarily held in the Shawnee County Jail at the time he filed his lawsuit.

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Information from: The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal, http://www.cjonline.com