Remmers granted appropriate equitable relief entitling Church members to exercise their religion in the Iowa State Penitentiary. The Court overruled defendants' motion, as it had earlier overruled a petition by plaintiffs seeking to invoke the Court's contempt power for alleged failure of prison officials to comply with the Remmers decree. Remmers v. Brewer, 396 F. Supp. 145, 148 (S.D. Iowa 1975). Both plaintiffs and defendants appealed the Court's post-judgment rulings to the Eighth Circuit.
We note that ISP officials have previously attempted to reopen the issue of whether CONS is a religion entitled to First Amendment protection, but these attempts were rejected by the district court, which determined that ISP officials had not presented sufficient evidence that CONS was a "hoax and front" at ISP. See Loney v. Scurr, 474 F.Supp. 1186 (S.D.Iowa 1979); Remmers v. Brewer, 396 F.Supp. 145 (S.D.Iowa 1975), aff'd, 529 F.2d 656 (8th Cir. 1976). Defendant prison officials now appear to have gathered substantial evidence that CONS functions not as a religious organization but as a racist prison gang within ISP. Such evidence obviously would be highly relevant to a determination regarding the continued validity of the Remmers decision.
Plaintiff has prevailed in this longdrawn-out suit under 42 U.S.C. ยง 1983: he has vindicated his right under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to exercise his religion within the confines of the Iowa State Penitentiary. See Remmers v. Brewer, 361 F. Supp. 537 (S.D.Iowa 1973), aff'd, 494 F.2d 1277 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1012,95 S.Ct. 332, 42 L.Ed.2d 286 (1974), on motionto reopen, 396 F. Supp. 145 (S.D.Iowa 1975), remanded, 529 F.2d 659 (8th Cir. 1976), on remand sub nom. Loney v. Scurr, 474 F. Supp. 1186 (S.D.Iowa 1979).