USCA11 Case: 19-11723 Date Filed: 08/16/2021 Page: 1 of 4
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
________________________
No. 19-11723
________________________
D.C. Docket No. 6:18-cv-00032-JRH-BWC
WASEEM DAKER,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
versus
COMMISSIONER, GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS,
Defendant - Appellee,
TIMOTHY WARD, et. al.,
Assistant Commissioner,
Defendants.
________________________
No. 19-11849
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D.C. Docket No. 6:18-cv-00073-RSB-BWC
WASEEM DAKER,
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Plaintiff - Appellant,
versus
COMMISSIONER, GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS,
HOMER BRYSON,
Former GDC Commissioner,
ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS,
WARDEN,
Facilities Director,
STEVE UPTON,
Deputy Facilities Director, et al.,
Defendants - Appellees.
________________________
Appeals from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Georgia
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(August 16, 2021)
Before JORDAN, JILL PRYOR and TJOFLAT, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Waseem Daker appeals the district court’s sua sponte dismissal without
prejudice of two actions under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Religious Land Use and
Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”), 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc-1(a), alleging
various constitutional and statutory violations relating to the Georgia Department
of Corrections’ (“GDC”) grooming policy. 1 Daker is a practicing Muslim. As part
1
Daker proceeded pro se in the district court in both cases. We consolidated the appeals
when we determined they presented the same question and appointed counsel to represent Daker.
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of his religion, he must wear a beard at least as long as the width of his fist, about
three inches. GDC requires prisoners to have beards of no longer than half an inch.
Along with challenging this policy, Daker alleged in both complaints that GDC has
a custom and practice of forcibly shaving him with unsanitized clippers and using
excessive force. Daker maintains that this practice puts him at risk of contracting
infectious diseases and sustaining serious injury.
Daker moved to proceed in forma pauperis at the time he filed each
complaint. The district court sua sponte dismissed both suits under the Prison
Litigation Reform Act’s “three-strikes” provision, which prohibits inmates who
have had three previous civil actions dismissed “on the grounds that [they are]
frivolous, malicious, or fail[] to state a claim” from proceeding in forma pauperis.
28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). On appeal, Daker argues that the district court erred because
his complaints alleged an imminent danger of serious physical harm—an exception
to the three strikes provision. Id.
After we ordered that this case be orally argued, another panel of this Court
held that an essentially identical complaint in another of Daker’s appeals failed to
allege an imminent danger of future harm under § 1915(g). Daker v. Ward, 999
F.3d 1300, 1311–13 (11th Cir. 2021). Daker himself described the claims in Daker
v. Ward and the instant cases as similar, and our review confirms that the
complaints in all three cases are substantially identical. Given this similarity, we
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conclude that this appeal is foreclosed by our decision in Daker v. Ward. 2 We thus
affirm the district court’s dismissal.
AFFIRMED.
2
This is not to say that Daker is foreclosed from proceeding under § 1915(g)’s imminent
danger of serious physical injury exception for any claim challenging GDC’s grooming policy.
But on the complaints before us, as in the complaint in Daker v. Ward, Daker has not sufficiently
alleged that the GDC practices create such a risk.
4