LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — On July 11, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arkansas filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of jailhouse litigator Gregory Holt, also known as Abdul Maalik Muhammad, who was recently transferred to a federal prison in West Virginia alleging an act of “unconstitutional retaliation.”
The lawsuit claims that Muhammad was transferred by Arkansas Division of Corrections Director Dexter Payne in “direct response to ongoing, active litigation and after confidential settlement talks failed.”
The complaint states that the transfer deliberately attempted to disrupt Muhammad’s legal advocacy and requests a declaration that the transfer violated his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. In 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Holt v. Hobbs (2015) that an Arkansas prison rule violated his religious beliefs to grow a beard…