The following published opinions were released by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on May 30, 2008:

• Mayfield v. Texas Department of Criminal Justice (Garwood, Garza, Benavides, JJ.; opinion by Garza, J.). A prisoner in the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (”TDCJ”), acting pro se and proceeding in forma pauperis, brought a lawsuit against TDCJ and individual prison personnel in their official capacities, pursuant to § 1983 and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (”RLUIPA” - the successor statute to RFRA), alleging that TDCJ’s policy of requiring an outside volunteer trained in prison security issues to attend religious meetings and ceremonies and TDCJ’s actions and policies with regard to possession of runestones by prisoners and omission of literature on runes from the prison library violated his and others’ First Amendment right to religious freedom and their rights under the RLUIPA to freely practice the Odinist/Asatru faith. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants on grounds of sovereign and qualified immunity and that the plaintiff had not shown a violation of the First Amendment of the RLUIPA, and imposed one strike against the plaintiff under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court judgment on sovereign immunity grounds insofar as it was brought against the TDCJ; and affirmed the summary judgment against the individual prison officials insofar as it sought monetary damages, but reversed on the sovereign immunity grounds against the officials insofar as prospective relief was sought under Ex Parte Young. The Court then affirmed the district court’s summary judgment dismissing the plaintiff’s § 1983 claims regarding the possession of runestones; but, finding genuine of issues of material fact remained, vacated the summary judgment dismissing the § 1983 claims related to the outside-volunteer requirement and related to the rune-related literature, and vacated the summary judgment dismissing the RLUIPA claims related to the volunteer requirement and the overall rune-possession policy. The Court also reversed the summary judgment insofar as it imposed a strike against the plaintiff under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g).
• Hagan v. Echostar Satellite, LLC (Davis, Southwick, Drell, JJ.; opinion by Drell, J.). Affirming judgment as a matter of law in favor of the defendant entered after a deadlocked jury resulted in a mistrial. The Fifth Circuit held that protected activity under the Fair Labor Standards Act § 215(a)(3) is not limited to the filing of a formal complaint, but may include “informal, internal complaint[s],” although “abstract grumblings” and “vague expressions of discontent” are not actionable complaints to which the statute’s anti-retaliation provisions would apply. The Court found that the plaintiff, who had been terminated from his position as an intermediate manager after relating a change in scheduling and overtime policy to his subordinates, had not made an informal complaint under the FLSA when announcing the policy change as he had not framed the announcement in the form of communicating a belief that the new policy violated the law. The Court also found that the plaintiff had not stepped outside his role as manager in bringing his subordinates’ questions regarding the impact on overtime schedules to the attention of his supervisor.