Singer v. Raemisch

Kevin Singer (plaintiff) was incarcerated at a Wisconsin prison and a devoted player of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), a fantasy role-playing game. In D&D, one player acts as the dungeon master to control the game, but all players work together collectively to develop a story involving their fantasy characters. Singer obtained multiple D&D publications, and some prisoners would routinely play together. The prison’s anti-gang coordinator, Bruce Muraski (defendant), learned about the D&D activities and was concerned that the game’s leadership structure and collective nature was a precursor to an actual gang. The prison confiscated Singer’s written D&D materials and implemented a rule prohibiting prisoners from playing D&D or other fantasy games. Singer sued Muraski and other prison officials (defendants) in federal district court, alleging that the rules prohibiting D&D materials and gameplay violated his First Amendment rights. The prison official moved for summary judgment, relying on an affidavit by Muraski stating that, in his 20 years of prison-gang experience, D&D materials and gameplay could potentially (1) lead to gang formation and cause safety issues and (2) cause prisoners to escape reality and have rehabilitation issues. The prison officials argued that this evidence showed the D&D ban reasonably promoted the legitimate penological objectives of safety and rehabilitation. In response, Singer presented affidavits from numerous prisoners—representing over 100 years of combined prison time—stating they had never seen a gang develop from or be related to D&D. Singer also presented expert testimony that role-playing games often helped prisoners rehabilitate by keeping them away from negative prison activities. Singer argued that this evidence showed, at minimum, a factual dispute about whether the D&D ban was reasonably related to the prison’s safety and rehabilitation goals. The district court found the undisputed evidence established a reasonable relationship between the ban and the prison’s goals and granted summary judgment to the prison officials. Singer appealed.