U.S. Supreme Court rules state prisons must accommodate inmate religions

Tupelo, MS — June 1, 2005 (American Center for Law and Justice) – The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld the constitutionality of a federal law requiring state prisons to accommodate inmate religions. In a unanimous decision, the Court ruled that Ohio inmates, including a witch and a Satanist, were improperly denied the right to worship and to access religious literature ceremonial items.

The 2000 law, which was, in part, intended to protect the religious rights of prisoners, was challenged as an unconstitutional government promotion of religion. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals had struck down part of the law, called the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, on grounds it violated the separation of church and state.

Justice Ginsberg, speaking for the Supreme Court, disagreed, saying: “It confers no privileged status on any particular religious sect, and singles out no bona fide faith for disadvantageous treatment.”

Brian Fahling, senior trial attorney for the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy, while “pleased with the decision,” sees some irony in the Court’s ruling.

“It is a sign of the times, I suppose, that it took a witch and a Satanist to secure the right of inmates to worship,” Fahling said.

Under the law, state prisons that receive federal money are required to accommodate prisoners’ religious beliefs unless it can be shown that the accommodation would interfere with the ability of a prison to maintain order and safety. “We do not read [the law] to elevate accommodation of religious observances over an institution’s need to maintain order and safety,” wrote Ginsburg. “We have no cause to believe that [the law] would not be applied in an appropriately balanced way, without sensitivity to security concerns.”

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