ERLC joins brief defending religious freedom law

By Tom Strode - Jan 31, 2005 - comment

The ERLC has united with a wide diversity of organizations to call for the Supreme Court to uphold a federal law protecting the religious freedom of prisoners.

The commission joined in a friend-of-the-court brief contending the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) is constitutional. The ERLC supported the brief as a member of the Coalition for the Free Exercise of Religion.

Oral arguments in the case, which is Cutter v. Wilkinson, will be heard March 21, and the justices are expected to announce a decision before they adjourn in the summer.

RLUIPA, which became law in 2000, prohibits government policies that substantially burden free exercise of religion by inmates and, in land-use cases, by a person or institution. The government, however, can gain an exemption from the law if it can show it has a compelling interest and is using the least restrictive means to further that interest.

The case, which is on appeal from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, involves some Ohio prisoners who assert that state corrections rules denying them access to religious material and the opportunity to perform religious services violate RLUIPA and the Ohio constitution. The brief says the coalition does not take a position on the specific facts in the case but is defending the constitutionality of RLUIPA.

“One vital thing that history and our Baptist heritage have taught us is that it is lethally dangerous to allow governments to discriminate against religion and among religions,” ERLC President Richard Land said. “To protect religious freedom and freedom of conscience for all, we must oppose any government’s effort to discriminate among religions when it attempts to deem some acceptable and others unacceptable.”

The Sixth Circuit is the only one of five federal appeals courts to invalidate RLUIPA. The Fourth, Seventh, Ninth and 11^th^ circuits have upheld the prisoner provision in the law.

The coalition’s brief may be accessed online at www.becketfund.org .

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