Justices to decide on religious rights law
- Oct 15, 2004
The Supreme Court has agreed to decide the constitutionality of a four-year-old federal law that protects the religious rights of prisoners.
The justices announced Oct. 12 they would review a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) violates the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion. The court will determine whether the law’s section on prisoners’ rights is constitutional.
Oral arguments in the case, which is Cutter v. Wilkinson, will not occur until at least January.
In accepting the case out of the Sixth Circuit, the Supreme Court agreed to review the only one of four appellate decisions to go against RLUIPA. The Fourth, Seventh and Ninth circuits have upheld the prisoner provision in the law.
The case involves some Ohio prisoners who hold unconventional religious beliefs. They assert state corrections rules denying them access to religious literature and the opportunity to conduct religious services violate RLUIPA and the Ohio Constitution.
RLUIPA, signed by President Clinton in September 2000, bans 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 if it can demonstrate it has a compelling interest and is using the least restrictive means to advance that interest.
Congress passed RLUIPA after the more expansive Religious Freedom Restoration Act was invalidated by the Supreme Court. In approving RLUIPA, Congress—with the support of a diverse coalition of organizations, including the ERLC—sought to address two of the areas in which government most commonly inhibits religious free exercise.
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