Supreme Court upholds religious rights of prisoners

Published: 2005-06-01

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Supreme Court May 31 upheld a federal law that requires prisons to accommodate the religious practices of prisoners. In a unanimous vote, the court said the 2000 Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, known as RLUIPA, does not violate the Constitution by giving what might be perceived as an advantage to members of religious groups. The court was not asked to address and did not rule on the law's provisions protecting the rights of religious groups to use their land without undue government interference. Several Ohio prisoners who follow nontraditional religions sued the state when the prison refused to let them meet in a group for worship and rejected their requests for certain ceremonial items and religious publications. The state had argued, among other things, that being required to accommodate prisoners' religious beliefs would amount to state support of religion and that other prisoners would abuse the law because it might entitle them to certain foods and privileges they could not otherwise have.

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .