Coven
Oldenwilde has compiled a packet of legal rulings and texts of laws
(including RLUIPA) for Wiccan prisoners, their advocates, and prison
officials to read and download. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in
upholding RLUIPA that any prison or institution receiving federal funds
must grant full and equal rights to all inmates to practice their
religion -- specifically including Wicca. The Supreme Court sided Tuesday with an unusual alliance of the Bush administration, liberal activists and conservative religious groups, agreeing that state prisons must accommodate the beliefs of witches, Satanists and other followers of non-mainstream religions.
The justices agreed unanimously with inmates in Ohio who complained that they were denied access to religious literature and the opportunity to conduct services. Ohio prison officials had argued that the inmates' requests hampered their ability to manage prisons.
The court overturned a ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Cincinnati, which struck down part of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 as an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state. The act says states that receive federal money for their prison systems should not "impose a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person residing in or confined to an institution" unless they can show a compelling reason.
Three other federal appeals courts had upheld the law; Ohio joined the plaintiffs in asking the Supreme Court to resolve the conflict.
The ruling Tuesday solidifies a campaign by numerous politically diverse groups - from the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State to the American Center for Law and Justice and the U.S. Justice Department - to limit government restrictions on religious expression.
Ohio argued that the law served as an impermissible endorsement of religion in violation of the First Amendment because it effectively made religious inmates a special class. Supporters of the law argued that mainstream religious beliefs were already accommodated in prisons and said it simply extended the same protection to unconventional faiths.
Go
to How to Win Wiccan Religious Freedoms.
Go
to The Black Ribbon Campaign.
Go to General
Information table
of contents.
Return to Coven
Oldenwilde's home page.
Latest update: 02 Dec. 2007
