RLUIPA

Tenth Circuit Issues Prison Sweat Lodge Decision; Religious Freedom Upheld

Matthew L.M. Fletcher3 Comments

Here are the materials in Yellowbear v. Lampert:

Yellowbear Brief

Yellowbear Supplemental Brief

Wyoming Brief

Yellowbear Reply

CA10 Opinion

An excerpt:

Andrew Yellowbear will probably spend the rest of his life in prison. Time he must serve for murdering his daughter. With that much lying behind and still before him, Mr. Yellowbear has found sustenance in his faith. No one doubts the sincerity of his religious beliefs or that they are the reason he seeks access to his prison’s sweat lodge — a house of prayer and meditation the prison has supplied for those who share his Native American religious tradition. Yet the prison refuses to open the doors of that sweat lodge to Mr. Yellowbear alone, and so we have this litigation. While those convicted of crime in our society lawfully forfeit a great many civil liberties, Congress has (repeatedly) instructed that the sincere exercise of religion should not be among them — at least in the absence of  a compelling reason. In this record we can find no reason like that.

 

Hyde v. Fisher — Idaho Court of Appeals Keeps Inmate Religious Freedom Case Alive

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

I looks like this is the second time Hyde v. Fisher (here is Hyde I) has reached the Idaho Court of Appeals. This time the Court holds that a complete ban on smudging is not the least restrictive means of maintaining safety in prison under RLUIPA. Here is an excerpt:

We conclude that Hyde has shown no error in the district court’s procedure on remand. The district court correctly ruled that IMSI’s complete ban on sweat lodge ceremonies and implementation of a personal property policy does not violate Hyde’s constitutional rights or those conferred upon him by RLUIPA and FERPA. However, we conclude that IDOC has not demonstrated that completely banning smudging ceremonies at IMSI is the least restrictive means of furthering the compelling governmental interest of safety and security at the institution.

A Legacy of Employment Division v. Smith?

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From the NYTs:

“It all began with an Indian who wanted to eat peyote.

“His name was Alfred Smith. He belonged to the Klamath tribe in Oregon and was a member of the North American Church, whose sacramental rites included ingesting peyote buds.

“On March 2, 1984, when he told his boss at the alcohol and drug treatment center where he worked that he would be attending a church meeting the following day, he was told that if he used peyote there he would be fired. He did, and he was.

“It’s a circuitous road from there to a federal appeals court ruling last week that the village of Mamaroneck had improperly denied an application by the Westchester Day School, an Orthodox Jewish school, for a new $12 million classroom building.

“Peyote or no peyote, land-use planning and zoning board decisions aren’t made for thrilling public debate — unless it’s your backyard that’s involved. But the path from the North American Church to the Orthodox day school does have an Alice in Wonderland quality. It has brought the federal government someplace it has almost never been — the realm of local land use, planning and zoning decisions.”

The Second Circuit’s opinion is here. Employment Division v. Smith is here.