{"id":9500,"date":"2015-01-20T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/beard-meets-religious-freedom-in-distinctive-court-decision-47719\/"},"modified":"2015-01-20T16:30:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-20T16:30:00","slug":"beard-meets-religious-freedom-in-distinctive-court-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/beard-meets-religious-freedom-in-distinctive-court-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"Beard meets religious freedom in distinctive Court decision"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

Washington D.C., Jan 20, 2015 \/ 09:30 am (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- In a rare unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a Muslim prisoner in Arkansas must be allowed to grow his beard for religious reasons.<\/p>\n

\tThe ruling was a \u201chuge win for religious freedom,\u201d the co-counsel in the case declared.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThis is a victory not just for one prisoner in Arkansas, but for every American who believes and wants the freedom to act on those beliefs,\u201d said Eric Rassbach, deputy general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. \u201cNo religion is an island.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe Muslim inmate Abdul Muhammed claimed his religion forbade him from cutting his beard. However, the Arkansas Department of Corrections forbids facial hair, with only medical exceptions: those with certain skin conditions are allowed a beard of 1\/4 inch in length.<\/p>\n

\tIn a compromise, Muhammed proposed to keep his beard at 1\/2 inch length, but the prison system denied his request. He then filed a lawsuit, but met defeat at a federal trial court and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.<\/p>\n

\tHe then sent a hand-written petition for injunction to the Supreme Court, which agreed last March to hear his full appeal.<\/p>\n

\tThe department had argued that beards posed a security threat, allowing the possibility of prisoners hiding contraband items and also using the beards as a disguise if they escaped prison.<\/p>\n

\tHowever, the department failed to prove that its policy met the least restrictive means of maintaining prison security while respecting the religious freedom of prisoners, the Court said.<\/p>\n

\tIt determined that the department violated RLUIPA, or the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which protects the freedom of prisoners to practice their religion peacefully.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAlthough we do not question the importance of the Department\u2019s interests in stopping the flow of contraband and facilitating prisoner identification, we do doubt whether the prohibition against petitioner\u2019s beard furthers its compelling interest about contraband. And we conclude that the Department has failed to show that its policy is the least restrictive means of furthering its compelling interests,\u201d the Court said.<\/p>\n

\tThe justices also pointed out that many states and federal prison systems allow inmates to grow 1\/2 inch beards, thus undermining the claim of the Arkansas prison system that its mandate was the least restrictive means necessary to maintain security. According to the Becket Fund, 43 prison systems allow beards of 1\/2 inch length and 41 systems allow even longer beards.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWhat the Supreme Court said today was that government officials cannot impose arbitrary restrictions on religious liberty just because they think government knows best,\u201d Rassbach said.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWhere government can accommodate religion, it ought to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tMany different religious organizations supported Muhammed\u2019s case. Amicus briefs were filed on his behalf by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, various Jewish organizations, the International Mission Board for the Southern Baptist Convention, and many Islamic scholars, in addition to the U.S. Government and the American Civil Liberties Union.<\/p>\n

\t\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington D.C., Jan 20, 2015 \/ 09:30 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- In a rare unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a Muslim prisoner in Arkansas must be allowed to grow his beard for religious reasons.<\/p>\n

\tThe ruling was a “huge win …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nBeard meets religious freedom in distinctive Court decision<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Washington D.C., Jan 20, 2015 \/ 09:30 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- In a rare unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a Muslim prisoner in Arkansas must be allowed to grow his beard for religious reasons. The ruling was a “huge win ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/beard-meets-religious-freedom-in-distinctive-court-decision\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beard meets religious freedom in distinctive Court decision\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Washington D.C., Jan 20, 2015 \/ 09:30 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- In a rare unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a Muslim prisoner in Arkansas must be allowed to grow his beard for religious reasons. The ruling was a “huge win ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/beard-meets-religious-freedom-in-distinctive-court-decision\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-20T16:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/beard_Catholic_News_Agency_Credit_Hank_James_via_Flickr_CC_BY_NC_ND_20_CNA_12015_1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/beard-meets-religious-freedom-in-distinctive-court-decision\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/beard-meets-religious-freedom-in-distinctive-court-decision\/\",\"name\":\"Beard meets religious freedom in distinctive Court decision\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-20T16:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-20T16:30:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Washington D.C., Jan 20, 2015 \/ 09:30 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- In a rare unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a Muslim prisoner in Arkansas must be allowed to grow his beard for religious reasons. The ruling was a “huge win ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/beard-meets-religious-freedom-in-distinctive-court-decision\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/beard-meets-religious-freedom-in-distinctive-court-decision\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/beard-meets-religious-freedom-in-distinctive-court-decision\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Beard meets religious freedom in distinctive Court decision\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\",\"name\":\"CNA Daily News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CNA Daily News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Beard meets religious freedom in distinctive Court decision","description":"Washington D.C., Jan 20, 2015 \/ 09:30 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- In a rare unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a Muslim prisoner in Arkansas must be allowed to grow his beard for religious reasons. The ruling was a “huge win ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/beard-meets-religious-freedom-in-distinctive-court-decision\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Beard meets religious freedom in distinctive Court decision","og_description":"Washington D.C., Jan 20, 2015 \/ 09:30 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- In a rare unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a Muslim prisoner in Arkansas must be allowed to grow his beard for religious reasons. The ruling was a “huge win ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/beard-meets-religious-freedom-in-distinctive-court-decision\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2015-01-20T16:30:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/beard_Catholic_News_Agency_Credit_Hank_James_via_Flickr_CC_BY_NC_ND_20_CNA_12015_1.jpg"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/beard-meets-religious-freedom-in-distinctive-court-decision\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/beard-meets-religious-freedom-in-distinctive-court-decision\/","name":"Beard meets religious freedom in distinctive Court decision","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-01-20T16:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-01-20T16:30:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Washington D.C., Jan 20, 2015 \/ 09:30 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- In a rare unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a Muslim prisoner in Arkansas must be allowed to grow his beard for religious reasons. The ruling was a “huge win ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/beard-meets-religious-freedom-in-distinctive-court-decision\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/beard-meets-religious-freedom-in-distinctive-court-decision\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2015\/01\/beard-meets-religious-freedom-in-distinctive-court-decision\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Beard meets religious freedom in distinctive Court decision"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}