Written by Don Byrd
Via Religion Clause, a federal judge in Florida granted a preliminary injunction yesterday ordering the state’s Department of Corrections to provide kosher meals to all inmates who request one according to sincerely held religious beliefs. In 2007, the state abandoned its kosher meals program and defends its right not to provide such meals. Following a lawsuit filed last year by the United States, however, the state initiated a pilot program to provide kosher meals, but only within strict guidelines designed to certify religious sincerity.
In issuing the injunction, the judge found the lack of a kosher offering likely violates the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), as do the many hurdles to a kosher diet in the state’s current pilot program, including the religious sincerity test that required applying inmates to demonstrate knowledge about their claimed faith. The state counters that a broad requirement to provide kosher meals undermines a compelling government interest in controlling costs, but the judge noted that if 31 other states and the federal Bureau of Prisons can do it, there’s no reason why Florida can’t.
[T]he experience of other states militates strongly against the legality of Defendants’ blanket denial of a kosher diet. The Federal Bureau of Prisons, Texas, New York, California, Illinois and at least 31 other states offer a kosher diet to their prisoners. Defendants do not explain how their interests differ from these large correctional institutions.
The judge ordered the Department of Corrections to provide a certified kosher diet to all inmates with a sincerely held religious belief requiring it by July 1 of next year. Another lawsuit challenging the state’s refusal to offer a kosher diet, brought by an individual prisoner, is ongoing after the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned its dismissal earlier this year.
