Are Jewish Inmates (and others) Entitled to Kosher Meals in Prison?

Written by Don Byrd
In December, a federal court in Florida issued an injunction requiring the state’s Department of Corrections to begin providing kosher meals (again) to inmates whose sincere religious beliefs require them. The court rejected the state’s contention that avoiding the higher cost of kosher meals is a “compelling government interest” that overcomes the requirement that inmates’ religious needs should be accommodated.

The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) places a purposefully high standard on government to deny an inmate’s religious exercise. Courts have routinely held that avoiding increased costs in not in itself a compelling interest that meets that high standard. Nonetheless, Florida maintains the high price of kosher meals is too great a burden.

Satanists and the Spaghetti Monster: Is the Future of Government Religious Displays Now?

Written by Don Byrd
While we wait to find out if federal courts will find a Ten Commandments display at the Oklahoma Capitol constitutional or not, groups are lining up to include their own monuments alongside it if it is allowed. Most recently a group claiming to represent a “Satanic” church in New York has unveiled its proposed statue.

Meanwhile, in a story that strangely feels related to me, a newly elected New York Town Council member who claims to be a member of the farcical Pastafarian religion, whose deity is the Flying Spaghetti Monster, was sworn in wearing a colander on his head. He called it a “statement of religious freedom.”

Judge Orders FL Corrections Dept. to Offer Kosher Diet

Written by Don Byrd
Via Religion Clause, a federal judge in Florida granted a preliminary injunction yesterday ordering the State 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.