The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a beard ban in an Arkansas prison violates religious rights.
In a 9-0 opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, the court said a Department of Corrections policy blocking an Arkansas prisoner who wanted to grow a beard in accordance with his Muslim faith violated a federal statute designed to protest prisoners’ rights to exercise religion.
Alito said the policy “as applied to this case, violates the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act which prohibits a state or local government from taking any action that substantially burdens the religious exercise of an institutionalized person unless the government demonstrates that the action constitutes the least restrictive means of furthering a compelling government interest.”
The prison argued that the policy was put in place for prisoner safety as a way to prevent them from hiding contraband. But Alito countered, writing an item of contraband “would have be be very small indeed to be concealed by a 1/2 inch beard.”
Alito did make it clear that the existing RLUIPA law still “affords prison officials ample ability to maintain security.”
Eric Rassbach, Deputy General Counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Freedom and a co-counsel in the case, called the ruling “a huge win for religious freedom and for all Americans.”
The inmate, Gregory Holt, who was convicted of first-degree battering in 2010 and sentenced to life in prison, will now be able to grow a one-half inch beard in accordance with his Salafi Muslim faith.
