Court rules for religious freedom in prison
Christian Science Monitor:
Government accommodations of religious worship are not an unconstitutional form of favoritism.In a major First Amendment decision acknowledging the power of Congress to safeguard religious liberty, the US Supreme Court Tuesday ruled 9 to 0 that religious accommodations do not violate the Constitution's prohibition of government endorsement of religion.
The high court's ruling upholds a federal law that requires state corrections officials to remove any unjustified burdens on the ability of prison inmates to worship.
The Court's opinion in Cutter v. Wilkinson is here; the statute challenged by Ohio prison officials, 42 USC §2000cc-1, part of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, is here.
"Our decisions recognize that there is room for play in the joints between the two religion clauses of the First Amendment, some space for legislative action neither compelled by the Free Exercise Clause nor prohibited by the Establishment Clause," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in announcing the decision.