Howard Friedman notes a case in which a female prison inmate argued that her religious freedom rights were violated because she was patted down by a male prison guard. (The inmate is a devout Muslim.) The claim is likely to progress under RFRA.
(1) Should such a claim prevail, so long as there’s no evidence that the accommodation would materially undermine prison security? (2) Say that the prison guard was biologically male, but viewed himself or herself (as you prefer) as female. But the inmate viewed the guard as male, because she interpreted her religion’s ban on contact between unmarried adult males and females as turning on the other person’s biological sex, not the other person’s self-perception. Should the accommodation request then be rejected? Eugene Feed: Religion Clause Posted on: Sunday, April 10, 2016 10:17 AM Author: Howard Friedman Subject: 2 Particularly Interesting Prisoner Free Exercise Cases ... In Brown v. Bureau of Prisons, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 44755 (D CT, March 31, 2016), a Connecticut federal district court dismissed a female federal prisoner's 1st Amendment claim, but allowed her to move ahead on her claim under RFRA that her rights were infringed when she was searched by a male correctional officer. This suit is unusual because it was filed by a female inmate. For reasons I have been unable to explain, almost all reported prisoner free exercise cases are filed by male inmates. Perhaps it is related to differences in the way that women's prisons are administered. If readers have other explanations, I would appreciate receiving them....
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