Source: The Washington Post
Some of the most hotly contested issues that come in front of the Supreme Court are based in religion. Our national debates over the death penalty, gay rights, abortion and a host of other topics are often powerfully related to faith. The disputes that the court litigates so often start when people feel that their right to freely exercise their religion has been restricted or their religious values have been violated.
In Merrick Garland’s 19 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, cases related to religious freedom have come across his docket several times.
Garland’s rulings do not reveal a pattern that would indicate what guiding principle he might bring to the Supreme Court, if he manages to make it through the Senate. But they do invite curiosity.
In four cases that The Post identified Wednesday, Garland sided twice against people who said they were victims of religious discrimination, and twice in favor.
Case 1: Are prisoners entitled to Communion wine?
In the earliest case, in 2002, Garland sided with two federal prisoners who claimed their First Amendment right to freely exercise their religion was being violated in prison. Prison rules forbade the men from consuming wine, though their supervising chaplain could have wine during Communion. The prisoners said they had a right to consume the wine for religious purposes.
The lower court had turned down the prisoners’ complaint, saying consuming the Communion wine is not an essential aspect of Catholic religious practice.
But the three-judge panel that heard the case on appeal, including Garland, said a religious practice does not need to be mandated by the religion to qualify for First Amendment protection. It said the lower court was wrong and sent the case back to that court to hear it again.
The Post asked Jay Wexler, an expert on church-state law at Boston University, to review the four rulings. Wexler called the Communion case the most interesting of Garland’s judgments on the topic of religious freedom. But he also said it should have been an easy call.
Categories: America, Court Judgment, Religion, The Muslim Times, USA