SOLOMON
SON
Worship When?
religious protection stalls in Lansing.
safety issues, said Matt Davis, the
department's spokesman.
Prisoners do not have the same con-
stitutional rights of citizens as far as
property owned, books read, and what
gets printed in the prison newspapers,
he said.
They are allowed to practice estab-
lished religions, with some limits, Davis
said. "There are holidays observed, and
we offer kosher diets and meatless diets."
But, he said, "security, above all,
comes first. These are violent offenders."
The religious freedom issue found its
roots in 1990, when members of a
Native American church were refused
the right to ingest peyote in their cen-
turies-old religious sacrament.
Although debatable, said Walker, it
was the reasoning that had the most far-
reaching implications.
Without RFRA, "as long as the law is
spatially neutral, and generally applica-
ble, it should be upheld, even if it
severely infringes somebody's religious
liberties," he said.
According to Walker, those denied
liberties include the right for Orthodox
Jews to not be subjected to an autopsy
after death, or to be allowed to wear a
yarmulke in a government building.
The federal Religious Freedom
Restoration Act passed in 1993, but the
Supreme Court struck it down in 1997,
W: MMONW9.03,WROWAKOMM:=NWAKVOMMOOMPNWAIWWWW.VAMV
saying Congress did not have the power
to require the state and local govern-
ments to accord protection for religious
freedom.
That didn't mean that the states
themselves couldn't pass their own reli-
gious freedom act, Walker said.
Connecticut, Rhode Island and
Florida have passed similar laws without
prisoner "carve-outs," and the coalition
intends to get RFRA passed in every
state, said Walker.
The Religious Liberty Protection Act,
a federal bill similar to RFRA, but craft-
ed in a way that will survive constitu-
tional scrutiny, is pending but may not
pass the 105th Congress because of the
Starr report, he said. This makes RFRA
on the state level even more important.
Major institutions already have policy
in effect that address religious liberties.
A paragraph in every course schedule
book at Wayne State University, states
that although the academic calendar
makes no provisions for religious holi-
days, students with conflicting schedules
may notify their instructors well in
advance to work out an alternative.
At Ford Motor Company,
Francine Romine-MacBride, a
spokesperson, said "We have zero
tolerance of discrimination or harass-
ment of any kind. This policy
includes religious beliefs." ❑
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Illinois may imperil action in other states.
islatures around the country, prohibit —
as the original federal bill did — govern-
ment from substantially burdening a
person's free exercise of religion unless
there is "compelling interest."
While the First Amendment guaran-
tees free religious exercise, activists say
religious freedom legislation is necessary
to secure religious rights when, for
example, a law prohibits state employees
from wearing hats or head coverings in
the workplace.
"The difficulty for religious practice
today is sort of thoughtless government
regulation, not intentional persecution,"
said Marc Stern, co-director of the
American Jewish Congress' legal depart-
ment.
Florida passed a bill earlier this year,
joining Connecticut and Rhode Island
— both of which adopted similar legis-
lation in the early 1990s — as the only
states with religious freedom statutes on
the books.
The objections over prisoners pose a
dilemma for legislation supporters.
"The coalition's position has always
been no exemptions — religious liberty
for all," said Richard Foltin, legislative
director and counsel for the American
Jewish Committee.
But activists are now weighing
whether to support a watered-down ver-
sion that exempts prisoners or to hold
out for a "clean bill" at the risk of get-
ting nothing.
.—>www.detroitjewishnews.com
❑
Fighting Heart Disease
and Stroke
9/18
1998
Detroit Jewish News
17