Constitutional Law

Banning Bad Religion: Proposed Prison Censorship Regulation Goes Too Far

by Alex J. Luchenitser, Senior Litigation Counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Luchenitser served as lead counsel in a successful challenge to the State of Iowa's funding and sponsorship of a fundamentalist religious prison program through which inmates received special material benefits in exchange for submitting to intensive indoctrination.

One of the last acts of the Bush administration was to propose a regulation that would allow officials in federal prisons to bar books from prison-chapel libraries if the books 'could incite, promote, or otherwise suggest the commission of violence or criminal activity.' (Emphasis added.)

But many of the world's most prominent sacred texts could 'incite' or 'suggest' the commission of violence. Like the Quran, for example. Indeed, it has. At least based on the interpretations some have given it. And, for that matter, so has the Bible.

The result of the regulation, then, would be to allow prison officials to ban just about any religious text they deem unfit. A couple years ago, the Bush administration tried to do the same thing through another route: creating a list of 150 books per religion that would be allowed in chapel libraries. This attempt to produce an official governmental list of 'approved books' was wisely blocked by Congress after it generated widespread outrage.

The Bush administration justified its censorship plans on the grounds that terrorists may try to radicalize and recruit prison inmates. That, certainly, is not a concern that should be taken lightly.

Yet we should not, in trying to protect ourselves, compromise the fundamental freedoms and principles of our democracy, lest we become like those whom we most fear. And if prison inmates find that their jailers ignore those principles by wielding a heavy hand of censorship, ultimately this may only increase inmates' hatred of authority and result in the very radicalism we wish to prevent.

Prisoners have little in prison. For some, religious study becomes a large portion of their lives there, one of the few things that can give their time meaning. To be sure, some inmates falsely profess religion in the hope of obtaining material gains. But others are able to improve their lives, and how they impact the lives of others, by learning a faith.

The Obama administration has promised to be welcoming of all faiths and to rectify the excesses of its predecessor. Abandoning the proposed prison-censorship regulation — as urged by a broad coalition of civil-liberties groups and religious organizations — will be one way it can do both.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on March 20, 2009 (boomark / email).