Legal Commentary

Jailed Ft. Hood Shooter Claims Right to Pray in Arabic with His Brother

By Eugene Volokh

The San Antonio Express News reports:

The lead lawyer for Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan ... said he learned that police guarding Hasan at Brooke Army Medical Center cut short a phone conversation Hasan was having with one of his brothers on Friday because Hasan was not speaking in English.

?Police at the hospital refused to let him pray, in Arabic, from the Quran with his brother,? [the lawyer] said. ?I think it?s illegal and a violation of his religious rights.? ...

[Hasan?s] command, the Army?s III Corps at Fort Hood in Killeen, has imposed pretrial restrictions on him, including a requirement that he speak only in English with visitors or those he talks to on the phone unless an Army-approved translator is present....

?He?s under military control,? said Jeffrey Addicott, a former Judge Advocate General?s Corps officer for 20 years, who now heads the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary?s University School of Law. ?They can put reasonable restrictions on his movements and activities. The question is what is reasonable. In light of the fact that he is clearly influenced by radical jihad, in my opinion, it?s entirely reasonable to limit his spoken activities to English.? ...

Thanks to Religion Clause for the pointer.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on December 23, 2009 (boomark / email).