Legal News

Supermax Prison Rejects Inmate?s Request To Read Obama Books

By Chris Herring

Back in 2007, the Bureau of Prisons directed its chaplains to purge the prisons of all religious texts. That policy shift, which stemmed from a governmental fear that prisoners might read religious texts and become Islamic extremists after 9/11, sparked huge response.

Many thought the move was unconstitutional, and a pair of inmates, citing the First Amendment’s guarantee of the right to free religion, sued over the matter.

The latest prison veto, though, may even go a bit further. According to a story out today, prison officials told an inmate he couldn’t read a pair of books authored by President Barack Obama, saying they were “potentially detrimental to national security.” Click here to read The Associated Press story on the incident.

The report says the prisoner, a former al-Qaida member who allegedly plotted a plan to assassinate George W. Bush, requested Obama’s books last year before he won the presidency. After being denied, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali began a hunger strike (he has since started eating again).

There are a couple of signs pointing to the idea that Abu Ali might sue. He already has a lawyer, who spoke to the AP briefly about this episode. Abu Ali also filed a handwritten prison complaint form, saying the Obama book rejections “violate my 1st Amend. rights.”

An official at Abu Ali’s prison, in Florence, Colo., referred comment to the FBI, where a spokesperson said she was still looking into the matter.

For the record, the prison cited one questionable page in “Dreams from my Father” and 22 such pages in “The Audacity of Hope.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 10, 2009 (boomark / email).