• Inmate religious rights upheld by Fourth Circuit

 

The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) Friday after inmate Ira Madison sued the Commonwealth of Virginia and various Virginia Department of Corrections officials for a second time claiming he was refused a kosher diet as required by his religion. Madison, who considers himself a Hebrew Israelite - a member of an African-American group who profess to be true descedendants of the lost tribe of Judah - filed his lawsuits while serving time at a Virginia state correctional facility for drug possession.

You can tell it's a legal website. In other words, he's a Jewish inmate who wants kosher food. Should the state have to provide kosher food for him? I say yes, but he gets billed the difference.