The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled argument in Holt v. Hobbs for October 7, 2014.  The case has been drawing interest because it is the first major religion case of the Supreme Court’s new term, and comes shortly after the decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

Gregory Holt a/k/a Abdul Maalik Muhammad, who is serving a lifetime sentence in Arkansas for burglary and domestic battery, sued the Arkansas Department of Corrections and certain prison officials because they would not let him grow a beard in accordance with his Muslim faith.  The Department cites state policy allowing only trimmed mustaches and one-quarter inch long beards for inmates with diagnosed dermatologic problems.  The purpose of the state policy is to promote “health and hygiene,” to minimize “opportunities for disguise” and to prevent the concealment of contraband.  Holt alleges that the actions of the Department and prison officials have imposed a substantial burden on his sincerely held religious belief of growing a beard. 

As a compromise, Holt proposed growing a half-inch beard and obtained temporary relief from the District Court to do so.  Ultimately, however, the District Court concluded that the Department had a compelling penological interest to uphold its prohibition on beards because (1) it helped prevent inmates from concealing contraband, drugs, or weapons, (2) an inmate who grew a beard could change his appearance by shaving; and (3) affording special privileges to some inmates but not others could cause them to become potential targets.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed, finding that the Department and prison officials “met their burden under RLUIPA of establishing that [the Arkansas Department of Corrections’] grooming policy was the least restrictive means of furthering a compelling penological interest.”  The Eighth Circuit’s decision in Holt v. Hobbs (8th Cir. 2013) is available here.  The Supreme Court granted Holt’s hand-written petition for a writ of certiorari (available here). 

Local governments may want to follow the Supreme Court’s consideration of the Holt case, particularly its treatment of the “compelling interest” and “least restrictive means” components of RLUIPA’s substantial burden provision.  The case is drawing interest coming on the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision in Hobby Lobby.  In considering whether the federal government’s requirement that employers provide contraceptive services under the Affordable Care Act violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the court in Hobby Lobby observed:  “We do not doubt that cost may be an important factor in the least-restrictive-means analysis, but both RFRA and its sister statute, RLUIPA, may in some circumstances require the Government to expend additional funds to accommodate citizens' religious beliefs.”  Could the Court require the Arkansas Department of Corrections to bear some additional expense to accommodate Holt’s religious beliefs?  Might it arrange for a professional barber to trim Holt’s beard in such a way to meet the Department’s asserted interests?  We’re particularly interested in how any accommodation in Holt’s case might be extended to land use issues.

To help you in following Holt, here are two recent, notable free exercise of religion prisoner cases.

  • Holland v. Goord (2d Cir 2014):  Prison officials substantially burdened Muslim inmate’s religious beliefs by forcing him to choose between drinking water during a three-hour window in the holy month of Ramadan – when Muslims must fast during the day – to provide a urine sample or confining him to keeplock.  The officials did not allow the inmate to provide a urine sample after sunset, when his fast ended.
  • Haight v. Thompson (6th Cir. 2014):  Death-row inmates of the Native American Church allowed to proceed with RLUIPA claims concerning prison’s refusal to permit them to use sweat-lodge and consume buffalo meet at once-a-year powwow in accordance with their religious beliefs.
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Photo of Evan Seeman Evan Seeman

Evan J. Seeman is a lawyer in Robinson+Cole’s Hartford office and focuses his practice on land use, real estate, environmental, and regulatory matters, representing local governments, developers and advocacy groups. He has spoken and written about RLUIPA, and was a lead author of…

Evan J. Seeman is a lawyer in Robinson+Cole’s Hartford office and focuses his practice on land use, real estate, environmental, and regulatory matters, representing local governments, developers and advocacy groups. He has spoken and written about RLUIPA, and was a lead author of an amicus curiae brief at the petition stage before the United States Supreme Court in a RLUIPA case entitled City of San Leandro v. International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

Evan serves as the Secretary/Treasurer of the APA’s Planning & Law Division. He also serves as the Chair of the Planning & Zoning Section of the Connecticut Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Section, and is the former Co-Chair of its Municipal Law Section. He has been named to the Connecticut Super Lawyers® list as a Rising Star in the area of Land Use Law for 2013 and 2014. He received his B.A. in political science and Russian studies (with honors) from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was selected as the President’s Fellow in the Department of Modern Languages and Literature. Evan received his Juris Doctor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where he served on the Connecticut Law Review. While in law school, he interned with the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General in the environmental department, and served as a judicial intern for the judges of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court. Following law school, Evan clerked for the Honorable F. Herbert Gruendel of the Connecticut Appellate Court.

Photo of Dwight Merriam Dwight Merriam

Dwight H. Merriam founded Robinson+Cole’s Land Use Group in 1978. He represents land owners, developers, governments and individuals in land use matters, with a focus on defending governments in RLUIPA cases. Dwight is a Fellow and Past President of the American Institute of…

Dwight H. Merriam founded Robinson+Cole’s Land Use Group in 1978. He represents land owners, developers, governments and individuals in land use matters, with a focus on defending governments in RLUIPA cases. Dwight is a Fellow and Past President of the American Institute of Certified Planners, a former Director of the American Planning Association (APA), a former chair of APA’s Planning and Law Division, Immediate Past Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of State and Local Government Law, Chair of the Institute of Local Government Studies at the Center for American and International Law, a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a member of the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute National Advisory Board, a Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation, a Counselor of Real Estate, a member of the Anglo-American Real Property Institute, and a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.

He teaches land use law at the University of Connecticut School of Law and at Vermont Law School and has published over 200 articles and eight books, including Inclusionary Zoning Moves Downtown, The Takings Issue, The Complete Guide to Zoning, and Eminent Domain Use and Abuse: Kelo in Context. He is the senior co-author of the leading casebook on land use law, Planning and Control of Land Development (Eighth Edition). Dwight has written and spoken widely on how to avoid RLUIPA claims and how to successfully defend against them in court. He is currently writing a book on the subject, RLUIPA DEFENSE, for the American Bar Association.

Dwight has been named to the Connecticut Super Lawyers® list in the area of Land Use Law since 2006, is one of the Top 50 Connecticut Super Lawyers in Connecticut, and is one of the Top 100 New England Super Lawyers (Super Lawyers is a registered trademark of Key Professional Media, Inc.). He received his B.A. (cum laude) from the University of Massachusetts, his Masters of Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina, where he was the graduation speaker in 2011, and his J.D. from Yale. He is a featured speaker at many land use seminars, and presents monthly audio land use seminars for the International Municipal Lawyers Association. Dwight has been cited in the national press from The New York Times to People magazine and has appeared on NBC’s The Today Show, MSNBC and public television.

Dwight also had a career in the Navy, serving for three tours in Vietnam aboard ship, then returning to be the Senior Advisor of the Naval ROTC Unit at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where he taught Defense Administration and Military Management as an Assistant Professor in the undergraduate and graduate curriculum in Defense Administration and Military Management. He left active duty after seven years to attend law school, but continued on for 24 more years as a reserve Surface Warfare Officer with two major commands, including that of the reserve commanding officer of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. He retired as a Captain in 2009 after 31 years of service.