A federal court has ruled that the Florida Department of Corrections must provide Jewish inmates with kosher meals, a decision being praised by religious liberty advocates.
The three-judge panel with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the secretary of Florida's Department of Corrections, dismissing any claims that the state isn't required to offer kosher meals.
"We affirm the summary judgment for the United States and the permanent injunction requiring the Secretary to provide kosher meals to the inmates," reads the decision, which was issued Thursday.
It's a ruling that the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a law firm devoted to protecting religious rights, is heralding.
"This is a huge win, and it perfectly shows how protecting religious liberty for any American ultimately protects it for all Americans," Becket Fund attorney Daniel Blomberg said in a statement. "To put it simply, Jewish prisoners in Florida won’t have to go hungry because earlier courts protected the rights of Muslim prisoners in Arkansas to wear beards and Christian families in Oklahoma to run their businesses without abandoning their faith."
The legal dispute over kosher meals in Florida's prisons began in 2011 when the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice began looking into the state's denial of food for prisoners.
The Florida Department of Corrections has offered regular meals, vegan meals and meat-free meals since the 1990s; officials did start offering kosher meals in 2004, before stopping that program in 2007. And in 2010, the state again offered kosher meals, but it was only at one facility as part of a pilot program.
The Civil Rights Division found in 2012 that the state was in violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which protects individuals, churches and other religious institutions from discrimination.
According to background information that is detailed in the complaint, the U.S. government asked the state to comply with the law, but the secretary of the Department of Corrections reportedly refused, leading the federal government to file a lawsuit in August 2012 for "declaratory and injunctive relief."
The secretary did create a religious diet program in 2013 that offered a kosher food option, though changes to that program over time raised questions and concerns among government officials.
"The religious diet program initially had several policies that limited admission and continued participation," the court decision explains. "The application tested prisoners’ sincerity by asking them to cite 'specific law(s) connected to your belief or faith that require(s) you to eat a religious diet' and by creating a waiting period for admission to the program."
This, among other concerns, led the U.S. to seek a preliminary injunction demanding that Florida offer inmates kosher food without so many constraints. The parties have gone back and forth over a variety of factors, though, including haggling over the cost of the program.
While the U.S. estimated that the annual cost of the kosher food program would be $384,400, the state estimated that it would be $12.3 million — a stark contrast.
According to WTVJ-TV, the state wanted to discontinue any kosher meals if the money for the program was needed somewhere else in the budget. That's a proposal that the court flatly rejected.
Circuit Judge William Pryor wrote in the decision that the Florida Department of Corrections, "failed to create a genuine dispute of material fact that the cost of providing kosher meals is so high that it is compelling."
The court's decision came just two days after hearing oral arguments with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty saying that the decision relied heavily on some of the law firm's past court victories.
"Thirty-five states and the federal government already provide kosher diets for prisoners," the law firm said in a statement.
The Becket Fund cited a variety of arguments, including the notion that past studies have shown that those who can practice their faith while in prison are less likely to be violent or commit crimes after release.
Florida could ask the full 11th Circuit Court to reconsider the decision, though it is not yet clear if that will occur, The Associated Press reported.
The Florida prison debate is just one of the many religious freedom battles that have unfolded as of late. In a separate case, the U.S. Supreme Court found in the Holt v. Hobbs decision that a Muslim inmate has the right to grow a beard in compliance with his faith.
And another dispute surrounded Army captain Simratpal Singh, a Sikh military official who sued and successfully secured the right to apply for religious accommodations that would permit facial hair and a turban covering his long hair.
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