AJC Applauds Religious Freedom Victory in Indiana
May 9, 2011 – Chicago – AJC applauded the State of Indiana’s decision to dismiss its appeal of a lower court’s decision to require Indiana prisons to provide kosher food to observant Jewish inmates. The Indiana Department of Corrections already provides Vegan and Halel meals to prisoners with those dietary restrictions.
“As Gandhi said ‘A society should be judged by how it treats it’s most vulnerable members,’” said Dan Elbaum, director of AJC Chicago. “Today’s dismissal is a victory for those who treasure religious freedom.”
AJC had filed an amicus brief to the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Maston Willis v. Commission, Indiana Department of Corrections in support of an Orthodox Jewish inmate who has been denied kosher food. The landmark Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act compels states to accommodate reasonable religious requests from prison inmates.
The lower court held that Indiana had not justified the failure to provide kosher food. It noted that the state's own expert agreed the alternative diet it offered was not kosher and that the state had not made a serious effort to find cheap kosher food.
AJC, founded in 1906, is one of America’s foremost defenders of religious liberty. Joining in AJC amicus brief, prepared by the Chicago office of Kirkland and Ellis were the Indianapolis JCRC and ADL
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