Imprisoned Asatru and Thor’s Hammer
David L. Hudson Jr. at the First Amendment Center reports on a recent legal case in which an imprisoned adherent to Asatru (Nordic Paganism) won the right to wear a Thor’s Hammer pendant. Even more remarkable is the fact that the prisoner, Forest Fisher, represented himself in court.
“Inmate Forest Fisher sued the Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) and various prison officials after they denied his request for Thor’s Hammer, while allowing inmates of other religions to wear various medallions. Fisher, who proceeded pro se – without an attorney – contended that these actions violated his First Amendment to freely exercise his religious faith, the federal law known as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and his equal-protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.”
The Virginia Department of Corrections’ case wasn’t helped by the fact that prison officials denied Fisher his legal due process in his applications to wear a Thor’s Hammer.
“However, in his May 25 ruling in Fisher v. Virginia, U.S. Magistrate Michael F. Urbanski took issue with the prison officials’ failure to follow their own procedure in submitting Fisher’s request to the Faith Review Committee … Urbanski stressed that the defendants’ arguments “flatly ignore the fact that Fisher submitted the appropriate paperwork to the appropriate institutional employee for FRC consideration, but that the employee failed to forward his request as required under the VDOC FRC procedures.” Because of this, Urbanski ruled that there were enough disputed factual issues to merit a trial on Fisher’s constitutional claims. He also denied the defendants’ request for qualified immunity, a doctrine that enables government officials to avoid liability for constitutional or statutory violations if they do not violate clearly established rights.”
It is cases like this (and the Veteran Pentacle Quest) that remind you that an unwilling bureaucracy can be just as efficient at denying constitutionally protected rights to its citizens as a tyrannical government. It is especially easy for such things to happen in the American prison system where punishment is emphasized (and often encouraged) over rehabilitation, and the public empathy runs low. If this one Asatruar hadn’t stepped up, the quiet banning of a legitimate religious symbol could have continued for years. If religious freedom doesn’t apply to all of us equally, then we don’t have religious freedom.
3 responses so far
Looking at the 1st Amendment Center article. Fisher has not won the right to wear the Thor’s emblem pendant – mere the right to sue to wear it.
While I agree with the man’s fight to wear his religious symbol, this reminds me of why I so very much like tattoo work: they can’t make me take THAT off. My religious symbols are artistically tattoo’d upon my body; it would cost them too much trouble and money to remove them. And even then, removed tattoos leave a white shadow of themselves virtually forever.
David,
I would say that it’s fairly certain he’ll be wearing a Thor’s Hammer in his cell after this win. He didn’t just win the right to request the symbol, the judge raked the VDOC over the coals for their ignorance and stonewalling tactics.