SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – On the morning Feb. 10, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court heard arguments in the case of Dennis Walker v. Matthew Cates. Walker is an inmate at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. His claim, which was originally filed in 2011, is that prison administrators violated his religious rights by forcing him to have a “non-Aryan” cellmate.
As noted in the case text from a 2011 court document, Walker “is an Aryan Christian/Odinist, ethnically white without gang affiliation.” In 2008, he was assigned a “non-Aryan Muslim” cellmate. When he resisted, Walker was disciplined. After further complaints in 2009, the administration reclassified him to be celled with only his own race. But that action was later “rescinded” per the 2008 California Integrated House Program, which prohibits segregation.
As a result, Walker, together with prisoner Robert Glover, filed a complaint against the state. The court asked the men to file their complaints separately. They did, and in July 2011, Glover’s case was dismissed. However, according to one source, it is still hung up in the system somewhere. However, Walker continued on with new arguments being heard yesterday in a motion from the defendants to dismiss the case.
According to Walker’s assigned attorney Elliot Wong, he claims that he was “denied the setting under which he performs a quintessential religious exercise, namely a solitary religious ritual, in which he prays to his gods, and subsequently being punished for refusing to yield to his religious beliefs. The religious ritual in this case is referred to as a spiritual circle of Odinist Warding, which is a ritual in which he prays to his gods and communicates with his gods. According to his sincerely held religious beliefs, he draws and activates this circle within his cell and he believes that this circle may be open or breached, by what he believes is spiritual pollution that emanates from individuals of another race.”
Almost immediately, the judges move to the heart of the issue. Is Walker’s request to be celled with only white inmates based on a “sincerely held religious belief” or simply based on racism? As the judge notes, the original filings did not include any mention of this ritual or other specific religious requirements. Wong did admit that these details were left out, but could be included in a new amendment.
The original filing states in part:
the application of the IHP violates plaintiff’s right to the free exercise of his religion protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”), his Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment, his Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal protection and due process, and his Fifth Amendment right to due process. (FAC at 5-6).Plaintiff seeks damages, as well as declaratory and injunctive relief.
As the attending judges note, there was no mention of the ritual. In these original documents, Walker did not address, in concrete terms, the “substantial burden” placed on his free exercise of religion by the presence of “alien spiritual pollution,” as noted in yesterday’s hearing.
After some discussion, Judge Sidney Thomas said, “I gather from the answers to the questions that [Walker] is not willing to amend his complaint to say that he can perform the ritual outside his cell and perform be housed with a non-white inmate.” Wong answered, “I believe that would be correct.”
Rev. Patrick McCollum, who has worked closely with the California prison system for years, said, “In this case, the inmate can still practice his religion in a number of venues besides his cell even if he had an inmate of color in his cell, so his religious rights are not being violated, at least not under the spirit of the law. Also, there is a long history of non-white participation in Nordic religions which has a been around for over a thousand years, and there are Odinist groups in a number of prisons that already welcome people of color, so the racial argument is shaky to begin with. That is not to say that the inmate’s beliefs are not sincere, it’s just that they don’t meet the standard required by law.”
Judge Thomas said, “We are not going to segregate our prisons.” However, this was only a hearing; no final decision was made and no further dates given.
While the specifics of the Walker v. Cates case are focused on race, the situation goes to the heart of a very recent dialog on the boundaries of religious freedom within a defined social structure. It is struggle that is currently plaguing courts and lawmakers. At what point does society substantially burden religious freedom? And, at what point does religious freedom substantially burden society?
In Georgia, Rep. Sam Teasley just proposed to a new RFRA to protect the “rights of people of faith.” In opposition to this bill, a county commissioner was quoted as saying, “If, for example, a Wiccan believes their religion does not allow them to render any payment to any entity but God, do they have to pay their taxes?” While the tax comment is outlandish, there are many related issues, such as the recent debate over the allowing inmates to have facial hair, when required by their religion.
In terms of Walker v. Cates case, Ryan Smith, co-Founder of Heathens United Against Racism, noted, “The real key point made in this case by the defendant is that the plaintiff has to show these desires are motivated by genuine religious belief and not some other motive.” The plaintiff does have the burden of proof. As noted by the judges in the hearing, Walker has not provided any such proof. In addition, as detailed in the 2011 case text, “[Walker] failed to exhaust his administrative remedies before bringing the instant action recommdations [sic] noted.” In other words, if his concerns were purely based on the practice of religious rites, he had other options.”
McCollum explained, “In current practice in correctional facilities, only a small amount of time is allocated to religious practices for all faiths. This is based on past court rulings that religion must be accommodated by the least restrictive means, while at the same time balancing the manageable operation of the institution. If the Odinist is given a short period of worship time of equal duration to that of other faiths that would be meeting the standard set by law and not violating his rights.”
But Smith doesn’t believe that Walker’s claims are religious at all. He said,”[It is] definitely something but it isn’t religion from where I sit and its history is not religious in nature. I don’t think this case being dismissed would be a problem for the vast majority of Pagan inmates as what the plaintiff is asking for here is not justified by religion but by bigotry and based on what I understand of the issue is seeking an exemption that has never been applied in a religious context.”
McCollum added that he doesn’t believe that the Odinist can win this case. He said, “If the court were to rule in the inmate’s favor to segregate him from other races or faiths for religious reasons, they would also have to segregate the Jews, some Christian traditions, and a number of other faith groups under the same arguments, as many teach in their doctrines or practices, separation by faith or ethnicity also.”
As Judge Thomas said, “We can’t do that.”
Conversations are on-going; for this particular situation and others. Politicians and individuals are continually challenging the boundaries of our rights to practice religion or not. At the same time, the courts wrestle with the test used to determine a “sincerely held” religious belief and how it should be upheld, ignored or negotiated within the established laws and regulations of society.
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I’m not sure concerns over the non-payment of taxes are outlandish, actually. While I’m not aware of any Wiccan groups that practice it, War Tax Resistance is a well established tradition among many other groups, including Quakers, Mennonites, and the members of other historic “peace churches,” such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Though some Quakers I know deliberately live all their lives with an income low enough to be exempt from income tax–I have one friend whose salary negotiations with a new employer include making sure her pay is low enough to meet her needs–some file taxes and refuse to pay some or all of the taxes owed, requiring the government seize their assets rather than being willing to pay them voluntarily.
Here’s a link to a court battle over a recent case:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2013/01/06/war-tax-resisters-dont-call-them-frivolous/
This is not to imply that the Odinist in this case has a legitimate claim… only that it gets complicated in a hurry when the government has to rule on what is or isn’t “religious.”
“At what point does society substantially burden religious freedom?”
When it awards legal rights, privileges, and protections to different religions based on the number of adherents a religion has, it’s collective wealth, or political influence.
“And, at what point does religious freedom substantially burden society?”
When one person or group tries to use “religious freedom” as a means to negate the civil rights of another person or group they just happen to personally disagree with.
I do not believe the First Amendment’s Freedom of Religion clause was ever intended to allow people to use their religious beliefs to discriminate against other people they simply don’t like. If we want to stand firm on the notion that claiming religious freedom is not a justifiable reason for “Christian” business owners to discriminate against providing services to LGBT customers then religious freedom should not be considered a justifiable reason to allow an incarcerated bigot to dictate who his cell mate should be.
Thank you for showing how these two issues hang together. I hadn’t thought of that.
One thing we should perhaps be considering in this case.
How does it not substantially enhance the civil rights of a person of color to not be required to share person space with this bigoted asshat?
This is why I’m in favor of a Federal law that mandates that all prison cells be single occupancy. It would cut down on a lot of violence and victimization.
Now I’m curious: How do prisons normally house inmates of differing ethnicities? I’ve heard that prisons are dominated by gangs sometimes more influential than the guards, that these gangs usually sort out by race, and that an inmate who isn’t in a gang is going to get sorely abused. How do these facts on the ground influence choices of who shares a cell with whom?This only seems a tangent. If Walker’s cellmate assignment broke the usual practice, he may have a case of discriminatory treatment, howsoever odious we find the particulars of his beliefs. If it didn’t, or if the practice was changed in this direction by this new Integrated House Program, imho he lacks a leg to stand on.Perhaps Reverend Patrick could shed some light?
From what I can tell from my perspective as a volunteer — I do not go into the housing units — cellmate assignment is not done by ethnicity. It seems random, although considering the peculiarities of prison culture, I would guess that guards, administration, and inmates all probably influence who gets assigned to what cell. See my comment above about prison culture. It’s an entirely different animal.
To my knowledge, no volunteers are permitted in the SHU or the housing, just PAID chaplains. Which means when I show up and they are locked down, I cannot even go talk to them at their cell door.
I’m sure how inmates are housed is dependent on the level of custody of the facility. In some places, the inmates can request a cellmate and have a friend. A lot of times the men I work with are good friends with their “Cellie”, and other times someone is moved in to their cell randomy if their cell mate is sent to the SHU.. Segregated housing unit, or solitary, for an offense.
Even if this inmate truly believes that his “circle” is polluted, like the previous commenter, it is no more ok than someone who refused to serve a GLBTQ customer because of their religious beliefs. I really do not believe RLUIPA is an adequate defense here.
However, as someone who is a known racist (inmate suing) I would not be suprised if the assignment of inmates of color were not intentional. The Asatru on one of my yards have hate symbolss tattooed on, Sig Heil, swatikas, one even has a photo of Hitler. I have a black kindred member I specifically had come volunteer to combat this. (He was a former prison CO so he knew what he was in for…)
The assignment of cell mates is based on a complex series of factors. First, they are assigned by a point system determined by their crime, their likely hood toward violence, and the amount of time left on their sentence. Then following that, the prison tries to separate gang affiliations. There used to be a more predominant racial grouping, but that was found to be in violation of the Civil Rights Act a number of years ago. Other than those factors, assignments are pretty random and based on crowding or available space. As a previous commentor said, when there is extra space, the prisons sometimes consider requests from inmates to house with friends and such.
It is quite common to house inmates of color with whites.
One other point I’d like to make, is that volunteers are allowed in the SHU and the housing units. I visited the SHU and housing units every week for over 15 of my 20 years. It’s just a matter of standing one’s ground. If the prison only allowed staff chaplains in the housing & SHU, then only the five preferred faiths would get equal treatment.
He lost me at “Aryan Christian/Odinist” (well, frankly, he lost me at “Aryan”…).
I’m not sure why they’d want to put him in a cell with a black Muslim in the first place, just from a safety issue. You’d think that would only increase the chance of a violent incident, given his self-stated, if contradictory, religious views.
“Christian/Odinist” fits together perfectly well. “Odinism” has so much Christian baggage and worldview that this shows more self-awareness than most. I’m just happy he’s not claiming to be Heathen.
You are assuming that the administration didn’t do it intentionally. 🙂
But more seriously, the statistics are that most folks behind bars are black. (And no I’m not making a slur, just pointing out the statistics, folks.)
It is most certainly not a slur; it’s an indictment of the institutionalized racism reflected at all levels of our judicial system, from policing to sentencing.
It would be interesting to know if these kinds of concerns, geniunely founded or not, are something predominently unique to the United States’ prison system. Although there are undoubtedly far worse prison systems in the world, the United States prison system has something of an infamous reputation amongst comparable nation states and though, in the venacular, ‘we all got problems’ there does seem to be a greater number of problems within the United States prison system than many others. In particular the overall lack of control that seems to exist in the prison system, cf. Brauch Dreamstalker’s comment regarding gangs having more sway than the guards. Under those kinds of circumstances some degree of racial and or religious segregation is inevitable but is it something that is significantly observed in numerous prison systems of comprable countries or just the United States?
The problems are threefold: Firstly, the American prison system is more accurately described as a slave labor system, in which young black men are rounded up on generally innocuous drug charges and forced to work for private companies at far less than market value.
Secondly, the American prison system is huge. One out of 3 black men will go to jail at some point in their lifetime; 1 in 6 latino males will be incarcerated; and 1 in 17 white males will be imprisoned. In a country the size of America, that’s a lot of people.
Finally, in some respects, the prison system is taking up the slack for America’s utter failure to recognize and treat mental illness in young men. A significant portion of drug use is due to people trying to self-medicate, and a lot of violent crime comes from men trying to fund their drug use.
Fixing America’s prison problem would require, not an overhaul of the prison system, but an overhaul of our society. It ain’t gonna happen anytime soon.
Unfortunately Australia can’t claim to be all that much better than the United States as far as your first point is concerned. We have a very similar statistic here which is only worsened by a gap where a white male, white collar worker who embezzles say… AU$ 10,000,000 will receive an 18 month sentence and be out in perhaps six but a young Aboriginal male (indigenous Australian and black) will steal a loaf of bread and see years of his life disappear in prison.
I can’t refute any of your points though, the information is fairly wide spread regarding those details but I am wondering, is that your way of saying that you think the problem discussed in the article is predominently unique to the United States?
The problem of the prison system is not unique to America, but the incarceration rates sure are. Anywhere where prison systems are not geared towards rehabilitation but on making money the system is self-propagating. Because the will of the system is bent to making more money there is no desire by certain sectors of society to make changes; things as they are increase the pocketbooks of those who profit off of it. Aramark, Wackehnhut, certain people within the prison industrial complex in the government State and Federal, among other companies and people, benefit from a system where the roots that lead to crime and incarceration are well-tended. Some counties and cities in America get a good amount of funding from incarceration.
NPR recently did a story on how Ferguson, MO and other cities get a good chunk of their budget off of small tickets and fines that, when they don’t get paid, result in the incarceration (and further fining) in a cycle of jailing and fining. Income inequality, racism, and so on are wound pretty tight in why America’s prison systems are so full (overflowing in some large prisons, i.e. San Quentin) and looking at getting worse as time goes on.
The particulars of this case aside, I can tell you from working with the Wiccan inmates at San Quentin State Prison (same authority – CA DOCR) that prison culture is a completely different culture from outside culture. That includes the nuttiness that is prison bureaucracy. Our Wiccan circle is really more pan-Pagan in how I run it because the members are so diverse, although we call it a Wiccan circle because that’s a term that prison authorities recognize. The men who participate in this circle reflect the rest of the prison population in that they are mostly minorities. We meet in a storeroom, a literal storeroom, which we share with a Hawaiian group that follows our meeting, conservative Xtian personal counseling sessions precede us, and a fine gospel choir meets in the adjoining storeroom, which means we have to put up a table over the doorway to mute the sound of their singing. It’s challenging to try to do any kind of meditation when the sound of gospel hymns is filling the air. Mainly, I’m trying to emphasize the fact that one cannot view prison culture through the lens of outside culture. I’ve written a bit about my work at a blog called “Witch at Large: Ruminations from a Grey Perspective” at Witches & Pagans. Here’s one: http://witchesandpagans.com/pagan-studies-blogs/witch-at-large/creating-sacred-space-with-pagan-prison-inmates-vi.html
A Supreme Court ruling issued just last month in Hobbs v Hobbs offers some insight into how courts will weigh this issue. In short, it appears the justices set a low bar for demonstrating that a prison rule seriously burdens the exercise of religion and also imposes a burden on the state to show a compelling interest in enforcing that rule.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/pdf/13-6827.pdf
So he’s basically asking for segregation right? And what are his arguments that his ´religion´ prohibits him from sharing a room with a non-white? Is that the part where Óðinn has sex with Jötunn-maiden? Is it the part where he turns into a bird? That’s just ridiculous…
I think the discussions here show some serious thinking on reality. There was a time when we would have had knee jerk reactions. Our communities are growing up.
Not sure how I feel about this, on one hand I want everyone to be able to celebrate their religion, on the other hand they are in jail and I do not feel they should be allowed any freedoms. There is that “Damned if you do, damned if you do not”. I am a Pagan and proud of it. My issue is the fact they broke the law. I again say I am not sure how I feel.