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Cutter v. Wilkinson

The 2004 U.S. Supreme Court case Cutter v. Wilkinson was decided in favor of Ohio prisoners of nonmainstream faiths who were denied opportunity to conduct religious services and access their religiously relevant literature.  Importantly, the case also affirmed the constitutionality of the prison-related provisions of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (or "RLUIPA").

When the prisoners filed a lawsuit seeking relief under RLUIPA, the State of Ohio moved to dismiss their claims on the grounds that Congress had unconstitutionally exceeded its powers in passing the Act.  After a federal district court dismissed the prisoners’ lawsuit, on appeal the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit startlingly ruled that in strengthening free exercise rights RLUIPA violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.  When the Supreme Court decided to review the case, the Becket Fund assembled a politically and religiously diverse coalition of over fifty organizations to file an amicus curiae brief urging the Court to uphold RLUIPA. 

The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the prisoner provisions of RLUIPA, noting, that "Were the Court of Appeals' view the correct reading of our decisions, all manner of religious accommodations would fall."  Then-president of the Becket Fund, Anthony Picarello, saw the ruling as victory for a religion-friendly interpretation of the First Amendment. "There's a strong argument to be made that the anti-accommodation reading of the Establishment Clause has been dead for a long time,” he said. “But… [the Cutter] decision removes any lingering doubt.”

 

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