Supreme Court sides with Muslim inmate over right to grow beard

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with a Muslim prison inmate in Arkansas who sued for the right to grow a short beard for religious reasons.

The court's ruling in the Arkansas case stands in contrast to its June decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, which addressed the question of whether family-owned corporations could mount religious objections to paying for women's contraceptives under the health care overhaul. While the Supreme Court was divided in the Hobby Lobby case, issuing a 5-4 decision, Tuesday’s ruling was unanimous.

The nine justices said that the prison's facial-hair policy violated the religious rights of inmate Gregory Holt, who wants to grow a half-inch beard in accordance with his Muslim beliefs.

The court rejected the state's reasoning that the policy was needed for security reasons. Justice Samuel Alito, writing on behalf of the court, said the state already searches clothing and hair and had not given a valid reason why it could not also search beards.

Holt claimed that he has a right to grow a beard under a federal law aimed at protecting prisoners' religious rights. The law is similar to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which Hobby Lobby successfully argued could be invoked by closely held businesses to avoid paying for contraceptives if their use goes against the owners’ religious beliefs.

The Obama administration, which was the plaintiff in the Hobby Lobby case, argued strenuously against that interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This time around, the Obama administration, religious groups and atheists backed Holt, also known as Abdul Maalik Muhammad. More than 40 states allow inmates to keep beards.

Justice Samuel Alito said in his opinion for the court that Arkansas can satisfy its security concerns in some other way when "so many other prisons allow inmates to grow beards while ensuring prison safety and security."

Holt is serving a life sentence for a brutal assault on his girlfriend and is being held at a maximum-security prison 80 miles southeast of Little Rock. His case first came to the court's attention when he filed a handwritten plea to the court asking it to block enforcement of Arkansas' no-beard rule.

Holt argued in court papers that his obligation to grow a beard comes from the hadith, the collective body of narrative accounts of the acts or statements of the Prophet Muhammad. In one statement attributed to the prophet, Muslims are commanded to "cut the mustaches short and leave the beard."

Holt said he understands that statement to mean he should grow a full beard, but offered a half-inch beard as a compromise because California allows Muslim inmates to wear beards of that length.

The case is Holt v. Hobbs, U.S. Supreme Court, 13-6827.

Wire services