RLUIPA.org
1st Circuit Says Banning Prisoner from Preaching Violates RLUIPA
On April 6, 2007, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that when Rhode Island prison officials banned banned Wesley Spratt from preaching to his fellow inmates, they imposed a substantial burden on his religious practices and violated RLUIPA.
Mr. Spratt, who had been preaching without incident for seven years prior to the ban, was incarcerated in 1995 for murder and underwent a "religious awakening." The Department of Corrections had argued that the prison was pre-emptively eliminating potential security threats, and that Mr. Spratt's preaching was "dangerous to institutional security under any circumstances." However, the appeals panel did not agree, and sent the case back down to the District Court for a hearing on its merits.
Read the decision here.