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Pastimes : The Boxing Ring Revived -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (2898)	3/9/2002 7:39:39 PM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 7720

Back atcha. Court Overturns Ban on Giving Wine to Inmates at Communion By Neely Tucker Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, March 9, 2002; Page A10 The U.S. Court of Appeals yesterday overturned a lower court order that denied wine to Catholic inmates during communion services at a federal prison, ruling that the prohibition may violate the inmates' constitutional rights. In a case that explores the intersection between religious freedom and penal administration, the three-judge panel unanimously agreed that even if wine is not an essential element of the rite, the Department of Justice must show how the practice would impede prison management in order to deny Catholic inmates full access to the service. The court action sends the case back to the lower court for reconsideration. "The district court [said the inmates'] constitutional rights were not infringed because a Catholic is not required to take wine at communion 'at peril of his soul.' The district court erred in this holding," the 15-page opinion states. The opinion, written by Chief Judge Harry T. Edwards and joined by Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson and Merrick B. Garland, sends the case back to U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. "This is more about religious liberty than prison administration," said Michael J. Golden, the D.C. attorney appointed by the Court of Appeals to present the inmates' claims. "It establishes the threshold you must meet to invoke First Amendment protection. That has far-reaching implications across federal law." Courts have long held that alcohol may be prohibited by prison officials. But in the Catholic rite of Holy Communion, a priest consecrates bread and wine, transforming them into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Consuming them is a sacred part of the rite. Until 1997, federal prisons allowed a priest to dip communion bread into wine and offer that to inmates. But new rules in 1998 restricted the consumption of wine to priests. Florida inmate Daniel J. Levitan, held in a Pensacola prison on a money-laundering conviction, led other Catholic inmates in filing a suit pro se, without a lawyer. They claimed their First Amendment right to freedom of religion had been breached. "The practice of consuming a minuscule amount of wine at Holy Communion is a long-standing practice of my faith, and the government has now seen fit to take this practice of my faith away," Levitan wrote in his original complaint. The government presented testimony from a Catholic nun with degrees in divinity and theology who said that consuming wine was not an essential part of the rite. Therefore, the government said, the denial could not be an infringement of the inmates' rights. Kennedy agreed but drew a sharp rejection by the appellate court, which held that the issue, in light of Supreme Court precedents, should be viewed as what problems religious practices might cause prison officials, not the court's opinion of their relevance. Justice Department officials had no immediate reaction. "We are going to review the opinion and we'll make a determination as to our next step," said Charles S. Miller, an agency spokesman. © 2002 The Washington Post Company