Supreme Court Nominee Neil Gorsuch |
In Yellowbear v. Lampert (2014), Gorsuch sided with the plaintiff, Andrew Yellowbear, a prisoner of Native American descent who sued the Wyoming Department of Corrections for preventing him access to a sweat lodge, which he argued was part of his faith. Gorsuch ruled that the Department of Correction violated Yellowbear’s religious rights.
In his ruling, Gorsuch noted that applicable law regarding sincerely held religious belief protects considerably more than the right to hold a religious belief in private. Rather, the law protects religious exercise. He explained, “Even if others of the same faith may consider the exercise at issue unnecessary or less valuable than the claimant, even if some may find it illogical, that doesn’t take it outside the law’s protection. Instead, RLUIPA protects any exercise of a sincerely held religious belief. When a sincere religious claimant draws a line ruling in or out a particular religious exercise, it is not for us to say that the line he drew was an unreasonable one.”
Yellowbear has a history of pursuing cases in court...
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