RLUIPA and inmates' right to have sex with their spouses

[Susan Freiman]

Amir, the man who murdered Rabin, was allowed to get married and to have 
conjugal visits, but was not allowed to attend his baby son's 
circumcision.  I didn't follow the court cases who I can't tell you what 
the basis for the decision was.  But Israeli law generally is pretty 
comfortable with allowing at least parts of normal life to continue for 
prisoners, including allowing them furloughs to go home or to spend time 
at hotels.

Susan

Jean Dudley wrote:
> I'll be honest:  I'm not at all familiar with either case, not being  
> a lawyer nor studied law.   However, the whole deal with conjugal  
> visits strikes me as a human rights issue, for those on the outside  
> as well as those on the inside, and not one of religious rights.   
> Couple that with the incredibly high instance of unprosecuted rape in  
> prison, and it's easy to see why Amnesty International has listed the  
> US prison system major violators of human rights.
>
> Just my two cents worth.
> Jean.
> On Jan 18, 2008, at Fri, Jan 18,  3:48 PM, Volokh, Eugene wrote:
>
>   
>> Jean Dudley writes:
>>
>>     
>>> I'd say that yes, the courts would have to uphold conjugal visits.
>>>       
>> 	OK, say that this is so.  Now would that create problems of
>> discrimination in favor of religion that are far more serious than the
>> norm (a normal level of discrimination which Cutter v. Wilkinson did
>> accept), and far closer to the level that the Court struggled to avoid
>> in Seeger?  After all, if the rule is "You aren't allowed to have sex
>> with your wife [or any other woman] ever again -- unless you're of the
>> right religion," that's a pretty serious thing to treat people
>> differently about, and pretty clearly the sort of thing that could  
>> quite
>> easily pressure someone to get religion (or to fake getting it).
>>
>>     
>>> Let's take it one step further:  What if a woman is
>>> incarcerated, and it was her husband who was filing suit
>>> saying that his religious duty was being infringed upon?
>>>       
>> 	Oddly enough, I'm pretty sure he'd lose, since RLUIPA only
>> protects institutionalized persons.  But if he managed to convert  
>> her to
>> a religion that imposes the proper requirements on her, then she could
>> file her own claim.
>> _______________________________________________
>> To post, send message to Religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu
>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see  
>> http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw
>>
>> Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed  
>> as private.  Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages  
>> that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members  
>> can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
>>     
>
> _______________________________________________
> To post, send message to Religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw
>
> Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private.  Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
>
>
>