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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that Arkansas must accommodate a Muslim prisoner’s request to grow a beard, as he said his religion requires.
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the court, said the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act does not require a prison to grant religious exemptions simply because a prisoner asks or because other prisons do. But he said Arkansas officials offered no evidence that a short beard presented security risks or served as a hiding place for contraband.
“The same is true of an inmate’s clothing and shoes” and hair on the head, Alito wrote. “Nevertheless, the department does not require inmates to go about bald, barefoot or naked.”
