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| Gregory Holt |
On January 20th the supreme court ruled that it was unconstitutional for prisons to not allow for inmates to need to keep their beards trimmed. The case was brought up on a handwritten petition by Gregory Holt and inmate at a prison in Arkansas. The argument was that the Arkansas prison had violated his first amendment rights for rights by not allowing him to grow out his beard which is part of the muslim religion. The guards at the prison argued that it was enough to provide him with a prayer mat and different meals but the supreme court disagreed. Prison guards then began to argue that prisoners would be able to keep contraband inside of their beards like razorblades, darts ect, that could hurt the guards or put them in danger, but the supreme court responded with the fact that half and inch for a beard is not very long the guards would not have to worry about contraband in the prisoners beard because it would be much easier for the prisoners to put contraband inside of their hair which is allowed to be longer than half and inch. The supreme court also said that guards would be allowed to require the beards be brushed to avoid contraband and any kind of danger. When making the decisions for the case the supreme court used a lot of the same rulings that they used in an earlier case this year which is known at the Hobby Lobby case, which refused to pay women workers for their pregnancy leaves.
I found this case very interesting because it seems like an easy case for the supreme court to decide because it is simply about the first amendment but I found it very interesting to read about how the prison guards argued to why the beards should still be banned but the supreme courts justices responses seemed very accurate and fair.
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