Inmates Go Kosher—and Not Just the Jewish Ones

September 18, 2008

Author: Tim Murphy

Source: Religion News Service

http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/rnstext/inmates_go_kosher_and_not_just_the_jewish_ones1/

Norman Lee Toler, 28, won a court fight to gain access to kosher prison meals even though he is not Jewish, and prison officials say he kept photos of Adolf Hitler in his cell.

The request was an odd one, coming from Norman Lee Toler.

Toler, then 25, had spent most of his adult life in prison on charges ranging from writing bad checks to statutory rape. It was that last conviction that landed him in the Northeast Missouri Correctional Center, where he identified himself as Jewish, and, in 2005, first requested a kosher meal.

But Toler, corrections officials argued, was a white supremacist who earlier had been reprimanded by prison official in Illinois for keeping seven photos of Adolf Hitler and a hand-drawn illustration of a Nazi skinhead in his cell.

When his request for kosher meals was denied, Toler filed a lawsuit in federal court, alleging that authorities were jeopardizing his health and impeding his ability to practice Judaism.

Three years later -- and six years after he claimed to have converted to the faith -- a federal court ruled in his favor.

Toler's case, while exceptional, reflects the murky legal landscape of First Amendment law. Faced with similar litigation about prisoners' free exercise rights, states are being forced to revisit their kosher meal policies.