Bruce Rich, an Orthodox Jewish prisoner in Florida, wanted kosher meals, but the warden said no.
So Rich sued the state prison system in 2010, saying its denial of a kosher menu violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, a landmark civil law rights law for inmates whose predecessor was the federal religious freedom law.
Rich, 66, is serving a life sentence for murdering his parents, in their 70s, in 1995 allegedly to inherit their home.
The prison system argued the meals were costly and would lead to security concerns, namely “retaliation against the kosher inmates” if other inmates believed the higher costs of kosher meals impacted the quality of their food, court papers said.
At least 35 other states and the federal government, however, provided kosher diets to inmates.
After losing before a magistrate, Rich won an appeal before the 11th Circuit Court, which cited “the defendant’s meager efforts to explain why Florida’s prisons are so different from the penal institutions that now provide kosher meals such that the plans adopted by those other institutions would not work in Florida.”