Gitmo detainees' lawyers invoke Hobby Lobby decision in court filing

[MinneapolisMatt]

Lawyers for two Guantanamo Bay detainees have filed motions asking a U.S. court to block officials from preventing the inmates from taking part in communal prayers during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The lawyers argue that – in light of the Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby decision – the detainees’ rights are protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

The motions were filed this week with the Washington D.C. district court on behalf of Emad Hassan of Yemen and Ahmed Rabbani of Pakistan. U.K.-based human rights group Reprieve said both men asked for the intervention after military officials at the prison "prevented them from praying communally during Ramadan."

During Ramadan, a month of prayer and reflection that began last weekend, Muslims are required to fast every day from sunrise to sunset. But what is at issue in this case is the ability to perform extra prayers, called tarawih, "in which [Muslims] recite one-thirtieth of the Quran in consecutive segments throughout the month."

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Myles B. Caggins III, a spokesman for the Department of Defense, told Al Jazeera on Friday that the "Defense Department is aware of the filing," and that the "government will respond through the legal system."

The detainees' lawyers said courts have previously concluded that Guantanamo detainees do not have "religious free exercise rights" because they are not “persons within the scope of the RFRA.”

But the detainees’ lawyers say the Hobby Lobby decision changes that.

MORE: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/7/5/hobby-lobby-guantanamo.html

[stone space]

1. Wouldn't they have to incorporate first in order to attain personhood in the eyes of the Supremes?

The detainees' lawyers said courts have previously concluded that Guantanamo detainees do not have "religious free exercise rights" because they are not “persons within the scope of the RFRA.”

But the detainees’ lawyers say the Hobby Lobby decision changes that.

[MinneapolisMatt]

2. Their lawyers are arguing:

"Hobby Lobby makes clear that all persons – human and corporate, citizen and foreigner, resident and alien – enjoy the special religious free exercise protections of the RFRA," the lawyers argued in court papers.

[customerserviceguy]

3. I'd be surprised

if there were no fully-developed body of court cases involving prisoners (or detainees, if you prefer) and RFRA. I'm certain that in the decades since it's been law, some inmates have tried to invoke it for all kinds of things they tie to religion.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. corporations: people with rights, people: not people with rights.

I now declare 1984.

[leftstreet]

5. Religious freedom for iillegally detained people

Bazooko's circus

[Puzzledtraveller]

6. good

[BrotherIvan]

7. But in this case, they are asking to be able to practice their religion themselves

They're not demanding that everyone pray with them.

[ColesCountyDem]

8. Oh, this ought to be CHOICE!

[ehrnst]

9. Talk about strange bedfellows.... (nt)

[moondust]

10. Oh boy.

Here come the unintended consequences!