Non-Jew awarded damages for not being served kosher food in jail

YET another one for the “You Couldn’t Make it Up” archives …

Michael Fegans began a prison sentence in Arkansas in 1991 for aggravated robbery, second-degree battery, and attempted escape.

He entered the state Department of Correction a Baptist, but then converted to a sect called the Assemblies of Yahweh, which requires its members to follow Old Testament law. Though not an Jewish organisation, we understand, AoY insists that  Jewish feast days be observed. They include: Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost (Shavuot), Feast of Trumpets, Fast of Atonement (Yom Kippur), Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day.

From that point on Fegans, now in his 50s, stopped cutting his hair and beard, and began demanding kosher meals. For his failure to submit to the prison grooming rules, he was disciplined, and was never given a kosher diet.

A kosher knockwurst, Mr Fegans?

So in 2003 he sued the prison for violating his religious rights with regard to grooming and food. He lost the grooming part of his law suit, but was awarded $1,500 dollars for being served non-kosher grub.

Fegans appealed the decision by US District Judge James Moody, who found that the prison’s grooming policy didn’t violate Fegans’ right to religious freedom because the facial-hair rule kept inmates from changing their appearance.

Furthermore, long beards and long hair could be used to hide contraband.

Fegans decided to appeal the decision, but this week his appeal was dismissed by a majority of 2-1 US Circuit judges who upheld Judge Moody’s verdict.

In his appeal, Fegans also complained that the amount of damages he had been awarded was insufficient – that it amounted to just $1. 44 per meal.

He demanded punitive damages as well.

The appeal judges disagreed, and Little Rock attorney David Bowden, representing Fegans, said he was considering taking the appeal all the way to the US Supreme Court, if necessary – even though Fegans is now in federal prison near Memphis, where he isn’t required to cut his hair, regularly receives kosher meals and is leading a Bible study class.

Note: The knockwurst pictured really is kosher.