In Kaufman v. McCaughtry, yesterday the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that atheism is a “religion”. Responding to a claim by a Wisconsin prisoner who was refused permission to form an inmate group to study and discuss atheism, the Court held that atheism qualifies as the inmate’s religion for purposes of his First Amendment claims.
The Court remanded the case for further proceedings to consider the Establishment Clause claims that had been raised, finding that prison officials had given no reasons to justify permitting other faiths to form prison groups, but not atheists. However the court rejected plaintiff’s Free Exercise claim. He had not shown that a weekly study group was necessary to the practice of his religion.
In a report on the case, World Net Daily quoted Brian Fahling, senior trial attorney for the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy, who said that the ruling is “further evidence of the incoherence of Establishment Clause jurisprudence.”
