Cert. Filed In Suit Over Prisoner's Right To Received NOI Newspaper

The Baton Rouge (LA) Advocate reports that a petition for certiorari has been filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in Leonard v. Louisiana. In the case, the 5th Circuit in a brief per curiam opinion (full text) held that prison officials were not justified in banning a prisoner from receiving Nation of Islam's newspaper The Final Call. Prison officials had imposed the ban because the paper contained "The Muslim Program" written by Elijah Muhammad. The 5th Circuit held: "While we do not agree that "The Muslim Program" is free of racially inflammatory language, the record here does not justify this order under circumstances where an objectionable page could be deleted and where this page has been included in all prior issues of the newspaper and is and always has been available to appellee." (See prior related posting.)