In
Robinson v. Houtzdale, (3d Cir., June 19, 2017), the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals held that the trial court should not have dismissed at the pleading stage a RLUIPA suit by a Christian inmate who objected that the prison's Sex Offenders Therapeutic Community program burdens his religious exercise by requiring him to "confess" to a therapist or counselor. Plaintiff contended that the Bible does not permit him to confess sins to anyone except God. The court said that the threshold question under RLUIPA is whether a prison practice has substantially burdened an inmate's practice of his religion. It went on:
we conclude that the Magistrate Judge went too far by analyzing the “truth” of Robinson's beliefs when she determined, based on the pleadings alone, that the sexual offender program did not impose a substantial burden because it did not ask Robinson “to confess in any religious sense.” ... [A]t the pleading stage, we are required under RLUIPA to accept as true Robinson’s sincerely held belief that any acknowledgement of guilt is a religious “confession"....
... [W]hile the District Court may well conclude after considering evidence or testimony on the subject that SCI-Houtzdale’s interest in its sex offenders taking responsibility for their actions as part of its therapeutic program is a “compelling interest” and that there is no less restrictive means for Robinson to meet the goals of the sex offender program, it cannot do so on the basis of the pleadings alone. That is because RLUIPA does not permit “unquestioning deference” to prison administrators....
