In Baltas v Jones, (2d Cir., Dec. 15, 2025), the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of a prisoner's free exercise claim. The court said in part:
Baltas argues that Defendant Jones (a Garner Deputy Warden) violated Baltas’s First Amendment right to free exercise of his religion by forbidding him from engaging in the Native American “smudging” ritual while in Garner’s restricted housing unit (“RHU”). ... [T]his claim also fails for want of clearly established law....
We “judge prisoners’ free exercise claims under a ‘reasonableness’ test less restrictive than that ordinarily applied to alleged infringements of fundamental constitutional rights.”...
... [I]t was not clearly established that prison officials wou ld be “unreasonable” if they prevented prisoners who had “been deemed to present various safety and security concerns” from having “access to a lighter” in a religious ceremony. Baltas cites no cases involving similarly risky practices. Summary judgment was properly granted as to this claim.
