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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Muslim Inmate Given Injunction to Grow Beard

WASHINGTON (CN) - A Muslim man must be allowed to grow a beard while he petitions the Supreme Court over prison grooming policies, the justices said.

As a Muslim fundamentalist, Gregory Houston Holt aka Abdul Maalik Muhammad says he must grow a beard but that the grooming policy for the Arkansas Department of Corrections allows only trimmed moustaches or quarter-inch beards for a diagnosed dermatological problem.

Holt had filed suit under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, but a federal judge in Pine Bluff dismissed the action after learning of the other ways in which Arkansas lets Holt practice his religion.

The court heard evidence that Holt had a prayer rug and a list of distributors of Islamic material; that he was allowed to correspond with a religious adviser; and that he was allowed to maintain the required diet and observe religious holidays.

A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit affirmed dismissal this past June, crediting an explanation from Arkansas that its grooming policy helps "prevent inmates from concealing contraband, drugs, or weapons; that an inmate who grew a beard could change his appearance quickly by shaving; that affording special privileges to an individual inmate could result in his being targeted by other inmates; and that prison officials believed the grooming policy was necessary to further ADC's interest in prison security."

Holt petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, and the justices issued him an injunction late Thursday pending disposition of that matter.

"Respondents are enjoined from enforcing the Arkansas Department of Correction's grooming policy to the extent that it prohibits applicant from growing a one-half-inch beard in accordance with his religious beliefs," the unsigned order states. "If the court denies the petition for a writ of certiorari, this order shall terminate automatically. If the court grants the petition for a writ of certiorari, this order shall terminate when the court enters its judgment."

The Arkansas Department of Corrections lists 38-year-old Holt as a Caucasian inmate at Varner Supermax.

He was sentenced to life in prison in 2010 for aggravated domestic burglary and first-degree domestic battering. The department describes Holt as a "habitual offender" with prior convictions for first-degree "terroristic threat" and filing a false report.

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