Split Eighth Circuit revives biblical manhood course in Minnesota prisons

ST. LOUIS (CN) — A split Eighth Circuit revived a Christian volunteer’s efforts to teach a class on masculinity within the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

The decision by the three-judge panel yesterday reversed a lower court’s denial of Anthony Schmitt’s motion for a preliminary injunction against Jolene Rebertus, the assistant commissioner of the Minnesota DOC, and Paul Schnell, the commissioner of the Minnesota DOC.

In 2012, Schmitt volunteered to teach his program, “The Quest for Authentic Manhood,” at a Minnesota correctional facility. The program consists of 24 one-hour videos followed by a discussion session designed around biblical insights on God’s design for manhood.

From 2012 until the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Schmitt and a colleague taught the program with two sessions a week to inmates who volunteered to attend.

Issues began in 2018, when Charles Sutter, the MDOC statewide recidivism reduction project supervisor, reviewed the Quest program and identified several areas of the program that did not align with evidence-based practice, primarily finding that some videos discriminate based on sexual orientation.

On March 17, 2020, the MDOC ceased all religious programming due to Covid-19. The programming resumed in 2023, but Rebertus sent Schmitt an email on July 10, 2023, informing him that he would no longer be allowed to teach Quest to inmates.

The email stated, “The program directly conflicts with the diversity, equity, and inclusivity values of the department by defining manhood, or the study of masculinity, through a biblical lens of what a ‘real man looks like.’”

The decision prompted Schmitt to file a lawsuit, claiming the decision violated his First Amendment rights to free speech and free exercise of religion and established a denominational preference in violation of the Establishment Clause.

While the state prevailed at the federal court level, U.S. Circuit Judge Lavenski Smith, a George W. Bush appointee, found that the MDOC was biased toward Schmitt’s religion in ceasing the program.

“Rebertus’s letter plainly states that the MDOC did not oppose Schmitt teaching generally about ‘manhood, or the study of masculinity’; instead, it objected to Schmitt discussing the topic ‘through a biblical lens of what a ‘real man looks like’ or through what the MDOC perceived as ‘through a lens of discrimination, exclusivity, gender biases and stereotypes,’” Smith wrote for the majority, which included U.S. Circuit Judge Jonathan A. Kobes, a Donald Trump appointee.

Smith added, “In short, the MDOC objected to Schmitt’s religious viewpoint on masculinity. This is viewpoint discrimination.”

But U.S. Circuit Judge Jane L. Kelly dissented, contending that the state made a strong argument that its rehabilitative programming constitutes government speech. The Barack Obama appointee wrote in the dissent that the public interest and balance of the equities weigh strongly in favor of MDOC.

“Schmitt seeks to force a prison to reinstate a program — with the prison’s stamp of approval — that the prison concluded was ‘harmful and hinder[ed] the rehabilitation process for incarcerated individuals,’” Kelly wrote. “Typically, we defer to prison administrators about these things.”

A MDOC spokesperson said the department is in the process of reviewing the decision and since it is active litigation the department had no further comment.

Schmitt’s attorney did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the ruling.

The case was remanded back to federal court for entry of an order reinstating the Quest program at MCF pending a full adjudication of the case on the merits.

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