O’Lone v. Estate of Shabazz

1987 United States Supreme Court case

O’Lone v. Estate Of Shabazz
Full case name	O’Lone, Administrator, Leesburg Prison Complex, et al. v. Estate of Shabazz, et al.
Docket no.	85-1722
Citations	482 U.S. 342 (more)
The Court of Appeals erred in placing the burden on prison officials to disprove the availability of alternative methods of accommodating prisoners’ religious rights. That approach fails to reflect the respect and deference the Constitution allows for the judgment of prison administrators.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · John P. Stevens Sandra Day O’Connor · Antonin Scalia
Majority	Rehnquist, joined by White, Powell, O’Connor, Scalia
Dissent	Brennan, joined by Marshall, Blackmun, Stevens
U.S. Const. amend. I

O’Lone v. Estate of Shabazz, 482 U.S. 342 (1987), was a U.S. Supreme Court decision involving the constitutionality of prison regulations. The court ruled that it was not a violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to deprive an inmate of attending a religious service for “legitimate penological interests.”

Further reading[edit]

• Rachanow, Shelly S. (1998). “The Effect of O’Lone v. Estate of Shabazz on the Free Exercise Rights of Prisoners”. Journal of Church & State. 40: 125–148. doi:10.1093/jcs/40.1.125. ISSN 0021-969X.
• Rigoli, L. M. (1990). ““Power Exercised in the Shadows”: O’Lone v. Shabazz as a Signal to the Court’s Return to Interpretivism in Institutional Reform Litigation”. New England Journal on Crime and Civil Confinement. 16: 141.

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