ymarkov | Justice Alito Gets It Right

From the Volokh Conspiracy:

Ben-Levi is serving a life sentence for a 1980 rape; at some point, he changed his name to Israel Ben-Levi, and either converted to Judaism or rediscovered Judaism; he now wants to engage in group Torah study with two other inmates. North Carolina prisons generally allow group religious study; but for Jews they require either the presence of a rabbi or a minyan — 10 adult Jews. The minyan requirement stems from the prison system’s understanding of Jewish law.

This, Justice Alito argues, is impermissible religious discrimination against Jews, which violates the Free Exercise Clause:

In essence, [the warden]'s argument — which was accepted by the courts below — is that Ben-Levi's religious exercise was not burdened because he misunderstands his own religion. If Ben-Levi truly understood Judaism, [the warden] implies, he would recognize that his proposed study group was not consistent with Jewish practice and that [the warden]’s refusal to authorize the group “was in line with the tenets of that faith.”

The argument that a plaintiff's own interpretation of his or her religion must yield to the government's interpretation is foreclosed by our precedents. This Court has consistently refused to “question the centrality of particular beliefs or practices to a faith, or the validity of particular litigants.” “Repeatedly and in many different contexts, we have warned that courts must not presume to determine the place of a particular belief in a religion or the plausibility of a religious claim.”

Unfortunately, this was a dissent – the Court refused to take the case, so North Carolina's prisons will still require a minyan for Tora study.