(Indiana Lawyer) A Muslim inmate in the Indiana Department of Correction is not entitled to a halal diet, a federal judge has ruled, finding that the inmate failed to prove that eating a kosher diet instead would violate his Islamic beliefs.
Judge James R. Sweeney of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana denied inmate Joshua Murphy’s request for a preliminary injunction on Monday.
Murphy, who is serving a five-year sentence for burglary at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, filed for a preliminary injunction in July, claiming violations of his rights under the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. He claimed that the meat provided in a kosher meal tray did not adhere to the Islamic regulations for halal meat, which he said he follows as a Sunni Muslim. He also claimed the halal food available for purchase in the prison commissary was too expensive.
