Byar v. Lee.

• Position: RELIGION - Brief Article

U.S. District Court

ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE

FORCED EXPOSURE

REGULATIONS

Byar v. Lee, 336 F.Supp.2d 896 (W.D.Ark. 2004). A former county jail detainee filed an action against a former county sheriff, alleging violations of her constitutional rights arising out of the sheriff's promulgation of a set of detainee rules for the county jail. The district court held that the rules, which were modeled on the Ten Commandments, were excessively and impermissibly entangled with religion and constituted an endorsement or advancement of religion. The court found that a sufficient nexus existed between the requirement that the detainee read, sign, and agree to follow the rules and the imposition suffered by the detainee by having religious tenets forced upon her in the guise of secular rules of behavior. The detainee alleged that she considered it offensive to have the government direct her to obey particular religious tenets and she was...