\ufffdOtisville had a very extensive library of Jewish religious books, many of them donated,\ufffd said David Zwiebel, executive vice president for government and public affairs for Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox Jewish group. \ufffdIt was decimated. Three-quarters of the Jewish books were taken off the shelves.\ufffd
Mr. Zwiebel asked, \ufffdSince when does the government, even with the assistance of chaplains, decide which are the most basic books in terms of religious study and practice?\ufffd
The lawsuit raises serious First Amendment concerns, said Douglas Laycock, a professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, but he added that it was not a slam-dunk case.
\ufffdGovernment does have a legitimate interest to screen out things that tend to incite violence in prisons,\ufffd Mr. Laycock said. \ufffdBut once they say, \ufffdWe\ufffdre going to pick 150 good books for your religion, and that\ufffds all you get,\ufffd the criteria has become more than just inciting violence. They\ufffdre picking out what is accessible religious teaching for prisoners, and the government can\ufffdt do that without a compelling justification. Here the justification is, the government is too busy to look at all the books, so they\ufffdre going to make their own preferred list to save a little time, a little money.\ufffd
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Timothy Larsen, who holds the Carolyn and Fred McManis Chair of Christian Thought at Wheaton College, an evangelical school, looked over lists for \ufffdOther Christian\ufffd and \ufffdGeneral Spirituality.\ufffd
\ufffdThere are some well-chosen things in here,\ufffd Professor Larsen said. \ufffdI\ufffdm particularly glad that Dietrich Bonhoeffer is there. If I was in prison I would want to read Dietrich Bonhoeffer.\ufffd But he continued, \ufffdThere\ufffds a lot about it that\ufffds weird.\ufffd The lists \ufffdshow a bias toward evangelical popularism and Calvinism,\ufffd he said, and lacked materials from early church fathers, liberal theologians and major Protestant denominations.
Otisville is a federal prison camp in Otisville, NY where a some inmates have file a federal lawsuit regarding the purging.