Wiccan Chaplains Won't Get Paid to Serve State's Practicing Inmates, Court Rules
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Categories: WTF?
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| Wicca is supposed to be about harmony! |
Patrick McCollum, a Wiccan chaplain who volunteers in prisons, and a group of inmates sued the state because it would not pay Wiccanchaplains to serve the 598 prisoners who practice the craft. Since 1957, the state has paid clergy of various faiths to provide religious services to inmates, including Jewish, Muslim, and Native American.
Before adding any new paid clergy, the stateDepartment of Corrections and Rehabilitationconsiders the size of the inmate population served, the cost, existing alternative means to accommodate inmates of that faith, and security. Using those criteria, the state concluded that a Wiccan chaplain wasn't needed, according to the lawsuit.
In 2006, McCollum filed a lawsuit claiming the state is discriminating by denying Wiccans access to places of worship and sacred items.
He noted in the suit that one of the San Quentin inmates was hospitalized, yet his Wiccan chaplain was not allowed to visit him because his chaplain wasn't a paid staff member. Yet the courts decided this was an isolated incident and was not a "continuing violation."
On Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit Court sided with the lower courts' ruling against McCollum, stating that he pursued litigation for his own interests. Essentially, he was asking the state to pay him for his volunteer service, the ruling stated.
"The added wrinkle in this suit is that the chaplain is pursuing constitutional claims that are derivative of the inmates' claims rather than his own," the court wrote. "McCollum attempts to transform his employment discrimination action into an effort to vindicate the inmates' First Amendment rights.
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