Oral arguments for a case concerning Ohio prisoners and the constitutionality of the 2000 federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act will begin at the Supreme Court this morning. The suit, Cutter v. Wilkinson, was filed by a group of inmates in Ohio claiming that the prison officials denied them access to certain books, ceremonial items and religious accommodations necessary to practice their faiths (variously, Wicca, Satanism, Odinism and the white-supremacist Church of Jesus Christ Christian). The prison officials counter that the inmates’ religious beliefs are insincere and any accommodations would serve to facilitate gang activity. Though the case will focus on inmates’ religious freedom, the entire act is at stake, including provisions which protect religious groups from discrimination in land use cases, where, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State Rev. Barry Lynn, churches and other religious organizations are often kept out of commercial districts because they won’t contribute to the tax base. Both Lynn’s organization and the ACLU have filed amicus briefs in support of RLUIPA.