Sotomayor Overturned Prison Regulations to Allow Santeria-Practicing Convicts to Wear Beads

Monday, June 22, 2009
By Fadia Galindo

(CNSNews.com) – Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, told the State of New York in 1994 that it must allow prison inmates who practice Santeria to wear multi-colored beads. Santeria is a sect that combines African religious traditions with elements drawn from Roman Catholicism.

In the case of Campos v. Coughlin , Sotomayor told state prison officials that their fear of a growing gang movement within the prison was less important than the right of Santeria faithful to wear religious beads.

Then a Southern District of New York federal judge, Sotomayor claimed in Campos v. Coughlin that the New York State Department of Correctional Services (DOCS) had engaged in what she called an “erroneous deprivationâ€