The New York State Corrections Department will lock down all its prison inmates during the total solar eclipse on April 8.
Many inmates are now suing the state following the bizarre move.
In a lawsuit filed by a group of inmates, the lockdown during the total solar eclipse “violates inmates’ constitutional rights to practice their faiths.”
Plaintiffs in the suit come from various religious backgrounds, including Baptist, Seventh-Day Adventist, and Muslim.
The prisoners at Woodbourne Correctional Facility say the eclipse should “warrant gathering, celebration, worship, and prayer,” their federal lawsuit states.
The suit also adds that the eclipse is described in the Bible during Jesus’ crucifixion, and also in Islamic books of worship depict a similar event during the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s son, The New York Post reports.
“As people with different beliefs come together to observe the eclipse, an incredible phenomenon that holds religious significance for many, we simply ask that [prison officials] allow our clients their Constitutional right to practice their faith,” Sharon Steinerman, a senior associate at white-shoe law firm Alston & Bird, which is repping the prisoners pro bono, told The Post.
According to The Gateway Pundit, New York state police officials warned residents to be prepared for slow 911 response times, gridlocked traffic,and cellular disruptions during the solar eclipse.
USA Today reported:
Inmates at a New York prison who are being prevented from witnessing next week’s total solar eclipse have filed a lawsuit against the state corrections department, claiming that the decision violates their religious freedoms.
The celestial phenomenon, which has not passed over New York since 1925 and will not be seen again in the state until 2079, “is a significant religious event for people of many different faith backgrounds,” according to the complaint, which was filed Friday in federal court in upstate New York.
However, New York corrections officials put a lockdown in place at its facilities for April 8, the day the eclipse will pass over a long stretch of North America, including New York, as the moon blots out the sun. Among them is the Woodbourne Correctional Facility, the prison in Woodbourne where six men of varying religious faiths jointly sued the corrections department over the policy.
The plaintiffs – a Baptist, a Muslim, a Seventh-Day Adventist, two practitioners of Santeria and an atheist – are asking a judge to order the corrections department to immediately rescind the lockdown memo and provide eclipse glasses to all inmates who wish to view the eclipse, as it did when a partial eclipse was visible in 2017 in New York.
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