Atheist parolee jailed for refusing to attend church services wins $100K settlement
An atheist parolee in Colorado jailed for refusing to follow a court order requiring him to take part in a Christian mission's worship services has won a $100,000 settlement.
In a settlement agreement with the Colorado Department of Corrections filed in court last week, Mark Janny was awarded $100,000 in monetary damages. Janny was on parole in 2015 and was required to live at a Christian homeless mission and participate in Bible study, church services and religious counseling.
He was incarcerated for five months when he refused to do so.
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Janny was represented by the secular legal groups the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, as well as DLA Piper LLP.
"This is a victory for Mark Janny and for religious freedom," said Americans United President Rachel Laser in a statement.
"Our country's fundamental principle of church-state separation guarantees that everyone has the right to believe as they choose, so long as they don't harm others. Jailing someone for refusing to attend worship services and to engage in Bible study is not religious freedom — it's religious coercion."
In 2015, Janny's parole officer, John Gamez, required him to be placed at the Rescue Mission in Fort Collins, which also operates under the name Denver Rescue Mission. Janny opposed the idea and proposed a friend's home as an alternative place of residence. That proposal was rejected because Gamez believed that Janny's friend was involved in using illegal drugs.
After Janny's parole was revoked because he refused to attend worship services, he filed a complaint, arguing that the condition of his parole violated his First Amendment rights.
Although a district court initially ruled against Janny, a three-judge panel for the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court decision in 2021, remanding the case back to the lower court to consider his First Amendment claims.
"Because Officer Gamez rejected Mr. Janny's proposed residence, while directing him to stay at the Mission, Mr. Janny was given a 'Hobson's choice' — to violate his religious beliefs by following the Program's rules or to return to jail," wrote Judge Carolyn McHugh, an Obama appointee, for the majority.
"It was the state's responsibility, not Mr. Janny's, to locate an alternative residence that did not involve that coercive choice."
McHugh stressed that other courts in the United States "have repeatedly rejected the suggestion that being compelled to attend religious programming is insufficient to make out an Establishment Clause violation."
