Beard

Dennis Walker is a devout racist. He is an Aryan Christian Odinist incarcerated in a California state prison. The Odinist religion forbids adherents from integrating with members of races other than their own and requires the performance of rituals that may not be conducted in the presence of non-“Aryan” individuals. Walker challenges the State’s classification of him as eligible to occupy a prison cell with an individual of a different race, alleging that such a placement would interfere with his religious practice. He appeals the district court’s ruling that the State’s refusal to exempt him from its Integrated Housing Policy (the “Housing Policy”) did not violate the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (“RLUIPA”), 42 U.S.C. § 2000 cc et seq., or the First Amendment. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We conclude that the State has a compelling interest in avoiding invidious racial discrimination and potential liability under the Equal Protection Clause, and the only way for the State to satisfy this interest was to reject Walker’s request for an exemption from the Housing Policy. We affirm.

I.

According to Walker, Odinism, the religion to…