I'm Jeffrey Rosen, President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and welcome to the latest of our We the People Constitutional Podcast.

The National Constitution Center is the only institution in America non-partisan basis.

And this week we're discussing one of the most interesting cases

the Supreme Court will hear in the new term a case that

could further define the limits of religious liberty. The case is called Holt and Hobbs.

It was accepted by the justices after Gregory Holt, who's an Arkansas prisoner serving

a life sentence for burglary in domestic violence, submitted a 15-page handwritten petition

to the court.

He says his Muslim faith requires him to maintain a one-inch

beard, but the Arkansas prison system requires all inmates to be clean-shaven.

Mr Holtz says the policy violates the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which is also known as RLUIPA, and that requires prison officials to have compelling reasons for restricting religious practices.

The court heard oral arguments on Tuesday and a decision could come down as early as January.

With us to discuss the case and how the justices might rule are two of the country's leading experts on religious liberty.

Howard Friedman is the Distinguished University Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Toledo College of Law.

He has worked as an attorney for the SEC and Todd Law at Notre Dame, Case Western and

St John Universities.

He's the founder and author of Religion Clause, a leading blog on religious freedom.

Marcy Hamilton holds the Paul R Vercool chair in public law at the Cardozo School of Law.

She is actively litigating challenges to RLUIPA and the Religious Freedom

Restoration Act.

She is a former clerk to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and co-founder and author of Hamilton

and Griven on Rights, a blog dedicated to issues of religious liberty. and question. Howard, tell us what Relupa is, why it matters in this case, and how this law interacts

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