Inouye v. Kemna, et al.

October 3, 2007 The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said that requiring a parolee to attend a religion-based program, such as that offered by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), violates the First Amendment of the Constitution. A drug offender had sued the State of Hawaii for penalizing him for not attending an addiction treatment program based on AA principles. In its ruling, the court said that the offender had been coerced because no other options were offered. The offender had been paroled on the condition that program attendance was mandatory. After he dropped out of the program, the state . . .