Forgetting the Hero and Protecting the Terrorist's Rights, Court Rules in Favor of the Taliban

Johnny Micheal Spann
killed during prison riot
Afghanistan - 2001 

John Walker Lindh
captured in Afghanistan
2001

    U.S. District Court rules in favor of the Taliban.  A federal district judge, Jane Magnus-Stinson ruled that the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act applies even to convicted terrorists in prison.  John Walker Lindh, also known as "The American Taliban" sued the Federal Bureau of Prisons for the right to congregate with other Islamic terrorists in the Communications Management Unit of the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI), in Terre Haute, Indiana.  Lindh who was captured in 2001 fighting alongside Taliban members in Afghanistan is serving a twenty year sentence for collaboration with the terrorist organization in fighting against U.S. forces.

Judge Stinson overlooks the fact that he is a terrorist and that when he was initially held in a military prison near Mazār-e Sharī in Afghanistan a riot broke out and CIA officer Johnny "Micheal" Spann was killed by the inmates. The uprising began on the same day Spann had conducted an interview of Lindh.  Spann,  the first American to die in Afghanistan,  was posthumously awarded the Intelligence Star and the Exceptional Service Medallion, the equivalent of the U.S. military's Silver Star.  He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

The Judge's description of John Walker Lindh is; [he is] "a low security prisoner who wishes to engage in a brief communal activity with other inmates".  That makes him appear to be docile, socially adept, and non-threatening. That narrative almost makes you want to invite him home for coffee.

Why is it that the average citizen can see this decision as insanity and yet the ACLU and the other inmate rights advocates do not?

The Court it seems cannot discern between a genuine rehabilitation and someone who has become "jail-wise" after more than ten years in the system.
 Prison officials and security experts must be given the leeway to administer measures which prevent convicted terrorists from acting again.  Anything less would be an insult to the memory of those who gave their lives in the fight against terrorism.