Prison May Be Violating First Amendment By Banning Kendrick Lamar Music

In 2018, Arizona prison inmate Edward Lee Jones sued after guards six CDs he had ordered, including Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, and The Weeknd.

Jones argued that the enforcements state's prison policy against explicit material unfairly targeted Hip Hop and R&B, while books on the Aryan brotherhood were allowed.

A lower court rejected Jones's argument.  But his week, the US Court of Appeals ruled there may be something to it.

“There is a material question of fact here — whether ADC selectively enforces [the policy] against disfavored expression, rap and R&B musical genres,” the court wrote. “The district court should not have granted summary judgment.”

This doesn't mean Jones has won his case.  Instead, it will be kicked back down to the district court to reconsider.

“We would expect some inconsistencies in any policy [and] even the clearest of policies would not be immune from human error,” wrote the appeals court. “But the inconsistencies identified by Jones go beyond the occasional explicit song being allowed or book being excluded.”