Judges hear arguments on Muslim officer's scarf
A three-judge appellate panel heard arguments yesterday on whether to reopen a case concerning a Muslim Philadelphia police officer who wants to wear a religious head scarf while on duty.
A three-judge appellate panel heard arguments yesterday on whether to reopen a case concerning a Muslim Philadelphia police officer who wants to wear a religious head scarf while on duty.
Last year, a U.S. District Court judge dismissed a suit filed by Officer Kimberlie Webb, writing that the Police Department could "subordinate individuality to its paramount group mission" of protecting lives and property.
Attorney Jeffrey M. Pollock, representing Webb in her appeal, told the judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit yesterday that the case represented a "fundamental liberty right" and asked them whether wearing a scarf was "such a violent religious symbol that we can't tolerate that."
Eleanor Ewing, a lawyer for the city, said the uniform policy was intended to maintain religious neutrality. Decisions about what officers are allowed to wear should be left to the police commissioner.
Pollock said the department had tacitly allowed officers to wear Christian crosses and angel pins and ash on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday.
Webb, 46 and a mother of six, became a Muslim in 1995, the year she joined the Police Department.
In court yesterday, she wore her traditional
khimar
over her hair and around her neck. In Islam, it is part of the
hijab
or modesty in clothing.
For work, she has a custom
khimar
with a Velcro fastener so that it breaks away if someone grabs at it. It is also less noticeable under a police hat than her other scarves.
Outside court, Webb said she had been allowed to pray in Muslim fashion at the 35th Police District station where she works.
She wrote memos requesting permission to wear her scarf on duty. "They just said no," she said.
After Muslim men on the force were allowed to wear beards, which required a policy change to accommodate them, she decided she had a right to wear a
khimar.
In 2003, she appeared at work three days in a row with her scarf. Each time she was told to remove it and refused. And each time she was sent home. She was then suspended.
She filed a claim with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and won. Then she sued.
Her civil case was based on a narrow claim and did not allege violations of her constitutional right to freedom of religion and speech, which her new attorneys now assert.
Ewing called the appeal "a request for a do-over" and a request for the judges to consider facts and arguments not introduced in the original case.
Webb is represented pro bono by Pollock, a New York lawyer, and Seval Yildirim, a professor at Whittier Law School in California.
Pollock said the appeals court probably would rule in 60 to 90 days.
