Posted on 09/07/2005 1:39:58 PM PDT by bwteim
Court upholds ruling on license photo
By JAY STAPLETON Staff Writer
Last update: September 07, 2005
DAYTONA BEACH -- A local appeals court says the constitutional rights of a Muslim woman who wanted to wear a veil in her driver's license photo were not violated and she must follow the state law requiring full face photos. The opinion reached Friday by the 5th District Court of Appeal affirmed a 2003 order from a trial court in Orlando, which shot down the civil lawsuit filed by Sultaana Freeman of Winter Park, denying her the right to have her license picture taken with her face covered in a veil.
"We recognized the tension created as a result of choosing between following the dictates of one's religion and the mandates of secular law," wrote Appellate Judge Emerson R. Thompson Jr. in the 15 page opinion. "However, as long as the laws are neutral and generally applicable to the citizenry, they must be obeyed."
The court found that enforcing the full face photo requirement did not violate the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, because forcing Freeman's compliance of the law did not place a substantial burden on her free exercise of religion.
The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles originally issued Freeman a license showing her wearing a veil in 2001, but later suspended it. According to court records, Freeman had a photo license in Illinois which showed her wearing a veil before she moved to Florida about eight years ago.
Born Sandra Michele Keller, Freeman, 38, was raised in a Christian household but converted to the Islamic religion in 1997. She is a married mother of two young children.
Freeman claims the suspension of her license was an infringement upon her constitutional rights. Freeman's attorney, Howard Marks, argued that his client should not be punished for wanting to practice her religion.
Freeman lost her civil lawsuit when Circuit Judge Janet C. Thorpe agreed with authorities that letting people conceal their faces on a driver's license was a terrorist risk.
The state "has a compelling interest in protecting the public from criminal activities and security threats," and that photo identification "is essential to promote that interest," the trial judge said.
In considering the trial court's conclusion, the appeals court found enforcement of the law "did not compel Freeman to engage in conduct that her religion forbids -- her religion does not forbid all photographs."
In July 2003, Gov. Jeb Bush signed legislation requiring that driver's licenses must include a picture of the driver's full face.
Wow, common sense. Didn't see the ACLU weigh in on this one...
What does she need a driver's license for anyways. Islam doesn't allow women to drive, right?
Good for them! If they allowed that I'd want Jessica Rabbit to be my drivers license photo! (The similarities are so striking...) :-)
How can she see with the Berka over her head ? Those peep holes aren't very wide and fabric doesn't move with you. They should charge her for cost to file lawsuit and defend this kind of crap
That's one small victory against these loons.
WOW!! Common sense prevails!!
Wasn't that only in Saudi Arabia?
If she won, the US would be the only country in the world that would allow women to keep the head covering. Even in Islamic societies where women can drive (like Malaysia, Indonesia), women HAVE to remove the head covering for identification purposes. The US would look stupid allowing something that no other Muslim nation does.
Probably distracted by Katrina....
But they did in original:
" The ACLU filed the original complaint [text] in 2002 on behalf of Sultaana Freeman, an American Muslim who converted from Christianity to Islam as an adult. "
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2005/09/florida-court-upholds-ban-of-muslim.php
That's one great friggin' cartoon.
TWO RECENT, COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS. Submit two color photographs of you alone, sufficiently recent to be a good likeness of you (normally taken within the last six months), and 2x2 inches in size. The image size measured from the bottom of the chin to the top of your head (including hair) should not be less than 1 inch and not more than 1 3/8 inches. The photographs must be color, clear, with a full front view of your face, and printed on thin paper with plain light (white or off-white) background. They must be capable of withstanding a mounting temperature of 225 Fahrenheit (107 Celsius). Photographs must be taken in normal street attire, without a hat, head covering, or dark glasses unless a signed statement is submitted by the applicant verifying the item is worn daily for religious purposes or a signed doctor's statement is submitted verifying the item is used daily for medical purposes. Photographs retouched so that your appearance is changed are unacceptable. Snapshots, most vending machine prints, and magazine or full-length photographs are unacceptable. Digitized photos must meet the previously stated qualifications and will be accepted for use at the discretion of Passport Services. (Visit our websiteHmmm... Does this mean one can wear a burka on a passport photo?? Excuse me???
I remembered seeing it once back when this story was first in the news. A more recent Robert Byrd / KKK thread came up and I desperately wanted to post it, so I spent almost an hour looking all over the internet for it.
we see alot of those out here. Some asians are small and you just barely see their heads over the steering wheel.
Well go freakin figure!! She probably went to the express SoS office in Tinley Park. Bin Laden could go in there and get a license no questions asked.
Original ACLU text here
Complaint in Sultaana Freeman Niqab Case
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE NINTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, IN AND FOR ORANGE COUNTY, FLORIDA
SULTAANA LAKIANA MYKE FREEMAN, Petitioner,
CASE NO.: CIO02-600/ WRIT NO.: 02-4 v. STATE OF FLORIDA,
http://www.aclufl.org/legislature_courts/legal_department/briefs_complaints/freemancomplaint.cfm
Hey..according to certain traditions of Purdah...the Sharia laws pertaining to Islamic women...she is not supposed to drive or be much out the house anyway...so the suspension of her driver's license actually helps her to remain true to her faith...
Say wouldn't that be an irony...the ACLU sues because by with-hold this woman's driving priviledges, we are inadvertantly giving preference to Islamic sharia!(sarcasm on)
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