Freedom of Religion: Sikh prison guard applicant may keep beard and The Dread Lock decision: SJC backs Rastafar

Submitted by JTjaden on Wed, 12/10/2008 - 18:55

[Two stories: The first is a local one about a devout Sikh man from Folsom found to be discriminated against by the CDC, and the second is about a Rastafarian in Massachusetts taking his employers to court for religious discrimination.

Many people have the mistaken belief that the ACLU is anti-religion which couldn't be farther from the truth - the ACLU is against state sponsorship of religion, and for individual religious worship or no individual religious belief whatsoever. Here is a web page from the ACLU on religion, and here is a very good web page on a collection of cases in which the ACLU has fought for religious rights by one of our very own board members, Allen Asch]

Sikh prison guard applicant may keep beard, board rules
By Stephen Magagnini
smagagnini@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008 | Page 1B

The board ruled that the CDC violated Trilochan "Obe" Oberoi's freedom of religion when it told him he had to shave to pass a gas mask fit test before being hired.

Devout Sikhs consider their hair most sacred and never shave.

"Inside I'll die if I cut my beard," Oberoi said Tuesday. "Once you touch the razor or touch the scissor, your religion is gone."

[...]

He'd met most of the CDC's requirements, including a physical abilities and vision test, background check, psychological evaluation and prescreening interview.

But in May 2006 the CDC told Oberoi he couldn't take the gas mask fit test without shaving.

Alberto Roldan, chief deputy general counsel for the CDC, said the gas mask fit is a serious safety issue.

If Oberoi's mask doesn't fit properly, Roldan said, "it constitutes a significant danger to both himself and others when tear gas is used to quell riots or control a violent situation."

But Administrative Law Judge Gregory Brown noted the CDC has hired correctional officers who can't shave their beards because of skin conditions.

Since the CDC allows those employees to use a different gas mask, "it is difficult to imagine why it cannot extend the same accommodation to CO's who cannot shave for religious reasons," wrote Brown in his decision last month.

Brown ordered the CDC to try to accommodate Oberoi and expedite his application.

Oberoi's lead trial attorney, Harmeet Dhillon, called the ruling a victory for religious freedom in California.

"It affects not only Sikhs," she said, noting that Orthodox Jews and some Muslims wear beards in keeping with their faith.

[...]

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1461863.html

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The Dread Lock decision: SJC backs Rastafari
By Laurel J. Sweet
Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Bobby Brown - a western Massachusetts man who is not Whitney Houston’s ex - claimed that when he refused to adopt F.L. Roberts and Co.’s grooming policy of “clean-shaven” faces and “neatly trimmed or arranged” hair two years after he went to work for the Jiffy Lube in Hadley, he was exiled to work in an unheated basement with no customer contact.

State Superior Court Judge Bertha D. Josephson ruled it was an undue hardship for Jiffy Lube to exempt Brown from the policy for his Jamaican-based religion. Brown appealed. The SJC found the company didn’t fully explore how it might otherwise accommodate the Rastafari doctrine of letting one’s hair grow with abandon.

“They’re not saying you can’t have a grooming policy, you can,” said Brown’s attorney Joel Feldman. “But if you’re going to claim it’s a real burden to deal with someone’s request, you have to prove it with facts. Jiffy Lube had not really engaged in a dialogue with Mr. Brown.”

[...]

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/2008_12_03_The_Dread_Loc...

Here is the decision

http://www.socialaw.com/slip.htm?cid=18640&sid=120