The First Amendment gives a Las Vegas police detective the right to wear a beard for religious reasons, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, but a jury must decide whether he has the right to wear a yarmulke on the job.
Detective Steve Riback, an observant Orthodox Jew whose position in the office of quality assurance does not require him to wear a uniform, filed a lawsuit last year (reported HERE on YWN) that accused the Metropolitan Police Department of religious discrimination. Riback took the action after department officials denied his requests to wear a beard and head covering at work.
In Wednesday’s ruling, U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt concluded that the department’s no-beard policy violated the First Amendment right of religious freedom.
Attorney Craig Anderson, who represents the department, said he does not know whether Hunt’s ruling would allow Riback to wear a beard while in uniform.
Hunt noted in the order that Riback had formally asked the court only for permission to wear a beard while in his current assignment.
At a hearing in November, Hunt issued a preliminary injunction that allowed Riback to wear a quarter-inch beard until the case was resolved. Riback, 32, said he has worn a short beard since the ruling.
The detective was transferred to quality assurance in October 2006.
At the time, according to his lawsuit, the Police Department had a personnel policy that prohibited officers from wearing beards but provided waivers for officers who needed to wear facial hair for medical reasons.
The judge acknowledged that the department has a “significant” interest in its officers “maintaining a uniform personal appearance.” However, he wrote, “Metro fails to explain why religious beards undermine this interest, but medical beards do not.”
Al Marquis, another attorney representing the department, said the beard policy has changed. Now officers who must wear facial hair for medical reasons are placed on light duty in positions that do not require uniforms.
Allen Lichtenstein, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada who represents Riback, and the department’s lawyers all said Hunt’s ruling pleased them.
“We knocked out seven of (Riback’s) nine claims,” Anderson said.
Lichtenstein said his client asked for two accommodations, and Hunt granted one while allowing the other to go to trial.
“We are gratified that the judge ruled that when the Police Department allows beards for medical reasons that they can’t discriminate by prohibiting them for religious reasons,” Lichtenstein said. “We look forward to the trial on the question of the yarmulke and believe that the outcome at trial will again be favorable to Detective Riback.”
According to Hunt’s order, the department’s headgear policy applies to all officers, “and there is no evidence that it is motivated by religious animus.”
A trial in the case is set to begin Oct. 20.
(Source: ReviewJournal.com)
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12 Responses
Cops don’t have beards! if you want to be a cop and have a beard go to Afghanistan and stop kevetching
#1 100% correct
TO #1 THEY DONT ACCEPT INFIDELS IN AFGAN.
Dont make trouble for them,and change their minhagim for you!!!!! Dina dmalchusah dina. Why r u forcing them to accomodate u???? mA littlr d.e.
We are in Galus! Don’t forget that! We have to be Makeer Tov to the Borie Olom that we are able to work in this country to support ourselves without being harrased by the Goyim! Don’t get to pushy! The fact that he associated himself with tha ACLU is terrible! The ACLU has done irreparable damage to the Moral fabric of this Country!
Jewish Chaplains serving in the armed forces are not allowed to have a beard while serving on Active Duty. Which is why there are no Chabad chaplains in the military. As you all said we are in golus and have to do the right thing.
For a practicing police officer, a beard can be quite dangerous.
I have experience with little children pulling on my beard (I have quite long beard, especially for my age) and trust me, that is very unpleasant.
Imagine a police officer would have to wrestle a non-compliant subject to the floor and the suspect would pull on his beard…. that would simply disable the police officer, and the attacker could even grab his gun and kill him with it.
So, for a real active-duty police officer, there is something to say for keeping it very short or none at all. However, one could argue that an officer in the office of quality assurance does not really patrol the streets, so it isn’t all that important.
I agree with Riback but not with how his case gives a nice look at the ACLU. They are interested in any anti American cause; no matter what it is.
Too bad Riback couldn’t find a lawyer to take the case so he had to go to the ACLU lawyers who are the lowest haters of democracy and capitalism one can find.
There are 6,105 lawyers in Nevada and 1,162,124 lawyers in the U.S.A.(I just looked it up), and Steve saved a few bucks by going down to the bargain basement. Surely The New York Slimes will cover the story.
Good for Detective Steve Riback. He won a well-deserved, personal victory. He is a highly skilled and brave man who is very special. I am glad he won his case. Regarding some comments about a beard, on first thought a beard should not be any more dangerous than hair on the head. And with regards to our being in Golus and suggesting we need to be passive, this is not the case for us in many areas of society since we are a very intelligent and articulate people. And we do use those abilities in all facets of life in America.
This lawsuit may have won the battle, but I can almost guarantee lost the war. This will affect any future hiring of any jewish candidate, no matter how religious or secular. Law enforcement is a tight military structure that does not take well to these kind of lawsuits. Especialy when they know that there are plenty of orthodox jews out there that do shave their beards. This will bring alot of unwanted attention to many traditional jewish officers in the US that may be getting some sort of reasonable accomodation. One needs to pick their battles wisely. This was completely foolish.
Comment by veryinteresting — August 7, 2008 @ 4:11 pm
“And with regards to our being in Golus and suggesting we need to be passive, this is not the case for us in many areas of society since we are a very intelligent and articulate people. And we do use those abilities in all facets of life in America.” —
It was also the same in Germany 1930. Things can change real fast. No one is suggesting a passive approach when one rights are being seriously violated; however this is certainly not the case here. We should always try and keep a low profile.
#11, JBC, you bring up some good points but they are not the entire picture; only small considerations. Evidently, this IS an important issue to the Detective which is not for you or me to decide it’s worthiness or rule that he violated the idea of keeping a low profile. He did not want his job to impinge upon his religious expression.
We will never know all the details regarding what goes into the hiring of anyone, particularly Jews. But to date, we do pretty well in all aspects of parnasa that include every level of profession, thank heaven.
One can argue that by this gentlemen deciding to shave, such a decision would be moving more into a germany-like situation of gradual dejudification. Heaven forbid.
It is in Hashems’s hands and I am happy for this Detective to have his job and not leave the slightest bit of his jewishness at home.
#12 Law Enforcement is para-military. This means that there is an expectation of uniformity and conformity. If u want to keep a beard and wear a yarmulka, than this is not the profession for u. Also, when depts. do allow beards for medical reasons, (in the NYPD also for religious reasons) it cannot be longer than one cm. long due to safety hazards, (just anther thing to pull or light on fire). In keeping with uniformity, religious emblems and symbols are forbidden to be shown while in uniform. Christians and other denominations will see this as a double standard as they are not allowed to wear crosspins or the like.
” One can argue that by this gentlemen deciding to shave, such a decision would be moving more into a germany-like situation of gradual dejudification. Heaven forbid.” —
This argument doesn’t hold water. They are not trying to dejudify him. They want him to uphold the uniform standard that is and has always been in place for the proffession that he is in.
“I am happy for this Detective to have his job and not leave the slightest bit of his jewishness at home.” — Trust me. He won’t have it for long. If they can’t find a reason to fire him, than they will try to get him to quit.
1) He refused to comply with the rules of the dept.
2) He sued the dept. to get his way.
3) He used one of L.E. most hated organizations to get it.
If u think they will see it any other way, ur deluding urself. L.E. is a world onto itself. U stated above that we are intelligent people. Any intelligent person knows that discretion can be the better part of valor.