A Muslim woman who was forced to remove her headscarf in a Southern California holding cell can sue the county for violating her religious freedom rights, says the 9th Circuit in a ruling today. The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) indeed protects Souhair Khatib's rights, the court ruled (pdf).
The County argues that RLUIPA only affords protection to inmates at long-term facilities with residential capabilities. This interpretation reads into the statute an additional qualification where none exists. The Act does not include any temporal restriction on the term “institution.” Nor should we import such a requirement, especially in light of the generous interpretative rule set forth by Congress.
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In resolving the motion to dismiss, the district court sidestepped the statutory analysis set out above, and instead focused on the obstacles the Santa Ana Courthouse facility would face in accommodating religious exercise by Khatib or any other detainee. This approach put the cart before the horse. Security and administrative concerns that could frustrate a facility’s ability to accommodate religious exercise do not implicate whether that facility is an “institution.”
The opinion does not address the question of whether accommodation of her religious exercise poses too great a security risk. That issue remains.
