The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Muslim woman in Georgia who was arrested in 2008 when she refused to remove her head scarf while entering the Douglasville Municipal Court to accompany her nephew to a traffic hearing. The woman, Lisa Valentine, verbally protested the order and was briefly jailed for contempt of court. Ms. Valentine is suing the City of Douglasville and court officers for damages, arguing that her religious freedoms were violated. Georgia has since recommended that religious head coverings be permissible in the state’s courthouses, but Ms. Valentine is asking for the recommendation to be made a binding policy.
