New York – An Orthodox Jewish woman who had been arrested in 1999 did not have a constitutional right to keep her head scarf on while she was being photographed at a New York City jail, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday.
A three-judge panel of the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that it was reasonable for officials at the Correctional Facility to require that prisoners be photographed without head coverings so that they could be easily identified.
“The policy is reasonably related to the city’s unassailable interests in identifying prisoners and maintaining prison and prisoner safety and security,” the court said in a summary order affirming a lower-court ruling in favor of the city in federal court in Manhattan.