Hats off to Them: Muslim Women Stand against Workplace Religious Discrimination in Geo Group
![handle is hein.journals/stlulj56 and id is 269 raw text is: HATS OFF TO THEM: MUSLIM WOMEN STAND AGAINST
WORKPLACE RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION IN GEO GROUP
INTRODUCTION
The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment states that Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof.'1 This passage has come to mean that, as with many
other freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution, the freedom to choose and
practice a religion is an inviolable right.2 Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 explicitly extended the freedom of religion into the private workplace,
prohibiting, inter alia, religious discrimination.3 Unfortunately, such Title VII
protection was denied to the Appellants in EEOC v. GEO Group, Inc.4 Several
Muslim women were forced to remove their khimars-head coverings which
they felt were central to their faith-based on hypothetical dangers and
imagined harms advanced by their employer.5 In the current climate of fear
and bigotry directed against Muslim-Americans, this may seem like a trivial
slight. However, it unacceptably undermines Title VII's guarantee against
religious discrimination and exposes all religious adherents to further
intolerance.
The Appellee in this case, GEO Group, Inc., is a private company that
operates prisons for state, county, and local governments.6 GEO ran the
George W. Hill Correctional Facility-the county prison for Delaware County,
Pennsylvania-where Appellants worked during the relevant time period.7
GEO set a dress policy at the prison to ensure the performance of
[employees'] official duties.'' In April of 2005, this policy was amended to
provide that [n]o hats or caps will be permitted to be worn in the facility
1. U.S. CONST. amend. I.
2. See Shane Ramsey, Comment, Opting Out of Public School Curricula: Free Exercise
and Establishment Clause Implications, 33 FLA. ST. U. L. REV. 1199, 1200-01 (2006).
3. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2 (2006).
4. EEOC v. GEO Group, Inc., 616 F.3d 265,277 (3d Cir. 2010).
5. Id at 267-68.
6. US Detention & Corrections, THE GEO GROUP, INC., http://www.thegeogroupinc.com/
us-corrections.asp (last visited Oct. 7, 2010).
7. Brief of the EEOC as Appellant at 3, 7, 10, 12, EEOC v. GEO Group, Inc., 616 F.3d 265
(3d Cir. 2010) (No. 09-3093) [hereinafter EEOC GEO Group Brief].
8. Id. at 3.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/stlulj56&div=11&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Hats off to Them: Muslim Women Stand against Workplace Religious Discrimination in Geo Group
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