New hearing ordered in holding-cell hijab suit

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Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(09-13) 13:05 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court granted a new hearing Monday to a Muslim woman who was ordered by sheriff's deputies to remove her hijab in a courthouse holding cell.

A panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled 2-1 in May that Orange County deputies hadn't violated Souhair Khatib's rights by making her take off the religiously mandated headscarf for security reasons when she was placed in the holding cell.

But the court said Monday that a majority of its 27 judges had voted to set that ruling aside and refer the case to an 11-judge panel for a rehearing in December.

The dispute affects thousands of inmates throughout the nine-state circuit who are taken to holding cells before being brought to court, said Khatib's lawyer, Becki Kieffer. She said it was the first such case to reach a federal appeals court.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/13/BA261FD4JE.DTL

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