Word: courtroom
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...December 2008, Judge Keith Rollins’ arrest of Lisa (Miedah) Valentine at the Douglasville Municipal Court for wearing her hijab, a religious covering, sparked national debate over whether or not Muslim women and others should be allowed to wear their symbols of faith in the courtroom. As absurd as it is that this kind of debate even occurs in the United States—a country supposedly founded on the principle of religious freedom—the real issue at hand is not one of mere “tolerance.” Valentine and others’ right...
...This is not Judge Rollins’ first attempt to curb the free exercise of religious practice in the courtroom. In 2007, he prevented another Muslim woman from entering the courtroom with her hijab. And last year, Halimah Abdullah spent a day in jail for not removing her head covering in Rollin’s courtroom. Nor is the discriminatory treatment limited to women or even the Muslim population as a whole. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) addressed another such case of a Muslim woman in Valdosta last year, and Jasmeen Nanda, a Sikh man wearing a turban...
...bailiff and other law enforcement officials would treat her like a criminal and drag her in front of a judge. More disturbing than this arrest is the ex post facto change in the charges brought against Valentine—somehow, a procedural violation (no headgear in the courtroom) became a real criminal charge (fighting with an officer). This charge was not only proven false by later investigation, but was totally unwarranted in the first place. Nor was Valentine’s sentence—a ten-day jail sentence and a mandate to remove her headscarf outside of the courtroom?...
...their theatrical best, lawyers are star actors who write their own lines, improvise to meet the occasion and use the courtroom as a stage to declaim on matters of life and death. Sir John Mortimer, who died at 85 on Jan. 16, was an Oxford-trained barrister (and the son of a barrister) who proved adept at arguing his cases both in his fiction and in real life...
...South Africa Corruption in Chief? With elections months away, Jacob Zuma, leader of South Africa's ruling party, may face a choice between the campaign trail and the courtroom. An appellate court has revived charges against him of corruption, fraud and racketeering. While Zuma is still the heavily favored presidential candidate, the case could complicate his run and any ensuing first term...