Gonzales v. New York

The latest federal lawsuit against New York State concerns the question of the dress code in the state correctional department. The lawsuit was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan by the assistant attorney general for civil rights, Wan Kim, on behalf of a Muslim correctional officer who is not allowed to wear his skullcap. It seems that correctional officers are subject to a dress code that leaves no room for religious exemptions. Officers are banned from wearing yarmulkes and turbans. Crucifixes need to be tucked in under a shirt.

We're for maximum practical religious accommodation, but there are two things wrong with the lawsuit. It is unnecessary and unlikely to succeed. While the Justice Department readied its legal papers last week, the new commissioner for the Department of Correctional Services, Brian Fischer, was reviewing the dress code. On Friday, a day after the suit was filed, the department issued a "revision notice," which modified the code. Now individual requests for exemptions to the dress code are being evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

For those who would crow that Justice Department's lawsuit got quick results, the correctional department spokeswoman, Linda Foglia, assures us that the Justice Department was made aware of the pending change ahead of time. So for what does one figure the geniuses in the Justice Department were in such an all-fired rush? When the prison system was clearly willing to address the issues, why would the Justice Department press forward with the blunt force of a lawsuit?

Particularly because Justice Department lawyers know better than anyone that local municipalities and state agencies are famously defensive against religious accommodation suits. A predecessor of Mr. Kim's went ahead and filed a similar suit on behalf of Sikh and Muslim employees of the MTA and city transit authority. That was in 2004. The suit is still far from resolution, with the current sticking point involving whether the MTA gets to put its logo on the turbans its employees wear. By now, according to the docket report, 142 legal briefs and notices have changed hands between the Justice Department and the transit authority. Nice work, if one can get it.