HOUSTON, TX—On November, 13, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed and remanded the Federal District Court’s decision that Kawaljeet Kaur Tagore did not have a sincerely held religious belief in wearing her kirpan to work as a U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Accountant and that the Federal Protective Service (FPS) had demonstrated a compelling interest in barring her from entering all federal buildings with her kirpan. While reviving Ms. Tagore’s Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (RFRA) claim, the Fifth Circuit unfortunately affirmed and dismissed her Title VII employment discrimination claim.
So what does the Fifth Circuit’s decision mean for Ms. Tagore? Ms. Tagore’s lawsuit will now return to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, where she will receive a trial on the merits. In that trial, FPS will have to prove that it had a compelling interest in barring Ms. Tagore from entering all federal building with her three-inch-edged kirpan and that any such interest could not have been satisfied by any means less than completely barring her from all federal buildings. Since FPS has now admitted that it could have granted Ms. Tagore a permanent “exemption” to wear herkirpan to work, we believe that it will be exceedingly difficult for FPS to prevail at trial. If Ms. Tagore prevails at trial, then the government will be required to allow her to enter all federal buildings with her kirpan and pay her reasonable attorney’s fees and costs that she has incurred over the last eight years.
What does this decision mean for the larger Sikh community? In the future, it will be extremely difficult for any governmental agency or private employer to discriminateagainst a kirpan-wearing Sikh by claiming that Sikhs do not have a sincerely held religious belief in wearing a kirpan with an edge that exceeds 2.5 inches Additionally, the decision rendered by the 5th Circuit not only preserves the existing Federal Protective Service’s (FPS) Kirpan Policy but strengthens it by broadening the scope of protection. In essence, if the FPS or other federal agency refuses to grant Sikh an exception or exemption to enter a federal building with his/her kirpan whose edge exceeds 2.5 inches, the FPS and/or other federal agency will face substantial legal liability under RFRA. Moreover, the government cannot merely use the justification of “security” to bar a Sikh from entering a federal building with his/her kirpan.
As a result of the tireless work and expertise of attorney Scott Newar, a Houston civil rights attorney, the unshakeable faith of Ms. Tagore, and ICAAD’s intervention, Sikhs have won a major victory in their centuries-long effort to have the kirpan recognized in the law as an article of faith. The struggle for Ms. Tagore and the larger Sikh community is not over, but the Fifth Circuit decision is the beginning of the end of discrimination against the kirpan in the United States.
