ACLJ: Federal Court in Kentucky Declares Unconstitutional Library Policy That Resulted in Employee Being Fired for Wearing Cross Necklace.

Business Editors

BOWLING GREEN, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 3, 2003

The American Center for Law and Justice, an international public interest law firm, announced today that a federal court in Bowling Green, Kentucky said it was wrong for a public library to fire an employee for wearing a necklace with a cross pendant to work. In a decision received today, a federal court declared the library policy unconstitutional and said it violated the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment.

"This is a very important decision that underscores the fact that employees have constitutional rights to express their faith in the workplace so long as that expression does not interfere with the work setting," said Frank Manion, Senior Counsel of the ACLJ, which represents the library employee. "The fact that our client was fired for wearing a cross pendant on a necklace to work is not only absurd but unconstitutional as well. This decision sends an important message that employers cannot discriminate against employees who choose to express their religious beliefs in the workplace."

The ACLJ filed suit in U.S. District Court in Bowling Green, Kentucky in February 2002 against the Logan County Public Library in Logan County, KY on behalf of Kimberly Draper, a library employee, who was fired for wearing a cross pendant to work.

The suit challenged a library dress code policy that read: "No clothing depicting religious, political, or potentially offensive decoration is permitted." After being warned about wearing the cross pendant, Draper was fired from the library in April 2001 after she refused to take off the pendant.

In an opinion issued yesterday and received today by the ACLJ, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas B. Russell found that the library policy is unconstitutional and violated the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment. The court said: "It is simply beyond credibility that an employee's personal display of a cross pendant, a star of David, or some other minor, unobtrusive religious symbol on her person would interfere with the library's purpose." The court also cited a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court case saying the library's policy is based upon nothing more than "undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance (which) is not enough to overcome the right to freedom of expression."

The Kentucky decision comes just one week after the ACLJ reached an agreement in a Pennsylvania case where a teacher's aide was reinstated to her job after being suspended for wearing a cross pendant to work. In that case, a federal court found that the school agency's policy displayed "hostility toward religion" and the case was settled after the ACLJ and the school agency agreed to make a preliminary injunction permanent.

The ACLJ is an international public interest law firm specializing in constitutional law. The ACLJ is based in Washington, D.C. and its web site address is www.aclj.org.