NEWS STORY: Fired policewoman says wearing pants violates religious beliefs

c. 1999 Religion News Service MOBILE, Ala. _ A veteran detective fired by the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office for refusing to wear uniform pants says the dress code requirement violates her Christian religious beliefs. Lark Huber wore skirts while a plainclothes detective, but earlier this year was moved to a patrol position that her bosses […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

MOBILE, Ala. _ A veteran detective fired by the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office for refusing to wear uniform pants says the dress code requirement violates her Christian religious beliefs.

Lark Huber wore skirts while a plainclothes detective, but earlier this year was moved to a patrol position that her bosses said required a uniform that included pants.


Huber’s attorney said the requirement is unnecessary.

“Almost everything they said she can’t do in a skirt she has done,” said attorney Lynn C. Miller. “She has scuffled with suspects, waded in the water and crawled under things.”

The sheriff’s office, meanwhile, has stood by its requirement as Huber appeals the decision.

“The Sheriff’s Office is a para-military organization where uniformity and discipline are critical requirements,” the agency said in a document filed with the county Personnel Board.

Huber neglected her duty, the document added, by “substantially impairing the efficient operation of the Sheriff’s Office by your failure to wear the proper uniform (and this) failure poses a safety hazard to yourself and your fellow deputies.”

The case raises religious accommodation issues similar to those involving a Mississippi teen prohibited from wearing a Star of David necklace to his school. Officials in Gulfport, Miss., said the star, a symbol of Judaism, resembles a gang symbol used along the Gulf Coast.

In Huber’s case, wearing pants violates her belief that she should not resemble a man, said her pastor, Kathy Murphree of Mobile’s independent Church of God in Jesus Christ.

The 50-member congregation _ described as a “true holiness church” by Murphree _ believes in strict scriptural literalism and also adheres to the Old Testament’s three feast days, dietary laws and seventh-day Sabbath. Huber has been a member of the church for some 15 years.

Her belief that she should not wear pants comes from a passage in the biblical Book of Deuteronomy that states:


“The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for whosoever doeth these things are an abomination unto the Lord thy God” (Deuteronomy 22:5).

More simply, said Murphree: “We believe in a woman dressing like a woman, and a man dressing like a man.”

Miller said the Sheriff’s Office rejected a request to allow the veteran employee to wear the same skirts as school traffic officers. Huber also offered to wear culottes, a divided skirt, which otherwise would match the color and trim of the agency’s uniform pants, the attorney said.

Huber was not available for comment. Sheriff Jack Tillman also was unavailable, but his spokesman said: “We can’t comment on any matter that is in litigation.”

Huber, 48, joined the force in 1981 and was named Deputy of the Month in December 1998.

In January, Huber and two dozen other employees were notified by Tillman that they were being transferred to different positions in order to mix with younger officers and gain new experience themselves.


Her transfer from plainclothes detective in the Central Investigations Division to the uniform Patrol Division required her to wear pants.

Huber immediately tried to remedy the uniform situation through the agency’s grievance procedures, her attorney said.

“If the department so chooses to transfer me they could have done so into another sworn personnel position where I could continue to be accommodated and practice my religious observances and practices. Or allow me to continue in the position I was in,” Huber is quoted as saying in a June Personnel Board order that denied her grievance request.

Huber and Murphree met with Tillman about religious accommodation shortly after his election four and half years ago.

“It was during this conversation that the sheriff indicated that he would continue to respect her religious beliefs,” the grievance order states. Huber had a similar understanding with Tillman’s predecessor, Thomas Purvis,according to the order.

Those beliefs also included not working during the Sabbath period from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Huber was a detective in CID at the time of the meeting.


Miller said Huber did not carry a weapon in her position, but that could not be confirmed through Tillman’s spokesman.

Huber was fired for violating orders, neglect of duty and insubordination because she reported for duty in a skirt on July 10 and 11, according to termination paperwork at the Personnel Board.

The Personnel Board will hear an appeal of the dismissal Sept. 7. Meanwhile, Miller, the attorney, said she is appealing the denied grievance request to Mobile County Circuit Court. Miller said she has also notified the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about the case.

Federal law prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Religious discrimination typically occurs when employment policy or rules require workers to either violate a fundamental rule of their religion or lose an employment opportunity. Employers are required to provide reasonable accommodations for the religious practices of a worker or applicant, unless doing so creates an undue hardship.

At least two other religious discrimination cases involving law enforcement officials have surfaced this year.

In June, the conservative Rutherford Institute filed suit against the Arlington, Texas, Police Department on behalf of a police sergeant fired for insubordination after he refused to remove a Christian-symbolizing cross pin from his uniform.


In March, the 3rd U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Newark, N.J., Police Department policy requiring clean-shaven officers discriminated against two Muslim officers with beards.

Religious accommodation cases involving law enforcement departments typically are about working on Sabbath days, said Eric Treene, director of litigation for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, an interfaith public interest law firm based in Washington, D.C.

IR END HOLAN

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