Update: Sultaana Freeman License Photo Case in Florida

June 10, 2003

Source: CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/06/06/florida.license.veil/index.html

On June 10, 2003 CNN reported that a "Florida judge rejected a woman's request to have her face covered by a veil in the photograph on her state driver's license, siding with the state Friday that a favorable ruling could be exploited by terrorists... 'Although the court acknowledges that plaintiff herself most likely poses no threat to national security, there likely are people who would be willing to use a ruling permitting the wearing of full-face cloaks in driver's license photos by pretending to ascribe to religious beliefs in order to carry out activities that would threaten lives,' Circuit Judge Janet C. Thorpe said in her ruling... Sultaana Freeman, a Muslim, had testified that a state order requesting that she remove her veil -- a niqab, which covers all of her face except her eyes -- infringed upon her right to observe her religion, to which she converted in 1997... Her attorney, Howard Marks, vowed to appeal the ruling."