A Muslim woman told to remove the veil covering her face to pose for a jail mugshot has prompted Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall\u00a0in Nashville, Tennessee,\u00a0to revise his policy regarding religious headwear.<\/p>\n
The woman\u00a0complained to the American Civil Liberties Union, which took up her cause.<\/p>\n
As a result, “beginning Friday,” reports Erin Quinn of the Nashville<\/em> Tennessean<\/em> newspaper,<\/em> “a person wearing face-covering religious headwear who is being booked into the jail will have two mugshots\u00a0— one with the coverings on; the other will be taken with the headwear removed from the person\u2019s face.”<\/p>\n According to Quinn:<\/p>\n The second shot will be taken in the presence only of a same-sex guard, be kept in a confidential file, and opened only through judicial order, said Karla Weikal, sheriff\u2019s office spokeswoman.<\/p>\n The same rule applies at security checkpoints at Justice A.A. Birch Criminal Justice Building, Historic Metro-Nashville Courthouse and Davidson County Juvenile Justice Center. If someone wearing a type of religious headwear sets off a metal detector at the entrance, the person will be taken to a private room by a guard of the same sex. There, the person will remove the headdressing and be screened.<\/p>\n While local civil rights and religious leaders Tuesday applauded the revisions, some Middle Tennessee law enforcement officials said the sheriff\u2019s office might be taking things a bit too far.<\/p>\n