A Janesville woman has taken Waukesha County to federal court, claiming sheriff's deputies forced her to remove her hijab for a booking photo and then kept the uncovered image on county servers. The lawsuit says the photo, taken after a traffic stop and arrest, showed her hair and neck exposed and was accessible to male officers and, in some circumstances, the public. At the heart of the case is a familiar tug-of-war: standard jail identification rules versus religious accommodations.
What the lawsuit says
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the plaintiff, Lynn Tanner, filed her civil complaint Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. The suit names Waukesha County and Sheriff Eric Severson and states that Tanner was stopped during a routine traffic stop on Nov. 17, then arrested and taken to the county jail.
The complaint alleges a jail officer required Tanner to remove her hijab for a booking photograph, allowed her to put it back on afterward, and then stored the uncovered image on the jail's server. Tanner says that image, showing her uncovered hair and neck, could be viewed by male officers and, in some situations, by members of the public.
How ID rules and religious exceptions line up
The U.S. State Department's passport photo rules allow religious head coverings that are worn daily, as long as the full face is visible, according to the State Department. Wisconsin has also made room for religious headwear in other identification photos. A 2016 dispute over a man who wanted to wear a colander in his driver's license photo drew wide attention and highlighted that the state already makes exceptions for religious coverings, as reported by AP via CBS Minnesota.
In court filings, Tanner says the booking photo that showed her uncovered hair and neck was taken without her consent, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. The complaint also asserts that, although she was allowed to re-cover immediately after the picture was taken, the uncovered image stayed on the county jail's server where it could potentially be seen by male staff and members of the public.
Where this fits nationally
Advocates and civil rights groups say Tanner's case joins a growing list of lawsuits brought by Muslim women over jail and police policies that require removal of religious head coverings during booking. Religion News Service has detailed a series of similar challenges and settlements around the country.
In one widely watched dispute, a federal court examined whether keeping booking photographs taken without a hijab could infringe religious rights. That litigation, in Omeish v. Kincaid, is described in appellate filings available on Justia.
Legal questions ahead
Because Tanner filed in federal court, judges will have to decide whether forcing removal of religious headwear and keeping uncovered images on file unlawfully burdens religious exercise under the Constitution and federal statutes. Courts in related cases have evaluated these issues under the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, as reflected in appellate coverage on FindLaw.
How the Eastern District of Wisconsin applies those legal theories will determine whether Tanner's complaint survives early motions and moves into discovery or is thrown out at the outset.
For now, the case sits pending in the Eastern District of Wisconsin. Its outcome could shape how Waukesha County and other local jails handle religious head coverings during booking, and whether they need to rewrite policies or retrain staff.
