In Chaaban v. City of Detroit, (EDMI, Sept. 7, 2021), a Muslim woman who was forced to remove her hijab for a booking photograph after her arrest sued the city of Detroit, the corrections department and corrections officials. The court held that corrections officials are not entitled to qualified immunity from the claim for damages stemming from a violation of 1st Amendment rights, saying in part:
Plaintiff’s allegations are sufficient to show the MDOC Defendants were “on notice” that their policy violates a Muslim woman’s right to freely exercise her religion. Plaintiff alleges she “made her dissent and protest to the forceful removal of her hijab extremely clear”…. Moreover, it defies logic that officers operating in a facility in Detroit, near one of the nation’s largest Muslim communities, would not be aware of the religious significance of the hijab.
The court went on to hold that plaintiff adequately states a claim for injunctive and declaratory relief under RLUIPA as well as a claim for broader relief under 42 USC §1983 for violation of the 1st Amendment’s free exercise clause. In refusing to dismiss plaintiff’s claim against the city of Detroit, the court said in part:
The issue here is whether the City of Detroit can be held liable for a policy which did not originate with the City, but which has been alleged to be enforced by the City and its officers under the authority of the interagency agreement between the City of Detroit and MDOC…. [T]he City of Detroit was aware of the Photograph Policy and promulgated that policy or, at a minimum, adopted “a custom of tolerance or acquiescence of federal rights violations.”
The court held, however, that “there is no independent damages remedy against a municipality for violations of the Michigan Constitution.”