California
3 Muslim Americans sue over religious questioning in travel
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three Muslim Americans have filed a lawsuit alleging that U.S. border officers questioned them about their religious beliefs in violation of their constitutional rights when they returned from international travel.
The three men from Minnesota, Texas and Arizona sued Department of Homeland Security officials Thursday in a federal court in Los Angeles. The suit was filed in California because some of the questioning allegedly occurred at Los Angeles International Airport.
In the lawsuit, the men said U.S. border officers at land crossings and international airports peppered them with questions about whether they were Muslim and attended a mosque and how often they prayed. The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the men, said the questioning violates the men’s constitutional rights to freedom of religion and protection against unequal treatment.
“Just as border officers may not single out Christian Americans to ask what denomination they are, which church they attend, and how regularly they pray, singling out Muslim Americans for similar questions is unconstitutional,” the plaintiffs wrote in the suit, which asks the court to bar officers from questioning the men about their faith and to expunge records containing information that was obtained through this questioning.
A message seeking comment was sent to the Department of Homeland Security.
Hameem Shah, a resident of Plano, Texas, said he was returning in 2019 from a vacation to Serbia and Bosnia when he was pulled aside at the Los Angeles airport for additional screening. There, officers separated him from other travelers and started reading his personal journal despite his protests and asked him whether he had traveled in the Middle East, saying they wanted to make sure he was a “safe person,” the lawsuit said.
They asked him about his religious beliefs and practices and searched his phone despite his opposition and released him two hours later, the suit said.
“I thought that being an American meant that I and others are free to practice any religion that we choose,” Shah said in a statement on Thursday. He said the experience still haunts him.
Kansas
Lawmaker apologizes for equating gavel with tomahawk
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas House member has apologized after asking a Native American lawmaker if she used a tomahawk rather than a gavel when she was presiding over the House.
The incident occurred Wednesday when Rep. Ponka-We Victors Cozad, a Democrat from Wichita, used her gavel to quiet the House. It was the first known time a Native American lawmaker had presided over the body, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.
Rep. John Wheeler, a Republican from Garden City, turned around and said he “was just checking to see if that was a tomahawk.”.
Wheeler immediately apologized when the remark drew an uneasy reaction from other lawmakers. He said later that he would personally apologize to Victors-Cozad and two other Native American members of the House for a comment that he meant as a joke.
“The world has changed a lot for this 74-year-old man,” Wheeler said. “I try to keep up, but today I had a slip.”
Wheeler, a member of the Joint Committee on State-Tribal Relations, said he took issues regarding the state’s four federally recognized tribes “very seriously.”
Victors-Cozad said she was “disgusted” but not surprised by the remark.
“This is 2022 and people still think that they can say whatever they want to and think it is funny,” she said. “We’re not a joke. Who we are, our culture, our heritage — I don’t take it lightly. But when they say things like that, it is like they don’t have any respect for us. It hurts.”
The incident occurred a month after the Kansas State Board of Education suspended Education Commissioner Randy Watson for a month after he made derogatory remarks about Native Americans during a virtual education conference.
The remark came after debate on a bill that would return a half acre of land in Johnson County, which is a Shawnee Tribe burial ground, to the Shawnee Tribe. The House passed the bill unanimously.
South Dakota
Suit filed over threat to ban Native Americans from hotel
RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside a federal courthouse in a South Dakota city Wednesday to cheer the filing of a federal lawsuit over a hotel owner’s pledge to ban Native Americans from the property.
The protesters held a rally and prayer meeting in a Rapid City park then walked the streets in response to a social media post by a Grand Gateway Hotel owner who said she would not allow Native Americans on the property. Demonstrators marched to sounds of drums and carried tribal flags and signs.
One banner that read, “We will not tolerate racist policies and practices” stood as a backdrop for tribal leaders and others to talk about the civil rights suit that cites “a policy, pattern, or practice of international racial discrimination against Native Americans.” The suit seeks class action status.
Brendan Johnson, a former U.S. attorney for South Dakota and lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the “rest of the world” needs to know what’s going on in Rapid City. The suit seeks unnamed general and punitive damages.
“We need to be clear. We don’t file this complaint to send a message. We file this complaint because we want justice,” Johnson said at a press conference.
Connie Uhre, one of the owners of the Grand Gateway Hotel in Rapid City, posted the ban notice on Facebook Sunday. That followed a shooting at the hotel early Saturday involving two Native American teenagers, Rapid City police said. Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Chairman Harold Frazier called the post racist and discriminatory and demanded an apology.
Messages left at the hotel were not immediately returned. Court documents do not list an attorney for defendants.
Red Elk Zephier, the hotel manager, told South Dakota Public Broadcasting that the entire staff at the hotel bar and some hotel workers quit due to the proposed ban. Elk Zephier. who is who is Yankton Sioux and Oneida, also quit.
“I can’t have that be a part of my life, that negativity. So I just don’t want to be associated with that,” said Zephier. “I didn’t even think about the money or anything involved, I just, I can’t have that in my life.”
Rapid City, known to many as the gateway to Mount Rushmore, is home to more than 77,000 people. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, at least 11% of its residents identify as American Indian or Alaska Native.
High court to weigh end of $300 weekly unemployment payment
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court will hear arguments in May on whether Gov. Mike DeWine had the legal ability to end the state’s participation in a federal pandemic unemployment aid program last year ahead of a government deadline for stopping the payments.
At issue before the court is a weekly $300 federal payment for Ohioans to offset the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The federal government ended that program Sept. 6 but DeWine stopped the payments June 26, saying the need for the payments had ended.
DeWine, a Republican, followed the position of business groups that said the payment was making it difficult to recruit employees. Critics of ending the payments said workers had multiple reasons why they might not be returning to jobs.
Ending the program early stopped about $900 million in Ohio payments. The two parties disagree on whether that money could still be paid, should the court rule against DeWine.
The court on Thursday set oral arguments for May 25. Justice Patrick DeWine, the governor’s son, has recused himself to avoid the appearance of impropriety “that might result from my father’s public involvement in this case.”
