California
Feds say state’s facial hair ban for prison guards amounts to religious discrimination
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The federal government is asking a court to halt California’s enforcement of a rule requiring prison guards to be clean-shaven, saying it amounts to religious discrimination for Sikhs, Muslims and others who wear beards as an expression of their faith.
The civil rights complaint filed Monday by the U.S. Justice Department says the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s prohibition on facial hair denies on-the-job accommodations for officers of various religions.
It seeks a temporary court order “allowing these officers to wear beards while CDCR fully assesses options for providing them with religious accommodations while complying with California safety regulations,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
“Sikhs, Muslims and employees of other minority faiths should not be forced to choose between the practice of their faith and their jobs,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in the statement. “Religious freedom and religious accommodation are bedrock principles of our democracy. We are taking action to ensure that the rights of employees of minority faiths are respected and accommodated in the workplace.”
The corrections department maintains its no-beard rule stems from the need for certain employees, including guards, to wear tight-fitting respirators, with state law requiring that facial hair not interfere with the use of such masks that were worn during the coronavirus pandemic, according to court papers cited by the Sacramento Bee.
In an emailed statement to The Associated Press, the state agency defended its policy.
“CDCR respects all sincerely held religious beliefs and strives to reasonably accommodate individuals seeking religious reasonable accommodations to the extent doing so does not conflict with other legal obligations,” spokesperson Mary Xjimenez said Tuesday.
“Tight-fitting respirator masks are legally required under workplace safety laws for certain functions in state prison operations, as well as for the safety and protection of the incarcerated population and other staff. CDCR is fully compliant with the law, and we are confident the court will agree,” Xjimenez said.
The Justice Department’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, also seeks a court order prohibiting retaliation or discipline against officers requesting to grow or keep beards as the case progresses.
Nevada
City to pay ex-police officer $525,000 to settle free speech lawsuit
SPARKS, Nev. (AP) — The city of Sparks has agreed to a $525,000 settlement with a former police officer who filed a lawsuit in 2021 accusing the city of violating his free speech rights by suspending him for contentious comments he posted on his private social media account.
George Forbush, a 20-year veteran of the Sparks police force, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Reno seeking $1 million in damages after he was suspended four days for what that the city said constituted threats to Black Lives Matters activists and others.
A federal judge denied the city’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit in 2022 and last September the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected its attempt to force the dispute into arbitration.
On Monday, the Sparks City Council unanimously approved the $525,000 payment to settle the First Amendment lawsuit along with a lifetime health insurance stipend, the Reno Gazette Journal reported.
The city launched a disciplinary investigation based on an anonymous complaint from a citizen regarding more than 700 comments Forbush posted on his private account with Twitter, now called X, in 2020.
The city cited four in its formal suspension. They included comments Forbush made about tossing gasoline toward protesters seen in a video trying to burn a fire-resistant American flag and his plan to “build a couple AR pistols just for BLM, Antifa or active shooters who cross my path and can’t maintain social distancing.”
His subsequent lawsuit filed in 2021 said the city’s disciplinary investigation had confirmed all of Forbush’s posts were made on his own time, as a private citizen and that “nowhere in the posts or on his Twitter feed did he identify himself as a Sparks police officer,” the lawsuit says.
“A public employer may not discipline or retaliate against its employees for the content of their political speech as private citizens on matters of public concern,” the lawsuit says. “Officer Forbush did not relinquish his right to think, care, and speak about politics and current events when he accepted a job as a police officer.”
Forbush, a former sheriff’s deputy in rural Humboldt County, told the Gazette Journal he hopes the city learns from its mistakes.
“Some people in city leadership had knee-jerk reactions and made some bad decisions. And I’m just concerned that if this can happen to me, it can happen to someone else down the road,” he said.
The city had no comment on the settlement beyond a statement on its website that says the city’s insurer would cover the $525,000.
Alabama
State sets May lethal injection date for man convicted of killing couple during robbery
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has set a May 30 execution date for a man convicted in the 2004 slaying of a couple during a robbery.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey set the date for the execution by lethal injection of Jamie Mills, 50. The Alabama Supreme Court last week authorized the governor to set an execution date.
Mills was convicted of capital murder for the 2004 slaying of Floyd and Vera Hill in Guin, a city of about 2,000 people in Marion County. Prosecutors said Mills and his wife went to the couple’s home where he beat the couple and stole $140 and medications.
Floyd Hill, 87, died from blunt and sharp-force wounds to his head and neck, and Vera Mills, 72, died from complications of head trauma 12 weeks after the crime, the attorney general’s office wrote in a court filing.
Attorneys for Mills had asked the Alabama Supreme Court to deny the execution date request while they pursue a pending claim of prosecutorial misconduct in the case.
Mills’ attorneys wrote in a March petition to a Marion County judge that prosecutors concealed that they had a plea deal with Mills’ wife that spared her from a possible death sentence. She was the key prosecution witness against Mills at his trial. The attorney general’s office disputed that there was a pretrial agreement.
Alabama, which carried out the nation’s first execution by nitrogen gas earlier this year, says it plans to put Mills to death by lethal injection.
Feds say state’s facial hair ban for prison guards amounts to religious discrimination
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The federal government is asking a court to halt California’s enforcement of a rule requiring prison guards to be clean-shaven, saying it amounts to religious discrimination for Sikhs, Muslims and others who wear beards as an expression of their faith.
The civil rights complaint filed Monday by the U.S. Justice Department says the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s prohibition on facial hair denies on-the-job accommodations for officers of various religions.
It seeks a temporary court order “allowing these officers to wear beards while CDCR fully assesses options for providing them with religious accommodations while complying with California safety regulations,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
“Sikhs, Muslims and employees of other minority faiths should not be forced to choose between the practice of their faith and their jobs,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in the statement. “Religious freedom and religious accommodation are bedrock principles of our democracy. We are taking action to ensure that the rights of employees of minority faiths are respected and accommodated in the workplace.”
The corrections department maintains its no-beard rule stems from the need for certain employees, including guards, to wear tight-fitting respirators, with state law requiring that facial hair not interfere with the use of such masks that were worn during the coronavirus pandemic, according to court papers cited by the Sacramento Bee.
In an emailed statement to The Associated Press, the state agency defended its policy.
“CDCR respects all sincerely held religious beliefs and strives to reasonably accommodate individuals seeking religious reasonable accommodations to the extent doing so does not conflict with other legal obligations,” spokesperson Mary Xjimenez said Tuesday.
“Tight-fitting respirator masks are legally required under workplace safety laws for certain functions in state prison operations, as well as for the safety and protection of the incarcerated population and other staff. CDCR is fully compliant with the law, and we are confident the court will agree,” Xjimenez said.
The Justice Department’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, also seeks a court order prohibiting retaliation or discipline against officers requesting to grow or keep beards as the case progresses.
Nevada
City to pay ex-police officer $525,000 to settle free speech lawsuit
SPARKS, Nev. (AP) — The city of Sparks has agreed to a $525,000 settlement with a former police officer who filed a lawsuit in 2021 accusing the city of violating his free speech rights by suspending him for contentious comments he posted on his private social media account.
George Forbush, a 20-year veteran of the Sparks police force, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Reno seeking $1 million in damages after he was suspended four days for what that the city said constituted threats to Black Lives Matters activists and others.
A federal judge denied the city’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit in 2022 and last September the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected its attempt to force the dispute into arbitration.
On Monday, the Sparks City Council unanimously approved the $525,000 payment to settle the First Amendment lawsuit along with a lifetime health insurance stipend, the Reno Gazette Journal reported.
The city launched a disciplinary investigation based on an anonymous complaint from a citizen regarding more than 700 comments Forbush posted on his private account with Twitter, now called X, in 2020.
The city cited four in its formal suspension. They included comments Forbush made about tossing gasoline toward protesters seen in a video trying to burn a fire-resistant American flag and his plan to “build a couple AR pistols just for BLM, Antifa or active shooters who cross my path and can’t maintain social distancing.”
His subsequent lawsuit filed in 2021 said the city’s disciplinary investigation had confirmed all of Forbush’s posts were made on his own time, as a private citizen and that “nowhere in the posts or on his Twitter feed did he identify himself as a Sparks police officer,” the lawsuit says.
“A public employer may not discipline or retaliate against its employees for the content of their political speech as private citizens on matters of public concern,” the lawsuit says. “Officer Forbush did not relinquish his right to think, care, and speak about politics and current events when he accepted a job as a police officer.”
Forbush, a former sheriff’s deputy in rural Humboldt County, told the Gazette Journal he hopes the city learns from its mistakes.
“Some people in city leadership had knee-jerk reactions and made some bad decisions. And I’m just concerned that if this can happen to me, it can happen to someone else down the road,” he said.
The city had no comment on the settlement beyond a statement on its website that says the city’s insurer would cover the $525,000.
Alabama
State sets May lethal injection date for man convicted of killing couple during robbery
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has set a May 30 execution date for a man convicted in the 2004 slaying of a couple during a robbery.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey set the date for the execution by lethal injection of Jamie Mills, 50. The Alabama Supreme Court last week authorized the governor to set an execution date.
Mills was convicted of capital murder for the 2004 slaying of Floyd and Vera Hill in Guin, a city of about 2,000 people in Marion County. Prosecutors said Mills and his wife went to the couple’s home where he beat the couple and stole $140 and medications.
Floyd Hill, 87, died from blunt and sharp-force wounds to his head and neck, and Vera Mills, 72, died from complications of head trauma 12 weeks after the crime, the attorney general’s office wrote in a court filing.
Attorneys for Mills had asked the Alabama Supreme Court to deny the execution date request while they pursue a pending claim of prosecutorial misconduct in the case.
Mills’ attorneys wrote in a March petition to a Marion County judge that prosecutors concealed that they had a plea deal with Mills’ wife that spared her from a possible death sentence. She was the key prosecution witness against Mills at his trial. The attorney general’s office disputed that there was a pretrial agreement.
Alabama, which carried out the nation’s first execution by nitrogen gas earlier this year, says it plans to put Mills to death by lethal injection.
