US Kirpan Case: Partial Victory For Petitioner

NEW YORK – In the historicIRS Kirpan case, the US 5thCircuit Court of Appeals hasreversed and remanded theReligious Freedom RestorationAct (RFRA) claim for a trial andaffirmed the Title VII claim.In other words, the panel hasdecided to send the RFRAclaim back to the lower (district)court for further developmentof evidence concerning thegovernment’s compelling interestin enforcing the statutoryban on kirpans with bladesexceeding 2.5 inches. The panelconcluded that the current submittedevidences did not supportthe government’s positionof banning the kirpan. Thisdecision seems to be a partialvictory for kirpan rights.The government will now haveto prove that in order for it tocomply with the law, banning ofthe kirpan altogether was theless drastic means available to it.The government will have toprove why alternative policieswould be unfeasible, or whythese would be less effective inmaintaining institutional security.In April 2005, KanwaljeetKaur, a CPA by profession, wasstopped at security at the IRS.She had joined IRS in 2004. Asa Sikh, she wears her five articlesof faith, among them a kirpan.When she refused to takeoff her kirpan, the IRS firedher.Since then she has been fightinga long legal battle with the USGovernment to allow her towear her kirpan and serve hercountry. The petitioner,Kanwaljeet Kaur, was fired byher employer when she refusedto take off her kirpan.