In this screengrab from surveillance video, a Tulsa County sheriff’s deputy is seen running a metal-detector wand over Suha Elqutt’s hijab on April 10. A federal judge has dismissed Elqutt’s lawsuit, saying her complaint failed to meet the legal burden of showing that her constitutional rights were violated. Courtesy
A judge has dismissed a Muslim woman’s civil rights lawsuit after finding that her complaint failed to meet the legal burden to show that Tulsa County sheriff’s deputies violated her constitutional rights when they refused to let her enter the courthouse because she wouldn’t remove her hijab in public when she set off a metal detector.
U.S. District Judge Claire Eagan, in an opinion and order released Tuesday, dismissed claims against four sheriff’s deputies sued in their personal capacities.
Eagan, in her ruling, noted that Suha Elqutt’s lawsuit “has not shown that clearly established law would have put defendants on notice that requiring a plaintiff to remove her hijab in a public place was a violation of plaintiff’s constitutional rights.”
Eagan also dismissed as moot official capacity claims against Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado and the four deputies, finding that the lawsuit “contains no allegations suggesting that there is a substantial and immediate risk of irreparable injury.”
Eagan’s order dismisses the lawsuit without prejudice, leaving Elqutt an opportunity to refile the lawsuit.
Keith Wilkes, a private attorney representing the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, issued the following statement Wednesday when asked to comment on the ruling:
“The decision by the ACLU and CAIR attorneys to hold a self-serving press conference last year in which they made substantive misstatements and gross exaggerations regarding the incident while failing to disclose pertinent facts, led to a national media story that wasn’t. Once the actual truth was exposed and applied to federal law, the Court dismissed Ms. Elqutt’s lawsuit at the earliest possible stage because she failed to establish there was any violation of her constitutional rights.
“The men and women of the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Department did their jobs. This was not a case of a person being targeted for her faith. It was a person required to go through a security checkpoint, like all others, who was permitted to walk through the metal detector with her hijab in-place. Unfortunately, she then set off two different metal detectors, four different times, because she had an unknown metal object under her hijab. Once female deputies were able to look under the hijab—outside the view of any men — Ms. Elqutt was cleared and allowed to proceed. There was no violation of her constitutional rights.
“Hundreds of people of all different walks of life, race, faith and ethnicity access the Tulsa County Courthouse each day, and this is the first time the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office has been accused of violating anyone’s constitutional rights while going through security. In fact, court records reveal that Ms. Elqutt herself went through security 8 times in 5 months before this incident, and two times since, all without incident. The Court made the right decision by dismissing this lawsuit.”
Elqutt filed the civil rights lawsuit after she was stopped by deputies after she set off a metal detector when she tried to enter the Tulsa County Courthouse April 10 while wearing a hijab.
The lawsuit, brought May 15 in Tulsa federal court on Elqutt’s behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma Foundation and the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, sought injunctive relief and damages for claims of violation of the First Amendment and the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act.
An attorney for CAIR said they were disappointed with the ruling.
“We are exploring all of our options, including an appeal,” said Veronica Laizure.
Elqutt claimed in her lawsuit that deputies and the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office violated her First Amendment rights by requiring her to remove her hijab in public for search purposes before she could enter the Tulsa County Courthouse.
After explaining to deputies that it was against her religious beliefs to remove her hijab in front of men, Elqutt alleged deputies still refused to permit a female deputy to examine her hijab in a private space.
Regalado said at the time that the county did not have a room set aside at the courthouse for private security screenings.
Elqutt and her attorney eventually left the courthouse, where they were later met in a parking lot by female deputies. Elqutt agreed to let the female deputies remove Elqutt’s hijab while she crouched between two parked cars.
A small hair clip under the hijab set off the metal detectors, officials said at the time.
Elqutt claims in her lawsuit that men could have walked past while her hijab was removed.
Eagan noted that deputies had a legitimate concern that Elqutt could have been carrying a weapon when she repeatedly set off a metal detector.
A male deputy attempted to accommodate Elqutt by using a metal detector wand in an attempt to allow her to wear her hijab while entering the courthouse, Eagan wrote in her opinion and order.
“Even if the plaintiff is correct that she had a right to a religious accommodation, the facts alleged in her complaint show that defendants did attempt to accommodate the plaintiff’s religious beliefs,” Eagan wrote.
In addition to dismissing First Amendment violation claims, Eagan also dismissed her state law claim under the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act.
TCSO spokeswoman Casey Roebuck said Wednesday that a private screening area is now available at the Tulsa County Courthouse’s Denver Avenue entrance. The private screening area was set up about a month after the incident, Roebuck said.
Signs letting the public know about the availability of private screening are located at the other two public entrances of the courthouse, Roebuck said.
Be the first to know
Get local news delivered to your inbox!
