Two federal courts have
issued strong defenses of religious expression in two separate decisions, one
involving a teenager’s nose piercing and the other a license plate.
Ariana Iacono, a freshman at
Clayton (N.C.) High School, was allowed to return to class on Oct. 8 after
missing more than four weeks of school for wearing a small nose stud that violated
the school dress code.
The American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit on behalf of Iacono, claiming that the school was
violating her right to religious freedom as a member of the Church of Body
Modification.
“We are thrilled that Ariana
can return to her studies,” said Nikki Iacono, Ariana’s mother, in a statement
from the ACLU. “She has missed 22 days of school already this year because the
school has wrongfully forced her to choose between her education and our family’s
religion. Ariana was an honor roll student in middle school, and she is eager
to get back to her classes and continue with her education as soon as possible.”
The Iacono family belongs to
the Church of Body Modification, which believes rituals such as tattoos and piercings
are essential to spirituality and connect followers to the divine.
The emergency court order by
U.S. District Judge Malcolm J. Howard will allow Iacono to attend school while
the lawsuit continues on the constitutional questions raised by her case.
Meanwhile, the 2nd U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday reversed a lower court decision that
supported a Vermont statute that prohibited religious messages on vanity
license plates.
Shawn Byrne of West Rutland
applied for a personalized license plate with the letters and numbers “JN36TN”
referring to the Bible verse John 3:16. A month later, the DMV denied his
application because the message was “deemed to be a combination that refers to
deity,” according to a statement from the Alliance Defense Fund, which filed
suit on behalf of Byrne in 2005.
DMV officials had earlier
allowed “GENESIS” and “CREED” on vanity plates as long as they refer to musical
groups and not biblical allusions, and “GODDESS” and “BUDDHA” were acceptable
as a reference to a nickname.
“Christians shouldn’t be
censored from expressing their beliefs while others are freely allowed to
express theirs,” said David Cortman, senior counsel at Alliance Defense Fund. “The
2nd Circuit rightly concluded that it’s unconstitutional for the government to
decide that car owners can only identify who they are and what they believe on personalized
plates if their identity and beliefs are nonreligious.”