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Muslim Woman Sues To Get Florida ID Card
WKMG TV ^

Posted on 01/24/2003 11:57:56 AM PST by McGruff

A Muslim woman in Winter Park, Fla., who refused to remove her veil for a driver's license photograph last year is suing the state of Florida again.

Sultaana Freeman, 35, filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday after the state's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles refused to issue her a state identification card.

Freeman applied for a state ID card in October.

Freeman was originally allowed to wear her veil, which only reveals her eyes, to obtain a Florida driver's license. However, the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles discovered her veiled face in a post-Sept. 11 check of its driver's licenses database.

When officials requested that Freeman take a driver's license photo without the veil, she refused. She said her religious beliefs dictated that she should not show her face to strangers or men outside her family. She also said that her constitutional rights were violated.

"I don't show my face to strangers or unrelated males," Freeman said in an earlier Local 6 News report.

She sued when her driver's license was revoked in 2001.

Freeman's attorney, Howard Marks, has said that the government's stand on this matter is unconstitutional.

Local 6 News reported that Florida law states that license applicants be issued "a color photographic or digital imaged driver's license bearing a full-face photograph.

State officials said that agency rules prevent them from issuing cards with photographs of covered faces.

Freeman, who is an American-born converted Muslim, will go to trial in April for another lawsuit which seeks the reinstatement of her driver's license with a veil.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; US: Florida
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To: dagar
They should send her happy @$$ packing ... to the PRC; aka. the Peoples Republic of California

Sorry...we're full.

41 posted on 01/24/2003 6:29:08 PM PST by ErnBatavia ((Bumperootus!))
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To: Cindy
This is America. We have a set of laws.

Yep - when cultures happen to clash, I'd say the culture in which you reside should win.

42 posted on 01/24/2003 6:31:23 PM PST by ErnBatavia ((Bumperootus!))
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To: VRWCmember
touche'
43 posted on 01/24/2003 6:34:27 PM PST by RIGHT IN SEATTLE
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To: McGruff
Islam is illegal in the U.S. and has been since 1892. (Not that anyone gives a rip!)
44 posted on 01/24/2003 6:38:52 PM PST by nightdriver
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To: McGruff
How do we know it's really her?
45 posted on 01/24/2003 6:39:57 PM PST by Bernard
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To: dirtboy
She's a Reform muslim. They pick and choose which specific portions of the religion to believe in.
46 posted on 01/24/2003 6:41:12 PM PST by Bernard
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To: VOA
"I don't know where the heck the "Thou Shalt Party On, Dude" commandment is located
in The Holy Bible."

Me either, but if you should find it, let me know, it will make the whole 'lost saturday night thing' a bit easier to explain to my pastor.
47 posted on 01/24/2003 6:57:43 PM PST by uncbuck (Stupid people piss me off.)
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To: McGruff
She will lose in both trials, and here's why:

In the state of Florida (as, I'm sure in many other states) the operation of a motor vehicle on public thoroughfares is a PRIVILEGE - not a right. The state extends to you and I or anyone else requesting of them, the PRIVILEGE to use the roads, providing or course, that you obey the state laws when doing so. If you do not abide, your PRIVILEGE is taken away. Believe me - I know from first hand experience (long story)

There is no place in the US or Florida Constitution that says a person has a RIGHT to operate a motor vehicle on our roads. SO, she can take her burka and veil and wear them all day and night if she chooses to. She just cannot operate a car while doing so.

She will lose.

48 posted on 01/24/2003 7:52:47 PM PST by peteram (((((In Stereo)))))
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To: FreeTally
There is absolutely no constitutional issue here. She will not win this case. The entire point of an I.D. card of any type is for the person to be identified.

She will win. The problem is that Florida is one of those states that will issue a license without a photo. In the place of the photo is the statement "valid without photo." Florida routinely issues these to, among others, military members who claim Florida as a home of record and need to get a license renewed. They send in their money and a new license is issed without a photo attached. What makes her any different? If they do it for one they have to do it for another.

49 posted on 01/24/2003 7:57:13 PM PST by FreedomCalls (It's the "Statue of Liberty" not the "Statue of Security.")
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To: McGruff
If she wins, I'm going to try the same thing. I hate my driver's license picture. And my passport picture.
I'd let them take a picture of any piece of cloth they'd like.
50 posted on 01/24/2003 8:10:14 PM PST by speekinout
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To: McGruff
Please let this woman lose! Driving is a privilege not a right - if you want to get a driver's license then abide by the rules for getting a license. So many questions:

- if she's such a devout Muslim why does she need to drive? Her husband or brother should be chauffeuring her around....
- what insanity comes over an American woman to cause her to convert to Islam?
- why doesn't she move to Saudi Arabia / Iran / Pakistan or any other sharia-practicing country where she would feel more at home?

Please god let this case come before a judge with some common sense!
51 posted on 01/24/2003 8:12:13 PM PST by Rummyfan
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To: speekinout
From another article on the same subject.

"Eleven other states allow women to wear veils for license photos, and there are exceptions to the requirement, such as probationary licenses and seven-day permits, which don't require photos, Marks argued. "

52 posted on 01/24/2003 8:15:23 PM PST by FreedomCalls (It's the "Statue of Liberty" not the "Statue of Security.")
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To: FreedomCalls
The problem is that Florida is one of those states that will issue a license without a photo.

Hmmm....this is the first I've heard of that. I'll have to look into it. I DO know this much. After recently changing addresses and getting a new license w/photo, I was told by one of the clerks that you can now renew and update by mail and get a NEW license with the same photo.

Digital technology allows the DHSMV to store your photo on a computer in Tallahassee. When you request a renewal or update, they create a brand new license using that photo. So if a member of the military has at any time had a photo license in the state, and they renew by mail, they will get a replacement using the last picture that was on file.

53 posted on 01/24/2003 8:16:34 PM PST by peteram (((((In Stereo)))))
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To: FreedomCalls
Eleven other states allow women to wear veils for license photos,

That doesn't matter, nor will it come into play in trial. Each state is soveriegn. That means that they do not have to do what another state is doing. If Florida extends a privilege to it's citizens, it is not bound by the way other states have extended that same privilege to their residents. There is no precedent.

54 posted on 01/24/2003 8:20:02 PM PST by peteram (((((In Stereo)))))
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To: FreedomCalls
"Eleven other states allow women to wear veils for license photos,

I'll have to look for which states these are. And do they also allow men to wear face masks?

55 posted on 01/24/2003 8:45:02 PM PST by speekinout
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To: peteram
If Florida extends a privilege to it's citizens, it is not bound by the way other states have extended that same privilege to their residents. There is no precedent.

But Florida already extends that privilege to absentee residents. There is precedent.

56 posted on 01/24/2003 8:48:11 PM PST by FreedomCalls (It's the "Statue of Liberty" not the "Statue of Security.")
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To: FreedomCalls
But Florida already extends that privilege to absentee residents. There is precedent.

You mean Florida already extends the privilege of wearing a veil for their license to absentee residents? I'll have to look into that too.

57 posted on 01/24/2003 8:51:26 PM PST by peteram (((((In Stereo)))))
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To: speekinout
And do they also allow men to wear face masks?

Yeah - I wonder what would happen if I wore a hockey mask to the DMV and told them my name was "Jason"? :-)

58 posted on 01/24/2003 8:53:13 PM PST by peteram (((((In Stereo)))))
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To: wideawake
Roads actually belong to the state and they can dictate virtually anything they want to issue a license. As for this dimwit Muslim woman....I would suggest she go and spend a year in Saudi Arabia. Discover that most women are not allowed to drive or to go out shopping without other Muslim women with her or her husband escorts her. Most American women who get into this Muslim stuff...really are shocked when they go to Saudi Arabia and find the real Muslim world. Most prefer to return within a year and give up the religion at that point.
59 posted on 01/24/2003 8:56:25 PM PST by pepsionice
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To: peteram

"Sir, would you please put down the meat cleaver while we take your DMV photo?"
60 posted on 01/24/2003 8:58:04 PM PST by Cultural Jihad
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