Philadelphia, USA - A Muslim firefighter who refuses to shave his beard on religious grounds should not be fired while his legal case unfolds, a city judge ruled in an early test of a state religious freedom law.
The temporary injunction marks the first application by a judge of the Pennsylvania Religious Freedom Protection Act, according to the lawyer representing firefighter Curtis De Veaux.
Mary Catherine Roper, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in Philadelphia who represents De Veaux, said the ruling means her client must be allowed to work while the case continues.
The Philadelphia Fire Department prohibits beards and mustaches for safety reasons, saying they can prevent firefighters from getting a good seal when they wear respirators. Most big-city fire departments ban facial hair, but some, including the District of Columbia, have made exceptions, Roper said.
The 25-year-old De Veaux, a practicing Muslim for about five years, agreed to shave when he joined the department two years ago. But as his faith deepened, he decided he was no longer willing to compromise the point, he said.
"My duty to follow my beliefs outweighs my duty to the fire department," said De Veaux, who also argues that he has a skin condition that makes it painful to shave. He said that he can get a proper seal on the type of respirators now used by the city.
De Veaux was suspended without pay Feb. 2 and told he would be fired a month later if he did not shave. The city agreed to postpone termination proceedings during the legal challenge, Roper said.
The state's three-year-old religious freedom law allows people to challenge laws that interfere with the practice of religion. They must prove that the state has no compelling reason to apply them. Similar laws were passed in other states after a federal religious freedom law was overturned in 1997.
De Veaux, who supports a wife, daughter and younger brother, said he made about $57,000 a year with overtime at the department in his first year. The injunction, issued Friday by Common Pleas Court Judge Joseph Dych, also bars the city from reducing his pay or benefits.
Anne Barden, a deputy city solicitor handling the case, did not immediately return a telephone message Wednesday. In court documents, she said the city has a legitimate need to enforce the ban.
"Allowing a firefighter to wear a beard with a respirator would create an extremely dangerous condition for the firefighter himself, his fellow firefighters and the citizens they are sworn to protect," she wrote in a reply to De Veaux's complaint.