Academic

Peterson on Muslim Women, Free Exercise, and Full Body Scanners

By Lawrence Solum

Rohen Peterson (University of California, San Francisco - Hastings College of the Law) has posted The Emperor?s New Scanner: Muslim Women at the Intersection of the First Amendment and Full Body Scanners (Hastings Women?s Law Journal, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

With the introduction of full body scanners, the United States has signaled an increasingly stringent approach to air travel. However, it has not full considered the implication upon Muslim women. While agencies within the United States, such as the Transportation Security Agency, have reacted to concerns from the Muslim community, it has yet to take a proactive role in constructing a method that accommodates the Islamic faith.

This Note approaches Muslim women by identifying the sources of their faith in respect to modesty and clothing. Under the First Amendment, their faith is analyzed in context of airport security measures, particularly full body scanners. From this analysis, a better understanding of how full body scanners impact Muslim women, and the larger Muslim community, can be achieved while simultaneously promoting security and religious freedom.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on October 27, 2010 (boomark / email).