No. 19-cv-7977 (RA) (SDA) (S.D.N.Y.)
This Class Action lawsuit challenges a practice of religious discrimination by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) against Corrections Officers who wear beards as part of their religious beliefs.
In 2023, District Judge Ronnie Abrams granted class certification and granted Plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment with respect to their claim that DOCCS has an unconstitutional practice of denying requests for religious accommodations based on a determination that wearing a beard is not a tenet of a believer’s faith.
Judge Abrams issued a permanent injunction against DOCCS enjoining it from enforcing the practice of denying religious accommodations based on their own understanding of the tenets of the applicant’s faith. Judge Abrams also ordered DOCCS not to revoke or modify the beard accommodations for named Plaintiffs Derek Gleixner and Khaldoun Alshamiri and to grant a religious accommodation to named Plaintiff Roland Sofo permitting him to wear a beard up to one inch long.
Representing the Plaintiffs along with Joshua Moskovitz are Ronald C. Cook and Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP.
