Court orders review for woman who refused to stand in court

Updated: June 4, 2012 - 3:48 PM

resize text
print
buy reprints

Tweet
share

email
Email share

your name

your email

recipients email

+ add a comment add a comment

The U.S. Court of Appeals wants Minnesota's district court to reconsider the contempt citations against the Somali woman who refused to stand for the judge in her recent terrorism trial. The court ruled that Amina Farah Ali may not challenge the first contempt citation issues by U.S. Chief Judge Michael Davis because she did not make a formal challenge. But the court should reconsider the following citations because the court only applied a First Amendment analysis and never evaluated whether the order was the least restrictive means, as required by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, means to maintaining order in the courtroom. Ali refused to stand in court because she said it violated her religious beliefs. Davis ordered her jailed for several days each time she refused to stand.