Right to wear feather during graduation in federal court

BY LENZY KREHBIEL-BURTON

Special Correspondent

TULSA, Okla. - A federal court is weighing in on a Cherokee and Delaware student’s legal fight to be able to wear a feather at her high school graduation.Citing the First Amendment rights to free speech and free expression of religion, as well as the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act, Hayden Griffith sued Caney Valley Public Schools in federal court earlier this year, seeking a preliminary injunction that would have allowed her to wear an eagle feather on her mortar board at the Washington County district’s graduation on May 21.Magistrate Judge Frank McCarthy sided with Caney Valley administrators on the grounds that Griffith had not sufficiently demonstrated that her rights would be violated by not being allowed to wear the feather on her graduation cap.With a motion for a jury trial still pending, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt recently filed an amicus brief with the Northern District of Oklahoma. Although the state officially does not side with either Griffith or the school district in its brief, it asks that the court reexamine its interpretation of the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act.“ORFA considers exercise substantially burdened so long as the inhibited or curtailed practice at issue is religiously motivated, regardless if the practice is religiously required and regardless whether there is any religious detriment,” Oklahoma Deputy Solicitor General Mithun Mansinghani said. “ORFA in no way excuses, justifies or minimizes a governmental burden on free exercise simply because a plaintiff may have other options for religious exercise, as defendants contend.”Now a freshman at Coffeyville Community College in Coffeyville, Kansas, Griffith was one of two Oklahoma high school seniors to pursue federal litigation this spring in order to wear an eagle feather at commencement. The other student, an unnamed citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, ultimately dropped a lawsuit against Moore Public Schools.No timeline has been set for the potential trial.