I would say, the right being infringed upon is the right not to be denied a privilege of citizenship based on the way you practice your religion. This is a christian culture, so the privilege of driving is obtained in a way which is does not conflict with a Christian way of life. It does, however, conflict with the Muslim way of life. She should not have to be forced to deviate from her religious beliefs in order to have access to the privilege of driving. I think there is a 14th amendment equal protection issue here: if the government chooses to make a privilege available, they should make it equally accessable to all citizens, regardless of religious practices. By forcing her to deviate from her religion in order to get the license, they are not providing her the same access to the privileges of citizenship as christians.
(gee, can you tell i'm a lawyer with too much free time?! lol)
They should just find another way to identify her on her drivers license, fingerprints or something. I'm sure if they think hard enough they can come up with something. I sincerely doubt that, if christianity had facial coverings, we would all be riding around in horses and buggies because they could not come up with a way to create identifiable drivers licenses. where there's a will, there's a way. Obviously, in the case of the DMV here, there's no WILL to accomodate her religious practices.
Well, that was a fun way to kill 10 minutes! Nothing like a little friday afternoon intellectual discourse!
