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Police Officer's Claim of Religious Discrimination In Investigation Dismissed

By Howard M. Friedman

Longmire v. City of Oakland, (ND CA, Nov. 2, 2010), is a lawsuit by an Oakland,California police officer who believed that racial and religious discrimination impacted an investigation that concluded he interfered with the police department's criminal investigation of a Black Muslim Bakery. Members of the bakery were suspected of being involved in two homicides, a kidnapping, a robbery and more. Plaintiff Derwin Longmire claims he was targeted because he was suspected of being a member of the Black Muslim religion while in fact he is a Christian African-American.  In this opinion, a California federal district court dismissed, with leave to amend, Longmire's free speech, free exercise of religion, freedom of association and privacy claims. In dismissing plaintiff's free exercise claim, the court concluded:

Plaintiff ... has failed to provide support for the legal contention that a state may infringe an individual?s free practice of religion based on discrimination on a (mis)perceived religious affiliation.

In dismissing his claim for infringement of associational rights, the court said:

There can be no inference from the allegations made in the current complaint that his rights to associate with the Black Muslim Bakery were infringed if he did not actually associate, or wish to associate, with the group.

The court permitted plaintiff to proceed with his claim that the investigation against him was tainted with race-based discrimination. Yesterday's Contra Costa (CA) Times reports on the decision.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on November 05, 2010 (boomark / email).