The IRS employee and Sikh knife
Recently baptized in the Sikh faith, Kawal Tagore went to her job with the IRS in Houston in 2005 carrying a new religious item: a 9-inch kirpan, a small ceremonial sword that resembles a knife but has an edge that is blunted or curved.
Tagore needed to carry the kirpan at all times as a mandatory article of faith.
But the federal government banned her from the building, citing the kirpan as a “dangerous weapon” with a more than 3-inch blade, and she was later fired from her accounting job because she refused to keep the kirpan out of the workplace.
Tagore sued the government under the federal law.
Tagore cited how the government allowed the public to enter the federal building with more threatening objects: real 2.5-inch blade knives and metal canes, said her attorneys with the Newar Law Firm and the Becket Fund. Also, federal employees inside the building were allowed to use box cutters and cake knives.
In November, the federal government agreed to settle the case shortly after the start of Tagore’s trial.
The settlement included no admission of wrongdoing, the Christian Science Monitor reported.
Tagore’s attorneys described the settlement as “a groundbreaking policy allowing Sikhs and other religious minorities to wear religious symbols and attire in federal buildings,” they said in a statement.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2015/04/01/us/religious-freedom-laws-controversial-cases/index.html