The court supported the warden's position that it would be a hardship to allow the garment.
CAMDEN -- A Muslim woman who said she was wrongfully fired from the Camden County Correctional Facility for refusing to take off her headscarf lost her appeal Wednesday, but her attorneys are pledging to take her case to the Supreme Court of New Jersey.
The state appellate court ruled that a lower court was right to dismiss two suits filed by Linda Tisby in the summer of 2015 against her former employer. She became a Sunni Muslim earlier that year and was ordered to remove the headscarf, also called a khimar or hijab, because it violated the uniform policy.
The decision Wednesday said the Camden County Superior Court was right to rule that it would have been an "undue hardship" for the county's Department of Corrections to accommodate her religious beliefs "because of overriding safety concerns, the potential for concealment of contraband, and the importance of uniform neutrality."
Camden County spokesman Dan Keashen said the county was pleased with the decision.
"We believe, and the court was clear in its ruling, that this case would have compromised the health and welfare of all who work and stay in the facility," he said.
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The attorneys representing Tisby, Deborah Mains, Kevin Costello and Daniel Silverman of the Mount Laurel firm of Costello & Mains, said they "respectfully disagree" with the decision and plan to appeal it to the state Supreme Court.
"She's of course disappointed, as are we," they said of Tisby.
"She had the opportunity to keep her job as long as she caved in" and removed her scarf, the attorneys said. "She refused and took a stance on the religious issue."
According to the decision, written by Judge Mary Gibbons Whipple, Tisby had worked at the Camden County Correctional Facility since 2002. On May 1, 2015, after becoming a practicing Sunni Muslim, she wore a khimar to work. For the next four days, she was told she was violating the uniform policy, and when she refused to remove the headscarf, was sent home.
She was fired May 11, the same day the warden informed her that though it was a religious garment, the jail did not have to allow the headscarf because it would "constitute an undue hardship."
She filed suit in June, seeking damages and relief, arguing that allowing the garment did not constitute a hardship to the department. Her second suit in July sought reinstatement and backpay.
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In the appeal, her attorneys argued that the lower court was wrong to dismiss the suits because Tisby had stated a legitimate claim and because the attorneys had not even had a chance to complete discovery yet.
She had alleged that other jail employees had been allowed to wear the garments in the past either for religious or medical reasons, but the Superior Court judge found that she had provided no evidence of that.
Her attorneys argued that she was never able to back it up with proof because the case was dismissed before they could investigate how the department had handled the headscarf issue in the past.
"We were deprived of the opportunity to conduct full discovery," Tisby's attorneys said.
In her decision, Whipple also cited two earlier cases in which courts found that the Philadelphia Police Department and a private company contracted to run a correctional facility had refused to allow staff to wear headscarves and had successfully proven that it would be a hardship to allow it.
Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.