Name: ______________________________ Date: _____________________ Period: ______________
Law in American Society
Supreme Court Simulation
- Case One Raj Singh and Samira Fadlallah v. Jones High School, 25 F. 3rd 879 (7th Cir. 2012)
This case comes to the U.S. Supreme Court from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. The
petitioners are Raj Singh and Samira Fadlallah, two eighteen year-old public school students
who attend Jones High School, a public high school in Illinois.
The respondent is Jones High School.
Prior to the litigation, respondent Jones High School was struggling to manage its gang
and drug problem. Student gang members frequently used caps and other head gear as a way to
show their identification/affiliation with gangs, and oftentimes would sneak drugs into the school
by concealing it under their head gear. In response, the school enacted a policy forbidding any
student from entering the school building wearing hats or any other article of clothing on his or
her head. Specifically, the policy provided: “No student shall be admitted into Jones High School
wearing any hats, caps, bandanas, scarves, or any other article of clothing over their head. In
the event a student is found wearing such an article of clothing inside the school building, that
student shall be subject to immediate suspension.”
Following the enactment of the policy, respondent Jones High School refused to allow
petitioners Raj Singh, a practicing Sikh, and Samira Fadlallah, a practicing muslim, from
entering the school without removing their religious headgear. Both Singh and Fadlallah’s
religious beliefs require that they wear religious headgear at all times while in public.
Raj Singh and Samira Fadlallah sued the school in federal district court under the First
Amendment, seeking a declaration of their constitutional rights. While the trial court ruled in
favor of Singh and Samira, on appeal the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision.
Singh and Fadlallah filed a petition for a writ of certiorari which the Court has just granted.
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