Headscarf ban: the neutrality law causes another dispute in the Berlin Senate

BERLIN. The Berlin Neutrality Act has sparked another dispute in the red-red-green Senate. The reason for this is the announcement by Education Senator Sandra Scheeres (SPD) that she will appeal to the Federal Constitutional Court about the decision of the Federal Labor Court against the headscarf ban.

Justice Senator Dirk Behrendt (Greens) criticized this step as "senseless litigation". One is surprised "that constitutional complaints have recently been submitted without a Senate resolution". The education administration was inferior by all instances. "One gets the impression that the amendment of the Neutrality Act is to be unnecessarily delayed."

Green and Left Party for abolition of the neutrality law
The regulation prohibits educators at general schools in Berlin as well as judges, public prosecutors, police officers and judicial staff from wearing religious symbols. In addition to the headscarf, this also includes the cross or the kippah. In August 2020, however, the Federal Labor Court in Erfurt ruled that the Berlin Neutrality Act violated the constitution. According to the Erfurt judges, a general, preventive ban on maintaining school peace is illegal because it violates religious freedom.

The Greens and Left Party then demanded the abolition or amendment of the Neutrality Act. However, the SPD politician Scheeres informed the Senate on Tuesday, that she wanted to lodge a constitutional complaint in Karlsruhe. In the past, several women wearing headscarves had prevailed in court in Berlin against their employers who had banned the wearing of a headscarf.

Source: Junge Freiheit