Free Exercise Claim Over Search Warrant Execution Fails

In Brown v. Scanlon, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 194049 (MD PA, Nov. 13, 2018), a Pennsylvania federal magistrate judge recommended dismissing a free exercise claim growing out of the execution of a search warrant at the residence of Shannon Brown.  Brown claims that her 1st Amendment rights were infringed when police forced her to lie on the floor handcuffed in her underwear during the search.  She says that as a Muslim woman, being in a state of undress around men caused her to feel defiled and embarrassed. She also complained that she was forced to remove her head scarf for her mugshot at the courthouse.