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The federal Justice Department is suing the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for religious discrimination against a former employee. The lawsuit filed Friday claims the agency failed to provide religious accommodation to Franches Spears by refusing to allow her to wear a head covering on the job. Spears was hired in 2019 as a clerk at a state jail in Humble. She started wearing the headscarf in keeping with her West African religious beliefs, and was fired a few months later. The lawsuit claims the prison agency violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964.