MI Supreme Court gives judges authority in how witnesses' dress, including veils worn by Muslim wome

for obvious reasons.  a blind juror is able to COMPLEMENT the
sighted jurors.  the sighted jurors will have the ability to
assess visual aspects.  a blind juror (as is well accepted in
biology) learns to enhance their other senses and often hears
things etc. that sighted people might miss.

this is thus a COMPLEMENTARY situation, where different skills
can combine among different people.

but if a witness is allowed to veil themselves, then the
ability of ANY finder of fact (sighted jurors) is diminished.

justice matters more than cultural sensitivity.  period.

if you were accused of a crime, and witness was testifying
against you, you have the RIGHT to confront that witness.  you
cannot properly confront them if their face is covered.  nor
can the jury properly assess.

the law is always about tradeoffs.  the diminishment of
justice and the obfuscation of truth finding is a much worse
slight than forcing a person not to cover their face.

we don't make special concessions to religious preferences in
a courtroom that hurt the cause of justice and truth finding.

the search for truth is an imperfect process already.

i've seen many witnesses lie in court.  witnesses lie.  it
sucks, but it's true.  we don't facilitate their ability to do
so by allowing them to mask their face