Cheema

dissenting.

INTRODUCTION

The majority affirms the district court’s pre-trial “plan of accommodation,” under which a school district is enjoined from enforcing both its own no-knives policy and a state statutory limitation on the size of knives on campuses against Sikh children who carry their knives (“kirpans”) for religious reasons. Further, the plan of accommodation bars the school district from requiring that the kirpans in question be riveted to their sheaths. As a result of the majority’s ruling, the school district must allow 7, 8 and 10 year-old children to carry 7-inch knives to school, as long as the knives are worn under the children’s clothing and are sewn to their sheaths, even though: the district court originally concluded that the knives in question are dangerous; the children’s own expert testified that sewing the knives to the sheaths does not render them unremovable; no evidence was presented showing that the 7, 8 and 10 year-olds in question are any more mature than other children of the same age; evidence was pre *887 sented that the children in question, despite their religious dictates, have exposed their knives during play; evidence was presented that one…

Opinion by Judge HALL; Dissent by Judge WIGGINS.

ORDER

The order filed August 1, 1995, is hereby withdrawn and the opinion below filed in its stead.

OPINION

Appellants Livingston Union School District (the “school district”) appeal the district court’s preliminary injunction ordering them to accommodate three schoolchildren’s religious practices until this dispute under the Religious Freedoms Restoration Act of 1993 (“RFRA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000bb et seq., can be litigated on the merits.

The district court had jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331 . We have jurisdiction of the appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (a)(1). We review the district court’s preliminary injunction for abuse of discretion. Stanley v. Univ. of Southern Calif., 13 F.3d 1313, 1319 (9th Cir.1994). Finding none, we affirm.

I

Three young Khalsa Sikh children stand at the center of this controversy: Rajinder, Su-khjinder, and Jaspreet Cheema (together, the “children” or “Cheemas”). A central tenet of their religion requires them to wear at all times five symbols of their faith: “kes” (long hair), “kangha” (comb), “kacheh” (sacred underwear), “kara” (steel bracelet), and a “kirpan” (ceremonial knife). 1…