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The article analyzes the German debates over the headscarf from the perspective of the interrelation between discursive production and lawmaking. After pointing out how these debates demonstrate the Christian bias of the “neutral” secular state, it shows how the liberal stance of the federal Constitutional Court in Ludin’s case (2003) has been undermined by the ongoing public debates surrounding this decision, and more recently by the enactment of bills by the Länder prohibiting teachers’ headscarves. Looking in particular at the selection of Muslim experts who helped to legitimate this prohibition, the article argues that the public arena fails to honor its promise of openness and inclusion.