was rejected by the municipality of Emmen, after which Dijkstra successfully registered the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster as a church association (kerkgenootschap) at the – initially hesitant – Dutch Chamber of Commerce in January 2016. However, the municipality continued rejecting his application, arguing that registering as a church association did not mean that Pastafarianism was now a (recognised) religion, leading Dijkstra to sue the municipality for discrimination, and gathering dozens of colander-wearing FSM Church members and sympathisers at the trial in Groningen on July 7, 2016. Meanwhile, other Pastafarians succeeded in obtaining colander-featuring passports and driver's licences from the municipalities of Leiden and The Hague. On August 1, 2016, the Groningen court ruled that, although Pastafarianism is a life stance, it is not a religion, nor is there a duty in Pastafarianism to wear the colander, and therefore the religious exemption to the prohibition on wearing headgear in identity photos did not apply to Pastafarians. In January 2017, Nijmegen Pastafarian and law student Mienke de Wilde petitioned the Arnhem court to be allowed to wear a colander in her driver's licence photo. She lost the petition, both at first instance in February 2017 and on appeal at the Council of State in August 2018. United States In February 2013, a Pastafarian was denied the right to wear a spaghetti strainer on his head for his driver's license photo by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, which stated that a pasta strainer was not on a list of approved religious headwear. In August 2013 Eddie Castillo, a student at Texas Tech University, got approval to wear a pasta strainer on his head in his driver's license photo. He said, "You might think this is some sort of a gag or prank by a college student, but thousands, including myself, see it as a political and religious milestone for all atheists everywhere." In January 2014 a member of the Pomfret, New York Town Council wore a colander while taking the oath of office. In November 2014 former adult film star Asia Carrera obtained an identity photo with the traditional Pastafarian headgear from a Department of Motor Vehicles office in Hurricane, Utah. The director of Utah's Driver License Division says that about a dozen Pastafarians have had their state driver's license photos taken with a similar pasta strainer over the years. In November 2015 Massachusetts resident Lindsay Miller was allowed to