[Vision2020] Public Defender Religious Issues

Tue, 6 Jan 2004 19:43:38 EST

--part1_e4.44207fff.2d2cb03a_boundary
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

All:

This issue of religious faith impacting bias in the application of law 
applies, in a different context, to US Supreme Court Justice Scalia, a devout 
Catholic and Opus Dei member, whose future rulings on cases involving a women's 
right to chose that may come before the highest court in the land could impact 
every community in the US.

If the most lofty of our institutions of law in the US appears to be tainted 
by religious bias which could command a decision mandated by a religious law 
"above" that of the "secular" laws of the US, it appears the intertwining of 
religion and law in our country is not as separate as the ideal of "separation 
of church and state" would imply.

Of course the local public defender, and Scalia, would both, if their feet 
were put to the fire, insist, I suspect, that they can carry out the laws as 
written without letting their religious faith sabotage their professional work.

How many think the success in practice of this sort of compartmentalization 
of religious and professional life on the part of religious zealot to be highly 
unlikely to be consistently applied?  

Ted

--part1_e4.44207fff.2d2cb03a_boundary
Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<HTML>
 All:
 
 This issue of religious faith impacting bias in the application of law a=
pplies, in a different context, to US Supreme Court Justice Scalia, a devout=
 Catholic and Opus Dei member, whose future rulings on cases involving a wom=
en's right to chose that may come before the highest court in the land could=
 impact every community in the US.
 
 If the most lofty of our institutions of law in the US appears to be tai=
nted by religious bias which could command a decision mandated by a religiou=
s law "above" that of the "secular" laws of the US, it appears the intertwin=
ing of religion and law in our country is not as separate as the ideal of "s=
eparation of church and state" would imply.
 
 Of course the local public defender, and Scalia, would both, if their fe=
et were put to the fire, insist, I suspect, that they can carry out the laws=
 as written without letting their religious faith sabotage their professiona=
l work.
 
 How many think the success in practice of this sort of compartmentalizat=
ion of religious and professional life on the part of religious zealot to be=
 highly unlikely to be consistently applied? &nbsp;
 
 Ted
 </HTML>

--part1_e4.44207fff.2d2cb03a_boundary--