Audio By Carbonatix
The House State Affairs Committee was scheduled today to consider Rep. Dan Flynn’s proposal to ban “religious or cultural law” from Texas courts. Rep. Flynn apparently withdrew his proposal, HJR 43, from committee consideration at the last second, but it’s still worth a look.
As the Texas Freedom Network reports, this is likely a new attempt to ban Sharia law. Islamophobic lawmakers keep insisting Sharia is really a real threat you guys, really. The concern is that Sharia will creep (it’s sole means of locomotion) into the U.S. legal system and then replace the Constitution despite a complete lack of evidence that of Islamic jurisprudence is replacing U.S. law.
Previous attempts to ban Sharia specifically have been unsuccessful in Texas and ruled unconstitutional elsewhere.
Turns out it’s tricky these days to pass laws targeting just one group of Americans. But the new, broader language Flynn uses in HJR 43 invites its own problems. The proposal says that courts may not “enforce, consider, or apply any religious or cultural laws.” As TFN points out, people either married outside of the U.S., or looking to settle disputes based on their own religious or cultural customs could all be affected by this.
The American Bar Association also claims that, because these laws would so severely hamstring businesses dealing internationally, they’ll cause “unanticipated and widespread negative impact on business, adversely affecting commercial dealings and economic development in the states in which such a law is passed and in U.S. foreign commerce generally.”
In Rep. Flynn’s defense, there’s a chance this proposal wasn’t meant to be a veiled attempt to marginalize a religious minority. A very, very small chance. We’ve left a message with his office.
