The alternative is to focus on what is in the best interests of the child, e.g., education, health. Not being forced to get married at 13 and have children...
Marci The religious status quo could also be a non-observant or explicitly atheistic r agnostic household, which would also have to be respected under the rule that ugene supports. The alternative is for the courts to determine which religions re "extremist," a questionable role for the judiciary. Richard T. Foltin irector of National and Legislative Affairs ffice of Government and International Affairs : 202-785-5463, f: 202-659-9896 olt...@ajc.org Marci A. Hamilton Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law Yeshiva University 55 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10003 (212) 790-0215 hamilto...@aol.com -----Original Message----- From: Richard Foltin <folt...@ajc.org> To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics <religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu> Sent: Fri, Apr 20, 2012 8:32 am Subject: RE: Mothers leaving ultra-religious groups, and religious upbringing as a factor in custody disputes The religious status quo could also be a non-observant or explicitly atheistic r agnostic household, which would also have to be respected under the rule that ugene supports. The alternative is for the courts to determine which religions re "extremist," a questionable role for the judiciary. Richard T. Foltin irector of National and Legislative Affairs ffice of Government and International Affairs : 202-785-5463, f: 202-659-9896 olt...@ajc.org oin us at the AJC Global Forum 2012, May 2-4 in Washington, D.C. EGISTER NOW ake Action with AJC by visiting the Action Center OTICE his email may contain confidential and/or privileged material and is intended or the sole use of the intended recipient(s). If you are not the intended ecipient, please be advised that you have received this email in error and that ny use, disclosure, copying, distribution or other transmission is prohibited, mproper and may be unlawful. If you have received this email in error, you ust destroy this email and kindly notify the sender by reply email. If this mail contains the word CONFIDENTIAL in its Subject line, then even a valid ecipient must hold it in confidence and not distribute or disclose it. In such ase ONLY the author of the email has permission to forward or otherwise istribute it or disclose its contents to others. ----Original Message----- rom: religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu [mailto:religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu] n Behalf Of Marci Hamilton ent: Friday, April 20, 2012 9:24 AM o: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics c: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics ubject: Re: Mothers leaving ultra-religious groups, and religious upbringing as factor in custody disputes I don't think it is a difficult question but disagree that the rule is sound. he standard should be the best interest of the child. Stability in an xtremist religion is often not in the child's best interest, especially if the hild is a girl. or example, the FLDS. The best interest of the child can also trump mainstream eligions depending on the facts of the case. The focus must be the child. This sort of assumption that religious status quo is a social good is an nconstitutional preference for religion. his is a good example of when the application of a neutral generally applicable rinciple can serve the greater good more directly than a religious preference. Marci Marci A. Hamilton aul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law enjamin N. Cardozo School of Law eshiva University ew York, NY 10003 On Apr 20, 2012, at 9:09 AM, "Volokh, Eugene" <vol...@law.ucla.edu> wrote: > There's an interesting op-ed at > http://blog.nj.com/njv_guest_blog/2012/04/among_nj_orthodox_jewish_women.html hat faults the child custody law preference for stability of religious pbringing: When women leave arranged marriages in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish ommunity -- and leave ultra-Orthodoxy more general -- they may sometimes lose ustody of their children on the grounds that the person who remains within the ommunity is more able to provide stability of religious upbringing. I'm inclined to say that this rule (which of course could equally apply to athers who leave a religious community as well, though I don't know how elatively frequent such departures are) is a sound one, for children who are ld enough to have some experience with the religion and thus some stake in tability of religious upbringing. To be sure, the rule does create some ressure against departing the faith, since often someone who leaves the group an no longer raise the children in the same religious environment even if she's illing to, because the group might no longer accept her; but this seems in this ituation to be an acceptable and denominationally neutral rule (especially if t is equally applied to a parent who moves into a ultra-religious community hich disrupts the stability of the children's nonreligious, or only mildly eligious, upbringing). But I still thought I'd mention the op-ed, in case eople think it's a difficult and interesting question. Eugene _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. nyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can ead the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the essages to others. ______________________________________________ o post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, hange options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. nyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can ead the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the essages to others. _______________________________________________ o post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu o subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see ttp://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. nyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can ead the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the essages to others.
_______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
