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Judge Orders Defendant to Attend Church (for Ten Years)

An Oklahoma judge has ordered a 17 year old man found guilty of DUI related manslaughter to go to church once a week for ten years. The American Civil Liberties Union has taken exception to it. Per the article:

Initially there was little outcry in Muskogee, Okla., last week when a judge, as a condition of a youth’s probation for a driving-related manslaughter conviction, sentenced him to attend church regularly for 10 years....But as word of the ruling spread in state and national legal circles, constitutional experts condemned it as a flagrant violation of the separation of church and state. This week, the American Civil Liberties Union said it would file a complaint against Judge Norman with the Oklahoma Council on Judicial Complaints, an agency that investigates judicial misconduct, seeking an official reprimand or other sanctions. We see a judge who has shown disregard for the First Amendment of the Constitution in his rulings,” said Ryan Kiesel, executive director of the civil liberties union branch in Oklahoma....Randall T. Coyne, a professor of criminal law at the University of Oklahoma, agreed that the judge’s church requirement was unconstitutional. But unless the defendant fights the ruling, he said, civil liberties advocates have no way to challenge it in court, leaving the complaint to the judicial review agency as their only option.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/us/oklahoma-judges-sentencing-of-...

Tags: Church and State, First Amendment, Jubinsky

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Regina Goodwin on January 3, 2013 at 2:50pm

This does not mean that I cannot read 50 Shades of Grey while in church. :-)

Permalink Reply by Joseph P on January 3, 2013 at 5:23pm

Why would you want to torture yourself further? Being stuck in church isn't bad enough?

If you want to read erotica in church, at least read something that's competently written.

Permalink Reply by Humble Pie on January 9, 2013 at 1:17pm

Easy. If it were just some generic smut, the church members might not know what it was, and be less bothered. ;)

Permalink Reply by Regina Goodwin on January 3, 2013 at 7:36pm

I was being sarcastic. Actually, I would bring the whole series and the some. :-)

Permalink Reply by Joseph P on January 3, 2013 at 7:42pm

Does she learn how to write, somewhere between book one and book two?

Permalink Reply by Regina Goodwin on January 4, 2013 at 7:35pm

I have no idea. I never read them. However, one of my neighbors has purchased a XXX rated parody video of the book and she is renting it out to the residents in my building.

Permalink Reply by Pamela Dale on January 23, 2013 at 10:42am

I really hope this kid fights this ruling. One would think that a judge would be legally barred from making an unconstitutional ruling. Where is his cupability in this issue.

Permalink Reply by Secular Forces 2013 on January 24, 2013 at 8:05am