Oklahoma Needs a Civics Lesson: Sharia Law Ban Exposes Constitutional Ignorance

On Monday a federal judge blocked the Oklahoma "Save our State" constitutional amendment because it singled out Sharia law for special mention. The Court ruled that by banning Sharia law from Oklahoma courts but not mentioning other religions, the amendment was effectively endorsing Judeo-Christian laws. That is plainly illegal under the First Amendment (as extended to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment), and the judge ruled correctly.

But to hear the conservatives' howls, you'd think the judge had allowed Sharia law into the Oklahoma law books! Here's what one conservative news site had to say

Ten Commandments in Oklahoma: A Disappointing Victory

(Update: The original headline said "Texas" but it's Oklahoma.)

Yesterday the Supreme Court declined to hear the case from Stigler, Oklahoma, in which the Federal Court ordered a monument with the Ten Commandments removed from the courthouse lawn. While it is a victory that maintains our constitutional rights to a religion-free government, it's too bad that the Supreme Court didn't answer this case once and for all.

A number of other states actually urged the Court to take the case on – not because they had a specific pro/con agenda, but rather because they wanted a clear answer. These cases keep popping up, over and over. Some local Christian minister or ladies group or men's fraternal order will get the notion that everything that's wrong in the world is due to the fact that we don't have God and Jesus in our courtrooms, and they stick a Ten-Commandments monument on some government lawn, and then the state is faced with a big, expensive legal battle.