Within a week of the Idaho House Ways and Means Committee moving a bill designed to keep Shariah law and other foreign codes from becoming part of Idaho court decisions or government policies, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has asked Idaho legislators to kill the bill.
CAIR maintains the bill, HB 568, is unconstitutional because it violates the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution. The bill moved forward on a 4-3 vote with all Democrats on the committee voting no.
In a letter sent today to Speaker of the Idaho House of Representatives Scott Bedke, CAIR Senior Staff Attorney William Burgess wrote in part: “In analyzing legislation under the Establishment Clause, courts consider the ‘contemporaneous legislative history’ and ‘the specific sequence of events leading to passage of the statute’ to determine whether it was passed with an ‘improper purpose.’ Laws which do not have a genuine and primary secular purpose are unconstitutional. It is not a valid secular purpose to pass a law intended to target a particular religion for disfavor.”
The CAIR attorney continued: “It is clear from its legislative history that H.B. 568 is motivated by anti-Islam animus. Its passage would send a message that Islam is an officially disfavored religion in Idaho. Legislation passed with the intent to attack a particular religion is a violation of the Establishment Clause, which requires that government remain neutral in matters of religion. This unconstitutional bill should be withdrawn.”
Before the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Eric Redman, R-Athol, presented to the committee, he circulated pictures of a severed hand and a man about to be beheaded to legislative leaders considering the proposal. The pictures were pasted in between definitions of Shariah law and accusing the Prophet Muhammad of being a pedophile.