Prairie Hasids

Have you been following the Amish hair cutting trial? To refresh your memory, a renegade Ohio Amish sect was running around cutting off fellow Amish people's beards and hair against their will. The haircuttees were not practicing the proper tenets of the creed, according to the assailants.

Now I don't claim to be an expert on the fancy dutch but this case is getting kind of interesting. Yesterday the indicted men's lawyer said that the case should be dismissed because the hate crimes law is unconstitutional. According to the lawyer's “the alleged intra-religious actions between private individuals do not fall within the statute or federal authority. The actions are not alleged to have been taken out of prejudice or hatred against the Amish religion. Rather, the alleged acts are doctrine-based Old Order Amish beliefs.”

“The [Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009] is not to be applied in a manner that interferes with the practice of religion or speech under the First Amendment,” the motion says. “Therefore, the statute on its face, or as applied here, violates the federalism principles of the Tenth Amendment, which bars Congress from regulating an area historically left to the States.”

Now I would think that the fundamentalists in this country would be all over this and lend their support to the hirsute defendants. Isn't this just like Bob Jones University not allowing coloreds into the college because G-D cursed the sons of Ham, or denying your employees birth control coverage at Catholic universities, even if they are not of the faith? We get this overturned and you can not rent to gays, or serve jews in your restaurant or employ blacks if you don't want to or a million other cool things. Hell, you could probably come up with some bible language that would give you the right to shoot a cannon at your wife. Damn government, messing with our religious liberty again.

This is the slippery slope of allowing theology, of any stripe, to insert its hairy paw into the American system of governance. Because god can tell you to do all sorts of nasty shit and then you can flee back to your bibles for cover.  Stop with the involuntary haircuts already.