A 3-judge panel of the 10th Circuit yesterday questioned attorneys over the constitutionality of Oklahoma’s anti-Sharia referendum, passed by voters last year. The Denver Post reports:
A three-judge panel of federal 10th Circuit judges on Monday repeatedly asked Patrick Wyrick, Oklahoma’s solicitor general, why Shariah law was singled out and whether that amounts to discrimination against Muslims.
“Doesn’t it disfavor Islam as a religion?” Judge Scott Matheson Jr. asked.
Wyrick responded that it doesn’t because the initiative is intended only to apply to aspects of Shariah that would claim legal precedence.
But opponents of the initiative — who filed suit last year to block its certification — say the law denies Muslims rights that would be afforded to people of other religions.
The Baptist Joint Committee filed a brief earlier this year urging the 10th Circuit to find the law unconstitutional. A trial judge temporarily halted the measure late last year.
