Maryland's Court of Appeals heard arguments last week in a fascinating religious accommodation case. Alexander Neustadter lost his lawsuit against Holy Cross Hospital after refusing to participate in 2 of the trial days due to his observance of Shavuot as an Orthodox Jew.
The upshot, Neustadter's attorney, Thomas J. Macke, told the appellate judges, was that key testimony by witnesses for Holy Cross Hospital went unchallenged in the June 2008 trial. Neither Neustadter, nor his lawyer, whom he ordered not to work on his behalf on the holiday, was there to object to the witnesses' characterizations of points that were crucial to Neustadter's claims about his father's treatment and death in 2003.
…
Two judges — Joseph F. Murphy Jr. and Mary Ellen Barbera — wondered aloud how courts that handle extreme circumstances and emergencies could not craft a solution with a month's notice, though Murphy said he was less concerned with the court's schedule than with the availability of expert witnesses, whose court appearances are planned in their schedules.What the judges will consider in weighing the competing interests of religious observance and orderly operation of government is unclear.
