Federal Judiciary

Dumbest Free Exercise Claim Ever!

Hat tip to Howard Friedman, who writes the excellent Religion Clause blog.

A divorced dad has refused to pay his child support through his state's Central Child Support Receipting Unit. He would rather pay the money directly to his wife because this processing unit violates his First Amendment free exercise rights.

What does child support have to do with religious freedom? Well, each state Central Child Support Receipting Unit is established under a federal statute codified at 42 USC Sec. 666.

That's right - he believes his payment would be processed by a "Satanic entity."

He brought a case before the Tennessee Court of Appeals which rejected his claim. As Professor Friedman writes:

The court, however, held that the state's statute is uniformly applicable and facially neutral as to religion. Therefore it is valid so long as it reasonably promotes a legitimate public purpose. The court found that standard to be satisfied.

What if this crackpot had won his case? Any time three "6"s appear in a government agency's phone number or address, Christians would be exempt from its purview? If that were the case, Congress should chnage the phone number of the IRS right away.

N.B. Here is a recording of the judges at the beginning of oral argument:

Full post as published by Supreme Dicta on July 30, 2008 (boomark / email).