As the United States Supreme Court considers a constitutional
challenge to a Texas law that prohibits acts considered
immoral by the Torah and much of the American public, Agudath
Israel of America, has filed a "friend of the court"
brief.
In contrast to a number of other national Jewish groups that
joined a brief in support of the challenge -- including the
American Jewish Committee, the Commission on Social Action of
Reform Judaism and Hadassah -- Agudath Israel is urging the
Court to uphold the constitutionality of the statute.
Agudath Israel says that it does not advocate the state's
employment of its police power against persons who engage in
immoral acts, the Orthodox group is "deeply concerned about
the potential far-reaching consequences of a decision that
states are constitutionally prohibited from doing so."
Any such decision, asserts the brief, would be premised on a
determination that a state's interest in promoting social
morality carries little or no constitutional weight. That
conclusion, in turn, would likely invite legal challenges to
a host of other laws that are based on conceptions of public
morality, like those that regulate marriage by prohibiting
polygamy or marriages among certain relatives.
"This genie," the brief warns, "once let out of the bottle,
will not easily be restrained."
The brief cites a number of court decisions that clearly
assume the State's legitimate interest in enacting laws
governing private behavior in the larger interest of
safeguarding public morality.
"The laws by which a society chooses to govern itself," the
brief contends, "have, among other things, an educative
function; they establish norms of conduct deemed acceptable
by the society." Agudath Israel urges the Court to not
"devalue the importance of such symbolism" in the case at
issue.
The Agudath Israel brief, which was authored by the
organization's staff attorneys Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Mordechai
Biser and Abba Cohen, is prefaced by a recitation of the
Jewish perspective on the issue "stated clearly in
Leviticus."
The brief further takes note of the fact that the Commission
on Social Action of Reform Judaism, in its submission to the
High Court, asserts its "support and affirm[ation]" for
relationships considered immoral by the Torah, as well as for
civil recognition of such relationships; and cites
Bereishis' teaching that "all human beings are created
in the Divine Image" as theological justification for its
position in the case.
"Unlike our Reform brethren," the Agudath Israel brief
asserts, "we believe that the Author of Genesis, in
Whose Image we are all indeed created, also wrote
Leviticus."
The Supreme Court is expected to decide the case in June.
