Are you aware of the Texas Family Law Foundation Letter addressed to the Honorable Members of the Texas Legislature? Actually I am—have been for about seven months now. Your Texas State Representative and Texas State Senator should be aware of this letter too. It’s dated February 17th, 2015 from Jimmy Vaught, Chair, Family Law Section of the State Bar of Texas and Diana Friedman, President, Texas Family Law Foundation.
Gee, maybe this letter explains why House Calendars Committee stopped the ALAC bill at the eleventh hour of the 84th Lege.
The letter begins as follows:
“During the Texas Legislature’s last two Regular Sessions, bills have been filed to prohibit certain foreign or religious laws or court decisions from being applied in family law cases.
We want you to know that your colleagues who served in past Texas Legislatures have already given Texas family law judges the tools they need to protect Texans from laws and decisions of countries and cultures that may be abhorrent to our values. Attempts by other state’s legislatures to target a specific religion, or the enforcement of religiously-based agreements between family members, have been found unconstitutional and unworkable. You’ll be happy to know that, working with Texas family lawyers, prior Texas Legislatures have made such legislation unnecessary in Texas.”
The letter from the Texas Family Law Foundation doesn’t specifically mention SB531–colloquially known as the “American Law for American Courts” bill but it’s inferred—and the date of the letter does coincide with the first reading of SB531 on February 18th, 2015 according to the Texas Senate Journal.
You can read the letter here. alac.pdf
Back on May 31st I wrote this post where Act! for America Houston issued a news alert publicizing the failure of SB531 (ALAC) to receive enough votes to move the bill out of the House Calendars Committee before the May 24th deadline, which meant the bill could not progress in the 84thLegislative Session.
Act! For America Houston wanted to know what happened at the eleventh hour.
They asked:
“Why is it at the eleventh hour (literally), GOP Reps. Riddle and Harless adopted reasoning adversarial to our Lieutenant Governor, House Judiciary and Senate State Affairs committees, ten Governors, ten Lieutenant Governors, ten State Chambers and ten House Chambers of ten sister states. What expertise do they suddenly now possess that guide their new found reasoning?”
Gee—maybe the expertise Representatives Riddle and Harless suddenly possessed came from staff who brought this Texas Family Law Foundation letter (and perhaps other letters) to their attention?
Puts the brakes on the BS being circulated.
If that were true, then simply informing their constituents to that fact might have been helpful. I don’t recall that happening.
Pray for the day when local constituents are actually developing model legislation for there elected officials rather than some inside the beltway thinktank , even a “conservative one” controlled by interests other that you own.
Actually we were there for both the House and Senate hearings. During these hearings there was compelling statements from two attorneys. One Travis county attorney who had a client AT THAT TIME in which the father (both were American citizens) living in Dubai was attempting to use Sharia laws to gain Custody of his children. That attorney said ALAC legislation would be very helpful in their ongoing litigation.
The 2nd attorney was a Constitutional Law Attorney that specializes in Family Law. She has had a 17 page white paper published in the Federalist Society on American Family Law and Sharia Compliant Marriages.
http://www.fed-soc.org/publications/detail/american-family-law-and-sharia-compliant-marriages
The Texas Family Law Foundation was a lone voice in the woods along with Representatives from SA CAIR. Be careful the company you keep.
Be forthcoming and publicly name the ten states that passed a law similar to SB 531. Then publicly provide the bill numbers that those State Governors signed into law.
Yvonne, the info regarding the 10 states was sent to you. Will you please publish it?
Here is an article of 10 states “considering”–
http://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2015/02/03/10-states-already-considering-creeping-shariah-bills-in-2015/
Here is another of states that have “passed”
http://publicpolicyalliance.org/legislation/american-laws-for-american-courts/
It has also passed in NC and OK;
http://counterjihadreport.com/2014/05/30/alac-protects-constitutional-rights-against-foreign-laws-including-shariah/
http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/07/north-carolina-senate-passes-alac-inspired-bill/
If you want the bill numbers you can look them up yourself.
If you want the truth about Sharia and Family Law–read the 17 page White paper by Karen Lugo paying special attention to the cases in NJ. Those cases where the men ONLY obtain Islamic marriages and not state sanctioned licenses. This way when they say, “I divorce you” three times, the poor woman is left with nothing. She has no right to anything because there is no state record of a legal marriage. 1000s of these have occurred in NJ. These laws protect women and children.
I hate to break this to people but US courts regularly apply federal law in international cases. So, they may apply German law in a contract dispute, especially if the contract says German law applies. The US is party to treaties on family law, many of which require US courts to enforce foreign family law judgments.
In fact, section 5.001 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code says the rule of decisions in Texas civil courts is those portions of the “common law of England” that is inconsistent with the laws and constitutions of this state.
Get off it. No one seriously thinks Sharia law will be applied in the US — unless a majority of the legislature or congress votes to do so.
People who think we’re about to be living under sharia law also are afraid the sky is falling. It just isn’t happeing.
make that “common law of England” that is not inconsistent with state law or constitution.
Tom, I was told by a family court judge that they see the influence of Sharia law in the system all the time. And I am not talking about recognizing a divorce that took place in Pakistan. I am talking about women losing their children because their value is less that of a man. The Islamic Tribunal that was established outside Dallas will deal with divorces. The man may approach the court directly to request a divorce. Women must ask an imam to represent her. That is Shariah. And now it is happening right here on Texas soil. So, I beg to differ. It is being used in this country. It may not be as widespread here as it is in Detroit or most of Europe. But I would really like to keep it that way. In my opinion, women are equal and deserve to be treated that way.
Several religions, for example the Catholic Church and some Orthodox Jews, have marriage tribunals to determine the validity of marriages under their religious laws. So, the Catholic tribunals apply canon law. There is no reason why Muslims should be treated differently for dealing with marital disputes as their religious law applies.
But only a secular court can adjudicate in a legally enforceable way the validity of a marriage, child custody and division of property. So, for example, the Catholic Church can tell you that your church marriage is valid so if you get a secular divorce and remarry you are committing adultery and will burn in Hell. But a Catholic who gets a secular divorce can remarry under secular law and it is valid as far as the government is concerned.
Even in the absence of a marriage, civil family courts can issue orders on child custody and child support. They do it every day.
If there are some family judges who will not decide child custody in the best interests of the child because of a decision by a religious court, the proper solution is to get rid of that judge and get someone with the brains and guts to do his/her job.
You obviously did not read the 17 page white paper from the Federalist Society that was posted. In NJ there are thousands of marriages that occur ONLY in the religious realm. They do not obtain a state marriage license. If and when the man decides he no longer wants to be married, he says, “I divorce you” three times and that is it. The woman has no legal recourse, no claim on community property–nothing. She is left out in the cold. There are over a thousand of these cases documented in NJ alone. This affects not only marital property but child custody. This bill was to PROTECT the women and children. Better to be proactive. Furthermore, some of us attended both House and Senate hearings in Austin. There was a Travis County attorney who at that very moment had a case where two Americans who had been living in Dubai were getting a divorce. It was a very complicated case but the husband had claimed custody of the 3 children under Sharia. She said passage of ALAC would greatly help her client. Wife was her and husband was there.
We never thought terrorists would be gunning down our citizens in the name of Islam, but that is happening. When the proportion of Muslims reaches a critical point in certain areas, they begin electing their own officials who are sympathetic to Shariah law. At some stage they will overwhelm the area and begin ignoring our Constitution. It has happened in Europe and parts of Minnesota. Never say never!!
So, Yvonne, are you saying that:
– after Riddle helped co-author the bill and had it in her possession for the entire 84th lege or longer
– after she knew that it had been vetted by numerous attorneys, family law judges and political consultants
– after it had already been pushed in the 83th lege and the issues it had then had been removed and rewritten,
AFTER all of that, Debbie Riddle suddenly decides in the VERY LAST HOUR that its a BAD bill? Is that honestly what you would have your readers believe? She received ONE letter from ONE association and suddenly the bill is a bad bill that will harm Texas. Right. Sure. Ironic that CAIR representatives were sitting with the Texas Family Law Association reps during the proceedings and that is a fact. Two people I know were there and saw it in person.
I suggest that if Debbie Riddle and Patricia Harless cannot vet a bill any better than that they should step down and let someone else do their job. Better yet, if you are going to be someone’s tool, step down and let real people with real principles run for office.
I sure hope Debbie got something really good for pulling this crap because it is probably going to cost her re-election. Thankfully.
Just read my Texas Scorecard magazine and it appears Debbie Riddle was BOUGHT OFF for her vote on ALAC. A little Quid pro quo so to speak. Lifted directly from the article:
Riddle has aligned herself with liberal Austin lobbyist Steve Bresnen who in turn writes checks to her campaign. Bresnen and his lobby group, the “Texas Family Law Foundation,” are known for opposing parental rights reforms championed by the Texas Home School Coalition. (Riddle has also favorably cited Bresnen’s lobby group as the reason she killed the bill ensuring American courts base their decisions on American Law.)
THIS!!!! Is the real reason she changed her vote at the 11th hour. Just a crass politician whose vote is for sale to the highest bidder.