San Francisco Weighs In On Circumcision Ban

Arutz Sheva ^ | 7/7/11 | Gavriel Queenann

[Eleutheria5]

The city of San Francisco finally weighed in on a local ballot measure that asks voters to ban the circumcision of male children, saying its attorney claim the proposed law would be unconstitutional if applied to Jewish mohels. The city attorney's office made the argument in response to a lawsuit by a coalition of Jews and Muslims that has asked a California court to remove the initiative from this year's November 8 ballot. The lawsuit, which names both the city and the anti-circumcision activist who qualified the measure, argues that state law bars local governments from restricting medical procedures.

If a judge accepts that reasoning and only excludes physicians from the ban, the measure would target only religious faiths that practice circumcision, thereby runing afoul of the First Amendment to the Constituion which guarantees religious freedom, lawyers for the city wrote.

"San Franciscans cannot be asked to vote on whether to prohibit religious minorities from engaging in a particular religious practice, when the same practice may be performed under nonreligious auspices," the city's brief said.

"If the court concludes that the measure is pre-empted as applied to medical professionals, then the remaining application is unconstitutional and the court should remove the measure from the ballot entirely," the city attornies concluded.

[Morpheus2009]

Thank you, Morpheus. But stay away from San Francisco. You are now officially a heretic, and liable to be burnt at the stake.

Yeah, but I never exactly claimed to be a leftist or San Franciscoan either, but there’s a better word that would describe my relationship to San Francisco, it’s called infidel!/sarc. Either way, it’s nice and funny talking to you, Eleutheria!