Free Republic

[Jazz critic and longtime Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff died Saturday at age 91. Though a self-identified man of the left, he was hard to pigeonhole. This op-ed appeared in the Inquirer on Feb 28, 1988.] ***** As a former board member of the American Civil Liberties Union, I am nonetheless considered a bewildering heretic by many of the ACLU's officers and members. They can't understand how I became pro-life. The lawyer for the ACLU's Reproductive Rights Division refers to me rather contemptuously as having been "born again." Yet I remain an atheist. What changed me on the question of...

People cannot not be barred from juries solely because their clothing or occupation suggest they are devoutly religious, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The court ruled that an assistant Essex County prosecutor abused his discretion during jury selection when he tossed a man whose attire and prayer cap suggested he was Muslim, and another who said he was a missionary. The prosecutor contended that people who are "demonstrative" about their religions "tend to favor defendants." In a 6-0 decision written by Chief Justice Deborah Poritz, the court noted that followers of certain faiths are readily identifiable by their clothing...