1613735006 (N) by Louis Grumet

Author:Louis Grumet
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2016-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

In addition to the Lemon question, Worona also took up the challenge of Judge Levine’s dissent, which suggested the state was merely “accommodating” the Satmar culture by lifting a burden. Levine seemed to be trying to analogize the Satmar to the Amish, who had successfully convinced the state to lift the “burden” of compulsory education. This analogy did not ring true, because, unlike the Amish, Kiryas Joel was demanding special government services rather than an accommodation to free them from following a government mandate that interfered with their religious beliefs. In short, they wanted to have their cake and eat it too.

Worona directly attacked the cultural accommodation theory. He argued that the village could not simultaneously maintain that it was merely accommodating the Satmar culture while at the same time disputing that religion had anything to do with their refusal to use the ordinary public schools:

Hasidim believe in a literal interpretation of Scripture and the teachings of the Torah and the Talmud (the book of Jewish law and tradition) serve to guide every aspect of life from dress to diet. Central to Hasidic beliefs and way of life is the drawing of cultural boundaries between themselves and the rest of society. To protect themselves against undesirable acculturation, Satmar Hasidim, for instance, prevent their children from watching television. They also do not allow their children to attend school with children who belong to cultures deemed undesirable for Satmar….

Thus, education comes close to being an adjunct to religion. “English language” or secular educational programs are offered only as necessary to meet the minimum state requirements for qualifying as an approved school under the State’s compulsory education laws. Textbooks are censored in advance, and the borrowing of public library books is forbidden because of their uncensored content. Nonacademic subjects such as art, music and physical education are absent from Satmar schools….

The cultural needs of the children of Kiryas Joel are inextricably linked to fundamental Satmar religious beliefs which define the essence of Satmar culture, and dictate, in relevant part, that Satmar children be educated separate and apart from non-Satmar students. The only reason why Village residents required a separate school district was because of their religious need to remain culturally isolated. Thus, the primary effect of the contested statute is not to provide Village children with special education services, but rather to involve the state in sponsorship of Satmar separatist precepts.

We were confident that if the court accepted this argument, and therefore rejected Levine’s accommodation theory, it would have nothing to fall back on other than the Lemon test. And in our view, we couldn’t possibly lose with a strict interpretation of Lemon.

Predictably, our adversaries urged the New York Court of Appeals to embrace Levine’s dissent. They wanted nothing to do with Lemon if possible, and far preferred to rely on the argument that the Pataki-Lentol law was a legitimate accommodation of the Satmar right to free exercise of their religion. In other words, in the reasoning of Lewin and company, the state

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