Sharia Lawlessness

Scott Hardie | March 1, 2012
I'm the last person you're likely to hear complain about so-called "activist judges." When a judge in West Virginia declared Obamacare unconstitutional last summer, and some of my conservative friends cheered his moral courage, I wanted to ask them how it was different from the half-dozen times they jeered judges who defied Congress's legal authority.

But apparently I do have a threshold for judicial latitude, and I know that because a judge in Pennsylvania has gone well past it. When a Muslim bystander grabbed and choked a man dressed as "zombie Muhammed" during a Halloween parade, the judge threw out the case, citing the Muslim's culture and the parader's offensiveness as sufficient justification for the assault.

To be fair, I understand the judge's argument. The parader wasn't just some innocent Halloween reveler; he was an atheist parading as part of an atheist group ("zombie pope" was beside him), someone who intentionally put on a provocative costume and acted surprised when people turned out to be provoked. I really wish this kind of atheist would stop making the rest of us look like pricks.

But that doesn't justify the assault. We live in a society of laws that safeguard our persons as much as our philosophies. The police had scarce legal authority to force the paraders to stop on grounds such as public disturbance; the bystanders had none at all. As one commenter points out, will we look the other way if Christians attack a gay pride parade because it was provoking them?

Lawyers in the vicinity, feel free to weigh in.