judge tells parents they may not raise their child Wiccan

[rm]

I was first alerted to this via timepiece

I can't get to the Indy Star for some reason (bad internet) but mobocita has a nice explanation:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/mobobocita/60601.html

Comments

[lawnrrd]

There's an old joke among lawyers:

Q: What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 70?

A: "Your Honor."

State trial court judges are all over the map in terms of how good they are. Some are competent, smart, and dedicated, while others are merely small-time political hacks who get put on a ballot as a reward for their hackitude. Indiana, I will note, elects its trial court judges. Unfortunately, a trial court judge is ideally placed to screw up people's lives, and appeals are expensive.

Incidentally, I found a picture of the judge in this case.

(The two women standing behind him are the other two judges on the Marion County Superior Court's executive committee.) I'm sure I'm being all sorts of bigoted when I say this, but his appearance does not convey the sort of learned gravitas that would give me confidence in a judge.

Appellate judges tend to be much better, on average, and I'm sure that they'll administer some sort of juridical smackdown. These parents are fortunate, though, to be able to get the ACLU on their side and to have the resources to go through with this.

(Sorry about the reposts. I kept screwing up the formatting, and I didn't want to ruin your comments page.)