Atlanta, GA – A member of the State Bar of Georgia board resigned today over the treatment of a team of Jewish students in a national mock trial competition in Atlanta.
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The team won’t compete Saturday because of religious restrictions, and the national event’s organizer will not rearrange the schedule to accommodate it, (as was reported here on VIN News). The State Bar is the local sponsor of the event.
“I felt I could not serve on a board that was not dealing with the situation appropriately,” said Elizabeth Price, who resigned. She is also chairman of the Southeastern Regional Office of the Anti-Defamation League, which fights anti-Semitism.
Price said she felt the State Bar could have taken steps to pressure the national organization to make accommodations.
A State Bar spokesman said it must abide by the national organization’s regulations, according to a contract it signed to host, even though the Bar hoped accommodations could be made.
“There is no wiggle room,” State Bar President Jeffrey O. Bramlett wrote in a letter.
State high school champions came to Atlanta this week for the round-robin mock trial tournament. The Massachusetts team from Maimonidies School, an Orthodox Jewish high school, won’t compete Saturday, their sabbath. Their faith forbids them to work then.
It had petitioned the national championship and the State Bar to rearrange the schedule so it could compete Thursday and Friday. The national organization refused. A spokesman said an early start would give the team an unfair advantage and create scheduling problems.
Parents of the team filed a religious discrimination claim with the U.S. Justice Department. The department sent a letter to the Georgia Administrative Office of the Courts, urging it to adhere to federal guidelines. But the Georgia office is not sponsoring or administering the competition.
Fulton County courtrooms are being used, and state judges are volunteers at the trials.
Price said she believes the competition’s links with state judges and courtrooms create a federal violation, and funding of state courts could be threatened.
Billie Bolton, a spokeswoman with the Georgia Administrative Office of the Courts, questioned the possibility since the office and competition are not officially linked.
The Justice Department declined to elaborate on the letter.
The national organization changed its rules to disallow rescheduling following a similar request four years ago. In that case, the North Carolina Bar helped a Jewish team reschedule so it would not have to compete on Saturday.
Wait a second. This happened before and then the national bar assn davka made a rule so that Orthodox teams couldn’t compete?! Shame on them.
This happened a few years ago with Torah Academy from Teaneck. The bar organization made an exception so the team did not have to forfeit on Shabbos by letting them go before Shabbos.
After that, the organization decided never again to make an exception. New Jersey and North Carolina then pulled out of this organization and they formed an alternative organization,
The biggest thing is that Maimonides knew of this before entering the contest, so why did they enter this contest instead of the alternative one?
The competition organisers claim that since they’re a private organisation they don’t have to make reasonable accommodation for participants’ religious requirements. Technically, they’re probably right. But this isn’t just any competition, it’s a mock TRIAL competition. They are pretending these are real trials; and in a real trial there is no question that the court would be constitutionally required to accommodate the Jewish team’s Shabbos observance. So by its own terms the competition should make it more realistic by rescheduling the frum team, as they did in 2005.
They hired Nat Lewin (Rubashkin’s lawyer and a skilled litigator) to appeal the case to the Federal courts based on civil rights law violations but its not clear there is anything illegal. The state bar association is not like a public school that has to take religious beliefs into account when scheduling mandatory events. There actions are dumb, unfair but not illegal.
A true kiddish hashem
Re Elizabeth Price…. yesh kona olamo b’sha achas!
The competition organisers claim that since they’re a private organisation they don’t have to make reasonable accommodation for participants’ religious requirements. Technically, they’re probably right
Not so fast!
That might be true if they held the mocks on private property BUT they are holding them in State and Federal Courts.
We should be proud of these yeshiva kids
What this says about GA is that here she was not afraid to walk out. Here in GA they really DO try their best to accommodating to us. I am admitted to the Bar in, and have practiced in NY, GA, MA, VA, and AL. The states where I have the most flexibility and accommodation for Jewish observance are GA and AL. VA is okay, but not as good. NY and MA are the worst.
Remember, this is a National thing, not a GA thing.
Maimonides and TABC are both Frum Yeshivas.