Sunday, February 10, 2013

Florida House Approves Bill Banning Foreign Law in Certain Cases

creeping
via House Civil Justice Subcommittee Approves Foreclosure Reform, Anti-Sharia Bills | Sunshine State News.
Two of the most controversial pieces of legislation confronting the 2013 session passed the Florida House Civil Justice Subcommittee Thursday, largely along partisan lines. They aim to reform Florida’s foreclosure process and to curb the influence of certain “foreign laws” in family court proceedings.
Certain foreign law or any foreign law?
The bill is modeled after legislation proposed by conservative activists who claim Islamic law, which discriminates against women and non-Muslims, is stealthily encroaching upon the American judicial system.
The measure, sponsored by Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha, is a scaled-down version of one that passed last year in the House but failed in the Senate: it prohibits the application of “any foreign law, legal code, or system” only in family law courts, if that foreign legislation “does not grant the parties affected by the ruling or decision the same fundamental liberties, rights, and privileges guaranteed by the state Constitution or the United States Constitution.”
The reporter of this piece, Eric Giunta called it an anti-sharia law. Sharia is not mentioned anywhere in the bill.

The four Democrats on the House panel fielded a number of criticisms of the proposed legislation: that it is redundant, is motived by anti-Muslim bigotry, would paint Florida in a bad light for foreign investors, and would bog the state down in costly litigation as its constitutionality is challenged.
It may in fact be redundant but when elected and appointed officials fail to uphold their Constitutional oaths then other measures are introduced.
“Any bill that could potentially have consequences on how we as a state are perceived as a place to attract talent from abroad and investment from abroad really is of concern to me and those I represent,” said Rep. José Rodríguez, D-Miami.
Jose Rodriguez is worried about attracting talent from abroad when he has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation and a housing problem and banking regulators who helped destroy the economy.
Metz struggled to offer concrete examples of foreign law nefariously affecting Florida’s system of family law when challenged to do so by Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek, though he did offer a hypothetical example of when such a conflict might arise:
Metz, like most probably wouldn’t see a gator ’til it bit them either.  We have more than 180 posts on Florida including examples of sharia law creeping in Florida:
Sharia is present in Florida whether the elite know it or not. Almost two hundred more examples of terror-linked, sharia-advocating Muslims and Muslim groups waging jihad, teaching Islam in public schools, police covering up Islamic honor killings. being strong-armed by Islamic groups, and more.
“Let’s say a couple moves to the United States and they have a prior agreement about the disposition of assets that would occur in the event of a dissolution of marriage, and it’s based on the law of a hypothetical  foreign country. … Let’s assume further that that country has a bias toward the male in the relationship; the wife in that situation might object to the application of foreign law.”
Waldman replied that Florida law already has mechanisms in place to protect a woman in such a scenario.
“This bill was triggered by blatant bigotry; that is what this law came out of,” Waldman told the panel, after citing several remarks by ultra-Orthodox Jewish attorney David Yerushalmi, who authored the model “anti-sharia” legislation and who is reported to have made disparaging remarks about African-Americans and Jewish liberals. “It’s offensive, it doesn’t cure any problem that we have, it is solely designed to get at what some people don’t like, and that would be the Muslims. … It’s a waste  of our time [and] it’s a waste of our effort.”
And this is why Muslims in Egypt, where Obama has enabled the Muslim Brotherhood to take power and declare violent sharia law will rule, are protesting with messages like this:
New in Tahrir: "Down with the American Democratic Party the ally of Morsi, down with Morsi the infiltrator of America." pic.twitter.com/C82vjfzi
New in Tahrir: “Down with the American Democratic Party the ally of Morsi, down with Morsi the infiltrator of America.” pic.twitter.com/C82vjfzi
Even they don’t want sharia. So why are elected officials in Florida defending sharia law and Islam above all others, even Americans?
“The fact of the matter is the bill basically takes our fundamental rights, liberties, and privileges in our federal and state constitutions and turns them into a front and center filter through which foreign law will run if it is going to be applied in a family law proceeding,” Metz countered. “I don’t know how that can be offensive.”
The bill passed by a vote of 9-4.
Will it go any further as the post 9/11 Muslim population in Florida grows?
The Florida Family Association has more on who voted and how.
The Florida House Civil Justice Subcommittee voted on HB 351 – Application of Foreign Law in Certain Cases during the scheduled February 7, 2013 8:00 am meeting.
And read the text of the bill:
Application of Foreign Law in Certain Cases: Clarifies that public policies expressed in act apply to violations of natural person’s fundamental liberties, rights, & privileges guaranteed by State Constitution or U.S. Constitution; provides that act does not apply to corporation, partnership, or other form of business association, except when necessary to provide effective relief in proceedings under or relating to chs. 61 & 88, F.S.; specifies public policy of this state in applying choice of foreign law, legal code, or system in proceedings brought under or relating to chs. 61 & 88, F.S., which relate to dissolution of marriage, support, time-sharing, Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction & Enforcement Act, & Uniform Interstate Family Support Act; declares that certain decisions under such laws, codes, or systems & certain choice of venue or forum provisions in contract are void; provides for construction of waiver by natural person of person’s fundamental liberties, rights, & privileges guaranteed by State Constitution or U.S. Constitution; declares that claims of forum non conveniens or related claims must be denied; limits construction of provisions in certain circumstances.

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