[Excerpts]
With passage of a law protecting American families from imposition of foreign-law doctrines in state courts, Texas this week became the 11th state to ensure that only American laws will apply in American domestic courts.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday signed the Texas Foreign Law Procedural Protection Act – a slightly slimmed-down version of similar laws either passed or under consideration across the country. Often dubbed “anti-sharia” laws, these “American Laws for American Courts” (ALAC) efforts would protect against judges imposing any foreign doctrine – not just sharia – which violates American constitutional rights.
Most such conflicts of legal doctrine occur in family-law disputes – child custody battles, for example – where at least one of the parties claims to be guided by foreign cultural or legal practices. The Texas law, in fact, is narrowly tailored specifically to cover foreign child custody judgments and child custody arbitrations, rather than applying more broadly.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which some critics accuse of pushing an agenda in tune with radicalized Islamists, strongly opposed the Texas law and other similar ones, saying such legislation “demoniz[es]” their beliefs and promotes “Islamophobia.” In printed material, CSP responds that its laws protect the rights of Muslims, too, and that the laws are religiously neutral. Also, it says the model ALAC law “specifically says that the law cannot detract from the right to free exercise of religion, which would include religious courts like Jewish Bet Din or Catholic ecclesiastical courts; and it states that the law would not interfere with compliance with international treaties the U.S. has signed.”
Source:
https://kommonsentsjane.com/2017/06/21/kommonsentsjane-texas-the-latest-state-to-ban-sharia-foreign-laws-from-domestic-courts/