The Sharia-Free America Caucus has proposed new legislation to ensure Sharia law is not a consideration in American courts.
U.S. Rep. Keith Self (R–McKinney) announced the Preserving Our Constitution Act today. The bill is designed to ensure that federal courts cannot recognize any parallel foreign or religious legal system that is incompatible with the U.S. Constitution.
The act is based on the American Law for American Courts framework, already enacted in multiple states, including Texas. ALAC required the Texas Supreme Court to adopt rules banning the application of foreign law in the state.
“These state laws were adopted to ensure fundamental liberties cannot be undermined through the application of parallel legal systems that conflict with the Constitution. Now it is time the federal government takes the same stance,” Self’s press release read.
The Preserving Our Constitution Act would prohibit federal courts from recognizing or enforcing foreign or religious legal systems and contracts governed by such systems.
The act also calls for the reinforcement of fundamental liberties and identification of practices that violate constitutional principles, “including forced or underage marriage, polygamy, female genital mutilation, restrictions on speech, religion, or religious conversion, discriminatory treatment based on sex, religion, ethnicity, or caste, and cruel or unusual punishments prohibited under the Eighth Amendment.”
