ANOTHER OUTRAGE – AT 9:09 A.M. ET:  If any further proof were needed that Eric Holder's Justice Department has been reduced to a political operation favoring only certain groups, it's here.  The department has entered a religious-discrimination case...on the wrong side.  PC trumped common sense.  From the Washington Post:

BERKELEY, Ill. — Safoorah Khan had taught middle school math for only nine months in this tiny Chicago suburb when she made an unusual request. She wanted three weeks off for a pilgrimage to Mecca.

The school district, faced with losing its only math lab instructor during the critical end-of-semester marking period, said no. Khan, a devout Muslim, resigned and made the trip anyway.

Justice Department lawyers examined the same set of facts and reached a different conclusion: that the school district’s decision amounted to outright discrimination against Khan. They filed an unusual lawsuit, accusing the district of violating her civil rights by forcing her to choose between her job and her faith.

As the case moves forward in federal court in Chicago, it has triggered debate over whether the Justice Department was following a purely legal path or whether suing on Khan’s behalf was part of a broader Obama administration campaign to reach out to Muslims.

I think it goes well beyond even outreach.  It is an action based on the belief of the hard left that some groups are a bit more equal than others.   Clearly, we want to protect freedom of religion, for Muslims as well as anyone else, and employers are asked to make reasonable accommodations toward that end.  But this woman's demands go far beyond reasonable.

The lawsuit, filed in December, may well test the boundaries of how far employers must go to accommodate workers’ religious practices — a key issue as the nation grows more multicultural and the Muslim population increases. But it is also raising legal questions. Experts say the government might have difficulty prevailing because the 19-day leave Khan requested goes beyond what courts have considered.

“It sounds like a very dubious judgment and a real legal reach,” said Michael B. Mukasey, who was attorney general in the George W. Bush administration. “The upper reaches of the Justice Department should be calling people to account for this.”

The plot thickens:

“This was a profoundly personal request by a person of faith,” said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for civil rights, who compared the case to protecting “the religious liberty that our forefathers came to this country for.”

Nice words from a man who doesn't mean them.  Tom Perez is well known as one of the most left-leaning major officials in the history of the United States Government.  He's way out there. 

This case is a disgrace. 

March 24, 2011       Permalink