The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is a part of the United States Bill of Rights that expressly prohibits the United States Congress from making laws “respecting an establishment of religion” (the Establishment Clause) or that prohibit free exercise of religion (the Free Exercise Clause), laws that infringe the freedom of speech, infringe the freedom of the press, limit the right to peaceably assemble, or limit the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
An American Court of Appeals in Chicago, Illinois decided in a split 2-1 decision against the right of Jews to Mezuzot on the doorposts of a condominium apartment if the bylaws of the building prohibit signs and objects of the outside of doors. This provision is mainly for the ban of family vacations photos, political placards, for-sale notices, and Chicago Bears pennants.. The court stated that the hallway rule “is neutral with respect to religion.”
The case involves the Shoreline Towers of Chicago and condominium owners Lynne Bloch and her two children, who live in three units. Building managers had removed the mezuzot from their doors while the family was at a funeral for Lynne Bloch’s husband in 2004. The family put them back on the doorposts several times until the city passed a law allowing religious displays on doors. The family sued for damages, but the court backed the right of the condominium group to establish its own laws. The Blochs are considering appealing to the Supreme Court, claiming there was an intention to discriminate against observant Jews.
Honorable Diane Wood, the dissenting judge, said that leaving the rule in tact would amount to “constructive eviction” of observant Jewish residents. “Hallway Rule 1 operates exactly as a red-lining rule does with respect to the ability of the owner to sell to observant Jews,” she wrote in her opinion. “The [condominium] association might as well hang a sign outside saying ‘No observant Jews allowed.’” Judge Wood also noted that the condominium association’s brief charged that the Bloch family was trying to get a “pound of flesh” from the group. She pointed out that the phrase appears in a literary work by Shakespeare and refers to the character Shylock, a moneylender who was punished by being forced to convert to Christianity. “This is hardly the reference someone should choose who is trying to show that the stand-off … was not because of the Blochs’ religion, but rather in spite of it,” she wrote.
[From Israel National News]
