'This Is Simply Not Permissible Under Our Constitutional Scheme'
Bob Unruh, WND Exclusive — A federal judge in Texas has issued a ruling that a student’s religious objections to wearing a badge from a school ID program that utilizes radio chips to identify students and faculty and monitor their movements are secular, and therefore, not a concern to the school or court.“Plaintiff’s objection to wearing the Smart ID badge without a chip is clearly a secular choice, rather than a religious choice,” wrote U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia in a case brought by the Rutherford Institute on behalf of student Andrea Hernandez, who has been attending John Jay High School in the Northside Independent School District in San Antonio.
“The accommodation offered by the district … removes plaintiffs religious objection from legal scrutiny all together.”
The court record shows that the Hernandez family “felt the chip in the badge was ‘the mark of the beast’ and had a religious objection to the ‘tracking’ of his daughter. Mr. Hernandez also believed that the card prohibited his daughters’ ‘rights’ as a student,” the judge wrote.
The family also objected to a deception suggested by the school, that Andrea would wear a badge like other students, but without a chip, because that would make it appear the family was part of the chip ID program.
“Predicated on our religious belief we cannot allow it to even appear that we support the program, Revelation 13:16, 17, ‘He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.’”That was the family’s response.
“If we allow her to take the mark, in this case the [shell] badge it will appear that she is supporting wearing the mark and now she can participate in the economy of the school.”
The judge ordered the student to tell the district “prior to the end of the current semester” “whether she intends to accept the accommodation being offered and wear the Smart ID badge without a chip.”
He said, “If plaintiff refuses to wear the uniform badge issued to all students at Jay High School, even without a chip, the district may exercise its discretion and transfer plaintiff back to her home campus, where she can wear her old student ID badge,” the judge said.
Rutherford attorneys say they will appeal immediately, because of the violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. » Read More
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About the Author
Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially.
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