{"id":695,"date":"2011-02-02T12:22:36","date_gmt":"2011-02-02T17:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.law.harvard.edu\/journals\/hlpr\/?p=695"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:58:31","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:58:31","slug":"oklahomas-wind-blows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2011\/02\/02\/oklahomas-wind-blows\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma\u2019s Wind Blows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smita Ghosh<\/em><\/p>\n

Lawmakers in several states have followed the Oklahoma\u2019s lead in seeking to ban the enforcement of international law in state and federal courts.<\/p>\n

Say what you will about Oklahomans, they certainly know how to pass a ballot initiative.\u00a0 Last Fall, Oklahomans voted to make English the \u201ccommon and unifying language<\/a>\u201d of the state,\u00a0allow<\/a>\u00a0individuals to opt-out of the individual healthcare mandate and\u2014not surprisingly\u2014to\u00a0make it easier\u00a0<\/a>for advocates to pass\u00a0more\u00a0<\/em>ballot initiatives in the future.\u00a0\u00a0 (Election\u00a0results\u00a0here<\/a>). \u00a0Another Oklahoma proposition,\u00a0SQ 755<\/a>, has been gaining some traction among both commentators and legislators in other states.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

SQ 755, affectionately known as the \u201cSave Our State Amendment,\u201d \u00a0prevents the state\u2019s courts from \u201cconsidering or using\u201d international law.\u00a0 It specifically mentions a ban against the use of\u00a0Sharia law. \u00a0\u00a0The law, was\u00a0challenged<\/a>\u00a0on Establishment Clause grounds by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange\u00a0enjoined enforcement\u00a0<\/a>of the law in late November.<\/p>\n

<\/span>The National Center for State Courts, a nonpartisan court research organization,\u00a0reports that\u00a0<\/a>lawmakers in six states \u2014 Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Nebraska, South Carolina and Wyoming \u2014 have introduced legislation similar to SQ755.\u00a0 Oklahoma\u2019s legislature has introduced a\u00a0similar provision<\/a>\u00a0as well.\u00a0 Most of the legislation restricts the ban to cases where adopting international law would \u201cviolate a right guaranteed by the [state or federal] constitution\u201d (Indiana\u00a0SJR 16<\/a>) or\u00a0when the international law at issue \u201cwould not grant the parties\u201d the same rights as the\u00a0federal and state constitutions (Arkansas\u00a0SB97<\/a>).\u00a0\u00a0During\u00a0the past year, several\u00a0states included or considered including such provisions in\u00a0state statutes or codes.<\/a>\u00a0(See the\u00a02010\u00a0special report<\/a>\u00a0from Gavel to Gavel).<\/p>\n

To\u00a0many<\/a>, SQ755 and other state developments are clear signs of \u201cfear mongering\u201d and religious prejudice.\u00a0 But they may have legal consequences as well.<\/p>\n

While Oklahoma judges have\u00a0never cited\u00a0<\/a>Sharia law, blogger Julian Ku\u00a0imagines<\/a>\u00a0that Oklahoma judges cite international standards\u2014in choice-of-law clauses or foreign arbitration awards\u2014in common business opinions, and, in an\u00a0ACS issue brief,\u00a0Martha Davis and Johanna Kalb\u00a0point out\u00a0<\/a>that judges implicitly \u201cconsider\u201d international standards in other situations as well.\u00a0 Davis and Kalb also describe the ways in which these constraints undermine the independence of state judiciaries.<\/p>\n

Supreme Court justices, notably\u00a0Anthony Kennedy<\/a>, have been criticized for referencing international law.\u00a0 Are theses state developments a \u201cpreemptive strike\u201d against Kennedy-style comparisons as well?\u00a0 Or is the mention a mere distraction from the religious goals of the proponents of these initiatives?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smita Ghosh Lawmakers in several states have followed the Oklahoma\u2019s lead in seeking to ban the enforcement of international law […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQka-bd","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}