New Alabama Program: Go To Church Or Go To Jail

This week, the Al­abama town of Bay Minette will im­ple­ment a bizarre and un­con­sti­tu­tional way of keep­ing minor of­fend­ers in check — go to church or go to jail: Op­er­a­tion Re­store Our Com­mu­nity or “ROC”…be­gins next week.

The city judge will ei­ther let mis­de­menor [sic] of­fend­ers work off their sen­tences in jail and pay a fine or go to church every Sun­day for a year.​ If of­fend­ers elect church, they’re al­lowed to pick the place of wor­ship, but must check in weekly with the pas­tor and the po­lice de­part­ment. If the one-year church at­ten­dance pro­gram is com­pleted suc­cess­fully, the of­fender’s case will be dis­missed.

This pro­gram isn’t just un­con­sti­tu­tional, it is un­con­sti­tu­tional even under con­ser­v­a­tive Jus­tice An­tonin Scalia’s vi­sion of the Con­sti­tu­tion’s Es­tab­lish­ment Clause. In his dis­sent­ing opin­ion in Lee v. Weis­man, Scalia wrote that the state may not us the “threat of penalty” to “co­erce any­one to sup­port or par­tic­i­pate in re­li­gion or its ex­er­cise.”

I wonder if that same Alabama town would let someone go to a mosque or a synagogue?

(Source: nationofchange.org)