There has to be something else going on here. Otherwise, I just can’t fathom how a judge could think for a second he was acting constitutionally. Kevin Corcoran for the Indianapolis Star has an article entitled Judge: Parents can’t teach pagan beliefs
Marion County Superior Court Judge, Cale J. Bradford, put a provision in a couple’s divorce decree that prohibits the couple from exposing their child to “non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals.” Both parents practice Wicca, a spiritual belief that concentrates on worship of nature.
The Domestic Relations Counseling Bureau, which provides recommendations to the court on child custody and visitation rights, appears to have gotten the ball rolling on the religious interference by the State of Indiana. The child attends a parochial Catholic school. (It’s not clear whether that school is Bishop Chatard, but the article mentions that the father had attended that Catholic school as a non-Christian.) The Domestic Relations Counseling Bureau put in its report to the court, “There is a discrepancy between Ms. Jones and Mr. Jones’ lifestyle and the belief system adhered to by the parochial school. . . . Ms. Jones and Mr. Jones display little insight into the confusion these divergent belief systems will have upon (the boy) as he ages.”
The father says that the court inserted the religious restrictions on its own, and not at the request of either parent. Hopefully there is more to this story that makes the judge’s order something other than wildly and obviously unconstitutional.
Update Background on Judge Bradford:
The Hon. Cale J. Bradford, Judge, Marion Superior Court, Criminal Division Judge Bradford was first elected as a Superior Court judge in 1996. Prior to becoming a judge, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana from 1990 to 1995 and Chief Trial Deputy for the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office from 1995-96. He also maintained a private practice from 1986-1990. He is a graduate of Indiana University and of the Indiana University-Indianapolis School of Law. As chair of the Marion Superior Court, Judge Bradford has presided over 175 major felony jury trials. He is a respected member of the bench, and has been rated as Highly Recommended in the IBA’s Judicial Evaluation. He is active with the Craine House, Lawrence Youth Football League and the Northeast Youth Soccer League.
Information for the Marion County Domestic Relations Counseling Bureau is available here. The director appears to be (pdf doc) a person by the name of Janice Davidson. As of August 31, 2001 the bureau’s staff consisted of 5 persons with master’s degrees and 2 support staff. The bureau provides child custody and visitation recommendations upon court request. The five-member bureau handled 576 cases in 1998. The cases are referred from juvenile, civil, domestic violence and Title IV-D (Paternity) courts. Parents, who pay for the service on a sliding scale, go through an initial hearing with a social worker to outline the problem. From there, the bureau meets individually with the parents and children over age 4. They also seek information from teachers, doctors and other counselors about the parents. Their recommendations are then presented to the court.
The case is Thomas E. Jones, Jr. v. Tammy U. Bristol, 49D01-0305-DR-000898, in the Marion County (Indiana) Superior Court. The Marion County Online docket search charges for case information. According to the Indiana Court of Appeals No appeal has yet been docketed.
Seems like an interesting case. I’ll try to track this as best I can.
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And, cue the blogosphere. So far, I’ve seen entries at:
A Stitch in Haste
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Additional News Coverage — The story appears to be getting some additional mainstream news coverage:
A court commissioner wrote the unusual order after a routine report by the court’s Domestic Relations Counseling Bureau noted that both Jones and his ex-wife are pagans who send their son, Archer, to a Catholic elementary school.
In the order, the parents were “directed to take such steps as are needed to shelter Archer from involvement and observation of these non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals.” The judge let the wording stand.
There are quotes from Barry Lynnn of Americans United for Separation of Church & State as well as Micah Clark of the American Family Association of Indiana. Both say the case looks like overreaching.
[…] Governor names Cale Bradford to Court of Appeals By Doug The Governor named Cale Bradford to the Indiana Court of Appeals. Judge Bradford has been a judge of the Marion County Superior Court. I don’t get down to Marion County very often, so I primarily know Judge Bradford from his anti-Wicca jurisprudence (subsequently struck down by the Court of Appeals). Long-time readers may recall that Judge Bradford, in a divorce decree involving two Wiccan parents with children, ordered that these parents take steps to shelter their child from involvement in and observation of “these non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals.” Neither parent requested such a provision in the decree. […]