In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
From Joe Carter:
The Story: In a political asylum case involving a German family that fled to the United States to be able to homeschool their children, the U.S. Justice Department is arguing that the freedom to choose to educate one's own children is not a fundamental right.
The Background: In 2010, Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, who lived with their five children in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, were faced with a choice: abandon their Evangelical Christian religious beliefs or lose custody of their children. The Romeikes had withdrawn their children from German public schools in 2006, after becoming concerned that the educational material employed by the school was undermining the tenets of their Christian faith. After accruing the equivalent of $10,000 worth of fines and the forcible removal of their children from the home, they chose to flee their homeland and seek asylum in the United States.
On January 26, 2010, a federal immigration judge granted the Romeikes political asylum, ruling they had a reasonable fear of persecution for their beliefs if they returned to their homeland. The judge also denounced the German policy, saying it was, "utterly repellent to everything we believe as Americans."
However, President Obama's Justice Department disagreed. They argued that the family should be denied asylum based on their contention that governments may legitimately use its authority to force parents to send their kids to government-sanctioned schools. The case is currently pending in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
This line of argumentation from the Justice Department is obviously quite disconcerting to religious liberty advocates, since it was religious belief that motivated the Romeikes to flee and request asylum in a freer country.
But isn't it also just an intriguing look at our understanding of liberty in general? The decline of the family as the basic building block of society relates to the decline of liberty in fascinating ways.
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Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
Fundamental right to educate your children?
It's a fundamental obligation.
The right to do it should be assumed.
Sep '12
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
Simply amazing. They won't deport people who come in illegally, and they allow others in for just about any other reason under the sun. The DOJ just seems to be malicious in this case.
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
You can't come to America to exercise your religious freedom? Good thing the Pilgrims didn't know that.
Mar '11
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
Send me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning for food stamps and Obamaphones.
Get used to it.
Sep '11
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
This is nuts. So the justice dept is a better judge of what is required by their faith?
Dec '12
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
This is disgusting behavior on the part of the DOJ, but it is entirely consistent with a Marxist view of the role of Government in society. Anyone who has not yet realized that Obama and Holder are Marxist needs to open their eyes. Any Marxist will immediately try to break down the influence of the traditional family and organized religion in society. Both are threats to the Government's ability to indoctrinate children. In other words, Marxists don't want children to obey their parents or their God, they want them to obey the almighty Government leaders who know what is best for them.
May '10
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
Never mind religious conviction. The notion that the government can insist that your children attend a government school is incredibly chilling period. I hope this gets appealed to the Supreme Court. We need a firm line drawn in the sand here. The government's argument is truly absurd.
It is so discouraging to see the extent to which the Department of Justice has been politicized. Given the lengths to which it seems prepared to go to relax immigration rules with respect to Mexico, its pursuit of this case seems purely ideological.
Aug '12
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
Try in loco tyrannis. That's closer to the mark in describing the current administration.
May '10
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
Mario is exactly right. This is why the left has always been intent on destroying the family and the Church. They want nothing between them and the individual.
And they want those individuals debased and debauched and dependent beyond the point of resistance to Power.
May '10
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
This is normal mind set in the education establishment. They don't approve of homeschooling in general because they are worried parents will do a "poor job".
Dec '10
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
Department of INJustice.
Jun '12
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
Exactly, you beat me to it! Good thing the Obama administration's Dept. of Justice wasn't waiting for them at Plymouth Rock.
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
Percival: Send me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning for food stamps and Obamaphones.
Get used to it. · 25 minutes ago
I'm stealing this line.
Sue me.
It's worth it.
Feb '12
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
katievs: Mario is exactly right. This is why the left has always been intent on destroying the family and the Church. They want nothing between them and the individual.
And they want those individuals debased and debauched and dependent beyond the point of resistance to Power. · 0 minutes ago
This is it. Destroying prepolitical institutions, such as marriage, Church, and the family are central to the progress of the state. When the individual has a network of institutions beyond government the state's power is threatened.
These prepolitical institutions are, in the final analysis, invincible from such attacks, but not invulnerable, and these statists types will deal significant harm before they are done.
Jul '11
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
Eric Holder is so awesome. An oppressive, tyrannical murderer, who looks like Moe the bartender of the Simpsons, gets to decide folks' fates based on his ideology and not the law. This same gun grabbing racist scum has big plans, some of which include ending religious freedom. Be vigilant.
Mar '12
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
For anyone who is interested, I spoke with Uwe Romeike a little more than a year ago about their case: http://american.com/archive/2010/october/the-homeschool-movements-german-lesson/. It discusses why the Germans believe governments should mind-control children (hint: Nazis, ironically).
My major comment on the legality and Holder's madness is that the Supreme Court has consistently held that parents have the right to direct their children's education, not the government or schools. That's why the Amish don't have to send kids to school or register their schools or homeschooling. I do not know that this extends to foreign citizens, but given what the Obama administration grants amnesty for, this is far beyond the pale.
Another thing for readers to know is that European governments are increasing homeschooling persecution. In Sweden, a number of homeschool families have in recent months fled to a small island territory to continue homeschooling without arrest.
Aug '12
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
By the way- Who's defending the Romeikes and how can we contribute?
Aug '12
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
I've seen Erwin Chimerinsky (lefty Constitutional law proffessor) argue that parents should be forced to send their kids to public school (not only nixing home schooling but private schools).
Most liberal thinkers really do believe that the family should be replaced by the state (though they may not think of it this way).
Dec '10
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
Correction: they think the family should be replaced by their ideal of the state, not ours.
Mar '12
Re: In Loco Parentis? (Or Just Plain Loco)
With the rise of the omnicompetent state (again), various categories of people will be faced with dilemmas about whether to cave-in to the state or to resist tyranny.
The fact that Obama's tyranny wants to deny those parents is of a cloth with its intent to remove freedom conscience / religious freedom from health care. Give him this, he is consistent in his contempt for ordinary people exercising their rights, whether as parents or in support of their religious beliefs.