A while back the Kansas Legislature turned aside from doing the hard work of tackling state problems and passed a bill to prevent judicial or administrative decisions in Kansas from being based on foreign legal codes.
They sent that bill to Gov. Sam Brownback despite the fact that there had been no instance in which any Kansas court or Kansas public official had based any decision on any foreign legal code. It was, supporters said, a just-in-case protection. And the fearful among them made it clear they had the Islamic Shariah law burning red in their fevered minds.
Sensible opponents pointed out that U.S. law is based on the U.S. Constitution and precedents established in U.S. courts and that there was absolutely no way that Shariah, the French criminal code or Hitler’s Mein Kampf could be snuck into Kansas courts and take over.
No matter. The law passed and is now a new embarrassment to Kansas. Gov. Brownback should veto it.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
