South Carolina Judge Sentences Drunk Driver To Bible Study [View all]

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Circuit Court Judge Michael Nettles attached a rather odd — and unconstitutional — provision to the eight year prison sentence of a drunk driver: a mandatory bible study and what is essentially a book report on the Book of Job:

Circuit Court Judge Michael Nettles of Rock Hill has included in his sentencing of Cassandra Tolley the assignment of reading through the Book of Job and then writing a summary on the Old Testament Scripture.

Cassandra Tolley was convicted of drunk driving after she drove down the wrong side of the road and plowed into an oncoming car, seriously injuring two men. Her blood alcohol content was more than four times the legal limit.

Tolley undoubtedly deserved a stiff sentence, but sentencing someone to a religious activity clearly violates the Constitution’s ban on laws “respecting an establishment of religion.” As conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy explained in Lee v. Weisman, “t is beyond dispute that, at a minimum, the Constitution guarantees that government may not coerce anyone to support or participate in religion or its exercise.”

The rest at Think Progress

Unbe-frigging-lievable! I am so sick of the Bible thumpers doing their damnedest to impose their religion, their version of sharia law, on all of us I could scream! And I'm damn well sick of these right-wing judges who flout the Constitution and are doing everything in their power to turn us into a bloody fascist police state with the oligarchs and their fascistic fundamentalist co-conspirators destroying OUR country!!!