On May 13th, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals granted a rare full-court hearing to answer whether forbidding condominium residents from posting objects on their doorposts, including mezuzahs, is an exercise in religious discrimination. The eight-judge panel which heard the case includes a judge, Diane Wood, who is alleged to be on President Obama’s short-list to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. When the case came before a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court last year, the panel was divided in its opinion. The majority ruled in favor of the condo association’s right to ban residents from posting objects on their doorposts. Judge Wood wrote the dissenting opinion, claiming that the affected Jewish residents have a “straightforward claim of discrimination based on their Jewish religion and ethnicity.” Soon after the lawsuit was filed in 2004, the Anti-Defamation League worked with both the City of Chicago and State of Illinois to draft and pass legislation which grants all condominium residents, Jewish and non-Jewish, the right to post religiously-compelled articles on their doorposts. JCRC monitored the court’s proceedings on May 13th, and will continue to report on any developments regarding this case. A decision is expected to be issued in the coming months. For further reading on this lawsuit, please visit Chicago Tribune coverage and the Wisconsin Law Journal.
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