Paul Curtman

Rep. Paul Curtman (R-Pacific) isn't giving up on his misguided effort to ban Missouri courts from consulting Sharia law.  Last year, he, Sen. Brian Nieves, Birther Tim Jones and even Speaker Steve Tilley attached their names to an Islamaphobic proposal written by a hateful man from Arizona named David Yerushalmi.

At the time, TPM reported:

Dr. S.I. Strong, a law professor from the University of Missouri, called the bill a “dangerous exercise” that could potentially open the Missouri court system to complex litigation. She told TPM the bill has a number of inconsistencies and would be difficult to implement.

This year, Curtman lists the legislation as his top legislative priority. 

Good news: The Democrats in the House of Representatives and two Republicans -- Mike McGhee (Odessa) and Ray Weter (Nixa) -- voted against the GOP effort to amend Missouri's constitution to create new and unnecessary hurdles for voting (SJR2). 

Bad news: Republicans continued to mislead the press and reporters about the intent and effects of their proposal, which is what they've done for years on this issue. Stanley Cox continued to his hackery, even saying that ACORN is "still cheating" in Missouri elections (!).   A few minutes later, Paul Curtman said ACORN and fraud in a sentence about four individuals who submitted bogus voter registrations in 2006, and Missourinet's Brent Martin included Curtman's comments in a story without mentioning that the proposed constitutional amendment would do nothing to change the laws under which those people were indicted.

This headline and lede comes from the Missouri Baptist Convention's Pathway publication, not The Onion:

SHARIA LAW COMING TO MISSOURI?
by Allen Palmeri, associate editor

JEFFERSON CITY—Dozens of Muslim women in burqas came to the State Capitol on April 13 to extol the virtues of Sharia Law as they met with representatives and senators.

Rep. Anne Zerr, R-St. Charles, does not wear a burqa. Zerr is an American woman who dresses fashionably. In no uncertain terms, she told The Pathway that she likes her rights and freedoms just the way they are.

The Post-Dispatch has a good story today the General Assembly's attempt to overhaul Proposition B, which now sits on Gov. Jay Nixon's desk. I was particularly interested in this breakdown of St. Louis area-legislators who voted against the will of their constituents. 

Across the state, there were at least four Senators and thirteen Representatives who voted contrary to his or her district's position. 

• In the Senate, Victor Callahan, Bob Dixon and Rob Schaaf voted to overhaul Prop B -- and for the the emergency clause that would prevent a future referendum.  (The proposal to add an emergency  clause failed in the Senate, and is not part of the final bill approved by the House and Senate.)  Scott Rupp also voted for the overhaul, but opposed the emergency clause. 
• In the House, Jamilah Nasheed, Jerry Nolte, Noel Torpey, John McCaherty, Kurt Bahr, Paul Wieland, John Diehl, Doug Funderburk, T.J. Berry, Terry Swinger, Paul Curtman, Bill White and Melissa Leach voted against their constituents' wishes.

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In related celebrity endorsement news, Ellen DeGeneres is calling on Gov. Nixon to veto SB 113 -- on her website and on her syndicated talk show. 

Reps. Don Wells (R-Kwik Kash) and Paul Curtman (R-Pacific) "both agree there’s no evidence that state courts are judging cases based on Islamic principles or foreign laws," reports The Star. 

But nevertheless, these two freedom-loving constitution-loving conservatives want to fool with Missouri's constitution because "I think it’s just absolutely a guarantee to my children and grandchildren that in the future they will live under the same laws that I grew up under."

The good news here is that the General Assembly has plenty of time for xenophobic crap like this because every Missourian who wants one has a job, our schools are fully funded and there aren't any problems in 2011 that require attention.  

Via Mother Jones, The Turner Report and Show Me Progress, it looks like the man behind HB708 and SB308 this year is not a Missouri legislator, but a hateful man from Arizona named David Yerushalmi. Sen. Brian Nieves (R-Freedom Bunker) and Rep. Paul Curtman (R-Pacific), chief sponsors of the legislation, don't appear to be advertising this fact, but a quick analysis of Yerushalmi's suggested language legislation and the language put forward by Nieves and Curtman makes the connection pretty obvious (see them side by side below the fold).

For an idea of what Yerushalmi is all about, here's a quick summary from the Orlando Sentinel:

David Yerushalmi, who has encouraged legislative action against sharia in several states, is an Arizona man who has pushed for a war against Islam and people of that faith, according to the report. He is also an attorney who works for a group called the Society of Americans for National Existence, which at least one Muslim group has called a hate group. In the past, Yerushalmi, who is himself Jewish, has also argued that whites are superior to blacks and declared liberal Jews to be a menace akin to fatal parasite. He also defended actor Mel Gibson after Gibson made anti-Semitic statements several years ago, according to the report.

Sharia law is based on the Koran. In some western countries, Muslims maintain Sharia courts to handle personal, family and religious matters — a practice not unlike the Orthodox Jewish courts known as beit din.

Here's how Mother Jones writer Tim Murphy summarizes Yerushalmi's legislation that have popped up around the country:

With the exception of SB 1028 [a even more radical bill in Tennessee], much of Yerushalmi's legislation sounds pretty innocuous: State courts are prohibited from considering any foreign law that doesn't fully honor the rights enshrined in the US and state constitutions. Because a Taliban-style interpretation of Islamic law is unheard of in the United States, the law's impact is non-existent at best. But critics of some of the proposed bills have argued they could have far-reaching and unintended consequences, like undoing anti-kidnapping statutes, and hindering the ability of local companies to enter into contracts overseas.

A quick side-by-side comparison of the Yerushalmi's proposed language, Curtman's bill and Nieves' bill should remove any doubt about where their legislation came from.

"And while our state finances are supposed to have fallen on hard times, it appears that we still have enough to waste the taxpayers' money on unnecessary legislation to solve problems that do not exist."

Randy Turner on the misplaced priorities of legislative leaders in Jefferson City

"I don't have the specifics with me right now but if you go to — the web address kind of escapes my mind right now. Any Google search on international law used in the state courts in the U.S. is going to turn up some cases for you."

Freshman Rep. Paul Curtman (R-Pacific) struggles to give any specific reasons on why the General Assembly should be worrying about Sharia law taking over Missouri's courts

Over at the conservative RiteOn blog, conservative activist and website founder Chuck MacNab writes about a meeting at the offices of Sen. Jim Lembke he says he attended on Saturday.  According to MacNab, Lembke was joined by Sen. Jane Cunningham and representatives of numerous other conservative organizations and campaigns to focus on three goals for the 2010 elections.

A dedicated group of experienced conservative leaders met for about 4 hours in State Senator Jim Lembke's office in St. Louis Saturday morning, January 9. RiteOn observed a common view and single mindedness among these area leaders that, if allowed to mature, could spell big trouble for RINOS and liberals and impact the status of many who currently believe they control the Republican Party.

Three objectives emerged from the meeting:

- To replace non-conservative candidates and office holders with conservatives in the August Primary elections.

- To make certain a conservative candidate wins in the General election in November.

- To support conservative sponsored ballot issues and to defeat those issues the group opposes.