States are incrementally banning Sharia Law. What about Orthodox Jewish law?

[jberryhill]

16. Simple

I'm a caterer. I have a Jewish wedding to cater next week. I enter into a contract with you to deliver 100 pounds of kosher beef for $800.

You show up with your truck the morning of the wedding, and you unload the beef. I see a receipt from a non-kosher butcher in your truck.

I refuse delivery of the beef, find another supplier on short notice and it costs me $!000.

I then sue you for breach of contract for $200.

You sue me for $800 for refusing delivery of the beef.

Who wins?

In order for either of us to win the suit, a court is going to have to determine whether the beef was, or was not, kosher. That's a religious question.

If you want to talk real money, then we can come up with an example involving a shariah mortgage, and example of a bequested life estate contingent on religious observance, and so on.

But kosher food is a good example since, in some states, it is the engine of many millions of dollars. Contracts depend on reliable enforcement of that condition every danged day. If you want to say that courts can't get anywhere near "religious questions", then you have a serious disruption of commerce on your hands.