Religious Freedom vs. Jail

Cincinnati Judge Sentences Woman to Jail for Exercising Religious Freedom

By Ben Chaim

On July 30, 2013, Judge Jon H Sieve, of the Hamilton County Court of Domestic Relations, found Julie Goffstein, a Jewish mother of 6, in contempt of court for allowing her 14 year old son to remain in his religious school, rather than force him to switch to public school.

The 10^th grader, Reuven, has been attending religious schools since preschool. He has been raised as Orthodox Jewish, and wishes to remain so. The court had given his non-custodial father the right to choose his school, and the father enrolled him in public school. When the boy refused to go, the judge found the mother in contempt, and sentenced her to incarceration in the Hamilton County Detention Center.

You might be wondering why the non-custodial father had the right to choose the boy’s school. Well, that was another instance of this judge’s disregard for the family’s constitutional rights to Freedom of Religion. On May 22, 2013, judge Sieve took away the mother’s right to educate her children, stating that her desire to continue raising them as Orthodox Jews, is indicative of her “misplaced priorities”. Those were the judge’s exact words.

In fact, the May ruling not only took away her rights to educate the older two boys, but also took away custody of the younger four boys. In 2012, the father conceded custody of the older two boys, and the mother won full custody of the younger four. Only after the father complained that he wasn’t pleased with the family’s commitment to their religion, did the judge reallocate custody of the younger four to their father, based on the judge’s personal preference, as mentioned earlier.

As it turns out, this isn’t the first time this court has threatened someone with jail for trying to defend their first amendment rights. In 2012, magistrate Meyers (the same magistrate assigned to this case), upon recommendation of attorney Joel Moskowitz (the same lawyer as this case), sentenced Mark Byron to 60 days in jail, unless he would post a dictated message on his facebook page for 30 days. After posting it for 24 days, Byron decided to take a stand for his Freedom of Speech, and took the post down. Judge Sieve, fearing bad press, did not impose the jail sentence; rather he chewed Byron’s ear off in court.

The case is set for imposition of sentence on December 9^th.