Erev Shabbos Jewish Blogging (kind of like Friday Cat Blogging, but with fewer cats and more Jews)

[gnomi]

Apparently, Mayor Bloomberg of New York is considering regulating against metzitzah b'peh, which the Times describes as the rite during which the mohel "sucks the blood from the circumcision wound to clean it." When mabfan told me of the Times article, the following exchange occurred:

gnomi: This might be a problem.
gnomi: Just in general.
mabfan: hm
gnomi: I mean, Bloomberg regulating against brisses can't go well.
mabfan: Nope.
mabfan: I have his home phone number if you want to call him
mabfan: He's in the book
gnomi: Heh. "Hello, Mr. Mayor? I don't live in New York, but I think you're going to cause yourself a lot of trouble if you regulate against brisses."

Comments

[cheshyre]

Wouldn't something like that immediately set up a first-amendment challenge, regulating religious practice?

[sethg]

If such a regulation were passed and it were challenged in the courts, the city could argue that it's based on a compelling state interest, namely, preventing the transmission of infectious diseases to infants. Judging from Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, the courts could go either way. The city would have to make a very strong case that disease transmission was a real problem and that their regulation placed the fewest restrictions on religious practice necessary to deal with the problem.