Justice Department: Anti-Home-School Law Aids Tolerance
The Obama administration has filed another brief against the Romeike family, German home-schoolers seeking asylum in the U.S.
The brief argues that Germany’s laws forbidding home-schooling actually promote tolerance. The U.S. Justice Department defends Germany’s opposition to religious “parallel societies.”
The government’s pleading reads, “The goal in Germany is for an ‘open, pluralistic society.’”
At the same time, the brief contends that the Romeike family cannot claim religious persecution.
A three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals previously agreed, but the Home School Legal Defense Association argues the panel ignored critical evidence that the German high court specifically targeted religious home-schoolers.
The association filed a request for a hearing by the entire appeals court. The Justice Department is asking the court to reject the appeal.
The Romeike family fled Germany in 2008 because they didn’t want their children exposed to witchcraft and graphic sex education taught in German schools.
