Anthony Lewis on Shahar v Bowers

[David F. Austin]

Today's (6/13/97) "Abroad at Home" NYT column by Lewis
comments on  Shahar v Bowers.  He writes in part,

<stuff omitted>
>     Ms. Shahar has been a faithful adherent since childhood of the
>     Reconstructionist branch of Judaism, and a Reconstructionist rabbi
>     performed her ceremony. She treated it as a "wedding" in a
>     religious and personal sense only, making no claim that she was
>     legally married.
<stuff omitted>
>     Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr., in a dissenting opinion joined by three
>     other judges, said that that claim rested on "inferences from
>     Shahar's acknowledged homosexuality" -- that "she is likely to
>     violate Georgia's sodomy law or would be unable or unwilling to
>     enforce Georgia's sodomy or marriage laws."
>     But Mr. Bowers did not make such assumptions about other staff
>     members, Judge Birch said. He did not infer, for example, that
>     unmarried employees dating someone of the opposite sex may have
>     committed the crime of fornication, or that "married employees
>     could well have committed sodomy."
<stuff omitted>
>     In constitutional analysis, homosexuality is not in a suspect
>     category as race is, where using it as a basis of state action
>     automatically triggers heightened scrutiny by courts. But it does
>     not follow that a state can elevate prejudice to a rule of law,
>     applying it in the absence of any showing that a person's sexual
>     orientation affects her job performance.
<stuff omitted>

I wonder to what extent Ms. Shahar's religious background
is legally relevant.

Comments on this or other aspects of the case welcome.

David.