Norman Feiden, a family court judge in Nassau County, New York, told
a couple engaged in a bitter custody battle that Christmas "is idol
worship." He admitted he based his decision on which parent got the
two youngsters over the holidays on that pontification.
Before this man's crudity falls into place a small confusion must
be cleared up. The mother is Jewish, the father is not. She wanted the
children for Christmas. She said her family always had a Christmas tree
and exchanged presents. It was a secular holiday to them. That's one of
the two points that ticked off our bigoted and ignorant judge.
Suppose a judge had
characterized Kosher, the dreidel, the menorah, mezuzahs on front doors
or circumcision as superstitiion? How would the New York
State Commission On Judicial Conduct have reacted? Suppose the father
had characterized Judaism as dead ritualism in Judge Feiden’s
courtroom. What would Feiden’s reaction have been to a mockery of his
beliefs? He already told the commission. "I would be very
sensitive. It is my religion."
The New York State Commission On Judicial Conduct suggested he be
publicly reprimanded for his discussing the case with a newspaper
reporter before it began. The commission seemed blitheringly unconcerned
with his aversion to Christianity. They certainly didn’t throw him off the bench.
This ridicule of Christianity was no slip of the tongue. Feiden stuck
to his guns before the commission. He defended his observation and
decision to the commission, calling the celebration "a pagan
rite."
We have endless judicial bigotry in divorce and custody proceedings.
But some religions enjoy reverse discrimination status, including the
Mohammedans, if you can believe that. There is a feminist-created license to ridicule all
forms of Christianity. And the feminists are like locusts in family
court. White men share this exception to political correctness and
speech codes. You are invited to insult both. Nothing you could say
would be emotional distressing or harassing.
But Catholicism bears
the brunt. "Anti-Catholicism is the Anti-Semitism of the
Intellectual." (Attributed to various sources beginning in the
early 90s). Ironically, although the United States started out as a
Christian nation, post-Holocaust Judaism fits in more easily with
America’s pseudo civil or secular religion sometimes named Humanism.
Most feminist leaders are Jewish. That it invites danger down the line
they are too self-absorbed or ignorant of history to realize.
Judge Feiden got into trouble because of his big mouth. Feiden’s
behavior about the beliefs he loathes is the rule among judges and not
the exception. His was just easy to prove. He boasted about it. Our laws and a growing
typical nation-wide apathy have given so much latitude to judges that
they run their courtroom like oriental potentates. They preside in
secret. They bully litigants and witnesses.
Family Court judges blatantly violate the separation of church and
state everyday by substituting their moral and ethical values for those
of the parents in deciding what parent has the best interest of the
child. New York is a state whose highest court has ruled that adultery
for purposes of custody has about the significance of a traffic
violation.
Before the ACLU became obsessed with gays and lesbians adopting
children, it devoted a pamphlet on "Parents Rights" to the
many legal fictions in family law. One was "best interest of the
child."
Almost 2000 judges, lawyers, psychiatrists, social workers, etc.
were asked in a survey ten years ago to define "best interest of
the child" which the Supreme Court at least since Orr v. Orr,
440 U.S. 268 (1979) makes the sole constitutional basis for
awarding custody. The answers were spread like buckshot. There were as
many answers as participants in the survey.
Judge Medowar, another Nassau family judge, criticized me a long
time ago for asking my teenage daughter on the witness stand mightn't she consider something more enriching than babysitting for summer work, especially as
she was a good student with many worthy interests. It was not a matter
of money since her mother is the heiress to the assets to Lennox Air Conditioning and Heating, the largest independent heating and air conditioning business in the world.
But the point here is that she is my daughter, not the judge's
and the dimwit holds a $50,000 judgeship because he can't make it as a
lawyer, which in suburban New York really takes effort. He is hardly
any model for young people.
Lifestyle preference conceals establishment of religion issues.
Feminism is this generation’s lifestyle fad. If a litigant doesn’t
met their creed he has no chance of custody and less of visitation. That
is the danger in the Supreme Court refusal to hear domestic relations
cases. In reality, the Supreme Court knows these cases don't come to them
on lowly
family court question, but as major issue of constitutional rights. This
is the biggest sham of all.
How could New York allow a shameless bigot like Freiden to go on
hearing Family Court cases? His remark has all the crudeness of Nazism. The state and county bar didn’t utter a word demanding Freudian’s
immediate removal. They were more concerned with buttering up to a judge
on whose livelihood they depend.
But most indefensible, where was the [Jewish] Anti-Defamation League
and the American Civil Liberties Union. And even more beyond
understanding the Catholic League For Religious And Civil Rights did
nothing.
