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News & Record – July 12, 2005
N.C. courts may ask legislators to decide Quran issue
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Legislators may be asked to decide if the Quran and other religious texts can be used for courtroom oaths, said a spokesman for the agency that manages state courts, as the ACLU pressed for a response on the texts' use.
The legal foundation of the ACLU of North Carolina has called on the state Administrative Office of the Courts to adopt a policy allowing the Quran and other religious texts for oath-taking in North Carolina courtrooms.
The request came after Guilford County's two top judges decided that Muslims could not legally take an oath on the Quran. "We think they are dragging their feet," said Jennifer Rudinger, the state ACLU's executive director.
In addition, a Washington-based Islamic civil rights organization and Greensboro-area religious leaders have called on the AOC to act. The ACLU wrote a formal letter to the state agency June 28 but has not received a response.
An AOC spokesman said Monday a judicial conference last month and vacation schedules have kept key decision-makers from working on the issue. "Nobody has had time to do that around here," spokesman Dick Ellis said.
Informally, Ellis said, most of the agency's lawyers believe the issue should be resolved by legislators. "They are beginning to lean toward the interpretation that it's not our responsibility," he said.
The issue surfaced after Muslims from the Al-Ummil Ummat Islamic Center in Greensboro tried to donate copies of the Quran to Guilford County's two courthouses last month. Guilford Senior Resident Superior Court Judge W. Douglas Albright and Guilford Chief District Court Judge Joseph E. Turner decided that they could not accept the texts for courtroom use.
Both said an oath on the Quran is not a legal oath under state law, which refers to someone laying his hands on the "Holy Scriptures." The two judges interpret that to mean the Christian Bible.
Albright declined to comment on the matter Monday, saying he didn't think it would serve any purpose.
The ACLU of North Carolina says an 1856 state Supreme Court decision sets a clear precedent for oaths on the Quran. The court noted that North Carolina's oath-taking statutes were written for Christians but do not limit others from swearing in the way they deem most sacred, an attorney for the state ACLU said.
That lawyer, Seth Cohen of Greensboro, said a change in the law in 1985 further supports his point.
Prior to that time, the law was called "Administration of oath upon the Gospels," he said. It stated that someone to be sworn was to lay his hand on "the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God." That year legislators took out "the Gospels" in the title and changed the language to simply read "Holy Scriptures," Cohen said…
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