Update: ACLU to Appeal Qur'an Court Oath Case

December 19, 2005

Source: News-Record

http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051216/NEWSREC0101/512160306/1001/NEWSREC0201

On December 19, 2005 the News-Record reported, "Officials with the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina said Thursday that they will appeal last week's ruling regarding courtroom oaths. The ACLU had filed a lawsuit on behalf of its roughly 8,000 members asking the court to clarify that state law allows people to use non-Christian religious scriptures for oath-taking. Greensboro Muslim Syidah Mateen, who joined the suit, claimed she was harmed in 2003 when a judge did not allow her to take an oath on the Qur'an when testifying in a Guilford County courtroom. However, Superior Court Judge Donald L. Smith tossed out the lawsuit on Dec. 8, deciding that the plaintiffs lacked a legal controversy. The judge determined that because Mateen testified that day, no legal controversy remained... ACLU lawyer Seth Cohen said Thursday that the organization disagrees with the judge's finding and he is confident they will win in the N.C. Court of Appeals."