The following article appeared in today's The Times (Munster, IN):
Four years and thousands of tax dollars later, the case of David Subil may finally be heard in federal court in Hammond in January.
Which wouldn't be so odd except, if Subil wins, he stands to gain exactly one dollar.
He is a Jewish man who was charged with stealing more than $450,000 worth of meat through an interstate conspiracy based out of a local casino hotel. Although a federal crime, Subil was held in the Porter County Jail in Valparaiso for seven months in 2004 under an agreement between the county and the feds.
His religion is only of concern because he sued the jail, which he alleged refused to serve him kosher meals, made him work on the Jewish Sabbath and denied him use of a religious item known as tefillin.
It's all moot now. Subil, of Miami, has been convicted and is now in a federal penal facility in Florida.
"So all Subil can get is money damages," said U.S. District Court Judge Philip Simon in Hammond. "He is limited to nominal damages. This means that if he wins, all he'll get is a dollar."
Simon said the Porter County Sheriff's Department did not violate Subil's rights by not allowing the use of tefillin, leather boxes containing Scripture passages that have long leather straps that even Subil admitted could be used as a weapon.
However, Simon said that Subil can go ahead with his other claims.
The county had said it did not have the money to put out for special kosher meals, but Simon noted the federal government had agreed to pick up the tab. And he said there was no reason for the jail to force him to work on his Sabbath.
The trial is set for Jan. 15 in Hammond. If it goes forward, Subil will have to be brought up from Florida as a kind of snowbird in reverse.
We won't know until the trial why Porter County officials did not choose to allow Subil his federally subsidized kosher meals or allow him to rest on the Sabbath. In the end, it would have saved a lot of time, money and effort.
It's not a frivolous suit, mind you. Religious rights, when they do not endanger the prison population, are to be respected and that is cemented in well-tested federal law. But the outcome will not change anything and will benefit Subil minimally.
"It's really much ado about nothing," said Simon, noting that because Subil's rights are not now being violated by Porter County, the court can take no action.
"It makes one wonder," the judge said. "What's the point?"
What indeed.
(NWI.com)
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?p=25373
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