Homeschooling advocates are up in arms after Obama’s Justice Department, led by Attorney General Eric Holder, claimed that a ban on home education was not a violation of fundamental human rights and that, as such, the ruthlessly persecuted Romeike family should be deported to Germany
Homeschooling is not a fundamental human right? It is simply incomprehensible to me that as a liberal he claims the mantle of defender and protector of our human rights -- as defined by the bill of rights and subsequent Amendments -- but doesn't recognize parental rights as human rights.
Liberals have even invented a second bill of rights to display their compassion, made famous by FDR, rights that go so far as the right to Employment, Housing, Medical Care, Retirement, Education, and Social Security. AND YET, the right to direct the destiny of your own children is not a fundamental human right in their play book. Incomprehensible!
It is the most backward thinking I've ever known. As Americans we believe our constitutional rights are basic human rights. Liberals generally argue to extend these rights universally -- to illegal immigrants fleeing Castro's Cuba, illegal immigrants in the millions who flood here over our southern boarder, and even so far as to apply them to known terrorist on American soil -- And yet in this case of a German family seeking political asylum from the tyranny of their government who would deny them their basic right to educate their children according to the dictates of their own conscience, our Liberal President would call for their deportation! How does this logic work?
The Romeikes, who fled outrageous persecution in Germany so that they could homeschool in peace and freedom in America, were awarded asylum in the United States by a federal immigration judge in 2010. According to U.S. law, persecuted members of particular social groups — home educating families or Christians, for example — are supposed to be allowed to stay in the Land of the Free to avoid further persecution in their homelands.
Homeschooling leaders in the United States, while deeply concerned about the fate of the Romeikes and hundreds of other persecuted German home-educating families, are also sounding the alarm about the legal arguments being made by the Obama administration — specifically how they relate to Americans’ freedoms.
HSLDA founder Mike Farris warns, “[Holder’s office] argued that there was no violation of anyone’s protected rights in a law that entirely bans homeschooling. There would only be a problem if Germany banned homeschooling for some but permitted it for others."
Let’s assess the position of the United States government on the face of its argument: There are two major portions of constitutional rights of citizens – fundamental liberties and equal protection. Holder is applying the equal protection clause and not established constitutional case law that upholds a parents constitutional right to direct the education of their child as a fundamental liberty.
“This argument necessarily means that the United States government believes that it would not violate your rights if our own government banned homeschooling entirely,” noted Farris.
That argument leads logically to deeply troubling conclusions. If a nation violates no one’s rights if it violates everyones -- then what is the point of a national doctrine that holds "these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" -- Of which "freedom of personal choice in matters of family life is a fundamental liberty". (Santosky v. Kramer (1982))
Constitutional law is well established, parents have the constitutional right to custody and control, which includes the right to raise their children as they see fit, to direct their upbringing and destiny, and to control their education and activities.
Blog post references: http://thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/14523-obama-bid-to-deport-homeschool-refugees-may-threaten-us-rights
