Within the context of the government today in the United States is there a historical precedent?

Hi Patrick,

I'm not quite sure exactly what you're getting at, but let me try anyway. If you're referring to a religious court hearing trials involving prosecutions for criminal acts, the answer is, there's nothing like it in American history.

Ever since the colonial days, courts in the colonies were secular. But of course, to say that does not imply that they only ruled on secular issues -- they were also authorized to review matters of community religious standards as well (the Salem Witch Trials being the obvious example).

The reason for the seculariaztion of the courts goes all the way back to the reign of Henry II. He established England's first court system and insisted that it be under the crown. Remember his famous fight with Archbishop Thomas Becket on who would have jurisdiction over a scalawag priest? The king's ultimate triumph in that affair sealed England's (and therefore, America's) predisposition for secular courts.

On the other hand, if you're referring to a religious court hearing matters strictly pertaining to the internal governance of the church itself, those examples are endless. Every religious body in America has its own system of tribunals for the interpretation of canon law -- Christian, Jewish, Muslim -- you name it.

Hope this helps. Cheers, mate.

Salem immediately comes to mind, though that was pre-revolution so can't really be a precedent. I guess laws about the Sabbath and things like that, but again either pre-revolutionary or revolutionary era.

I would imagine the fundamental separation of church and state automatically would intervene. You can't have two law-systems governing the same people, as Sharia and Common coexistence has proven in a variety of countries. Because we argue that church should not be involved in government, we can't set up courts (judicial) that are influenced/based on religion.

I can't really think of any other than that. Good question though, I look forward to reading the other responses.

Only to the liberals on the supreme court that think foreign law should be a reason to how to intrepid the constitution.

US law is based on English law.

European law is based on Roman Law.

There was no one or two historical event that laid the foundation for US law. The US basically based most of it's law on English Common law.