According to a report in today's Detroit Free Press, Wayne County, Michigan commissioners have voted to make it a misdemeanor for restaurant owners, butchers and other food sellers to falsely claim their meat conforms to Islamic or Jewish religious laws. The vote follows several complaints that sellers had falsely claimed their meat was certified as halal, or conforming to Islamic regulations. Violators could face a fine of $500 and up to 90 days in jail. Statewide statute in Michigan already prohibit this kind of false representation, but the new law will permit county health inspectors to enforce the prohibitions.
In 2002, in Commack Self Serv v. Weiss, the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals struck down on Establishment Clause grounds a New York statute that prohibited the sale of any food product represented to be "kosher" that has not been prepared "in accordance with the orthodox Hebrew religious requirements .
