Suit Seeks Halal Meals In Florida Jails

Yesterday in Florida, the ACLU and CAIR filed a class action lawsuit seeking to require Miami-Dade County jails to serve Halal meals to Muslim inmates. (ACLU press release). The complaint (full text) in CAIR Florida, Inc. v. Miami-Dade County, (SD FL, filed 9/3/2015), contends that denying Halal meals to Muslim inmates while furnishing kosher meals to Jewish inmates violates RLUIPA, and the free exercise and equal protection clauses of the U.S. and Florida constitutions. Prior to October 2014, Muslim inmates could obtain the kosher diet; since then they are required to eat the from the general population menu. Miami Herald reports on the lawsuit.

No Establishment Clause Problem In Indictment of Halal Meat Exporter For False Statements

In United States v. Aossey, (ND IA, Aug. 25, 2015), an Iowa federal district court rejected Establishment Clause and Free Exercise challenges to a 92-count indictment against various affiliated companies and individuals charging them with making false statements on export certificates and on a website regarding Halal-slaughter of meat being exported. The court said in part:

[N]either the court nor the jury will be required to decide what Halal means. The government is not claiming merely that Defendants represented that they were selling Halal products that were not in fact Halal....  Rather, the government is alleging that Defendants made specific, false representations, including: (1) Defendants did not use penetrative captive bolt stunning; (2) all of Defendants’ beef products were hand-slaughtered; (3) a practicing Muslim recited a specific prayer while slaughtering; (4) Defendants did not sell leftover hindquarters from Kosher slaughters as Halal; (5) Defendants’ meat products complied with the laws and requirements of Malaysia, Indonesia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates; and (6) the animals slaughtered were vegetarian fed. The government believes that Defendants made these allegedly false representations to convince their customers that their meat products were Halal.

(See prior related posting.)

Indictment Charges Fraud In Export of Supposed Halal Meat

On Dec. 5, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa announced the indictment of three related corporations and two corporate officials on charges of extensive fraud in the export sale of meat represented to be "halal." The indictment in United States v. Aossey, (ND IA, Dec. 5, 2014) (full text) charges defendants with conspiracy to make and use false statements on documents, sell misbranded meat, commit mail and wire fraud and sell misbranded meat.  This indictment expands on charges and individuals targeted in an earlier indictment in October.  (Background).  Export Law Blog summarizes the new charges against Midamar Corp., Islamic Services of America, ISA, Inc., Jalel Aossey and William Aossey:

The initial indictment charged William Aossey Jr. with falsely stating on export certificates that meat had been slaughtered in a Halal-certified slaughterhouse.

The new indictment adds Mr. Aossey’s sons and Midamar itself.... [A] central part of Midamar’s [defense] was that even if the meat was not slaughtered in Halal-certified slaughterhouses, the meat was still Halal meat as represented by the company.

The facts set forth in the new indictment seem to be directly aimed at this argument, going into the specific ways in which the slaughtered meat did not comport with the Halal standards that Midamar detailed on its own website.

Polish Constitutional Tribunal Rules Ban On Ritual Slaughter Unconstitutional

Poland's Constitutional Tribunal ruled yesterday, in a 5-4 decision, that a ban on kosher and halal slaughter of animals is unconstitutional. JTA reports that the ruling came in a case filed by the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland and other organizations claiming that the ritual slaughter ban that went into effect last year violates the European Convention on Human Rights. As previously reported, in late 2012 the Constitutional Tribunal held that Jewish and Muslim ritual slaughter of animals without first stunning them violates Poland's animal protection laws.  That ruling ended a $500 million industry in the country of processing halal and kosher meat for export. Poland's Parliament will now take up a bill drafted by the National Council of Agricultural Chambers that would legalize ritual slaughter. Jerusalem Post reports on the tensions between local Polish Jewish leaders and the Brussels-based European Jewish Association that arose over choice of strategies to fight the ritual slaughter ban.

New Law Aims To Increase Availability of Kosher and Halal Food In Emergency Assistance Programs

AP in a report today calls attention to a little-noticed provision in the Agriculture Act of 2014 that was signed into law by the President on Feb. 7.  Sec. 4207 of the Act provides for increased purchase of kosher and halal food for the government's emergency food assistance program.  The Section provides:

As soon as practicable after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Secretary shall finalize and implement a plan— 

(1) to increase the purchase of Kosher and Halal food from food manufacturers with a Kosher or Halal certification to carry out the program established under [the Emergency Food Assistance Act] if the Kosher and Halal food purchased is cost neutral as compared to food that is not from food manufacturers with a Kosher or Halal certification; and 

(2) to modify the labeling of the commodities list used to carry out the program in a manner that enables Kosher and Halal distribution entities to identify which commodities to obtain from local food banks.

New Danish Administrative Regulation Prohibits Kosher and Halal Slaughter Without Prior Stunning of Animal

World Jewish Congress reported yesterday that Denmark's Agriculture and Food Minister has signed a new regulation that takes effect Feb. 17  requiring all animal slaughter to be carried out with prior stunning. Traditionally both kosher and halal slaughter prohibits prior stunning of an animal, and the new regulation was strongly opposed by the Jewish and Muslim communities in Denmark.

Under the new rule, the provision in current Danish regulations that allows an exemption for ritual slaughter that follows elaborate procedures, including stunning immediately after slaughter, will be eliminated. Apparently the regulatory change will have little practical effect at least on the supply of kosher meat, since for the past ten years all kosher meat sold in Denmark has been imported from abroad.

The Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry's website says: "In Denmark all ritual slaughter of animals at slaughterhouses is performed with previous stunning at the moment." JTA reports that according to the president of Denmark's Jewish community, Danish Jews agreed in 1998 to the certification as kosher of meat from cattle that were stunned with non-penetrative captive bolt pistols.  However a Danish rabbi disputes this, saying the agreement probably referred to post-cut stunning, but since no kosher slaughter has taken place in Denmark for at least 10 years, it is unclear. In discussing the new regulation, Agriculture and Food Minister Dan Jørgensen told Danish television: "Animal rights come before religion."

Muslims Want Florida Prisons To Offer Halal Meals

Now that the Justice Department has won a preliminary injunction from a federal district court ordering Florida prisons to make kosher meals available by July 1 to all prisoners with a sincere religious basis for keeping kosher (see prior posting), Muslim groups are asking for Halal meals as well. In a press release yesterday, CAIR-Florida said:

We welcome the decision [on kosher food] as an important step in protecting religious rights of incarcerated individuals. It is only fair and equitable that if Jewish inmates receive kosher food, as they should, that Muslim inmates have access to halal meals. Muslim businesses in our state stand ready to offer the advice and services needed to provide halal meals to inmates.

According to the Huffington Post, Halal prison meals would cost only about one-third of the cost of kosher meals.

Court Will Approve Settlement In Class Action By Michigan Muslim Inmates

According to the Wall Street Journal, at a hearing yesterday a Michigan federal court judge indicated he would approve a proposed settlement (full text) in a long-running class-action lawsuit by Muslim prisoners.  Under the settlement in Dowdy-El v. Caruso, (ED MI), the state will provide Muslim inmates meals that comply with halal standards.  The settlement does not require the meals to include meat, and the state says it plans to furnish vegan meals to meet its obligations.  The settlement also provides a procedure for inmates who were disciplined because of conflicts between religious services and work, school or administrative detail assignments to have the record of disciplinary actions expunged.