Wednesday, October 12, 2016

TRO Lifted In Challenge To Kaporos Ceremonies

Just as Yom Kippur was beginning on Tuesday evening, a California federal district court dissolved a TRO that it had issued last week (see prior posting) in a challenge under California's business practices law to the pre-Yom Kippur ritual of kaporos. In addition to lifting the TRO, the court ordered the parties to meet to set a date for a preliminary injunction hearing. (Full text of court order). The case has attracted significant attention, including the filing of an amicus brief by a Houston law professor Josh Blackman. AP reports on developments. The Atlantic says that the restraining order had no effect because defendants (Chabad of Irvine) had not scheduled a ceremony.  Instead Jews performed the koporos ceremony at a local slaughterhouse because of changes in California law.