We have been covering the case of the Romeikes, devout Christians from Germany who wanted to homeschool their children because of what they perceived as the secularist agenda in German public schools. They fled and sought asylum in the U.S. after they faced mounting fines and the potential of imprisonment:
- DOJ seeks deportation of family persecuted in Germany for homeschooling
- More on the Romeike homeschooling deportation case
- German homeschooling family closer to deportation
After losing in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, the Romeikes on October 10, 2013, filed a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari seeking to have the U.S. Supreme Court take the case.
According to the Supreme Court Docket for the case, on October 29 the government waived its right to respond, but on November 19 the Court asked the government to respond to the Petition.
This does not mean the Court will take the case. But it does signal an interest.
We’ll keep you updated.
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Comments
The Romeikes would do well to seek asylum in Israel. America under Obama has nocompassion or time for Christians. Had they been Meccaites, no problem.
I may soon seek asylum in Israel.
Tips for doing so would be appreciated. I’m not Jewish, but I grew up on Long Island, attended a TON of bar mitzvahs. Osmosis? 🙂
More substantively, I know small arms very, very well, and don’t imagine any difficulty using them against people trying to kill me or mine–or, if I’m too old for that, keeping those small arms operating efficiently for the folks who take on the more deadly task on my behalf.
Anyway, Israel, keep me in mind, please. 🙂
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
Likewise. I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood. My best friends and father’s best friends were Jewish. I have a Jewish godfather. I’ve always wanted to travel to Israel. Soon, I hope.
I see you guys one neighborhood and a grandfather and raise you a language. I once said shalom to a Hasid in Crown Heights and he answered–that’s about one of the few things I can say in Hebrew though I can read, translate, and say a prayer or two in the language. So, push comes to shove, Israel’s gotta keep me in mind, too.
@Juba Doobai!
Can you imagine Obama and Holder kicking them out of America, only to see Bibi Netanyahu welcoming them to Israel at the airport in Tel Aviv?
That would be mind blowing. And you’d see Obama take a new plunge in the polls and increased support for Israel.
O Cool one, Netanyahu’s already lousy OGW/NYT poll numbers will decline with that OGW crowd for showing up Jug-Eared Jėsus. Still, it would be worth it to see Holder and Obama lay down a ring of gobar around themselves over it.
I’d pay to see that.
Germans & Israel Assylum . Do you see anything in play here?
I have some knowledge of old rite Lutheranism ( pre Bismarkian) which is possibly the sect here. I have family who are direct descendants of such communities .
Luther’s anti Semitic tracts were written later in his life . It is up for grabs whether this family adheres to part or all of his writings. Before assuming these things you need to ask them.
Thanks for staying on top of this story. Homeschooling is an essential ingredient in countering the almighty State. My wife and I are fortunate to have an independent Catholic school nearby, or we, too, would be homeschooling.
Should they lose this case, I hope there is a way for them to go underground. If only they were Mexican, Kenyan, or Chechen. They could come to Massachusetts and enjoy welfare benefits.
The president seems keen on allowing any illegal whom wants to stay to stay, why is this family any different?
1. They’re not here illegally.
2. They’re Christian.
3. They’re white.
4. They’re not likely to vote Democrat.
5. On the Obama hit list…
Unfortunately this family is Christian. There can be no freedom of religion for them.
I don’t know if events in the interval between hearings can be argued or considered, but the case of the Wunderlich family in Darmstadt is alarming. The family had gone to France so they could homeschool, but the father couldn’t find a job so they had to move back. In August, authorities used a battering ram to enter the house and remove the children from the parents and seized their passports. The children were returned home after several weeks, but now attend government schools. As a homeschooling parent, the most alarming of all is Holder’s assertion that banning homeschooling does not violate fundamental liberties. Stick that in the blender with Common Core and you’ve got a lot of homeschoolers who are pretty edgy.
Comply!
You must comply!
Resistance is futile!
Where is Angela Merkel on this!? Has she forgotten her days in German Democratic Republic, or is she now repeating those days?
What a lovely family. I would be very happy to have them as neighbors.
Unfortunately, they are not drug-dealing, psychopathic Muslim welfare-recipient murderers from Chechnya, so understandably, the Obama administration doesn’t want them in the U.S.
They’re like immigrants from the late 19th Century like my Great-Grandparents from Germany and Bohemia.
They didn’t come here looking for handouts. They came here looking for freedom and opportunity.
No wonder progressives want to kick them out. What a disgrace.
The overriding issue for me with this case isn’t whether and when someone qualifies for asylum status, but why, of all the cases that come up, the federal government found it necessary to appeal and make a production over this one.
The children now have been here for five years, and face upheaval and potential separation from their parents if they are deported. Thought that was the big Dream Act brouhaha. Seems to me that there’s an uneven policy and practice in the federal government in connection with immigration cases, both legal and illegal.
But Obama’s illegal immigrant relatives, and terrorist Chechens manage to skate. Obama’s aunt was granted asylum because…?
Aunt Zeituni got it because she felt (does she think?) America owed it to her for letting her come here and live very well on taxpayer money and reside in a taxpayer funded house rather than a hut, sweet but. Also, her nephew, who looks like nobody in her family, but manages to resemble Frank Marshall Davis, his Communist Party mentor, rather remarkably, is the Destroyer in Chief of the United States of America,
I am both appalled by the recent 6th circuit appeals ruling on this case, and concerned by the recent Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare. Who knows where they will rule now a days?
I do hope SCOTUS takes this case, however, if only to grant this family a reprieve from the idiocy of this administration’s attempts to curb religious freedom.
What truly malignant people are occupying the White House and the Justice Department.
Intersting to note that Barack Obama and Eric Holders are public nosepickers. (As is Hillary Clinton. And Michelle Obama is a public crotch picker.) Interesting psychological implications, none of them good:
http://www.skinpick.com/nose-picking-rhinotillexomania
It’s a tough case to make, legally. Private and parochial schools make up a small percentage of German primary and secondary schools, so nearly all Christians send their children to public schools. There is no major denomination which requires homeschooling, so the religious persecution of this family is based on their own particular beliefs, not their religion’s doctrine. The fact that they could face imprisonment for following their consciences could bolster their case, but whether the totality of the circumstance can be construed to fit the requirements of asylum is very much in question.
We have not previously granted asylum based on religious persecution in a Western democracy, and this case might set a precedent about individually defined belief systems that could trigger a flood of applications from those who could not otherwise legally immigrate.
Given the already rampant abuse of asylum requests, victory in court for this sympathetic family could lead to consequences both unforeseen and undesirable.
Undesirable consequences? We have how many million freeloaders pouring across the border every year, but what? This case will start an avalanche of clean-cut, hard-working folks trickling in? Good grief.
Once precedent is established, do you really believe that only well-educated, upstanding prospective citizens would take advantage of it? Anyone can claim religious persecution if they can rely on individual beliefs against established law. For example, how hard would it be for someone from a poor, third world country to run afoul of a law forbidding animal sacrifice and then claim sanctuary? Sounds like a Pandora’s box to me.
“individually defined belief systems”
Sounds like freedom. Why is this a problem?
I have a hard time finding sympathy for this family because I think they’re ignoring or denying alternatives. I think they’re trying to ‘push on a string’ to get what they want.
First of all, even I know of families with US wives who cannot get their well educated German husbands green cards; either at all, or at least without months/years of hassles. I don’t agree with this, but it what it is. This should have been in the ‘ known known’ category, and should have been researched before moving children.
Secondly, the German school system is different from the US school system. I think that not knowing some of these differences creates a situation where a US observer will base their opinion on his/her experience within the US system. This may not shed enough light on the options available to this family in Germany.
Some observations from living in a medium-sized, rural German town:
– I have a child in the German school system. This child can go to school anywhere in Germany they choose. There is no requirement they remain in our town for schooling. None. There are 2 larger towns and a small city within a 1/2 train ride. There are montessori schools, waldorf schools, private schools, trade schools, business schools, etc, this child can choose from within that 1/2 hour max train ride. There are magnet schools (anywhere in Germany) they could go go to enhance a given aptitude.
– The younger kids (about to the 5th or 6th grade) in my neighborhood leave for school at 8 and are home around noon. That four hours is enough for ‘reading, riting, rithmetic’, and not propaganda.
– The older kids can leave the school system after the 8th grade if they wish.
– The older kids do not have a rigid daily schedule. They can go home when they don’t have a class scheduled. It’s like college in that sense.
– Religion is taught right in the schools. Catholicism, Protestantism, and, I believe, even Islam in some places, are available. A student can also opt out of religion and take ethics.
I am a home school advocate (my own kids were home schooled in the US), but since that option is not available in Germany it wasn’t to difficult for us to find alternatives to school systems I didn’t agree with. For example, one of our children is in a school taught in English.
I just think this family are prisoners of their own making. Perhaps they are vanguards, and in that case deserve support, but I know what alternatives they are deciding to forgo if that is their choice. To gain support for homeschooling in Germany they have to make the case why those alternatives are not enough.
Sieg Heil! All sugar and spice. You forgot the part where they take your kids away.
Did you even read what he wrote? No need to be a jerk.
Yep. Read it twice because I couldn’t believe it first time through: “If Frau Merkel grants you 31 flavors, how dare you buy an ice cream maker!”
Tom Swift has the best reply (below). I noticed you didn’t have a substantial reply.
“To gain support for homeschooling in Germany they have to make the case why those alternatives are not enough.”
The totalitarian rationale in a nutshell.
So what’s your thought on the British cop who took a pregnant Italian woman, in Britain for a short course, to a psychiatric hospital, cuz she was having a panic attack, and there she was forcibly restrained and sedated so her unborn baby could be removed from her body by Cesarean section cuz they feared she would has it; then, her baby taken from her and sent into foster care without any effort to contact her family and rejecting her family friend as a care taker for the baby; now, the woman,s baby is being put up for adoption and the British court is supporting her loss of parental rights?
It’s a very nicely punctuated sentence so it should be easy to follow.
Different issue, Juba, and one that I hope the Professor will put forward in a separate post.
Different issue, Juba, and one that I hope the Professor will feature in a separate post.
At bottom, it’s the same issue: “Your offspring belong to the State. The government decides how they will be raised, and by whom.”
Krauthammer stated on special Report that this case was different than the illegal immigration from Mexico, but he didn’t go into details. iirc, he also mentioned the precedent that could be set for case by case “non-standard persecution” (my words, can’t remember his exactly). That combined with the last two posts here make me want this to go to SCOTUS, but doubtful of the outcome.
Since legal grounds are often at odds with political convenience, this family would maybe be a good case to put a face on the story of immigration from Europe, as opposed to Mexico. An old friend of mine from Belgium was diligent about leaving the country briefly every six months, so she could get her VISA “renewed”. (I forget details, but the Canadian border agents seemed familiar with the routine). It seems only second and third worlders feel comfortable illegally invading en masse.
Illegal aliens from Mexico are often bold and demanding, confident that lawless Obama will selectively protect/reward them, even if they are caught drunk driving without a license, a time or two. Former border agents from the southern border seem confident that the cartels and human traffickers have inside help from our government.
Of course Mexico doesn’t want their lawbreakers back, they just want the remittances, procured legally or not. Why Germany is so intent on recovering these “escapees” is a little curious. Obama recognizes dreamy immigrants he will fight for, because they are brown, not white (or black).
Can I adopt a whole family?
Amen.
Contrary to those casting aspersions on this family, they are heroes and are doing a marvelous deed in bringing international attention to the subject. It’s a shame that our gov’t doesn’t support them in their quest to “breathe free.”
Understand that the time is coming when homeschooling will be outlawed here. Many families already have to take their fascist school districts to court. Thanks to the Romeikes because they’re fighting for my children, too.