What happens when a judge decides to issue a court order out of thin air? If his order affects homeschoolers, he learns about Home School Legal Defense Association pretty quickly! Today on Home School Heartbeat, HSLDA attorneys Jim Mason and Mike Farris discuss one such case in Mississippi.
Jim Mason:
Mike, tell our listeners about your initial reaction when you read the in re: Homeschool order.
Mike Farris:
I was shocked, I was surprised, I was incredulous, and I was a little bit mad at what this judge had done. I had never seen a judge who was so clearly indifferent to having legal requirements in front of him. He was just simply making stuff up out of thin air. I wanted to make sure that the people of Mississippi were not suffering the loss of their freedom in that kind of a situation. It was a lawless environment, and somebody needed to do something about it, and so, I wanted to do something as quickly as we could.
Jim:
Well, how did this order present a threat to homeschoolers?
Mike:
Well, the judge wanted to go on a fishing expedition. First, he wanted the names and addresses of all the homeschoolers. And, obviously he had a purpose behind that. We believe that the purpose was to try to find out which homeschoolers were meeting his idea of what was a good homeschool and which were not. And he was basically taking over the personal supervision of all the homeschooling in Mississippi—in his district, at least. That’s simply beyond his authority, and beyond what the law permits in Mississippi.
Jim:
Thanks Mike. Next time, we’ll talk more about the Mississippi case. For Home School Heartbeat, I’m Jim Mason.
