No, it was to have civil courts handle family law issues in accordance with religious law as long as both parties agreed to it.
Yes. Thank you.
A hole poked, actually.
This is why I like my religion. You can do whatever you want with your Obama.
Whistleblowers?
Not in any meaningful sense. When two parties have a legal dispute, they have the option of having it heard in a secular court or a religious court (beth din courts have been in operation for over one hundred years). If either party disagrees, it goes to secular court. No imposition of religious morality even on the religious adherents.
Which is such bullshit, because in these religious communities, weaker people don’t have the option of “disagreeing” with stronger ones. An unpopular Jewish guy whose kid gets molested by a rabbi can go to the government, or a Muslim woman can report her husband for beating her…if they want to be exiled from the only lives they’ve ever known in retribution, if not worse.
I tend to agree, but what would you do to solve the problem?
After all, if you ban the use of religious courts altogether, and force everyone into the secular courts, it still doesn’t stop the community for shunning someone, or otherwise exacting some sort of social retribution on them, based on the community’s feeling about the case and about who is in the wrong. People are assholes sometimes, and you can make them be nice to one another through legislation.
That should, of course, be can’t.
But it does let them get the legal redress that they will be denied by being forced into these ridiculous religious courts.
Which brings up a nice point in the board’s rules about quoting! If I had corrected your quote, above, would I be violating the rules? 
Anyway… People are assholes, sometimes…and what the law can do is punish them so severely for it that it deters others from doing likewise. Jailing a few people for misprision of felony is a regrettable necessity, but, after it is done a few times, the message might get heard.
But under the rules, they can get that now, because the only thing “forcing” them into the religious courts in the first place is community pressure. There is no legal requirement for them to agree to the religious court at all.
If they don’t agree to the religious court, they face community disapproval and hostility, but that disapproval and hostility would not magically disappear if you made the religious courts illegal.
For the millionth time: if they can be forced into religious courts, they can be forced to waive their rights in regular courts too.
I do believe the State of New York recognizes the importance of a bet din. It’s not so much that they’re awful for things like divorces or whatever – it’s when criminals get to bypass the actual justice system of the land. I believe many even have their own police force.
“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.” And allows both to hire the best lawyers they can afford.
UPDATE:
Nechemya Weberman was convicted on all (59) counts. The jury deliberated for about five hours over two days.
He is being held on Riker’s Island pending his sentencing on Jan 9.
Zev Steinhardt
And in a related update: someone threw bleach in the face of the Rabbi who’s been helping to out orthodox molesters, Nuchem Rosenberg.
So at least they know which orthodox terrorist attacked him. Hopefully, Rosenberg will press charges.