A bible-foisting Texas judge has been officially sanctioned, following a formal complaint by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Last July, Smith County Judge Randall Rogers ordered a man, Josten Bundy, who was in court on a misdemeanor assault charge, to daily copy a bible verse. As part of his probation requirement, Bundy had to write out 25 times a day Proverbs 26:27: "If a man digs a pit, he will fall into it." Rogers also commanded Bundy to wed his girlfriend within a month. (The misdemeanor charge stemmed from a brawl that Bundy had with his girlfriend's ex.)
Bundy did comply with the marriage injunction and ended up marrying his girlfriend.
FFRF Staff Attorney Sam Grover filed a complaint soon afterward with the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct about Rogers' actions. A few days ago, FFRF received a response from the commission indicating that it had disciplined Rogers.
"After a thorough review and investigation of the issues you raised in your complaint, the commission voted to issue the judge a private sanction," Seana Willing, executive director of the commission, said in the letter. FFRF and the public are not privy to the details of the sanction.
FFRF thanks the commission.
"In our secular constitutional system, courts should not be forcing people to act according to biblical precepts," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "Judges can't impose their theology on defendants."
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nontheistic organization with 23,000 members, including almost 1,000 in Texas.