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A San Francisco Superior Court judge yesterday threw out a voter initiative headed to the November ballot that would have outlawed the circumcision of males younger than 18, with jail or fines as penalties.
Judge Loretta Giorgi found that the ballot initiative, even if passed by voters, could not stand since it would outlaw an accepted medical procedure. Such a prohibition is not allowed under state law.
The ruling came as welcome news to the legal team who fought for it, including attorney Ethan Schulman, a member of the ACLU of Northern California's legal committee and a partner at the firm Crowell & Moring.
“The Court’s ruling today protects the rights of parents to direct their children’s religious upbringing and medical care, and ensures that San Francisco voters will not have to vote on something that clearly conflicts with California law,” he said in a statement.
The circumcision ban was placed on the ballot by Lloyd Schofield, a San Francisco resident whose group deemed the procedure “genital mutilation that is unnecessary, extremely painful and even dangerous.”
Schofield filed a legal document for Thursday’s hearing arguing that parents do not have the right to “the amputation of normal, healthy, protective, tissue.” The ban would have included no religious exceptions and would have made it a misdemeanor to circumcise a male under 18 years old.
Groups seeking to strike the ban, including the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco and ACLU of Northern California, argued that state law prevents the ban of a widely practiced medical procedure.
Giorgi agreed, ruling that since the measure would clearly be illegal, there was no reason to leave it on the ballot.
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