This is an old thread but there were new developments in the last three months. There is a slight chance that the U.S. Supreme Court may review this family's appeal of their deportation.
Quote:The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the Obama administration to respond to a petition by the Home School Legal Defense Association to hear an appeal in the Romeikes deportation case.
The Obama administration has sought to deport the Romeikes, a German family that fled from to the United States to protect their right to homeschool. If they had stayed in Germany, they risked fines or having their children taken from them, as recently happened with another homeschooling family in Germany.
An appeals court agreed with the administration, which argued that the freedom to determine the education of one's children is not a fundamental right. The administration also agreed with a German court's argument that banning homeschooling teaches tolerance of diverse views. HSLDA petitioned the Supreme Court to review that appeals court decision.
The fact that the Supreme Court wants the administration to weigh in on the petition increases the likelihood that it will hear the case, but it is no guarantee.
http://www.christianpost.com/news/supreme-court-orders-obama-admin-to-respond-to-romeike-homeschoolers-petition-109532/
The most recent court decision was delivered May 14, 2013 at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.
Quote:The question is not whether Germany’s policy violates the American Constitution, whether it violates the parameters of an international treaty or whether Germany’s law is a good idea. It is whether the Romeikes have established the prerequisites of an asylum claim—a well-founded fear of persecution on account of a protected ground.
....The Romeikes have not met this burden. The German law does not on its face single out any protected group, and the Romeikes have not provided sufficient evidence to show that the law’s application turns on prohibited classifications or animus based on any prohibited ground.
http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/13a0137p-06.pdf
@wandeljw,
In November, there had been a "national day of prayer" for them, if I remember correctly.
@Walter Hinteler,
That is true. A Christian group called for prayer for the family. To me, requiring minor children to attend school and punishing for truancy can not be considered persecution.
The case number at the Supreme Court is 13-471. Status can be viewed on the Supreme Court website:
http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.aspx?FileName=/docketfiles/13-471.htm
@wandeljw,
The US Supreme Court has refused to grant certiorari to the petition filed by the Romeike family seeking asylum because of persecution of homeschoolers in Germany:
Quote:The motions of petitioners for leave to proceed in forma
pauperis are denied. Petitioners are allowed until March 24,
2014, within which to pay the docketing fees required by Rule
38(a) and to submit petitions in compliance with Rule 33.1 of
the Rules of this Court.
Supreme Court ORDER LIST: 571 U.S.
If they're intensely religious Protestants who want to home school their kids, they probably are better off in Tennessee than Germany anyway.
In that town they're only 250 miles to the Creation Museum in Kentucky. The children wouldn't have that advantage in Germany.
