The UDV's hearing before the US Supreme Court - Message from Jeffrey Bronfman
Message sent from Jeffrey Bronfman, UDV´s leader in the USA, on September 19th, 2005:
"My appreciated friends and family,
As you are all well aware the United States Government’s appeal of the UDV case is scheduled for oral argument before the United States Supreme Court on November 1st at 11:00 AM. In response to the substantial interest that this case has already generated publicly and by the news media, a website has been launched to provide clear comprehensive and reliable information about this case. You can access this site from the homepage of www.udvusa.com/index.php.
From the website there is a page devoted to answering frequently asked question with regard to the UDV religion and our successful law suit against the Justice Department of the United States Government; as well as copies of the legal briefs that have been filed by the UDV before the Supreme Court. In gracious response to the seriousness of our legal case dozens of church groups, civil liberty organizations, legal scholars, and medical experts collaborated in the submission of nine amicus briefs in support of the UDV before the Supreme Court as well. The arguments presented by these organizations deal with the wide breadth of the constitutional and legal issues that are presented by this case and can be downloaded from the website. I believe you will find many of these contributions fascinating.
There is, for example, a brief prepared on behalf of several distinguished scholars of world religion discussing the “venerable history” of the use of plant sacraments in the religious history of humanity. There are also briefs submitted by organizations as distinct and significant as the American Civil Liberties Union, the Conference of Catholic Bishops, the American Jewish Congress and the National Association of Evangelicals in support of the UDV’s position. Scholars of International Law, examining the United States Government’s responsibility under the conventions and treaties which affirm the primacy of Freedom of Conscience and Religious Belief, are represented as well.
If any of you have your own websites where those you attend would also be interested in this information, I invite and encourage you to provide links from your site to ours. This will allow for the maximum possibility of educating the literally tens of millions of people whose own lives may be affected by the outcome of this very far reaching legal decision.
I take this moment to thank you for all of your past support, for the time you will give to receiving and sharing this information, and for your loving, energetic alliance with us in the UDV on November 1st.
Sincerely and respectfully,
Jeffrey Bronfman"