Home-Schoolers Lose US Asylum Bid

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against a German home-schooling family who applied for asylum on the grounds of religious persecution. Home-schooling is illegal in Germany and some families have lost custody of their children over the issue.

The U.S. grants safe haven to people who have a well-founded fear of persecution, but not necessarily to those under governments with laws that simply differ from those in the U.S., Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote in the court’s decision. “The German authorities have not singled out the Romeikes in particular or homeschoolers in general for persecution,” he wrote for the three-judge panel in the case, Uwe Romeike v. Eric Holder, Jr. Uwe Romeike said in an email on Wednesday that his family began home schooling to protect their children from bullying and teachings they didn’t agree with.

Unsurprisingly, the family's case has been championed by American evangelicals. Yesterday the Family Research Council denounced this week's ruling, claiming that the family has been "singled out and targeted by the Obama administration."  A petition to the White House in support of the family has over 120K signatures.  Lawyers for the family are vowing to take the case to the Supreme Court.