I’ve reported on Spinka before. The Grand Rabbi of Spinka, Naftali Tzi Weisz, was jailed for two years for his part in a charitable donation (but not really charitable donation) tax fraud scheme.
Apparently, there’s more to investigate. A Grand Jury in Los Angeles summoned another rabbi, Moshe Zigelman, to testify. He refused, citing the Jewish principle of “mesira.” As the Los Angeles Times has reported, he believes he must answer to a higher authority.
Unfortunately for the rabbi, the judge Margaret Morrow disagrees. The Volokh Conspiracy has an interesting discussion of the legal issue of whether the First Amendment trumps the government’s right to subpoena. For now, the government has won; he must report to prison on Wednesday.
Of course, when I think of “higher authority,” this television commercial from 1975 comes to mind.
Tags: Spinka
Allowing this kind of nonsense would give anybody who doesn’t want to testify the right to refuse for any reason they wanted.