APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS CONSTITUTIONALITY OF CHURCH ARSON PREVENTION ACT IN SYNAGOGUE BOMB-THREAT CASE

WASHINGTON, D.C.- The Department of Justice today announced that a federal appeals court upheld the conviction of a defendant who was charged with threatening to bomb three synagogues in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region. The defendant appealed his conviction on the grounds that the statute used to charge him, the federal Church Arson Prevention Act, is unconstitutional. Specifically, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit rejected defendant Gary Corum’s claim that the Act violates the constitutional bar against government establishment of religion.

Corum was convicted in June 2002 on three counts of using threats of violence to interfere with the free exercise of religious beliefs in violation of the Church Arson Prevention Act, and also of using a telephone to make threats of violence. The charges were brought following a July 2001 incident when he left bomb and arson threats on the voicemail of three synagogues in the Twin Cities area. In those messages, he claimed to represent the White Aryan People’s Party and he ended his messages with “Heil Hitler.” Corum, who has been free on bond pending appeal, will serve a term of 16 months imprisonment.

In 1996, Congress enacted the Church Arson Prevention Act which makes it a federal crime to deface, damage or destroy houses of worship, or to use force or threats to interfere with free religious exercise, under circumstances that affect interstate commerce.

The Court of Appeals found that the purpose and effect of the Act is not to advance religion but rather “to curb violence and threats of violence that adversely affect an aspect of interstate commerce Congress has found to be particularly vulnerable to violent interference.”

“The Court has sent a strong and clear message that Congress may protect the constitutional rights of Americans to freely exercise their chosen faiths in peace without violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment,” said R. Alexander Acosta, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “However, the Establishment Clause simply does not provide a safe harbor for bigots who engage in criminal activity. Discrimination on the basis of religion has no place in America.”

This case was investigated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by attorneys from the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the United States Attorney’s Office in Minneapolis.

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