Court Fires Judge Who Forbade Parents From Naming Baby ‘Messiah’

Why is this baby smiling? Maybe it’s because the powers-that-be in Tennessee have yanked a religiously insane judicial activist from her job as Child Support Magistrate for making a really dumb and insensitive ruling.

In August, a Tennessee couple appeared before a child support magistrate judge to resolve a dispute over the baby’s surname. But Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew took it upon herself to order that the seven-month-old baby’s first name be changed from “Messiah” to “Martin,” because that name should be reserved for Jesus. New court documents reveal that Ballew was fired Friday, after being cited by the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct for inappropriate religious bias.

“The word Messiah is a title and it’s a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ,” Ballew said at the time of the order, reasoning that the child would face difficulties in a heavily Christian town.

On appeal, a court held the name change unconstitutional, as a clear violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. Ballew will still face a disciplinary hearing even after her removal.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.