Ah, it’s been a while since we’ve gotten any updates on metzitzah b’peh, the ultra-Orthodox Jewish practice that finds Rabbis using their mouths to suck the blood from infants’ freshly-circumcised penises and has led to fatal contractions of herpes simplex virus. Back in September, New York City’s Board of Health ruled that rabbis who wanted to perform the practice must obtain written parental consent to do so, then the next month, several groups sued the city over the ruling, saying it shook “the core of our democracy” and asking for regulations to be suspended until litigation was over.
Yesterday, Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of the United States District Court for the Southern District ruled that the city could begin enforcing the rules. “In light of the quality of the evidence presented in support of the regulation, we conclude that a continued injunction against enforcement of the regulation would not serve the public interest,” she wrote.
Unsurprisingly, the plaintiffs plan to appeal.
