[JURIST] The Idaho State Legislature [official website] on Friday voted to kill legislation that would have brought the state into compliance with federal guidelines on the collection of child support. Legislators were concerned [AP report] that the bill would force Idaho to enforce child support rulings made in foreign tribunals, particularly those enforcing Islamic law, under the Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance [text, PDF]. The Convention is a treaty to assist signatory parties enforce judicial decisions regarding child support and spousal support extraterritorially. US President Barack Obama signed implementing legislation [PDF] in September of 2014, although the US signed the convention [press release] with its original passage in 2007.

Several US states in recent years have adopted laws intended to prevent the use or enforcement of foreign law, particularly Sharia (or Islamic) law [JURIST op-eds]. In November, Alabama voters passed the Foreign Laws in Court Amendment One, a ballot measure that prohibits courts from applying “any law, rule or legal code system used outside of the United States or the State of Alabama.” In August of 2013, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory allowed a bill that prohibits North Carolina judges from considering Islamic law [JURIST report] in their decisions to become law. In March of 2012, the Florida House of Representatives approved a bill that would ban the use of religious or foreign law [JURIST report] in legal decisions and contracts.