WASHINGTON D.C. —U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama is again drawing national attention for targeting perceived threats from Islamic law, co-sponsoring a Senate bill this week to “ban Sharia law” in American courts—a move critics and constitutional scholars alike describe as wasteful and politically calculated.
The legislation, dubbed the “No Sharia Act,” is co-sponsored by Texas Sen. John Cornyn. It would prohibit U.S. courts from enforcing contracts, decrees or judgments based on foreign or religious laws, specifically naming Sharia, in cases where they conflict with the Constitution or American law. Tuberville claims the bill is needed to “protect American values” and prevent “radical extremism.” However, there is no evidence that Sharia law has ever formed the basis of a legal decision in Alabama, nor are there examples of courts anywhere in the country imposing religious law over U.S. law. In fact, Alabama voters already passed a constitutional amendment in 2014 barring foreign and religious laws in state courts, a measure widely criticized at the time as redundant and rooted in anti-Muslim rhetoric rather than any documented problem.
Legal experts point out that the U.S. Constitution already prevents any foreign, religious, or non-civil legal code from determining outcomes in American courts, making this latest Senate effort largely performative. A review of Alabama and national court records shows U.S. judges have never enforced Sharia against the will of American parties, and attempts to cite it as a defense—such as a widely misrepresented 2009 New Jersey family court ruling—were swiftly reversed on constitutional grounds. Federal courts have consistently held that government action explicitly targeting a single faith, as in sweeping “anti-Sharia” legislation, may itself violate religious freedom protections.
What makes the move particularly ironic, critics say, is that the same lawmakers behind this bill have a long history of using legislative power to impose their own preferred version of Christianity on the public. Tuberville has supported school prayer bills, laws to mandate Christian symbols in public spaces and attempts to direct government funds to religious schools—each motivated by conservative Christian ideology. Alabama Republicans, including Tuberville during his Senate campaign, have repeatedly pushed for restrictions on abortion and LGBTQ rights that cite religious doctrine, even as they insist Sharia law represents an existential threat to secular government.
With Alabama’s well-documented challenges—ranging from underfunded public schools to some of the nation’s hardest-hit rural hospitals—some constituents say that Tuberville’s priorities send a clear message about the political value of manufactured culture wars over practical policymaking. If enacted, the new bill would duplicate laws already on the books in Alabama and more than a dozen other states, with no evidence it would do anything beyond stigmatizing one of the country’s smallest religious minorities.