GOP-led states are tripping over each other to compete for the most absurd response to the perceived threat of Shariah law. Thirteen intrepid states are chasing Oklahoma’s unconstitutional coat-tails to bar any consideration of international or Islamic law, even if it means accidentally banning the Ten Commandments or Native American rights.

But with state Sen. Bill Ketron’s (R) new Senate Bill 1028, Tennessee wins the honor of most radical response to a non-existent threat. Introduced last Thursday, the bill claims that Shariah law “continues to plague the United States generally and Tennessee in particular” and requires Muslims “to actively and passively support the replacement of America’s constitutional republic” with an Islamic state. Thus, adherence to the “legal-political-military doctrine” of Shariah law “is treasonous” and “a felony, punishable by 15 years in jail”:

A proposed new state law would make following the Islamic legal code known as Shariah law a felony, punishable by 15 years in jail.[...]

The bill claims that Shariah law is a danger to homeland security.

“The threat from Shariah-based jihad and terrorism presents a real and present danger to the lawful governance of this state and to the peaceful enjoyment of citizenship by the residents of this state,” the bill reads.

The bill exempts any peaceful practice of Islam.

But it also claims that any adherence to Shariah law – which includes religious practices like feet-washing and prayers – is treasonous.

It would require the state attorney general to investigate Shariah-compliant groups.

State House speaker pro tempore Judd Matheny (R) introduced the companion bill in the Tennessee House. Admitting that he is “still researching” Shariah, Matheny also admitted that the bill “was model legislation, given to him by the Tennessee Eagle Forum,” a right-wing “pro-family” advocacy group dedicated to “self-government and public policy making.”

The group, in turn, “confirmed that the law had been drafted by David Yerushalmi,” a self-professed “expert” on Islamophobia who believes that “Islam was born in violence; it will die that way” and that Muslims should “be taught from the cradle to reject the religion of their forebears.” As the Center For American Progress’ Matt Duss notes, Yerushalmi is a close associate of anti-Islam activist Frank Gaffney and has proposed dealing with America’s Muslim problem by making support or adherence to Islam “punishable by 20 years,” by declaring the U.S at war with the Muslim Nation, by declaring that “all non-US citizen Muslims are Alien Enemies,” and by banning any Muslim an entry visa into the U.S.

Noting that the U.S. Constitution both “trumps religious law” and prohibits the government from labeling religious laws “as wrong or treasonous or evil,” the First Amendment Center’s Charles Haynes takes a slightly different view of the bill: “It’s complete nonsense,” he said.

Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) has been gaining lots of attention at the moment for his attempt to strip collective bargaining from many of his state’s public employees, essentially busting their union legislatively. But he is far from alone among Republican governors in trying to take a pound of flesh from his state’s working people.

Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), for instance, proposed a budget yesterday that holds property tax rebates for seniors hostage to benefit cuts for public employees: if public sector workers don’t agree to the cuts, property tax rebates don’t go out. And of course, Christie has rhetorically bashed teachers’ unions since he came into office, in order to score political points. During an appearance on MSNBC today, Christie actually bragged that his state leads the nation in terms of public sector layoffs, claiming that “unions are trying to break the middle class”:

USA Today recently said that New Jersey has shed by percentage more public sector jobs in the last year than any state in America. And the reason we’ve done this is because our government was bloated and too big at every level…In New Jersey, we’re not trying to break the unions, the unions are trying to break the middle class in New Jersey, through the expenses. And they’re close to doing it.

Watch it:

Because of his mass layoffs of public employees, the number of unemployed workers has actually increased in New Jersey since Christie took office. And Christie’s assertion that unions are not good for the middle class is quite troubling.

As David Madland and Karla Walter pointed out, “the middle class is markedly stronger when workers join together in unions.” In fact, the decline in unionization rates over the last forty years has been almost perfectly mirrored by a drop in middle-class incomes. Income inequality in the U.S. is the worst its been since the 1920′s, with nearly 25 percent of the total income in the country going to the richest one percent. The richest 10 percent of Americans control 2/3rds of the country’s net worth.

When unionization rates were high, prosperity was broadly shared, and workers were able to enjoy their fair share of productivity gains. But the overall economy is also stronger when unions are strong: “From 1947 to 1973, the period when unions were strongest and nearly one-third of workers were organized, U.S. economic output nearly tripled in size, growing at an average of 3.8 percent annually.” Since 2001, economic output has been just 2.2 percent annually.

Cross-posted on The Wonk Room.

Georgia state Rep. Bobby Franklin (R) has made a name for himself by introducing far-right extremist bills. He has introduced legislation barring the state from requiring vaccinations, eliminating income taxes and replacing them with nothing, and requiring state taxpayers to only pay in gold or silver.

Now, he has introduced what may be his most offensive and extreme bill yet. Last week he unveiled HB 1, which would, as the parenting blog Babble explains, “require proof that a miscarriage occured naturally.” If proof could not be provided, the mother could face “felony charges”:

State Rep. Bobby Franklin of Georgia introduced a bill in his state last week that, if enacted, would require proof that a miscarriage occurred naturally. If a woman can’t prove that her miscarriage–or spontaneous abortion–occurred without intervention, she could face felony charges.

According to WebMed, the overall miscarriage rate in the United States is 15-20 percent. The Mayo Clinic estimates that the “the actual number is probably much higher because many miscarriages occur so early in pregnancy that a woman doesn’t even know she’s pregnant. Most miscarriages occur because the fetus isn’t developing normally.” If Franklin’s radical legislation were to be enacted, it could mean that as many as a fifth of pregnant Georgian women would be forced to have their miscarriages reviewed by the government — the bill suggests creating a county registration list for fetal deaths — which would be a dangerous and unprecedented intrusion into their private lives. (HT: ThinkProgress reader Libel)