On paper, the Constitution already wins
No U.S. court uses Sharia as the criminal law or the public law of the land. The Constitution sits above every religious manual. A state may not set up a religion. A state may not deny equal rights.
Pew’s 2026 report put the U.S. Muslim population at about 5.5 million people of all ages, up from 2.4 million in 2007. That is still about one percent of the country. Mosque counts rose in the same years. Growth is real. Replacing the civil courts is not.
Where religious law does enter
It enters the way other religious law enters: through private choice.
- Contracts. A marriage contract, a will, or a business deal that points to Islamic rules.
- Private judges. A federal law makes written private-judge deals broadly binding. Jewish and Christian panels use the same law.
- Foreign court orders. A U.S. court asked to honor a divorce or child order from another country will refuse if the result is unfair or against public policy.
- Family court. A judge may read a religious paper as a contract. A judge may not become a priest.
Courts can already throw out a result obtained by threats, or one that would hurt a child or a spouse’s rights. The gap is practical: people who never reach a courthouse, or who are told that using a “non-Muslim court” is forbidden.
State and federal bills
Since about 2010, many states have passed or debated “American Laws for American Courts” bills. The versions that last are neutral. They bar a court from enforcing foreign or religious law when doing so would violate basic rights. Oklahoma’s 2010 change that named Sharia was blocked as targeting a religion.
Naming a religion in a bill makes a good press release and a worse court case. We prefer the neutral rule: no result that denies equal rights, from any foreign or religious source.
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