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The whirlwind recruitment of junior college star John Jenkins just got a new boost of momentum.

John Jenkins

Jenkins, a 6-foot-4, 340-pound nose guard from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, officially de-committed from Oklahoma State this week. Not that he’d been very committed before that. Georgia has been in hot pursuit of the hole-plugging nose guard for months. The Bulldogs made in-home visits both last month and this one and will host Jenkins on an official visit Jan. 21.

Meanwhile, Auburn, Florida and Miami have also been in contact with Jenkins and have made him a recruiting priority.

So it wasn’t much of a surprise when Jenkins backed off an October commitment to Oklahoma State when the Cowboys came to visit him in Connecticut recently.

“They said they felt like I wasn’t committed to them anymore; that’s the way the conversation started,” Jenkins said of Oklahoma State. “It ended up with me saying I had to do what I had to do and I’d let them know.”

The Cowboys …

AJC College Sports Recruiting

A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction against Oklahoma’s so-called “Sharia ban,” saying the case goes “to the very foundation of our country, our Constitution, and particularly, the Bill of Rights.”

Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange, who presides over a federal court in the western district of Oklahoma, ruled that a CAIR official suing to block the law will likely succeed in his efforts.

“Specifically, the Court finds that plaintiff has made a strong showing that State Question
755′s amendment’s primary effect inhibits religion and that the amendment fosters an excessive government entanglement with religion,” she wrote. “While defendants contend that the amendment is merely a choice of law provision that bans state courts from applying the law of other nations and cultures, regardless of what faith they may be based on, if any, the actual language of the amendment reasonably, and perhaps more reasonably, may be viewed as specifically singling out Sharia Law, conveying a message of disapproval of plaintiff’s faith.”

Earlier this month, Oklahoma voters approved a constitutional amendment, which would ban state courts from considering “Sharia law,” by a margin of 70 to 30. Muneer Awad, the director of the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, then filed suit, seeking an injunction against the certification of the ballot question.

Awad claimed that the law violated his First Amendment rights by singling out his religion and would invalidate his will, which is based on Islamic teachings. In court, he argued that Sharia law is not actually a law, but a series of Islamic teachings — religion itself — that varies by country and sect.

The judge will next decide whether Awad is right on the case’s merits, and whether to impose a permanent injunction.

The law has the potential to negatively affect other groups, including American Indians.

TPMMuckraker

A federal judge in Oklahoma today extended a restraining order that will prevent a so-called “Sharia ban” from going into effect for another week.

On Election Day, Oklahoma voters overwhelming approved a ballot question that would amend the state constitution, banning state courts from considering Sharia or international law. Muneer Awad, director of the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, then filed a lawsuit claiming the law violates his First Amendment rights and could prevent his will, which relies heavily on Islamic teachings, from being carried out. Awad is asking that the court permanently blocks the amendment from going into effect.

The judge is expected to issue a ruling next Monday.

“Every day that State Question 755 is not part of our constitution is a good day for us,” Awad told TPM today over the phone. Awad said he had introduced as evidence some of the language state politicians used while campaigning for the law, saying it proved that their intent was to block the free expression of Islam.

Proponents of the law say it is a “pre-emptive strike” against Muslims who would seek to impose their religious law on the Oklahoma court system.

TPMMuckraker

MSNBC apparently doesn't have  viewers in Oklahoma. If it does, Cenk Uygur just alienated about 70 percent of them.

At the close of the 3 p.m. EST hour today, the MSNBC substitute anchor mocked the Sooner State for passing into law a constitutional amendment that forbids state courts from using the principles of Islamic sharia law in court proceedings.

The measure, Question 755, also forbids laws from foreign countries from being used by judges to inform their decisions.

Video to be posted shortly

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