Want Monkey Meat for Religious Purposes? Get a Permit!

A few years ago, Staten Island resident Mamie Manneh was arrested for smuggling "smoked bushmeat"—skulls, limbs and torsos of "green monkeys and hamadryas baboons" (packed in a box marked "African dresses and smoked fish")—into the U.S. Her lawyers went to the First Amendment, explaining that Manneh's religious beliefs required to eat the contraband goods, with one lawyer telling the judge in 2007, it was "something like a seder ... you know, bitter herbs and that might have some reference to the Exodus or something along those lines." This past week, a judge struck down that argument: According to the Staten Island Advance, federal judge Raymond J. Dearie said that "Manneh's faith didn't bar her from applying for the permits need to import exotic foodstuffs or explain why she misled border officials." Additionally, Manneh is currently serving jailtime for running over a woman she believed was sleeping with her husband.