Is a rare first edition Book of Mormon bible exempt, although it may be worth $10,000? The Seventh Circuit held that it is exempt.
In chapter 7, a woman owned several bibles and claimed an exemption under Illinois law for her first edition copy of the Book of Mormon, one of only 5,000 printed by Mormonism founder Joseph Smith. The bankruptcy judge denied the objection, believing that the exemption only covered bibles of “ordinary value.”
The district court reversed, and Circuit Judge Kenneth F. Ripple agreed, holding that the claimed exemption was within the plain meaning of the Illinois statute.
Although other provisions in the Illinois exemption statute include monetary limitations, the section covering “necessary wearing apparel, bible, school books, and family pictures” has none. Judge Ripple therefore concluded that a bible is “exempt without regard to its value” because the state legislature places no monetary limitation on religious texts.
Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook was on the panel.