In one of the cases kicking off its fall term, Maryland's highest court is being asked whether a judge violated an Orthodox Jew's right to religious freedom by holding a medical malpractice trial without him and his lawyer during a major Jewish holiday.

Lawyers for Alexander Neustadter of Silver Spring argued before the Maryland Court of Appeals last week that Montgomery County Circuit Court judges got so wrapped up in the "efficiency of the docket" that rather than delay the trial or suspend it for two days of Shavuot, the court trampled Neustadter's constitutional rights.