One intractable problem in multiculturalism has been the boundary problem: when religious or cultural groups have public recognition and some measure of authority or control over group members or public resources, how are the boundaries of group membership defined? This is a long-standing problem in countries like Israel that regulate many family law questions based on religious law, and it occasionally crops up in other settings, like this enrollment dispute involving the state-financed Jews’ Free School in London. Britain’s Supreme Court ruled this week in a 5-4 decision in R. v. Governing Body of JFS ([2009] UKSC 15) that the school’s policy limiting admissions to children who are Jewish by an Orthodox definition was illegal under the Race Relations Act. Stories about the case by Sarah Lyall of the New York Times are here and here; one by Nicola Woolcock from The Times (of London)is here, and here is another by Jessica Shepherd and Riazat Butt from The Guardian. Britain has a large number of publicly-funded religious or “faith” schools, including about 50 Jewish schools.