Her lawyers argue that the daughter, who attends a Jewish preschool, would "suffer confusion to her emotional detriment" as a result of what they called Joseph Reyes' "malicious" actions.
Jeffery Leving, a divorce lawyer who specializes in fathers' rights, said he would recommend that Joseph Reyes convert back to Catholicism if he wanted to expose his daughter to his faith without further incurring the judge's wrath.
Carlton Marcyan, a senior partner with the divorce specialty firm Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck, said courts don't normally "like to get immersed in religious issues. You have a very young child here. A 3-year-old is not going to know whether she's at a Catholic church or a synagogue," Marcyan said.