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Three Lawsuits of Interest Are Settled

By Howard M. Friedman

Settlements were announced this week in three unrelated cases-- all involving church-state or religious freedom issues. In Hempstead, New York, National Wholesale Liquidators Inc. agreed to an injunction and assessment of $225,000 in damages in a lawsuit brought by the EEOC charging it with discrimination by one of its store managers. According to IndiaWest, the manager was charged with sexual harassment and taunting of nine South Asian employees about their national origin and religion. He told one female Sikh employee to remove her turban so she would appear sexier.

In Pennsylvania, Shippensburg University has agreed to change its rules in order to settle a lawsuit by a student group, the Christian Fellowship. In February, student senate invoked university rules to object to the group's requirement that its members be Christians and its president to be a man. Tuesday's Christian Post reports that a similar lawsuit was settled in 2004. (See prior related posting.)

In Wyandot County (Ohio) Common Pleas Court, members of the St. Joseph Catholic Parish in Salem Township, whose rural Ohio church was closed by the diocese, filed suit in 2006 to obtain control of the parish's funds and property. Yesterday's Toledo Blade reports that a settlement agreement has been reached under which the church building, meeting hall, and related property will be transferred to the non-profit St. Joseph-Salem Heritage Society which was formed by ex-parishioners to preserve the parish's history. The agreement places some restrictions on the Society's future use of the buildings.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on October 30, 2008 (boomark / email).