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Religion & Law

Blog From The Capital

Blog from the Capital is the weblog of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, a Baptist church-state separation advocacy group in D.C. for the last 70 years.

Post Frequency: 8.8/day

Last Entry: March 30, 2009 at 16:22:09

Finding God at the Wrong Time for RFRA

Posted on June 20, 2008
In Baldwin County, AL, Bob and Brenda Shoop made a Religious Freedom Restoration Act claim that the marijuana causing them to fail a drug test, which in turn violated their parole after being arrested for trafficking, was a necessary part...

Buddhist Inmate Wins Case for Vegan Diet in Massachussetts Prison

Posted on June 19, 2008
From the Boston Globe US Chief District Judge Mark L. Wolf concluded that the system violated a 2000 federal statute that protects religious freedom in prison. In a judgment entered Tuesday, Wolf ordered the head of the system, beginning Friday,...

Lawsuit Challenges "I Believe" License Plates

Posted on June 19, 2008
Americans United has filed suit over the controversial South Carolina specialty license plate that allows residents to choose a tag with a cross and the slogan "I Believe". The Americans United lawsuit says the Christian license plate violates the separation...

Study Questions DC Voucher Program Effectiveness

Posted on June 18, 2008
At a time when Congress may be moving toward phasing out the D.C. school voucher program - sending taxpayer money to private schools including religious schools - a Department of Education study indicates the plan leaves participating students performing at...

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Supreme Court to Hear Detainees' Right to Sue Government Officials for Religious Discrimination

Posted on June 18, 2008
The Supreme Court earlier this week granted a hearing to consider a lawsuit against Defense Department officials over detainees' treatment. Javaid Iqbal claims that he was mistreated due to his religion thanks to a policy that was known and approved....

Saudi Academy in Virginia Under Continued Scrutiny

Posted on June 17, 2008
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has been engaged in a lengthy challenge to the textbooks used by the Islamic Saudi Academy, a school run by the Saudi Government in conjunction with its Embassy. After finally obtaining many of...

Balancing Dignity

Posted on June 17, 2008
To follow up yesterday's post, here is Marc Stern of the American Jewish Congress in today's LA Times, in a piece titled "Will Gay Rights Trample Religious Liberty?" [T]he government has acted in some way to forbid gays and lesbians...

NPR on Gay Rights and Religious Liberty

Posted on June 16, 2008
Thanks to longtime reader Chris D for sending this link. NPR's Barbara Bradley Haggerty profiles the issue of same-sex marriage as it might impact concerns of religious liberty. Starting with the case of New Jerseys Ocean Grove Pavilion, an open-air....

Louisiana Senate Approves Evolution Bill, Lawsuit Eyed

Posted on June 16, 2008
By a unanimous vote, the Louisiana Senate has sent a bill to Governor Bobby Jindal that, according to the Washington Times, "would allow teachers to bring up scientific criticisms of evolution, global warming and other hot-button topics." Opponents, however, say...

Charter School Challenge: Striking the Balance

Posted on June 15, 2008
Following the controversy surrounding the city's Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy charter school (previous posts here and here), today's Minneapolis Star-Tribune hosts a conversation among some charter school administrators about the challenges of balancing their schools' cultural focus with church-state concerns...

Church-State Groups Sue over Florida Ballot Initiative

Posted on June 13, 2008
People For the American Way announced a lawsuit today on behalf of 6 Florida voters protesting 2 controversial initiatives slated to be on the November ballot. The state's Taxation and Budget Commission approved them - one of which would remove...

Honoring the First Amendment

Posted on June 12, 2008
In today's NYTimes, Adam Liptak's series on unique elements of the American judicial system focuses on our most fundamental of free speech rights: the right to offend, even in matters of religion. ?In much of the developed world, one uses...

Is Defiance of IRS Laws Starting Already?

Posted on June 11, 2008
Americans United is asking the IRS to investigate the tax-exempt status of a church whose pastor recently preached against the election of Democratic presidential candidates. About two weeks after the sermon, Booth, who was a delegate to this year?s National...

When Religious Beliefs Clash with Modern Codes

Posted on June 11, 2008
USAToday profiles the struggle of Amish communities to stay true to their beliefs amid modern-day legal concerns, and the struggle of officials to respect those communities while insisting on compliance with public health and safety codes. In Morristown, N...

Challenging the Texas Moment of Silence Amendment

Posted on June 10, 2008
AU and the ACLU have submitted a friend-of-the-court brief (pdf) to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in support of a challenge to Texas' amending their moment-of-silence law to explicitly mention prayer. [T]his case is materially indistinguishable from the Supreme...

Religion-in-the-Campaign Watch: Church-State Contra JFK, School Vouchers and Appealing to Young Evangelicals

Posted on June 10, 2008
Some campaign news items relating to religion: In a Wall Street Journal editorial, William McGurn argues that a speech of Senator Obama's puts him at odds (happily, in McGurn's view) with JFK's speech to Houston ministers declaring a belief in...

Congress Unlikely to Renew D.C. Voucher Program

Posted on June 09, 2008
From Sunday's Washington Post: Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said this week that she is working on a plan to phase out the controversial D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, the first in the country to provide federal money for vouchers. Norton said...

Afternoon Links: Graduation Lawsuit Settled, School Assembly on Islam Critiqued, Oklahoma Law Vetoed, Church-State Advocate Picks a Side, Tax-Exempt Status Revoked

Posted on June 09, 2008
Cleaning up some weekend news and other items I'm reading this afternoon: I was frankly surprised to see Charles Haynes' new column. The First Amendment Center head has come down on the side of the ADF in urging partisan politics...

Campaigns Plan to Woo Religious Voters

Posted on June 09, 2008
A NYTimes piece today is ostensibly about conservative evangelicals' hesitation to embrace Senators McCain. But also in the article are references to the intentions of both campaigns in specifically appealing to that demographic. Mr. McCain?s campaign has been ramping up...

South Carolina License Plate Option Raises Controversy

Posted on June 08, 2008
Whatever the reasons, we Americans love to paint our various exteriors with pronouncements of our tastes, interests and loyalties. From t-shirts to tattoos, we just can't help it. And that goes doubly for the eminent American form of individual self-expression:...

The Mission in Iraq

Posted on June 06, 2008
At Talk2Action, Chris Rodda - Senior Research Director for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation - pieces together the growing story of evangelism and US military activity in Iraq. [T]he truth is that Iraq is crawling with missionaries and evangelists, both...

School Assembly on Islam Upsets Junior High Community

Posted on June 06, 2008
A school principal has lost her job, and a Texas community is upset, over an assembly at a junior high school devoted to understanding the basics of Islam, according to the Houston Chronicle. The presentation from the Council on American-Islamic...

In Texas, Scrutiny of Evolution Awaits Science Curriculum Debate

Posted on June 05, 2008
As I wrote about earlier in the week, the Education Board of Texas is set to review the science curriculum this year. Yesterday's NYTimes offers insight into the way the state may be used as the next battleground for those...

On Scalia and Religion vs. Non-Religion

Posted on June 05, 2008
On Sunday, Justice Scalia delivered a speech to a gathering of Orthodox Jews on religion and the Establishment Clause, where he repeated one of his more controversial positions: that the Constitution does not prohibit the government from favoring religion over...

Torture and Religious Liberty

Posted on June 04, 2008
The newest issue of Liberty Magazine contains an important and troubling essay on the attack of detainees' religion as a form of humiliation and indeed torture. The starting point for Lawrence Swaim, head of the Interfaith Freedom Foundation, is the....

Brent Walker on Obama and Trinity UCC

Posted on June 04, 2008
At The Washington Post's On Faith page, Baptist Joint Committee Director Brent Walker answers the question "Should Barack Obama have resigned from his church?" In the spirit of the no religious test clause in Article VI of the Constitution, we...

More Charges of Military Proselytizing

Posted on June 03, 2008
From Jason Leopold at the Online Journal, charges that the controversial Christian coin distribution that sparked an Iraqi investigation is not the only religious activity by US troops: Some U.S. military personnel appears to have launched an initiative to covert...

Texas To Consider Evolution, Science Curriculum

Posted on June 03, 2008
Like Florida earlier this year, Texas is due to revamp its science curriculum, a process that begins in July. Expectations are that controversies surrounding evolution and creationism will dominate discussion. The Houston Chronicle gives a preview : David Hillis, a...

Settlement Allows Pacifist Teacher to Return to CA School [UPDATED]

Posted on June 03, 2008
Wendy Gonaver, the second teacher in the California University system fired for refusing to sign a loyalty oath on religious grounds has reached an agreement. Representatives of both sides said the settlement allows Gonaver to attach an explanatory statement that,...

Tangipahoa School Board Consents to Court Judgment

Posted on June 03, 2008
The beleaguered Tangipahoa, LA school district - whose church-state defiance I have recently thought might render it the first county ever literally bankrupt by the Establishment Clause - may have moved in the direction of sanity and self-protection. Via Religion...

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