Religion & Law
Religion Clause 
Current legal, political and scholarly developments relating to free exercise of religion and separation of church and state.
Post Frequency: 12.3/day Last Entry: November 20, 2009 at 15:55:00 Recent Entries: 3850
By Howard M. Friedman
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Ban On Transfer of Funds To Iraq Does Not Infringe Charity's Free Exercise
Posted on November 20, 2009In United States v. Islamic American Relief Agency, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107541 (WD MO, Nov. 18, 2009), a Missouri federal district court rejected defendants' argument that their indictment for illegally transferring funds to Iraq violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act...
Individual Congregations Seek To Intervene In Fort Worth Episcopal Diocese Case
Posted on November 20, 2009Virtue Online reported yesterday that 47 parishes and missions of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth (TX) have filed an Original Plea in Intervention (full text) in the lawsuit between The Episcopal Church and the break-away Diocese of Fort Worth. The intervenors seek a declaratory judgment that "in accordance with the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, the title to the real property being occupied and subject to the control of Intervening Congregations is held by the Corporation of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth in trust for the use and benefit of each Intervening Congregation...
Groups Challenge Use of Church for Graduation Ceremonies
Posted on November 20, 2009The ACLU and Americans United are threatening to file a lawsuit to stop Enfield, Connecticut high schools from holding their graduation ceremonies in Bloomfield, Connecticut's First Cathedral. (Press release.) The letter (full text) says in part: We ...
Defendant Sentenced For Cyber Attack On Scientology Websites
Posted on November 20, 2009According to a press release yesterday from the Church of Scientology, a New Jersey federal district court has sentenced Dmitriy Guzner for his part in a cyber attack on Scientology websites last January. Nineteen year old Guzner who, in May, plead guilty to one count of computer hacking, was given a sentence of 366 days in prison, 2 years probation and ordered to pay restitution of $37,500...
University Settles With Woman Fired For Being A Witch
Posted on November 20, 2009In Lincoln, Nebraska, a woman, identified only as Jane Doe, has settled an employment discrimination lawsuit she filed against the University of Nebraska. The woman alleges that she was removed as director of a youth program when the University discovered that she was a witch...
New Catholic, Evangelical Declaration Reaffirms Pro-Life, Traditional Marriage Agenda
Posted on November 20, 2009This afternoon, a coalition of 149 pro-life, Catholic, evangelical and Orthodox Christian leaders signed the 4700-word Manhattan Declaration, pledging to defend their pro-life views and their opposition to same-sex marriage. (LifeNews.) The Declaration says in part:While the whole scope of Christian moral concern, including a special concern for the poor and vulnerable, claims our attention, we are especially troubled that in our nation today the lives of the unborn, the disabled, and the elderly are severely threatened; that the institution of marriage, already buffeted by promiscuity, infidelity and divorce, is in jeopardy of being redefined to accommodate fashionable ideologies; that freedom of religion and the rights of conscience are gravely jeopardized by those who would use the instruments of coercion to compel persons of faith to compromise their deepest convictions...
Award By Rabbinical Court Vacated Over Limit on Party's Choice of Attorney
Posted on November 20, 2009In Kahan v. Rosner, (NY Sup. Ct., Nov. 16, 2009), a New York trial court vacated an arbitration award in a dispute between siblings over property originally owned by their father. The award was issued by a Rabbinical Court which refused to permit one of the parties to be represented by the attorney of his choice...
Appeal Filed Seeking Acceptance of D.C. Marriage Initiative Petition
Posted on November 19, 2009Having lost in their attempt to obtain a referendum (see prior posting), opponents of Washington, D.C.'s new law recognizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere filed an initiative petition in September. The Marriage Initiative would provide that only a marriage between a man and a woman would be recognized in D...
Groups Will Portray Nativity Scene On Supreme Court Sidewalk
Posted on November 19, 2009Two groups, Faith and Action and the Christian Defense Coalition , plan this morning to temporarily display a live Nativity Scene on the public sidewalk in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. Christian Newswire reports that the display is part of Operation Nativity and the Nativity Project which promote manager scenes on both public and private property.
Malaysia Authorities Charge Progressive Muslim Cleric
Posted on November 19, 2009In Malaysia, Islamic authorities have charged a popular progressive Muslim preacher with conducting a religious lecture in the state of Selangor without authorization from the state's Islamic department. AP reported yesterday that Asri Zainul Abidin plead not guilty in a Sharia court...
Deputy Proposes Change In Russia's National Anthem to Remove Reference To God
Posted on November 19, 2009Interfax reported yesterday that a member of the Russian State Duma representing the Communist Party has introduced a bill to change one line in the Russian Federation's national anthem. Deputy Boris Kashin wants to change "You, Our one Native land, protected by God!" to "You, Our one Native land, protected by us!" An explanatory note to the proposal says that since a substantial part of the Russian population does not believe in God, the current anthem does not correspond to their beliefs.
Israel's High Court Denies Rehearing In Grant of Kosher Certification To Messianic
Posted on November 19, 2009Arutz Sheva reported yesterday that Israel Supreme Court Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch has denied a rehearing in a case in which the court held that the Rabbinate in the city of Ashdod may not impose enhanced supervision requirements in granting a kashrut certificate (kosher certification) to a bakery owned by a Messianic Jew...
Think-Tank Charges U.S. Conservatives With Using African Clergy In LGBT Battles
Posted on November 19, 2009Political Research Associates, a Massachusetts-based progressive think tank, yesterday released a 42-page report titled Globalizing the Culture Wars: U.S. Conservatives, African Churches and Homophobia. The report focuses primarily on developments in Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria...
EEOC Says TSA Failed To Accommodate Rastafarian's Dreadlocks
Posted on November 18, 2009In a decision last week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that the Transportation Security Administration violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act when it failed to accommodate the need of a Rastafarian baggage screener at Boston's Logan Airport to wear long hair...
Cloture Voted On Hamilton's Nomination For 7th Circuit
Posted on November 18, 2009Yesterday, the U.S. Senate voted 70-29 to invoke cloture and thus end debate on the nomination of Indiana federal district judge David Hamilton to the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. (See prior related posting.) As reported by the Christian Science Monitor, opponents raised a number of issues, including Hamilton's short stint after college with ACORN and a decision he wrote invalidating Indiana's informed consent abortion law that would have required two trips to a clinic to obtain an abortion...
Appellate Court Will Consider Procedural Dispute In Ft. Worth Episcopal Diocese Case
Posted on November 18, 2009As previously reported, the dispute between two groups, both claiming to be the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, led to a lawsuit in the Texas courts. One of the groups is a break away group that affiliated with the more conservative Anglican Province of the Southern Cone...
Student Sues School After Refusal To Permit Participation In Pro-Life Day
Posted on November 18, 2009A Bridgeton, New Jersey high school student has sued the school board and high school officials alleging that they censored religious, pro-life speech at school on Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity. Yesterday the AP reported on the lawsuit in which the student alleged that school officials refused her request to participate in the nationally-sponsored day...
Former Editor Sues Washington Times For Religious Discrimination
Posted on November 18, 2009On Tuesday, Richard Miniter, former editorial page editor of the Washington Times filed a complaint with the EEOC charging the Times with religious discrimination against him, as well as discrimination on the basis of disability and age. According to yesterday's Washington Post, Miniter claims that he was essentially "coerced" into attending a Unification Church religious ceremony that ended with a mass wedding conducted by Rev...
British Tribunal Grants Asylum To Afghan Convert To Christianity
Posted on November 17, 2009In NM v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [Word.doc], (Asylum & Immigration Tribunal, Nov. 13, 2009), a British immigration tribunal, in an appeal from a decision by the Home Department, granted asylum to an Afghan national who had come to Britain aboard a hijacked airliner in 2000 and subsequently converted from Islam to Christianity in Britain...
Supreme Court Orders Yesterday In Two Cases of Interest
Posted on November 17, 2009Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in McComb v. Crehan, (Docket No. 08-1566, Nov. 16, 2009) (Order List.) In the case, the 9th Circuit upheld the action of Clark County, Nevada school officials in cutting off the microphone at high school graduation ceremonies when the class valedictorian departed from her approved speech and began reading from a version that contained religious and Biblical references...
Azerbaijan Official Reports On Status of Required Re-Registration of Religious Groups
Posted on November 17, 2009On May 31, 2009, Azerbaijan's new religion law and related amendments took effect. The law requires re-registration of all religious groups by Jan. 1, 2010. (See prior posting.) APA today published an interview with Gunduz Ismayilov, head of the Azerbaijan State Committee on Work With Religious Structures, the agency that administers the registration requirements...
Christian Groups Continue Objections To Hate Crimes Law
Posted on November 17, 2009Even though the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act has been signed by the President (see prior posting), some conservative Christian groups continue a campaign to challenge it. Yesterday, according to a press release from Vision America, "a coalition of concerned Christians" held a press conference outside the Justice Department featuring speakers who denounced "gay activists" and who pointed to actions in Britain under its Equality Act regulations...
Suit Challenges Religious Activities In Tennessee County's Schools
Posted on November 17, 2009Yesterday in federal court in Nashville, Tennessee, two former students and two families of current students filed a lawsuit challenging a pattern of religious activities in the Cheatham County (TN) school system. The suit, filed by the ACLU of Tennessee (press release), objects toincidents involving the distribution of Gideon Bibles in classrooms, teacher-endorsed prayer at football games, school-sponsored prayer delivered by students at graduation ceremonies, the teaching of intelligent design, and the display of a cross in a high school classroom...
44 Members of Congress Join Amicus Brief Supporting Engravings At Capitol Visitor Center
Posted on November 17, 2009As previously reported, in July the Freedom from Religion Foundation sued in a Wisconsin federal court challenging Congress' directive to the Architect of the Capitol to engrave the motto "In God We Trust" and the Pledge of Allegiance in the Capitol Visitor Center...
Group Challenges Indianapolis Schools' Internet Filtering Policy
Posted on November 16, 2009The Freedom From Religion Foundation last week (press release) wrote to the Indianapolis (IN) school system (full text of letter) complaining that the Indianapolis Public Schools Internet Filtering Policy violates the First Amendment as well as regulations under the federal Children's Internet Protection Act...
Obama Champions Human Rights At Town Hall Meeting In China
Posted on November 16, 2009Over night (US time), President Obama in China held a "town hall" meeting with university students in Shanghai. (White House background posting.) The Los Angeles Times has the full text of his remarks and his exchange with students. Along with a focus on increased U...
FOIA Appeal Filed To Get Information On Bureau of Prisons Chapel Library Project
Posted on November 16, 2009The ACLU announced last week that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act Appeal (full text) seeking all records held by the Bureau of Prisons on their attempt in 2007 to remove various books from prison chapel libraries. (See prior posting.) The Standardized Chapel Library Project was ended by legislation later in 2007...
Rubashkin Encounters Religious Observance Problems In Jails After Trial
Posted on November 16, 2009Last Thursday, Shalom Rubashkin, former vice-president of the Postville, Iowa Agriprocessors, Inc., a kosher meat packing plant, was convicted by a federal jury on 86 counts of financial fraud. (See prior related posting.) The trial was held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota after Rubashkin's lawyers requested a change in venue...
Recent Articles and Book of Interest
Posted on November 16, 2009From SSRN: Bret Boyce, Equality and the Free Exercise of Religion, (Cleveland State Law Review, Vol. 57, p. 493, 2008).Gila Stopler, Rights in Immigration: The Veil as a Test Case, (October 14, 2009).Marci A. Hamilton, Book Review: An Imperfect Vocabulary of Religious Liberty, Review of Martha C...
Virginia Governor-Elect Called On To Repudiate Statements By Pat Robertson
Posted on November 15, 2009Virginia's new Republican governor-elect, Robert F. McDonnell, is being asked to repudiate comments by his long-time supporter and friend, Rev. Pat Robertson. Last week, in response to the Fort Hood shootings, Robertson made controversial comments about Islam on his 700 Club television show...
Windsor Police Chief Apologizes For Inappropriate Search of Muslim Woman
Posted on November 15, 2009In Canada, Windsor, Ontario police chief Gary Smith publicly apologized to the Muslim community over the embarrassment and offense to religious beliefs caused when one of his male police officers conducted a pat down search of a Muslim woman. Yesterday's Detroit Free Press reports that the incident occurred on Oct...
Orthodox Jews In Jerusalem Protest Intel's Sabbath Operations
Posted on November 15, 2009In Israel yesterday, some 2000 haredi (strictly Orthodox) Jews demonstrated outside the offices of Intel Corp. in an industrial park in Jerusalem protesting the chip maker's operation of its factory on the Sabbath. According to a report by the Jerusalem Post, protesters criticized Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Yitzhak Pindrus for not doing enough to prevent Intel from operating on Saturdays...
Massachusetts Church Settles RLUIPA Lawsuit
Posted on November 15, 2009In Lanesville, Massachusetts, a settlement between the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Orthodox Congregational Church ends a federal RLUIPA lawsuit as well as state court litigation, according to Saturday's Gloucester Daily Times. At issue is the building of a new fellowship hall next to the church's existing building...
Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases
Posted on November 15, 2009In Rust v. Nebraska Department of Correctional Services Religion Study Committee, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105793 (D NE, Nov. 12, 2009), a Nebraska federal district court rejected RLUIP and free exercise challenges by inmates who were adherents to the Theodish Belief to authorities' failure to provide them with various food and devotional items and various other claimed restrictions on their religious practice...
Indian Tribe Sues Under Treaty To Get Prosecution of Self-Help Author
Posted on November 14, 2009Last month, three people died after spending time in a sweat lodge as part of a "Spiritual Warrior" retreat conducted by self-help author and speaker James Arthur Ray. Each participant paid over $9600 to attend the retreat at the Angel Valley Retreat Center in Sedona, Arizona...
Some Charge Anti-Semitism In Non-Renewal of Central Missouri University President
Posted on November 14, 2009Last month the Board of Trustees of the University of Central Missouri voted 4-3 not to renew the contract of its president, Aaron Podolefsky. Now, according to yesterday's Kansas City Jewish Chronicle, some are asking whether anti-Semitism had anything to do with the Board's decision...
Arizona Official Testifies On Loopholes In Tuition Tax Credit Law
Posted on November 14, 2009Even though the 9th Circuit has stuck down as unconstitutional Arizona's program that grants tax credits to fund private-- mostly religious-- school scholarships (see prior posting), the state's attorney general and legislature are moving ahead on several fronts as if the program is still operational...
Westboro Baptist Church Turns To Anti-Semitic Picketing
Posted on November 14, 2009Friday's USA Today reports on the shift in recent months by members of the Westboro Baptist Church from picketing funerals and government buildings with anti-gay signs, to picketing of Jewish events and institutions carrying anti-Semitic signs. Since April, members of the Topeka, Kansas Church-- often family members of its founder Fred Phelps--have targeted some 200 synagogues, Jewish community centers, campus Hillel buildings and Jewish events...
7th Circuit En Banc Upholds Cause of Action By Condo Owners Whose Mezuzah Was Banned
Posted on November 14, 2009In an en banc rehearing in Bloch v. Frischholz, (7th Cir., Nov. 13, 2009), an 8-judge panel held that plaintiffs, who were Jewish condominium owners, could have a claim under two provisions of the federal Fair Housing Act for action by the condominium association in reinterpreting its rules to ban residents from placing mezuzot on their outside doors...
Evangelist Tony Alamo Sentenced To 175 Years On Mann Act Charges
Posted on November 14, 2009Evangelist Tony Alamo, a self-proclaimed prophet and church leader, was sentenced by an Arkansas federal judge on Friday to 175 years in prison and $250,000 in fines on ten Mann Act counts charging him with taking young girls across state lines for sex...
US Sues To Seize Iranian Funded Mosqes and Schools In 4 US Cities
Posted on November 13, 2009Yesterday in New York, federal prosecutors filed a civil complaint against the Alavi Foundation seeking forfeiture of over $500 million in assets including not only bank accounts and an office tower in New York, but also Islamic centers housing mosques and schools in New York City; Rockville, Maryland; Carmichael, California; and Houston, Texas...
US Officials Repatriate Bible Taken By Nazis In Kristallnacht
Posted on November 13, 2009Earlier this week, federal Homeland Security officials participated in a ceremony at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. at which a 16th century Bible that had been seized 71 years ago by the Nazis on Kristallnacht was returned to the Jewish community of Vienna...
North Carolina High Court Upholds Fees On Homes In Methodist Development
Posted on November 13, 2009In Southeastern Jurisdictional Administrative Council, Inc. v. Emerson, (NC Sup. Ct., Oct. 9, 2009), the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld the 1996 levy of annual service charges on property of homeowners in a development that was created 100 years ago by an arm of the Methodist Church...
Islamic Party Will Run Local Candidates In Spain In 2011
Posted on November 13, 2009World Bulletin reports today that "Rebirth and Union," Spain's first Islamic political party, is planning to run candidates in 2011 local elections. Head of the party, professor and former journalist Mustafa Barrach, says he is a moderate and supports Spain's constitution...
Australian Animal Rights Groups Dispute Ritual Slaughter Methods
Posted on November 13, 2009In Australia, animal rights groups are criticizing a decision by federal and state agriculture ministers to allow ritual slaughter of animals without first stunning them to continue at four slaughter houses in the country. Nov. 10 and Nov. 13 articles in The Age report that the previous federal government two years ago ordered an investigation into the practice of Halal and kosher slaughtering of animals while they are still conscious...
South Carolina Gubernatorial Hopeful Defends Christian Prayer At Council Meetings
Posted on November 13, 2009The Palmetto Scoop yesterday reported that South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster who is running in the Republican primary in June 2010 to become the state's next governor has released a web video strongly supporting the right of city councils to open their meetings with sectarian prayer...
D.C. Catholic Archdiocese Threatens To End Social Services Over Gay Marriage Bill
Posted on November 12, 2009In Washington, DC, the Catholic Archdiocese is threatening to end the social service programs it operates under contract with the city if City Council does not include broader religious exemptions in the same-sex marriage bill that it will vote on next month...
Denmark's Muslims Face Political Opposition To Building of New Mosques
Posted on November 12, 2009Today's New York Times reports on the political opposition in Denmark to plans by for the building of two grand mosques in Copenhagen. City council has already approved plans for a Shiite mosque, and the smaller Sunni community is also moving ahead with construction plans...
USCIRF Issues Policy Document Opposing UN Defamation of Religions Proposal
Posted on November 12, 2009The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom yesterday issued a new Policy Focus publication titled: The Dangerous Idea of Protecting Religions from "Defamation": A Threat to Universal Human Rights Standards. The Executive Summary reads in part: Although touted as a solution to the very real problems of religious persecution and discrimination, the OIC-sponsored UN resolutions on this issue instead provide justification for governments to restrict religious freedom and free expression...
Idaho Charter School Rebuffs Document Request From State Commission
Posted on November 12, 2009As previously reported, an Idaho charter school, the Nampa Classical Academy, has filed a federal lawsuit against members of the Idaho Public Charter School Commission and other state officials, challenging a Commission order banning the use of the Bible or any other religious documents or texts in public charter school classrooms...
New York City Anti-Discrimination Law Given Broad Reading
Posted on November 12, 2009In Lampner v. Pryor Cashman, (NY Sup. Ct., Nov. 6, 2009), a New York state trial court ruled that the New York City Human Rights Law, as amended in 2005, creates greater protection against a hostile work environment than does New York state or federal law...
British Case Focuses On Whether Belief In Psychics Is Protected Under Employment Equality Rules
Posted on November 12, 2009London's The Independent reports today on an appeal pending in Britain's Employment Appeal Tribunal. Former police trainer Alan Power was fired by the Greater Manchester Police department. Power believes in psychics and their usefulness in police investigations...
American Legion Dropped From School Veterans' Day Ceremony Over Prayer
Posted on November 12, 2009Minnesota's Bloomington School District this year used teams from the Minnesota Army National Guard to present arms and help raise the flag at Veterans' Day ceremonies at 15 district schools. Tuesday's Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that school officials dropped the American Legion because it insisted that it would participate only if the ceremony included leading students in prayer...
3rd Circuit Rejects Complaint Over Docked Pay For Good Friday
Posted on November 11, 2009In Miller v. Weinstein, (3d Cir., Nov. 9, 2009), the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a First Amendment claim by a former Allegheny County, Pennsylvania employee. The court held that a reprimand letter and a threat to dock the pay of a Christian employee for her unexcused absence from work on Good Friday did not amount to a substantial burden on the employee's free exercise of religion...
Gay Anti-Discrimination Ordinance Passes In Salt Lake City With LDS Backing
Posted on November 11, 2009City Council in Salt Lake City, Utah yesterday unanimously passed ordinances barring discrimination in housing and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. (Full text of ordinances.) Yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune reports that passage came after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints announced its support for the ordinances...
Cert. Petition Filed In Challenge To Release of Names of Referendum Petition Signers
Posted on November 11, 2009On Nov. 6, a petition for certiorari (full text) was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in John Doe #1 v. Ried. In the case, the 9th Circuit overturned a preliminary injunction issued by a Washington federal district court. The injunction barred release of the names of individuals who signed referendum petitions opposing Washington's domestic partnership law...
President Urged To Raise Religious Freedom Issues With Chinese Leaders
Posted on November 11, 2009On Thursday, President Obama leaves on a nine-day trip to Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea. (CNN). Yesterday the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom wrote the President (full text of letter) urging him "to raise critical issues of religious freedom" with Chinese leaders...
President Speaks At Ft. Hood Memorial Service
Posted on November 11, 2009Yesterday, President Obama and the first Lady traveled to Texas to meet with families of those who were killed and wounded in last week's shooting at Ft. Hood. (White House blog report.) Afterwards, the President spoke at a memorial service at Ft. Hood for the 13 who were killed in the massacre that was apparently carried out by Major Nidal M...
Church Concerts Enjoined; Leader Says Church of Love and Music Will Move
Posted on November 11, 2009AP reports that in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, the Church of Universal Love and Music has agreed to a permanent injunction against its holding concerts on its property that is zoned for agricultural purposes. A temporary injunction was issued by a Pennsylvania federal district court in August after a raid turned up drug use by concert goers...
FLDS Leader Sentenced To Ten Years In Prison By Texas Jury
Posted on November 11, 2009As previously reported, last week a jury in a state court in Texas convicted FLDS Church leader Raymond Jessop of sexually assaulting a 16-year old who he had taken as one of his nine wives. A hearing on sentencing was held on Monday, and yesterday, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, the jury deliberated for six hours before imposing a sentence of ten years in prison and an $8000 fine on Jessop...
South Carolina "I Believe" Plates Ruled Unconstitutional
Posted on November 11, 2009In Summers v. Adams, (D SC, Nov. 10, 2009), a South Carolina federal district court held that the statute authorizing South Carolina's "I Believe" license plates-- carrying the image of a cross superimposed on a stained glass window-- violates the Establishment Clause...
White House Faith-Based Office Finally Has A Web Presence
Posted on November 10, 2009Finally the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships has a presence on the White House website. At the heart of the new web presence is director Joshua DuBois' Partnerships Blog. The site also offers other relevant resources and information, including links to Centers for Faith-Based and Neighborhood partnerships at ten federal departments and agencies...
Court Tentatively Holds High School Student Not Liable For Teacher's Attorneys' Fees
Posted on November 10, 2009While high school student Chad Farnan was found liable for court costs in the aftermath of his lawsuit against his high school history teacher who he accused of making anti-Christian remarks (see prior posting), in a preliminary ruling last Friday a Californa federal court concluded that he is not liable for his teacher's $378,000 of attorneys' fees...
French Busineses Have Concerns Over Accommodating Muslim Religious Practices
Posted on November 10, 2009Europe News yesterday reports on difficulties faced by companies in France as they are increasingly asked to accommodate religious needs of Muslim employees. Many managers oppose employees wearing head scarves. Larger companies have set up prayer rooms...
Federal Magistrate Says Sectarian Invocations Violate Establishment Clause
Posted on November 10, 2009In Joyner v. Forsyth County, North Carolina, (MD NC, Nov. 9, 2009), a federal magistrate judge recommended that the court issue a declaratory judgment finding that sectarian invocations opening Forsyth County Board of Commissioners meetings violate the Establishment Clause...
Board Fires Head of "Feed the Children"
Posted on November 10, 2009The board of the Christian charity, Feed the Children, has terminated its president, Larry Jones, according to a report yesterday in the Christian Post. For the last year, a power struggle has been going on between Jones and the charity's board of directors...
Muslim Soldiers In US Military Face Complex Situation
Posted on November 09, 2009In the wake of the shootings at Ft. Hood, Texas by Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan, today's New York Times explores the complications facing Muslims serving in the U.S. military. The military has been actively recruiting Muslims with the linguistic skills and cultural understanding needed to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan...
House Health Care Bill Tracks FICA Exemption For Religious Objectors
Posted on November 09, 2009The House version of the health care bill passed Saturday, HR 3962, imposes a 2.5% penalty tax on anyone who fails to obtain acceptable health care coverage. (Internal Revenue Code Sec. 59B(a) [pg. 297 of PDF]). However the bill does provide a "conscience exemption" for members of religious sects whose tenets reject insurance benefits...
Recent Articles of Interest
Posted on November 09, 2009From SSRN: See Hoon Peow, History of Islamic Law in Malaysia - A Critical Reconsideration ,(November 1, 2009).Andrew F. March, The Uses of Fitra (Human Nature) in the Legal and Political Theory of ?Allal Al-Fasi: Natural Law or 'Taking People as They Are'?, (November 4, 2009)...
2009 "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign" Launched By Liberty Counsel
Posted on November 09, 2009Liberty Counsel announced today that it is launching its Seventh Annual "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign." The campaign is designed to encourage government officials, schools and private businesses to explicitly recognize and publicly celebrate Christmas...
Some Israeli Marriage Registrars Refuse To Accept Conversions By Chief Rabbinate
Posted on November 08, 2009YNet News today reports that particularly in the Israeli cities of Ashkelon and Rishon LeTzion, marriage registrars employed by Israel's Chief Rabbinate are refusing to recognize the legitimacy of conversions to Judaism performed by the Chief Rabbinate for many immigrants during their military service in the IDF...
Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases
Posted on November 08, 2009In Rider v. Yates, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 101009 (ED CA, Oct. 27, 2009), a California federal magistrate judge recommended that an inmate be permitted to move ahead with a free exercise, due process, equal protection and RLUIPA challenge to the destruction of his copy of The Book of Shadows, a sacred Satanist text...
Abuse Victims Agree To Delay In Trials Against Delaware Catholic Parishes
Posted on November 08, 2009On Friday, according to AP, attorneys in 78 clergy abuse lawsuits that have been filed in Delaware agreed to delay going to trial. The suits name the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington and various parishes. The Diocese recently filed for bankruptcy (see prior posting) and a stay was placed on litigation against it...
House Passes Health Care Bill With Anti-Abortion Funding Amendment
Posted on November 08, 2009In an historic vote tonight, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act by a vote of 220-215. (New York Times.) Paving the way for the favorable vote was the passage of the Stupak-Ellsworth-Pitts-Kaptur-Dahlkemper-Lipinski-Smith Amendment (full text) by a vote of 240-194...
New Book Suggests British Catholic Royals Would Have Place to Pray
Posted on November 07, 2009According to Friday's London Telegraph, a forthcoming book has created a stir in Britain by arguing that Queen's Chapel, built between 1623 and 1625 as part of St. James Palace, is still legally available for use as a Catholic church by any member of the Royal Family that should desire to do so, despite the 1701 Act of Settlement that bars a British monarch from being a member of the Catholic Church or marrying a Catholic...
Christian Group Lacks Standing To Vacate Florida School's Consent Decree
Posted on November 07, 2009A Florida federal district judge has largely rejected an attempt by the Christian Educators Association International to challenge the high profile and contentious consent decree entered into in March by the Santa Rosa County Florida school board to settle litigation brought by the ACLU challenging religious practices in the county's schools...
Pennsylvania County Plans To Tax Closed Church Builidings
Posted on November 07, 2009Today's Wilkes-Barre (PA) Times-Leader reports that Luzerne (PA) County officials are likely to follow the lead of several other Pennsylvania counties and remove the property tax exemption from closed churches and religious schools. Pennsylvania's tax code allows exemptions only for "actual places of regularly stated religious worship...
Teacher Sues Arguing Fingerprint Requirement Violates Her Free Exercise Rights
Posted on November 07, 2009A kindergarten teacher in Dallardsville, Texas, has filed suit challenging a provision added to the Texas Education Code in 2007 (S.B. 9) requiring school teachers to submit their fingerprint so that a criminal background check can be run on them. The complaint (full text) in McLaurin v...
Required Immunization of School Children Does Not Infringe Free Exercise
Posted on November 07, 2009In Workman v. Mingo County Schools, (SD WV, Nov. 3, 2009), a West Virginia federal district court upheld West Virginia's compulsory vaccination program for school children. In the case, a mother of two school-age children asserted free exercise, equal protection and due process challenges...
After Ft. Hood Massacre, Shooter's Religious Background Explored
Posted on November 06, 2009Today's Washington Post reports that Army psychiatrist Major Nidal M. Hasan, who opened fire yesterday at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 and wounding 30 was a devout Muslim. (Details of shootings.) The Washington Post also reports on the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, where Hasan prayed regularly when he was stationed in Washington, DC...
First Conviction From Raid on FLDS Texas Ranch Is Handed Down
Posted on November 06, 2009Yesterday, a jury in a state court in Texas convicted FLDS Church leader Raymond Jessop of sexually assaulting a 16-year old who he had taken as one of his nine wives. The New York Times and Salt Lake Tribune report on the conviction, the first resulting from the raid by Texas authorities of the sect's Yearning for Zion Ranch...
9th Circuit Will Rehear Catholic League's Suit Againt San Francisco En Banc
Posted on November 06, 2009The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday granted an en banc rehearing in Catholic League for Religious and Civil and Rights v. City and County of San Francisco (full text of order). In June, a 3-judge panel handed down an opinion in the case rejecting an Establishment Clause challenge to a strongly worded resolution passed by San Francisco's Board of Supervisors...
Jersey City Parking Lot Ends Discounts For Jehovah's Witnesses
Posted on November 06, 2009In Jersey City, New Jersey, the privately owned Square Parking parking garage has ended its practice of giving discounts to Jehovah's Witnesses, who worship in a nearby theater. A press release issued Tuesday by FFRF and a report yesterday in the Jersey Journal indicate that the discount was stopped after the city followed up on a letter sent to the parking lot by FFRF...
Senate Committee Holds Hearing On ENDA; Religious Exemption Discussed
Posted on November 06, 2009Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held a hearing on S. 1584, the proposed Employment Non-Discrimination Act which would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity...
Chechnya Will Pay For Hajj Trips For 400 Residents
Posted on November 06, 2009In Russia's Chechnya region, Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov has ordered the government to pay for 400 residents to go to Mecca on this year's Hajj. Reuters reported yesterday that trips will be financed for those who cannot afford to go, for the single and the young, out of a fund Kadyrov has created to honor father who was assassinated in a bomb blast in 2004...
Sanctions Imposed On Attorney In Client's Suit Against Jews For Jesus
Posted on November 06, 2009Rapp v. Jews for Jesus, Inc. is a long running case in the state courts of Florida filed by Edith Rapp who claimed that Jews for Jesus published a false report from her missionary stepson that she had joined the organization. (See prior posting.) The courts determined that Rapp may have a cause of action for defamation by implication, and in a short decision issued last February, the state court of appeals remanded the case to the trial court, ordering Edith Rapp to "succinctly replead her claims, without excessive editorialization...
CAIR Gets TRO Forcing Return of Purloined Documents
Posted on November 05, 2009In Council on American-Islamic Relations v. Gaubatz, (D DC, Nov. 3, 2009), the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a temporary restraining order to CAIR to prevent the use by defendants of various documents and e-mails that were surreptitously taken from CAIR's offices...
Missouri Taxes Yoga; Some Claim Religious Exemption Should Apply
Posted on November 05, 2009Missouri's sales tax statute (MRS 144.020) imposes a 4% tax on admission or fees paid to "any place of amusement, entertainment or recreation, games and athletic events." According to reports today from AP and Columbia's Missourian, state Department of Revenue officials have notified yoga and Pilates centers that beginning Nov...
Challenge To "In God We Trust" On Currency Is Rejected
Posted on November 05, 2009In a brief opinion in Kidd v. Obama, (D DC, Oct. 30, 2009), the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to use of "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency, brought by a plaintiff who described himself as an atheist...
Arkansas Superintendent Pondering Complaint Over Gideons In Classrooms
Posted on November 05, 2009Today's Arkansas Times reports that the Superintendent of the Benton, Arkansas schools is "trying to figure out what to do" about a parent's complaint over religious activity at Ringgold Elementary School. For at least six years, school principal Ann Kerr has gone into 5th grade classrooms with members of Gideons International...
All-Christian Private Prison Planned For Oklahoma
Posted on November 05, 2009The Tulsa (OK) World reported Monday on plans by a non-profit prisons ministry, Corrections Concepts Inc., to build a private all-Christian prison in Wakita, Oklahoma. The 600-bed facility will be for men near the end of their sentences who volunteer to be housed there and agree to participate in its program...
British Court Says Catholic Diocese Is Responsible for Abuse At Community Home
Posted on November 05, 2009Today's London Times reports that a High Court judge in Leeds has ruled that the Middlesbrough Catholic Diocese, rather than the De La Salle Order of lay brothers, is responsible for damages to 142 people who allege physical and sexual abuse at the St...
Road Protection Law Would Infringe Mennonites' Religious Beliefs
Posted on November 05, 2009Howard County, Iowa is considering a road protection ordinance that would ban steel-wheel vehicles on hard surfaced roads. According to Rochester, Minnesota's AgriNews, at a hearing on Monday an Elizabethtown College sociologist testified that the ban would create problems for members of the Old Order Groffdale Mennonite Conference...
AU Asks IRS To Investigate Mayoral Endorsement By Pennsylvania Pastor
Posted on November 05, 2009Americans United yesterday (press release) asked the Internal Revenue Service (full text of letter) to investigate whether Bethel Village AME Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania violated IRS regulations applicable to non-profits by supporting one of the city's mayoral candidates...
New Zealand OKs Cola Ad Portraying Humorous Confessional Exchange
Posted on November 05, 2009The New Zealand Advertising Standards Complaint Board has rejected a complaint that a television ad by Demon Drinks, Ltd. violates provisions in its Advertising Code of Ethics barring any ad "which in the light of generally prevailing community standards is likely to cause serious or widespread offence"or which is prepared without "a due sense of social responsibility...
Obama, Other Officials Meeting With Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch
Posted on November 04, 2009Yesterday, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, leader of worldwide Orthodox Christians, met at the White House with President Obama. (White House press release.) Fox News reports that the Patriarch, who is a leader in the environmental movement, will also meet this week with Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Clinton and Congressional leaders...
Jehovah's Witnesses Denied Recognition By Nagorno-Karabakh Court
Posted on November 04, 2009Forum 18 reported yesterday that in Nagorno-Karabakh, the General Court of First Instance in Stepanakert has upheld the denial of registration under the country's Religion Law to Jehovah's Witnesses. The country's Department for Ethnic Minority and Religious Affairs refused the registration application because Jehovah's Witness charter allows proselytism...
Utah High Court Hears Arguments In FLDS Leader's Appeal
Posted on November 04, 2009Yesterday the Utah Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of State v. Jeffs, an appeal by Warren Jeffs, former head of the FLDS Church. Jeffs was convicted of rape as an accomplice (see prior posting) for his role in the arranged marriage of a 14-year-old to her 19-year-old cousin...
European Court Says Crucifixes In Italian Classrooms Violate Human Rights Convention
Posted on November 04, 2009In Lautsi v. Italy, (ECHR, Nov. 3 2009) [judgment in French], the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that crucifixes in public school classrooms in Italy violate the European Convention on Human Rights' protections of thought, conscience and religion (Art...
British Tribunal Says Environmentalism Is Protected Under "Religion or Belief" Regulations
Posted on November 04, 2009Britain's Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of religion or belief. In Graingner PLC v. Nicholson, (EAT, Nov. 3, 2009) [full text, Word.doc], Britain's Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that:A belief in man-made climate change, and the alleged resulting moral imperatives, is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations...
Two Employment Discrimination Suits Filed Recently Charge Religious Harassment
Posted on November 04, 2009Two unrelated lawsuits, both alleging religious discrimination in employment, have been filed recently. In one, yesterday the EEOC sued Administaff, Inc. and Conn-X, LLC (a Baltimore cable provider) alleging religious harassment of two brothers who are Jewish...
Maine Voters Reject Same-Sex Marriage
Posted on November 04, 2009In a referendum yesterday, Maine voters rejected the state's recently-enacted law to permit same-sex marriage. The New York Times reported early Wednesday morning that with 87% of the precincts reporting, 53% of the voters had voted in favor of repeal...
3rd Circuit Finds Combined Restrictions On Abortion Leafleting Are Unconstitutional
Posted on November 03, 2009In Brown v. City of Pittsburgh, (3d Cir., Oct 30, 2009), the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals held that Pittsburgh's combination of a 15 foot buffer zone and a 100 foot "bubble zone", when taken together, were unconstitutional on their face in restricting anti-abortion leafleters...
Bankruptcy Court Says Bishop Need Not Appear At Chpater 11 Creditors Meeting
Posted on November 03, 2009The federal Bankruptcy Code provides that when a debtor is going through a Chapter 11 reorganization, the U.S. trustee is to convene a meeting of creditors where the trustee and creditors may question the debtor under oath. (Background.) In the pending Chapter 11 bankruptcy of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington (see prior posting), the diocese designated its vicar general of administration, the Rev...
Foreclosure On Georgia Hindu Temple Can Move Ahead
Posted on November 03, 2009The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported yesterday that a federal bankruptcy judge has lifted a temporary stay, clearing the way for creditors to sell off at a foreclosure sale of The Hindu Temple of Georgia. The move came after the court found the Temple in contempt for failing to hand over specified financial documents...
DC Council Holds Hearing On Same-Sex Marriage Proposal
Posted on November 03, 2009Last week, the District of Columbia Council, Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, held a hearing on the proposed Religious Freedom & Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009 which would allow same-sex marriages to be performed in the District of Columbia...
Cert. Denied In Connecticut Order For Release of Priest Abuse Records
Posted on November 03, 2009The Supreme Court yesterday denied certiorari in Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocese v. New York Times Co., (Docket No. 09-246, 11/2/2009) (Order List.) In the case, the Connecticut Supreme Court granted the request of four newspapers for release of some 12,600 pages of documents filed in 23 cases alleging sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy...
New York Bishop Supports City Council Candidate Through Recorded Phone Message
Posted on November 02, 2009In New York, Catholic clergy are becoming surprisingly involved in the election race tomorrow for the New York City Council seat from Brooklyn's District 34. Today's New York Times reports that this week end, a recorded phone message from Bishop Nicholas A...
Another Lawsuit Against A Dissident Episcopal Parish- This Time In Tennessee
Posted on November 02, 2009On Friday, the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee filed suit against St. Andrew's parish in Nashville to obtain title to church property. Yesterday's Tennessean reports that in 2006 St. Andrews broke away from the Diocese of Tennessee and affiliated with a more conservative Anglican Church in North America...
Israel's Transportation Ministry Reports To High Court on Sex-Segregated Buses
Posted on November 02, 2009In two articles last week, the Jerusalem Post reports on the response of Israel's Transportation Ministry to an order of Israel's High Court of Justice originally issued in 2008 calling for the Ministry to report on gender-segregated public bus lines being operated by the Egged Bus Cooperative...
Recent Articles of Interest
Posted on November 02, 2009From SSRN:Jeremy J. Patrick, Canadian Blasphemy Law in Context: Press, Legislative, and Public Reactions, (October 29, 2009). Liav Orgad & Ted Ruthizer, Race, Religion and Nationality in Immigration Selection: 120 Years after the Chinese Exclusion Case, (Constitutional Commentary, Forthcoming)...
Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases
Posted on November 02, 2009In Givens v. Walker, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98876 (CD IL, Oct. 23, 2009), an Illinois federal magistrate judge upheld the constitutionality of regulations promulgated by the Illinois Department of Corrections imposing a number of conditions on inmates conducting religious activities where religious program volunteers or chaplains of that particular faith are unavailable...
Court Rejects Constitutional Challenges To Marijuana Possession Charges
Posted on November 01, 2009In State of New York v. Storm-Eggnick, (Albany City St., Oct. 21, 2009), an Albany New York City Court rejected claims by a woman charged with possession of marijuana that the possession statute is unconstitutional on free exercise of religion, equal protection, vagueness, and due process grounds...
Students Organize Football Game Prayers To Avoid Ban On School Doing So
Posted on November 01, 2009Earlier this year, the Santa Rosa County, Florida School Board entered into a high profile, and locally unpopular, consent decree in a lawsuit brought against it by the ACLU challenging religious practices in schools. (See prior posting.) Yesterday's Panama City (FL) News Herald reports that now, since school officials cannot lead prayers, students have taken up the cause...
Washington State Adopts Final Rules On Displays and Gatherings At Capitol
Posted on November 01, 2009Washington State's Department of General Administration on Friday announced the adoption of new rules, effective Dec. 1, governing displays and exhibits in the public areas of the state capitol. Yesterday's Seattle Times reports that in order to avoid the controversies that were generated during last year's holiday season, only government-sponsored displays will be allowed inside buildings...
First Women Appointed To Shariah Courts In Palestinian Authority
Posted on November 01, 2009In the Palestinian Authority West Bank towns of Hebron and Ramallah, the first women to preside over Shariah courts have been appointed. Australia's ABC News reported yesterday that Sheikh Tayseer al Tamimi, effectively the Chief Justice of the Palestinian state, paved the way by permitting Asmahan Liwheidi in Hebron and Khulud Mohammed Faqih in Ramallah to sit the judges' exam...
James Dobson Will Step Down As Radio Host For Focus On Family
Posted on November 01, 2009James C. Dobson, the 73-year old founder of Focus on the Family, will end 32 years as its primary spokesman in February when he steps down as host of its radio program. The announcement by Focus on the Family on Friday said that this "is just the 'third chapter in a transition that began in 2003,' when Dr...
NY Condo Settles Complaint That It Restricted Placing Mezuzahs On Doors
Posted on October 31, 2009According to MCT News Service yesterday, the New York Attorney General's office has won a settlement with a condominium homeowners association after beginning an investigation of a complaint that Stone Ridge Estates in Dix Hills (NY) was restricting Jewish residents from placing mezuzahs on their door frames...
Priest's Claims of Abuse and Retaliation From Fellow-Priests Dismissed
Posted on October 31, 2009In Hoatson v New York Archdiocese, (NY S.Ct., Oct. 26, 2009), a New York trial court dismissed claims brought against the Congregation of Christian Brothers, various clergy, the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Albany by a priest who claimed that he had been sexually abused by fellow priests for 12 years...
9th Circuit Denies En Banc Rehearing On Washington State Pharmacy Board Regs
Posted on October 31, 2009In Stormans Inc. v. Selecky, (9th Cir., Oct. 28, 2009), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to grant an en banc rehearing. In July, a 3-judge panel in the case refused to preliminarily enjoin enforcement of Washington State Pharmacy Board regulations that require pharmacists to fill all prescriptions (including Plan B, the "morning after" contraceptive) even if doing so violates their religious beliefs...
State Department Helps Bring Threatened Yemeni Jews To U.S.
Posted on October 31, 2009The tiny remaining Jewish community in Yemen has been in increasing danger over the last year as growing internal strife and Islamic militancy has made it more difficult for Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to continue to protect the 350-person community...
Halloween Creates Church-State Puzzle For Some Schools
Posted on October 30, 2009Tomorrow is Halloween, a holiday which has varied religious connections. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain. In the 7th and 8th centuries, the Catholic Church tried to co-opt the day as the eve of All Saints Day. Some Protestant groups have used it as a celebration of the Reformation...
Protester Sues Nashville's Scientology Centre For Injuries
Posted on October 30, 2009The Tennessean reports today on a lawsuit filed against the Church of Scientology's Nashville Celebrity Centre by Thomas A. Parker, a member of the anti-Scientology group Anonymous. Parker and others planned to protest the April 25 opening of the Centre...
Two Courts Around the World Rule On Conscientious Objector Claims
Posted on October 30, 2009In different parts of the world this week, courts were examining the question of conscientious objector exemptions from military service. In Case of Bayatyan v. Armenia, (ECHR, Oct. 27, 2009), the European Court of Human Rights held that the European Convention on Human Rights does not require Armenia to provide an exemption from military service for a Jehovah's Witness who is a conscientious objector...
Malaysia Seizes Bibles That Translate "God" As "Allah"
Posted on October 30, 2009CNN reported yesterday that in Malaysia during recent months, the Home Ministry's Publications and Quran Text Control Department has seized over 20,000 Malay-language editions of the Bible from the Bible Society of Malaysia and from the Gideons. The problem is that the Bibles translate "God" into the Malay word "Allah"...
House Democrats' Health Care Bill Does Not Mandate Coverage For Spiritual Healing
Posted on October 30, 2009Yesterday in Congress, House Democrats introduced their health care reform bill, H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. (Press release.) The Chicago Tribune reports that this version does not mandate insurance coverage for services of Christian Science practitioners or other spiritual care...
Al Arabiya Charged With Blasphemy In Saudi Court
Posted on October 30, 2009According reports in Arab News and in Maktoob Business yesterday, in Saudi Arabia a group of citizens has filed a lawsuit against the television channel Al Arabiya charging it with blasphemy. The station is Saudi owned, and operates from Dubai. The lawsuit, filed in the summary court in Jeddah, charges the station with ridiculing God, the Prophet Muhammad and his sayings, and the Angel Gabriel.
Jury Agrees Bible Reading Dispute Was Merely A Misunderstanding
Posted on October 30, 2009Yesterday, according to WBIR News, a federal court jury in Knoxville, Tennessee found in favor of the Knox County Schools in a lawsuit over the right of elementary school students to read the Bible during recess. The suit involves an incident that occurred when plaintiff, Luke Whitson, was in the 4th grade at Karns Elementary School...
Chabad Gets Default Judgment Against Russia In Suit Over Book Collections
Posted on October 30, 2009Talk of the Planet reported yesterday that Judge Royce C. Lamberth, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, has entered a default judgment against the Russian Federation in the lawsuit against it by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement to recover two historic collections of Jewish religious books and manuscripts...
Claims Against Archdiocese In Abuse Cases Do Not Violate First Amendment
Posted on October 29, 2009In similar opinions handed down this week in two diversity cases, a Missouri federal district court held that it is required to make its own independent constitutional analysis in clergy sexual abuse cases to determine whether allowing negligent hiring, retention and supervision claims to be brought against the Catholic Archdiocese of St...
7th Circuit: Village Can Exclude Churches From Commerical District Under RLUIPA
Posted on October 29, 2009In River of Life Kingdom Ministries v. Village of Hazel Crest, (7th Cir., Oct. 27, 2009), the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to grant a preliminary injunction to permit a church to relocate from a crowded warehouse to property it purchased in an area zoned for various commercial uses, but not for religious services...
Radical Group Seeking To Create Sharia State In U.S. Arrested In Michigan; Leader Killed
Posted on October 29, 2009In Michigan yesterday, raids by law enforcement officers at a warehouse in Dearborn and a home in Detroit led to a series of arrests and the unsealing of a federal conspiracy complaint against 11 men who are alleged to be members of a radical fundamentalist Sunni Muslim group...
President Signs New Hate Crimes Law As Part of Defense Authorization Act
Posted on October 29, 2009Yesterday afternoon, President Obama signed the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act. His statement at the signing ceremony focused mainly on the defense spending portions of the bill. A few hours later he hosted a reception commemorating another part of the bill, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr...
Court Finds No Standing To Challenge Embryonic Stem Cell Research Funding
Posted on October 29, 2009In Sherely v. Sebelius, (D DC, Oct. 27, 2009), several rather differently situated plaintiffs sued to enjoin the federal government from taking further actions to implement federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research. Provisions for funding are in Guidelines promulgated by the National Institute of Health...
Suit Challenges School Policy On Distribution of Flyers
Posted on October 29, 2009An elementary student in Holly, Michigan has, through a suit brought by his mother, challenged the Holly Area Schools' policy (full text) governing the distribution of material to other students. The complaint (full text) alleges that plaintiff's 1st and 14th Amendment rights, as well as his rights under the Michigan Constitution, were violated when he was prevented from distributing a flyer advertising a Christian summer camp...
Cert. Filed In Oklahoma 10 Commandments Case
Posted on October 29, 2009A petition for certiorari (full text) was filed Wednesday with the U.S. Supreme Court in Haskell County Board of Commissioners v. Green. In the case, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals held that a display of a Ten Commandments monument on the lawn of the county courthouse in Stigler, Oklahoma, violated the Establishment Clause...
Court Upholds Modified Conditional Use Permit For Jewish School
Posted on October 29, 2009In Concerned Residents of Hancock Park v. City of Los Angeles, (CA Ct. App., Oct. 27, 2009), a California appellate court upheld the decision of the Los Angeles Central Area Planning Commission (CAPC) to expand the conditions in the conditional use permit (CUP) granted to Yavneh Hebrew Academy to operate a school...
2nd Circuit Dismisses Civil Rights Claims Against Airport Customs Personnel
Posted on October 28, 2009In Muhammad v. Ahern, (2d Cir., Oct. 27, 2009), the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a civil rights action brought by two plaintiffs who claimed they were subjected to unconstitutional border stops, searches, and detentions by Customs & Border Protection agents at New York's Kennedy Airport when they flew in from Saudi Arabia and Morocco...
Signature Campaign Begins On California Anti-Divorce Amendment [Updated]
Posted on October 28, 2009The California Secretary of State announced last week that the proponent of an initiative petition to amend California's Constitution to ban divorce in the state may begin to collect signatures. The proposed amendment would still allow annulments, but would completely eliminate the ability of married couples to get divorced in California...
Kuwait High Court Rejects Challenge To Election of Women MPs Who Refuse To Wear Hijab
Posted on October 28, 2009Kuwait's Constitutional Court-- the country's highest tribunal-- today rejected an attempt by four voters to invalidate the election of two women members of Parliament. AFP reported on the decision. Petitioners argued that because the two women refused to wear the hijab (headscarf), they were in violation of a provision in the election law requiring candidates to comply with Islamic religious requirements...
Georgia Episcopal Diocese Wins Title To Property of Historic Savannah Church
Posted on October 28, 2009Today's Savannah (GA) Morning News reports that the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia has won its lawsuit against the break-away Christ Church in Savannah. (Background on lawsuit.) A Georgia trial court yesterday declared that the 276-year old church building belongs to the Diocese and not to the congregation that passed a resolution in 2007 declaring that the Episcopal Church and the Georgia diocese had abandoned the historic principles of the denomination's faith...
2nd Circuit Dismisses Long-Running Lawsuit On Kindergartener's Religious Poster
Posted on October 28, 2009In Peck v. Baldwinsville Central School District, (2nd Circuit, Oct. 26, 2009), the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a viewpoint discrimination lawsuit that has been in the courts for ten years. In the lawsuit, parents of a young student in a Baldwinsville, New York elementary school charged that a kindergarten teacher and a principal displayed their son's poster on environmental issues only after folding under a picture of Jesus on the poster so it was not visible...
eBay Bans Auction Intended To Support Accused Killer of Abortion Doctor
Posted on October 28, 2009The online auction site eBay has prohibited the use of its facilities by supporters of Scott Roeder, the alleged killer of Kansas City abortion doctor George Tiller. As reported by Sunday's Kansas City Star, Roeder's supporters planned to auction an Army of God manual, a prison cookbook compiled by an abortion clinic bomber, a bullhorn signed by an anti-abortion activist and three drawings autographed by Roeder...
11th Circuit: Challenge By Christian Group to University of Florida Rules Is Moot
Posted on October 28, 2009In Beta Upsilon Chi Upsilon Chapter at the University of Florida v. Machen, (11th Cir., Oct. 27, 2009), the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed as moot a challenge by a Christian fraternity to the University of Florida's non-discrimination rules for student organizations...
Court Says New Hampshire Town's Zoning Refusal Violates RLUIPA
Posted on October 28, 2009Yesterday's Keene (NH) Sentinel reports that a New Hampshire trial court judge has ruled that the Richmond, New Hampshire planning and zoning boards violated the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act in dealing with the zoning application of a conservative Catholic church...
Two Arrested In Plot to Attack Danish Paper That Published Muhammad Cartoons
Posted on October 28, 2009Fallout from the publication by a Danish newspaper in 2005 of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad continues. The caricatures sparked protests from Muslims around the world. (See prior posting.) The Justice Department announced yesterday that two Chicago men were arrested this month for their alleged parts in a conspiracy to attack the offices of Jyllands-Posten, the first newspaper to publish the cartoons, or to kill cartoonist Kurt Westergaard and Flemming rose, the paper's cultural editor...
US Enjoined Temporarily From Moving On Terrorist Designation for Muslim Charity
Posted on October 27, 2009In KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development, Inc. v. Geithner, (ND OH, Oct. 26, 2009), an Ohio federal district court issued a preliminary injunction barring the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control from moving ahead to designate Kindhearts, a Muslim charity, to be a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" group...
Both Sides Appeal Suit Against History Teacher For Anti-Religious Remarks
Posted on October 27, 2009Both sides have filed appeals with the 9th Circuit in C.F. v. Capistrano Unified School District, the case in which California high school student Chad Farnan and his parents sued history teacher James Corbett for making remarks hostile to religion. A California federal district court found that one of the teacher's comments-- calling Creationism "superstitious nonsense"-- violated the Establishment Clause...
First Nativity Scene Lawsuit of the 2009 Season Is Filed
Posted on October 27, 2009In what appears to be the first battle in the "Christmas Wars" for the 2009 season, a federal lawsuit has been filed by a Warren, Michigan resident challenging the county's decision to end a 63-year old tradition of his family's displaying a privately-constructed and maintained Nativity Scene on the median of a road in the city...
Malta Court Interprets Ban On Vilifying Catholic Church
Posted on October 27, 2009Section 163 of Malta's Criminal Code outlaws publicly vilifying the Roman Catholic Apostolic religion (the country's official religion), or those connected with it. The Police v. Rokku Abdilla, (Ct. Cr. App., Oct. 23, 2009), a decision handed down last week by Malta's Court of Criminal Appeal, interprets this provision...
High School Football Fans Fill Stands With Biblical Verses
Posted on October 27, 2009The New York Times reported yesterday that high school football fans in a Georgia town have found a way to respond to the school district's ending the practice of cheerleaders carrying banners with Biblical quotations onto the field. As previously reported, Fort Oglethorpe High School, concerned about potential litigation, ended the 8-year old tradition of the players breaking through paper banners painted by cheerleaders with New Testament verses...
State Department Releases 2009 Report On International Religious Freedom
Posted on October 27, 2009The State Department yesterday submitted to Congress its 2009 Report on International Religious Freedom as required by Section 102(b) of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. At a press conference announcing release of the report Secretary of State Clinton (full text of remarks) said in part: The President has emphasized that faith should bring us together, and this year's report has a special focus on efforts to promote interfaith dialogue and tolerance...
French Court Convicts Scientology and Its French Leaders of Fraud
Posted on October 27, 2009A Paris Criminal Court today convicted two French affiliates of the Church of Scientology of fraud upon the complaints of two women who claimed they were manipulated into buying products or enrolling in courses. AFP and the London Times report that fines totalling 600,000 Euros (around $900,000) were imposed on Scientology's Celebrity Centre and its bookshop in Paris...
Furor In Britain Following BBC Appearance of BNP Party Leader
Posted on October 26, 2009BBC News yesterday reported that many in Britain are outraged over the appearance last week on BBC One's Question Time of British National Party leader Nick Griffin. The BNP limits its membership to members of Caucasian British ethnic groups and has been outspokenly anti-Muslim...
Demonstrations In Kabul In Reaction To Rumor Over Desecration of Quran
Posted on October 26, 2009The London Telegraph reports that in Afghanistan's capital of Kabul yesterday, hundreds of demonstrators burned President Obama in effigy in reaction to rumors that U.S. troops had burned a copy of the Quran last week during a raid in Wardak province...
Recent Prisoner Free Excercise Cases
Posted on October 26, 2009In Niemczynski v. Arpaio, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97786 (D AZ, Oct. 8, 2009), an Arizona federal district court refused to dismiss a former jail inmate's claim that his free exercise rights were violated when the sheriff ordered Christian Christmas music to be played continuously for over 10 hours per day...
Recent Articles and Books Of Interest
Posted on October 26, 2009From SSRN:Victor C. Romero, Of Hope and Humility: Christian Realism, Immigration Reform and Executive Leadership, (Penn State Legal Studies Research Paper No. 17-2009, Oct. 23, 2009).Ira C. Lupu & Robert W. Tuttle, Same-Sex Family Equality and Religious Freedom, (Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy, Forthcoming)...
Court Orders Deacons To Turn Chuch Control Back To Pastor
Posted on October 26, 2009In Pike County, Alabama, a state trial court judge has issued a temporary injunction ordering two deacons of Troy, Alabama's New Mount Pleasant Baptist Church to turn the keys to the church and church documents over to the pastor and a majority of the congregation, and to refrain from interfering with church services...
High School Teacher Found To Be Prevailing Party For Court Costs Recovery
Posted on October 26, 2009The clerk's office in federal district court in Santa Anna, California has determined that nearly $20,000 in court costs should be borne by high school student Chad Farnan who sued his high school history teacher James Corbett, the school district and the teachers' union over anti-Christian remarks made by Corbett...
Islamic Group Still Pressing For International Ban On Insulting Religions
Posted on October 25, 2009Despite the United Nations Human Rights Council's recent adoption of a compromise resolution on freedom of opinion and expression (see prior posting), the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the African Group are pressing for much more robust protections against publications that insult or negatively stereotype religion and religious ideas...
U.S. Army For First Time Allows Sikh To Serve While Wearing Turban
Posted on October 25, 2009According to a press release Friday from the Sikh Coalition, for the first time in 23 years the U.S. Army has agreed to allow as Sikh physician, Captain Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi, to wear his religiously-mandated turban and long hair while serving on active duty...
Houston Sued Over City Council Prayer Policy
Posted on October 25, 2009KTRK-TV News Friday reported that a lawsuit has been filed against the city of Houston, Texas challenging the constitutionality of its opening its city council meetings with a prayer. Invocations are offered either by Council members or invited clergy of various religious faiths...
Teenage Convert Ordered Back To Ohio; Transcript of Police Interview Released
Posted on October 25, 2009There are at least two new developments in the case of Rifqa Barry, the 17-year old convert to Christianity who fled to Florida from Ohio, saying she was afraid that her Muslim family would kill her or send her back to Sri Lanka. Yesterday Florida Judge Daniel Dawson issued an order to the Florida Department of Children and Families to relinquish its emergency jurisdiction over the girl and arrange for her to be transported to the proper authorities with Franklin County Children Services in Ohio...
Catholic Bishops, Rep. Kennedy Spar Over Health Care Reform
Posted on October 25, 2009Earlier this month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a letter (full text) to every member of Congress saying that the Bishops "will have no choice but to oppose the bill" if the final legislation does not meet three principles they have set out: (1) Exclude mandated coverage for abortion, and incorporate longstanding policies against abortion funding and in favor of conscience rights; (2) Adopt measures that protect and improve people's health care; and (3) Include effective measures to safeguard the health of immigrants, their children and all of society...
Wiccan Sues For Employment Discrimination
Posted on October 24, 2009A Hartford, Connecticut woman who was employed as a sales manager for Bath and Body Works filed suit alleging employment discrimination, wrongful termination and infliction of emotional distress after she was fired because she was a follower of Wicca...
Challenge To Illinois Drivers License Rules Survives Motion To Dismiss
Posted on October 24, 2009In Baer-Stefanov v. White, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98132 (ND IL, Oct. 22, 2009), an Illinois federal district court rejected the Illinois Secretary of State's motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Illinois statute and regulations governing issuance of drivers licenses to individuals who have religious objections to furnishing their social security number...
First German Bank To Offer Sharia Financial Products Will Open
Posted on October 23, 2009Today's Spiegel reports that the first bank in Germany to offer Sharia-compliant financial products to German Muslims will open next year in Mannheim. Kuveyt Turk Beteiligungsbank will have a large potential market since four million Muslims who live in the country...
9th Circuit Hears Oral Arguments In Student Speech Appeal
Posted on October 23, 2009On Tuesday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals hear oral arguments in Arizona Students for Life v. Crow. At issue is the extent to which the University may require a student group to show proof of insurance in order to display a pro-life exhibit or hand out literature from a table on campus...
Iranian Cleric Says Nuclear Weapons Violate Islamic Law
Posted on October 23, 2009Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center reported this week that a senior cleric in Iran, Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, has issued a fatwa stating that developing and using nuclear weapons are a violation of Muslim religious law. His ruling said that the use of nuclear weapons would lead to the deaths of innocent people and harm future generations...
B.C. Will Seek Supreme Court Clarification on Constitutionality of Polygamy Law
Posted on October 23, 2009In Canada, British Columbia's Attorney General has decided that instead of appealing the dismissal of polygamy charges that were filed against the leaders of two FLDS factions, (see prior posting) the province will instead ask the British Columbia Supreme Court for clarification on the law...
9th Circuit Issues Opinion on Release of Names of Referendum Petition Signers
Posted on October 23, 2009The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has now released its opinion in John Doe #1 v. Reed, (9th Cir., Oct. 22, 2009), explaining its order issued last week clearing the way for release of the names of those who signed referendum petitions in Washington state seeking review of the state's domestic partnership law...
Senate Gives Final Approval To Hate Crimes Bill
Posted on October 23, 2009The U.S. Senate yesterday by a largely party-line vote of 68-29 approved HR 2647, the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act as recommended by the Conference Committee. The bill contains an expansion of federal hate crimes legislation, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr...
9th Circuit Denies En Banc Review Of Arizona Tuition Contribution Tax Credits
Posted on October 22, 2009In Winn v. Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization, (9th Cir., Oct. 20, 2009), the full U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to grant en banc review in a case challenging Arizona's program of tax credits to provide scholarships, mostly for students in religious schools...
Louisiana Catholic Archdiocese Settles 20 Abuse Lawsuits
Posted on October 22, 2009Yesterday's Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser reports that the Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans has settled twenty lawsuits alleging sexual and physical mistreatment of children some 40 to 50 years ago at Catholic homes for troubled boys. The settlement totalling $5...
Hungary's President Wants Religion Questions On 2011 Census
Posted on October 22, 2009Hungary's President Laszlo Solyom has refused to sign a bill passed by Parliament to govern Hungary's scheduled 2011 census. According to MTI today, the President sent the bill back to lawmakers to eliminate the the ban on asking census questions regarding health status or religion...
Pennsylvania School Will Temporarily End Enforcement of Speech Code
Posted on October 22, 2009Yesterday a Pennsylvania federal district court issued an Agreed Temporary Consent Order in E.B. v. West Shore School District, (MD PA, filed 10/5/2009). The case grew out of an incident in which a Lewisberry, Pennsylvania middle school student was told by school officials to remove his T-shirt which carried the message "Abortion is Not Health Care"...
Santeria Priest Who Won Legal Victory Is Profiled
Posted on October 22, 2009Yesterday's Dallas Observer carries a long background piece on Jose Merced, the Santeria priest who recently won a 5th Circuit victory allowing him to continue animal sacrifices at his Euless, Texas home, despite the city's health and safety concerns...
Canadian Court Dismisses Graduate Student's Religious Discrimination Claim
Posted on October 22, 2009In Maughan v. University of British Columbia, (BC Ct. App., Oct. 20, 2009), the Brisish Columbia Court of Appeal agreed with the trial court that a graduate student at UBC had not shown that tensions between her and her English professor resulted from religious discrimination...
Settlement Reached In Suit Over Grooming Rules For Federal Building Guards
Posted on October 22, 2009The Fresno Bee and the Sikh Coalition this week reported on the settlement of a lawsuit over the Department of Homeland Security's grooming rules for security officers hired under contract to guard federal buildings. Raghbir Singh, a Sikh who wore a turban and beard, was hired through a private security firm in 2005 to guard an IRS building...
European Court Says Italian Catholic Unversity Infringed Faculty Applicant's Rights
Posted on October 22, 2009Lombardi Vallauri v. Italy, (ECHR, Oct. 20, 2009) [full text in French, Word.doc], decided yesterday by the European Court of Human Rights, held that the rights of a Lecturer at Milan's Catholic University of the Sacred Heart were infringed by procedural irregularities in refusing to consider his application for a permanent faculty position...
Atheist Ads Will Appear In New York Subway Stations
Posted on October 21, 2009A coalition of eight groups calling themselves the Big Apple Coalition of Reason have purchased space for posters in a dozen New York subway stations. CNN reports that beginning Monday, posters raising awareness of those who do not believe in God will be displayed...
Alito Complains About Questions Over Catholic High Court Majority
Posted on October 21, 2009AP reports on a speech given Tuesday by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to Philadelphia's Justinian Society, a group Italian-American lawyers, judges and law students. According to the report, Alito expressed frustration over persistent questions about the court's 6-Justice Roman Catholic majority...
Vietnam Recognizes Assemblies of God Church
Posted on October 21, 2009Earth Times reports that in a ceremony in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City on Monday, the government's Committee for Religious Affairs granted formal recognition under the 2007 Law on Religion to the Vietnamese branch of the Assemblies of God church. The church, the world's largest Pentecostal Christian denomination, has 40,000 members in Vietnam...
Congress Passes Extension of Special Immigrant Nonminister Religious Worker Program
Posted on October 21, 2009Following House passage last week, the U.S. Senate yesterday passed and sent on to the President the Conference Committee's version of H.R. 2892, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act. Section 568(a) of the bill extends until Sept. 30, 2012 the Special Immigrant Nonminister Religious Worker Program...
6th Circuit Hears Oral Arguments In Long-Running 10 Commandments Case
Posted on October 21, 2009The 6th Circuit yesterday heard oral arguments in the long running 10-Commandments case, ACLU of Kentucky v. McCreary County. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a preliminary injunction barring the a display of the Ten Commandments along with other historical documents that refer to God in two Kentucky county courthouses...
Tentative Settlement Reached in "Flying Imams" Case
Posted on October 21, 2009Fox News reported yesterday that a tentative settlement has been reached by all parties in the so-called "flying imams" case. The lawsuit, filed by six Muslim clergy against US Airways and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airport Commission, alleged false arrest, unreasonable search and seizure and equal protection violations...
Vatican Invites Conservative Anglicans Into New Affiliation
Posted on October 20, 2009Surprise developments today out of Rome, London and Washington create new possibilities for dissident Episcopal congregations that are increasingly splitting off from ECUSA and affiliating with new more conservative Anglican provinces. (See prior related posting...
Justice Kennedy Reinstates Injunction Against Release of Petition Signers' Names
Posted on October 20, 2009Yesterday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy issued an order (full text) reinstating the preliminary injunction issued by a federal district court in Washington state in John Doe #1 v. Ried. The injunction bars release of the names of signers of referendum petitions seeking to overturn a recently-enacted state domestic partnership law...
South Carolina Republican Officials Use Anti-Semitic Stereotypes
Posted on October 20, 2009A letter to the editor published in Sunday's Orangeburg (SC) Times and Democrat from the chairmen of two South Carolina County Republican Party organizations reflects, at the very least, insensitivity to the anti-Semitic nature of comparisons they draw...
Opposing Religious Coalitions Active On Maine's Same-Sex Marriage Ballot Issue
Posted on October 20, 2009Yesterday' Bangor (ME) Daily News reports on religious coalitions on opposing sides of Maine's Question 1-- a referendum on the November ballot that would overturn a law passed earlier this year permitting same-sex couples to marry. (See prior posting...
Asst. Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Sworn In
Posted on October 20, 2009Yesterday, the new head of a little-known bureau within the State Department was formally sworn in, though he has been on the job for over three weeks. Michael Posner was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor...
Smithsonian Will Add Evolution Exhibit; Explore Religion and Science
Posted on October 20, 2009USA Today reported last week that the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum will open a new 15,000 square foot permanent exhibit next March on the "discovery and understanding of human origins." The Museum has also created a Broader Social Impacts Committee to address the interaction between religion and science...
Wilmington Catholic Diocese Files For Chapter 11 Protection
Posted on October 19, 2009Last night, the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington (covering Delaware and Maryland's Eastern Shore) became the seventh U.S. Catholic diocese to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The filing delays the trial that was scheduled to start today in a clergy sex abuse case against the diocese...
IRS Receives Comments On Proposed Church Audit Rule Change
Posted on October 19, 2009Today's BNA Daily Report for Executives [subscription required] summarizes four sets of comments the Internal Revenue Service has received on proposed changes in its Regulation governing which official has authority to authorize church tax inquiries. (See prior posting...
Recent Articles of Interest
Posted on October 19, 2009From SSRN:Roberta Rosenthal Kwall, Book Review: Intellectual Property Law and Jewish Law: A Comparative Perspective on Absolutism, (Yale J. Law & Humanities, Vol. 22, 2010).Susan J. Stabile, Vocation, Formation and the Next Generation: The Role of Catholic Law Schools in Light of Catholic Social Thought, (Villanova Journal of Catholic Social Thought, Forthcoming)...
British MPs Want Christian References Removed From Constitutions of Territories
Posted on October 19, 2009Sunday's London Mail reports on efforts by the Foreign Affairs Committee of Britain's Parliament to have references to Christianity removed from the Preambles of the Constitutions of two British territories. Beginning in 1999, the British Foreign Office initiated efforts to have territories under British sovereignty update their Constitutions...
U.S. Attorney General Speaks On Hate Crimes
Posted on October 19, 2009U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder addressed the Anti-Defamation League's 2009 American Heritage Dinner in Las Vegas Saturday night. His address (full text) focused primarily on hate crimes, including anti-Semitism which is one of the ADL's primary concerns...
Cyprus Benefits From No Civil Marriage Laws In Israel and Lebanon
Posted on October 19, 2009AP yesterday reported on the thriving civil marriage industry in Cyprus, catering to residents of Israel and residents of Lebanon. In both of those countries, civil marriage does not exist and religious authorities will not perform interfaith marriages...
9th Circuit: Names of Referendum Petition Signers Can Be Released
Posted on October 18, 2009Last month, a federal district court in Washington state enjoined release of the names of individuals who signed petitions supporting a referendum to overturn a recently-enacted state domestic partnership law. The Public Records Act request for the documents had been filed by two gay rights groups that wanted to be able to contact the signers to complain about their support for the referendum...
Canadian Court Decides Dispute Between Church Factions Over Control of Funds
Posted on October 18, 2009Ethiopian Orthodox Church of Canada v. Hohite Semay St. Mary Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church, (BC Sup. Ct., Oct. 9, 2009), involved a dispute over which of two factions in a Vancouver congregation in the Canadian province of British Columbia was entitled to control over $280,000 of church funds...
Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases
Posted on October 18, 2009In Putzer v. Donnelly, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94467 (D NV, Oct. 9, 2009), a federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendation to deny a preliminary injunction (2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94472, Aug. 17, 2009). A Jewish prisoner, alleging RLUIPA and 1st Amendment violations, objected that he was not permitted to attend a candle-lighting ceremony on Friday evenings just before sundown, in celebration of the Sabbath...
Tax Liens Complicate Efforts To Reform FLDS UEP Trust
Posted on October 18, 2009Saturday's Salt Lake (UT) Tribune reports that growing numbers of tax liens are complicating the work of the Utah court-appointed trustee of the FLDS United Effort Plan Trust. The trust holds land in Colorado City, AZ and Hildale, UT on which FLDS members, many in polygamous relationships, live...
Canadian Court Hands Down Decision In Botched Ritual Circumcision Case
Posted on October 17, 2009In Canada, the Supreme Court of British Columbia (which is the province's superior trial court) this week ruled that the Crown had proved the elements of criminal negligence in the case of a man who performed a botched ritual circumcision on his 4-year old son...
British National Party Agrees To Eliminate Racial Membership Limits
Posted on October 17, 2009Thursday's London Telegraph reports that the British National Party has agreed to settle a complaint brought against it in August by Britain's Equality and Human Rights Commission. The party's Constitution (full text) limits membership to those who descend from indigenous Caucasian British ethnic groups...
Plaintiff Who Challenged Teacher's Remarks Now Speaks At Republican Fund Raisers
Posted on October 17, 2009Earlier this year, California high school student Chad Farnan and his parents won a mixed victory in a lawsuit against Chad's former high school history teacher James Corbett. They alleged that Corbett made comments in class hostile to religion, particularly to Christianity...
Group Challenges Constitutionality of IRS Parsonage Allowance Provisions
Posted on October 16, 2009The Freedom from Religion Foundation and 21 of its members, represented by Michael Newdow, filed a federal lawsuit today challenging the constitutionality of two provisions of the Internal Revenue Code that give special tax deductions to "ministers of the gospel...
Colbert's Satirical Review of Arguments In Sunrise Rock Cross Case
Posted on October 16, 2009There has been much commentary on last week's oral arguments before the Supreme Court in Salazar v. Buono-- the case involving the Sunrise Rock Cross located in the Mojave Preserve war memorial . (See prior posting.) In paticular pundits have focused on Justice Scalia's questioning...
President Attends White House Diwali Celebration
Posted on October 16, 2009According to the Washington Post, on Wednesday, President Obama became the first U.S. President to attend a celebration of the Diwali holiday in the White House. While the White House Diwali celebration tradition began during the George W. Bush Administration, previously only cabinet members and White House staff attended...
Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Attorneys' Fees In Civil Rights Cases
Posted on October 16, 2009The U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday heard oral arguments in a case that could have important implications for the recovery of attorneys' fees by prevailing parties who assert Free Exercise claims against state and local governments. Perdue v. Kenny A. is an appeal from an 11th Circuit decision that raises the question of whether attorneys' fees awarded under 42 USC Sec...
USCIRF Urges Secretary of State To Press Iran On Religious Freedom
Posted on October 16, 2009The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on Tuesday wrote Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (full text of letter) urging her to press Iran on its human rights and religious freedom record as the U.S. pursues talks over Iran's nuclear program...
NY City Council Candidate Is a Neopagan Priest
Posted on October 16, 2009Religion Dispatches yesterday reports on Dan Halloran, a Republican candidate for New York's City Council from Queens. Halloran is a practicing Neopagan. He is a priest of Theodism, a form of Norse Paganism which is a branch of Heathenism (or Asatru)...
Christian Sports Camp Group Sues School That Excluded Its Flyers
Posted on October 16, 2009On Wednesday, a religious group that operates Christian summer sports camp programs throughout the Midwest filed a federal lawsuit against the Lee's Summit (Missouri) School District challenging its policies governing its Backpack Flyers for Students Program...
Ute Tribal Court Rejects Religious Challenge To Fish Hatchery
Posted on October 15, 2009Yesterday's Vernal, Utah Express reports that a Ute Tribal Court ruled Monday in favor of the Tribe against tribal members challenging the Tribe's construction of the Big Springs Tribal Fish Hatchery. Tribal religious leaders say "the springs are a traditional religious site that must flow naturally without being tapped into a pipeline...
Virginia Supreme Court Will Review Episcopal Church Case
Posted on October 15, 2009According to yesterday's Washington Post, the Virginia Supreme court has agreed to review a lower court's decision in In Re: Multi-Circuit Episcopal Church Property Litigation (see prior posting). The lower court held that under Virginia's "Division Statute," church properties belong to the congregations and not to the Episcopal Church USA and the Diocese...
Hawaiian Court Gives Key Ruling For Plaintiff In Cemetery Case
Posted on October 15, 2009As previously reported, last July a descendant of Hawaiian royalty filed suit in Hawaii state court to require Honolulu's Kawaiahao Church and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to fully comply with state burial laws in a construction project on land that was once a cemetery...
One Faith-Based Task Force Urges Involvement In Israeli-Palestinian Issues
Posted on October 15, 2009On Tuesday, the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Advisory Council released preliminary drafts of recommendations from its six task forces. (See prior posting.) The Forward reported yesterday that a draft recommendation from one of the Task Forces (the one on interreligous dialogue) recommended that the Faith-Based Office should "create a working group of multi-religious and community organizations focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to advise administration officials at the National Security Council and the State Department on a just resolution of the conflict...
2nd Circuit: Ministerial Exception, Not RFRA, Bars Pastor's ADEA Suit
Posted on October 15, 2009In Hankins v. New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, (2d Cir., Oct. 13, 2009), the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals held that the constitutionally-based "ministerial exception" doctrine requires dismissal of a pastor's age discrimination complaint...
Parties Settle In Lesbian's Suit Against California Clinic
Posted on October 01, 2009Last year in North Coast Women's Care Medical Group, Inc. v. San Diego County Superior Court, (CA Sup. Ct., Aug. 18, 2008), the California Supreme Court held unanimously that a medical clinic's physicians are prohibited by the Unruh Civil Rights Act from discriminating against patients on the basis of sexual orientation...
NY Jewish Schools Get No Child Left Behind Tutors For First Time
Posted on October 01, 2009The Jewish Press reported yesterday that for the first time, some 14,000 young students from 50 yeshivas in New York City will be able to access tutoring services paid for by the No Child Left Behind Act's Title I program. The tutors offer students help with reading, writing and arithmetic...
Many Pakistani Mosques and Madressahs Face Shut Off Of Electricity
Posted on October 01, 2009In Pakistan, the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) notified the Ministry of Religious Affairs earlier this month that over 1,600 mosques and madressahs have not paid their electric bills. They owe the equivalent of $1.49 million (US). According to Pakistan's The News today, KESC will be sending a final one-week notice to delinquent customers and then will be shutting off their power...
Texas State Fair Is Not State Actor In Barring Religious Literature Distribution
Posted on October 01, 2009In Rundus v. City of Dallas, (ND TX, Sept. 16, 2009), a Texas federal district court rejected a claim brought by a Christian evangelist seeking damages for the refusal by the State Fair of Texas to allow him to pass out religious literature on sidewalks inside the fairgrounds...
Israeli Court Says Chinese Pressured University On Falun Gong Exhibit
Posted on October 01, 2009In Israel, the Tel Aviv District Court ruled yesterday that Tel Aviv University improperly closed down an exhibit of artwork by Falun Gong members last year because of economic and political pressure from the Chinese Embassy. According to Haaretz, the court concluded that the Dean of Students gave into pressure in order to protect campus funding by the Chinese Embassy of scholarships for students who study in China, a campus Confucius Center where students can study Chinese, and conferences on Buddhism and Chinese philosophy...
Court Rejects Tony Alamo's Free Exercise Defense In Suit By Former Followers
Posted on October 01, 2009A federal district court yesterday rejected a free exercise defense raised by evangelist Tony Alamo in a lawsuit against him by two of his former followers who alleged Alamo withheld food from them for prolonged times, ordered their severe and sometimes public beatings, and verbally abused them during the beatings...
Christian Group Sues Challenging Maine's Interpretation of Its Charitable Licensing Law
Posted on October 01, 2009In June, the Charitable Solicitations section of Maine's Office of Licensing & Registration imposed a civil penalty of $3000 on the Christian Action Network, finding that it had violated 9 MRS Sec. 5013 by using Governor John Baldacci's name in a letter soliciting contributions without the Governor's consent...
2nd Circuit: Ministerial Exception Bars Rabbi's Suit Against Her Former Temple
Posted on October 01, 2009In Friedlander v. Port Jewish Center, (2d Cir., Sept. 30, 2009), the 2nd Circuit agreed that a New York federal district court lacked jurisdiction over a breach of contract claim by a rabbi against her former congregation. (See prior posting.) The Court of Appeals found that the "ministerial exception" doctrine applies...
Prosecutors Seek To Offer Unusual Religious Analysis In Competency Trial
Posted on September 30, 2009A federal judge in Utah is being asked to permit rather unusual testimony about religious beliefs in the third competency hearing for Brian David Mitchell who has been charged with the 2002 kidnapping in Salt Lake City, Utah of then 14-year old Elizabeth Smart...
Amicus Brief Raises Opposition To UN Convention
Posted on September 30, 2009Two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court this term, Graham v. Florida and Sulivan v. Florida, appear to have become vehicles for those filing amicus briefs to duel over the U.N.'s Convention on the Rights of the Child which conservative Christian groups fear the U...
High School Cheerleaders Cannot Carry Religious Banners On Field
Posted on September 30, 2009Yesterday's Chattanooga (TN) Times Free Press reports on a new variation of the dispute over mixing of religion and high school football. In Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, since 2003 Fort Oglethorpe High School cheerleaders have displayed religious banners that the football players crash through at the beginning of games...
Supporters of Sectarian Prayer Threaten Billboards Exposing Council Votes
Posted on September 30, 2009Around the country, the Freedom from Religion Foundation has been challenging city councils that open their meetings with sectarian prayers, and city councils have been forced to consider whether to change their policies. Few of the debates have been as contentious as that in Lodi, California (see prior posting) where a vote will be taken tonight...
Court Rejects Copyright Suit Claiming Infringement In Use of Judas Iscariot Trial
Posted on September 30, 2009In Porto v. Guirgis, (SDNY, Sept. 28, 2009), a New York federal district court rejected a claim by author Michael Porto (also known as "Guy Michaels") that Guirgis' play "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" violates the copyrights for Porto's novel "Judas on Appeal...
German Court Says School Must Provide Prayer Space For Muslim Student
Posted on September 30, 2009In the first ruling of its kind in Germany, the Berlin administrative court has ruled that Diesterweg High School in Berlin-Wedding must allow a Muslim student known in the litigation as Yunus M. to pray 10 minutes each day in a separate classroom. Deutsche Welle reported yesterday that freedom of religion guarantees required this accommodation which the court saw as not disturbing school operations...
New York Appellate Court Voids Church Election of New Pastor and Trustees
Posted on September 29, 2009Trustees of Gallilee Pentecostal Church, Inc. v. Williams, (NY App. Div., Sept. 22, 2009), is a case in which plaintiffs sought a declaration as to who are the legal trustees and members of the Gallilee Pentecostal Church in Poughkeepsie, New York. In 1983 when the Church was formed, its articles named six trustees...
Court Rejects Interlocutory Appeal In Minnesota Charter School Case
Posted on September 29, 2009In ACLU of Minnesota v. Tarek Ibn Ziyad Acadamy, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88425 (D MN. Sept. 24, 2009), a Minnesota federal district court denied a motion by the sponsor of a controversial charter school to certify an interlocutory appeal of a decision handed down by the court in July...
British Jewish Schools Implement New Admissions Criteria Ordered By Court
Posted on September 29, 2009Today's London Guardian reports on changes in admission policy made by Britain's publicly-funded Jewish schools after a Court of Appeal decision in June held that using the traditional Orthodox Jewish definition of who is Jewish amounts to impermissible racial discrimination instead of a permissible religious criterion...
Christian Group Creates "Adopt a Liberal" Initiative
Posted on September 29, 2009Liberty Counsel (a Christian advocacy group) has begun a "prayer in action" initiative it calls "Adopt a Liberal." It is hoping to change the minds of political leaders it sees as "misguided". The initiative calls on participants to pick one of the eleven liberals on Liberty Counsel's list, or to choose some other liberal leader, and then:Pray earnestly and intensely for them! Pray that the Lord would move upon them and cause them to be the kind of leaders who will encourage others to lead "a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence...
Woman's Caning Sentence Upheld On Appeal In Malaysia
Posted on September 28, 2009In Malaysia, apparently a controversial sentence of a Muslim woman for drinking alcohol is back on track. Last month Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno became the first woman to be sentenced under the country's Islamic law to caning for drinking alcohol. When she defiantly asked that her punishment be carried out in public, the sentence was delayed because of Ramadan and to allow for a government appeal after objections from activists...
Victoria Government Agrees To Broad Religious Exemptions In Discrimination Law
Posted on September 28, 2009In the Australian state of Victoria, the attorney general has pre-empted a parliamentary committee and has announced an agreement with religious groups (including churches, schools, hospitals and welfare services) that will modify current law but still grant them broad exemptions from anti-discrimination prohibitions...
2010 National Religious Moot Court Announced
Posted on September 28, 2009George Washington University Law School has announced the 2010 National Religious Freedom Moot Court to be held February 5-6, 2010 in Washington, DC. This year's problem involves free exercise issues in decisions of a local police department to regulate the activities and the dress of a police officer...
Guardian Ad Litem Has Immunity As To Comments On Mother's Religious Views
Posted on September 27, 2009In Wood v. Epley, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87490 (SD OH, Sept. 9, 2009), an Ohio federal magistrate judge recommended dismissing as frivolous a lawsuit brought by Kyra Wood seeking $40 million in damages from an attorney who was appointed guardian ad litem by a state juvenile court to represent the interests of her daughter...
Moorish American Corrections Officers Can Move Ahead With Discrimination Allegations
Posted on September 27, 2009Bey v. City of New York, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87793 (SDNY, Sept. 9, 2009), is a lawsuit brought by a group of former New York City correction officers who were members of the Moorish American faith which teaches that Moors are exempt from taxation. They were terminated from their positions after hearings at which it was found that they had submitted false documents claiming to be tax exempt...
Illinois Supreme Court Says Limitiations Extension Cannot Be Applied Retroactively
Posted on September 27, 2009In Doe v. Diocese of Dallas, (IL Sup. Ct., Sept. 24, 2009), the Illinois Supreme Court refused to apply retroactively a 2003 amendment to Illinois law extending the statute of limitations in civil actions alleging child sexual abuse. The suit was filed by plaintiff who had been abused by a Catholic priest when he was 14 years old...
Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases
Posted on September 27, 2009In May v. Donneli, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 85495 (ND NY, Aug. 25, 2009), a New York federal magistrate judge held that merely a loss of a few pounds was insufficient physical injury to justify a claim for compensatory damages under the Prison Litigation Reform Act that precludes compensatory damages for emotional injury unaccompanied by physical injury...
Recent Articles and Books of Interest
Posted on September 27, 2009From SSRN:Jeffrey M. Lipshaw, Can There Be a Religion of Reason? A Response to Leiter's Circular Conception of Religious Belief, (Suffolk University Law School Research Paper Series, Sept. 27, 2009).Mostapha Benhenda, Liberal Democracy and Political Islam: The Search for Common Ground, Politics, Philosophy & Economics, Forthcoming)...
China Issues New Report on Its Ethnic Policy-- Claims Religious Freedom
Posted on September 27, 2009The Chinese government today issued a White Paper titled China's Ethnic Policy and Common Prosperity and Development of All Ethnic Groups. The Xinhua news agency carries a series of reports on the White Paper. Summarizing the report's findings on religious freedom, Xinhua says: Freedom of religious belief in China means that every citizen has the freedom to believe or not to believe in any religion," said the white paper issued by the Information office of the State Council...
Christian Group Complains About Ganesh Statue At Calgary Zoo
Posted on September 26, 2009In Canada, the publicly funded Calgary Zoo some two years ago put up a statue of the Hindu deity Ganesh-- a figure with an elephant head-- near the zoo's elephant display. An anonymous donor supplied funds for the statue in memory of her late father who worked and travelled extensively in Asia...
Christian Reformed Church Gets Title To Property Over Breakaway Congregation
Posted on September 26, 2009In Lamont Community Church v. Lamont Christian Reformed Church, (MI Ct. App., Sept. 22, 2009), a Michigan appellate court held that the Christian Reformed Church in North America is a hierarchical denomination, and therefore that civil courts are required to honor the determinations made by the denomination's parent body in resolving a property dispute between it and a break away congregation...
4th Circuit Says Westboro's "Utterly Distasteful" Picketing Is Protected By 1st Amendment
Posted on September 25, 2009In Snyder v. Phelps, (4th Cir., Sept. 24, 2009), the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the Westboro Baptist Church and its leaders that a $5 million judgment against them growing out of their picketing of the funeral of Iraq veteran Matthew Snyder violated their free speech rights...
Capitol Visitor Center Hosts Premiere of Film On Religion In America
Posted on September 25, 2009Last December the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center opened amidst protests from conservatives (including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich) that it failed to appropriately honor America's religious heritage. (See prior posting.) This led to Congressional resolutions directing the Architect of the Capitol to engrave the motto "In God We Trust" on a large pillar in the Visitor Center, and a lawsuit being filed challenging that directive...
This Sunday Is Second "Pulpit Freedom Sunday"
Posted on September 25, 2009Alliance Defense Fund announced yesterday that its second annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday will be held on September 27. The event is part of ADF's Pulpit Initiative which is designed to challenge the constitutionality of Internal Revenue Code provisions barring partisan electoral activity by Section 501(c)(3) non-profits, including churches...
Court Dismisses Prof's Dismissal Complaint Under Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine
Posted on September 25, 2009Earlier this week, an Ohio trial court held that under the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine it could not decide a breach of contract claim (full text of complaint) brought by David Hoffeditz, a Professor of Bible and Greek, against Cedarville University, a Baptist college...
Illinois High Court Upholds Bequest To Grandson Who Married Within the Faith
Posted on September 25, 2009In In re Estate of Max Feinberg, (IL Sup. Ct., Sept. 24, 2009), the Illinois Supreme Court, by narrowly defining the issue before it, upheld the result desired by Max Feinberg who wanted to leave his estate only to those of his grandchildren who married within the Jewish faith...
Hasidic Congregation Gets Reversal of Damage Award, But Loses On Other Issues
Posted on September 25, 2009This week, a New York appellate court handed down a decision in a dispute between two neighboring Orthodox Jewish congregations in Kiryas Joel (NY), a town populated primarily by members of the Satmar Hasidic community. A bit or reading between the lines is necessary to understand the disputes that were ruled on by the court in Bais Yoel Ohel Feige v...
Religious Groups Active On Several Issues At G-20
Posted on September 25, 2009Religious groups have been active at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh. Yesterday 30 religious leaders from numerous faiths met with U.S. deputy national security adviser Michael Froman urging action on problems faced by the world's poorest people. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette...
Funeral Director Loses On Most of Her Religious Discrimination Claims
Posted on September 24, 2009In Prise v. Alderwoods Group, Inc., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86445 (WD PA, Spet. 21, 2009), a Pennsylvania federal district court dismissed religious discrimination claims under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act...
House Committee Holds Hearings On Employment Non-Discrimination Act
Posted on September 24, 2009Yesterday, the House Committee on Education and Labor held its first hearing on H.R. 3017, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009. The bill would prohibit employment discrimination, preferential treatment, and retaliation on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by employers with 15 or more employees...
Polish Court Fines Catholic Magazine For Its Attack On Woman Seeking An Abortion
Posted on September 24, 2009In Poland, a court has ordered the magazine Gosc Niedzielny, which is published by the Catholic Archdiocese of Katowice, to apologize and pay damages of nearly $11,000 (US) to Alicja Tysiac who attempted unsuccessfully to obtain an abortion when her pregnancy threatened her eyesight...
Polygamy Charges Dismissed By British Columbia Supreme Court
Posted on September 24, 2009An expected constitutional challenge to polygamy laws in the Canadian province of British Columbia (see prior posting) has been short circuited as province's Supreme Court quashed the indictments against two FLDS leaders on other grounds. In Blackmore v...
Spanish Judge Works Out Compromise With Witness Wearing Burka
Posted on September 24, 2009A Spanish judge yesterday worked out a compromise with a witness in a criminal trial who insisted on wearing her burqa when she testified. Think Spain reports that the woman had been called to testify for the prosecution in the trial of nine Islamists charged with recruiting suicide bombers in order to send them to Iraq...
Here Are Religious Liberty and Church-State Issues From Senate's Health Care Reform Bill
Posted on September 24, 2009Last week, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Max Baucus, introduced his detailed proposal for comprehensive health care reform, the America's Healthy Future Act of 2009. (Press release.) The committee has posted a 223 page document (the Chairman's Mark) describing the bill and a 348-page document summarizing a large number of proposed amendments from other Finance Committee members...
Litigation Over Church Property Was Costly For Both Sides In Colorado Springs
Posted on September 23, 2009Yesterday's Colorado Springs Gazette reports on the high cost to both sides of the litigation over ownership of Colorado Springs Grace Church & St. Stephen's $17 million building after members split from the Episcopal Church USA. (See prior posting...
Canadian Appeals Court Permits Religious Groups' Intervention In Prostitution Law Challenge
Posted on September 23, 2009According to today's Toronto Globe & Mail, the Court of Appeal for Ontario this week reversed a decision of a Canadian trial judge and has permitted two religious groups and a conservative women's group to intervene in a case challenging the constitutionality of several of Ontario's anti-prostitution laws...
Today Is 20th Annual "See You At The Pole"
Posted on September 23, 2009Today is the 20th annual See You At the Pole event at schools around the country. The event's website describes its purpose: "See You at the Pole? is all about prayer. It's about you coming together and laying aside all of the labels and groups for one day, to simply engage with God in prayer and connect with fellow Christians in unity around the flag pole...
Paper Says Minnesota's Funding of Drug Program Raises Church-State Issues
Posted on September 23, 2009Yesterday's Minnesota Independent features an investigative article on state funding of Minnesota Teen Challenge's faith-based drug treatment centers. MnTC has received nearly $2.4 million in state funding since 2007, primarily from the Minnesota Department of Human Services' Consolidated Chemical Dependency Treatment Fund...
New Saudi University, Sponsored By King, Moves Away From Strict Islamic Norms
Posted on September 23, 2009UAE's The National reports that today in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) will be dedicated. Long the dream of King Abdullah, KAUST--a graduate university dedicated to scientific research and innovation-- has been set up with an endowment of over $10 billion...
Uganda's Government Will Propose Creation of Khadi Courts
Posted on September 23, 2009Uganda's Constitution, Sec. 129, provides for various courts to be established, including "qadhis' courts for marriage, divorce, inheritance of property and guardianship, as may be prescribed by Parliament." New Vision reported yesterday that Uganda's Attorney General, Freddie Ruhindi, told a committee of Parliament that the Government will soon propose a bill to implement this provision...
Jediism Founder Accuses British Supermarket Chain of Religious Discrimination
Posted on September 22, 2009In Britain, the founder of the Jedi religion (inspired by the Star Wars films) has accused Tesco supermarkets of religious discrimination. The London Guardian reported last Friday that Daniel Jones was ordered by staff at a Tesco store in north Wales to remove his hood while in the store...
Jewish Groups Protest Plans For Saturday Iowa Caucuses In 2010
Posted on September 22, 2009On Friday, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs released the text of a letter sent to the chairmen of Iowa's Republican and Democratic parties by a coalition of 18 national Jewish groups. The letter protests plans to hold the January 2010 Iowa party caucuses on a Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath), saying: "Saturday caucuses will force members of the Iowa Jewish community to choose between their faith and their civic duties...
Teenager Will Stay In Florida For Now As Clarifications Are Sought
Posted on September 22, 2009A court in Orlando, Florida yesterday held another hearing in the case of Rifqa Bary, the 17-year old who fled her Muslim parents' home in Ohio and came to Florida claiming that she feared her father would kill her because she had converted to Christianity...
Georgetown's Feldblum Nominated To EEOC
Posted on September 22, 2009Last week, President Obama nominated Chai Rachel Feldblum to be a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (White House release.) The EEOC enforces employment discrimination laws, including the ban on religious discrimination in employment...
Rockland County Health Officials Again Monitoring Kapparot Ritual Site
Posted on September 22, 2009The Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur begins Sunday evening. Again this year, the Rockland County (NY) Health Department is giving close attention to the site where Orthodox Jews are carrying out the pre-Yom Kippur ritual of kapparot-- the symbolic passing off of sins by circling a live chicken above one's head three times...
Recent Articles Of Interest
Posted on September 21, 2009From SSRN:Brian Leiter, Foundations of Religious Liberty: Toleration or Respect?, (September 16, 2009).Brian D. Galle, Foundation or Empire? The Role of Charity in a Federal System, (FSU College of Law, Law, Business & Economics Paper No. 1473107, Sept...
Value Voters Summit Held Last Week End
Posted on September 21, 2009The Value Voters Summit was held this past weekend in Washington, D.C., bringing together Christian conservatives from around the country. CQ Politics reports on the Summit's straw poll for 2012 Presidential candidate. The winner was former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee...
Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases
Posted on September 21, 2009In Timbuktu v. Malone, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82053 (ED WI, Sept. 9, 2009), a Wisconsin federal district court refused to grant summary judgement to two Muslim inmates who alleged that in a number of instances their prayers were interrupted or stopped, the location of their prayers were changed and that there were infringements on their observance of Ramadan and other religious feasts...
South Carolina High Court Rules For Break-Away Anglican Parish
Posted on September 21, 2009Last week the South Carolina Supreme Court issued an interesting decision in litigation stemming the 2004 vote by members of All Saints Parish, Waccamaw, to break away from the Episcopal Church USA and instead affiliate with the more conservative Episcopal Church of Rwanda...
FLDS Member Sues For Religious Discrimination
Posted on September 20, 2009Friday's Salt Lake Tribune , as well as Fox 13 News, report on the first-ever civil rights action by a member of the FLDS Church, filed Friday in Maricopa County (AZ) Superior Court. The complaint (full text) in Barlow v. Goddard, (AZ Super. Ct., filed 9/18/2009) alleges that the decertification of former police officer Preston Barlow by the Arizona Police Officer Standards and Training Board violated various federal and state constitutional and statutory provisions...
Settlement Reached In Lawsuit Challenging FaithGuard Homeowners' Insurance
Posted on September 20, 2009The U.S. Justice Department announced on Friday that it had reached a settlement with GuideOne Mutual Insurance Company and two of its agents in connection with the company's FaithGuard endorsements on homeowners policies. The endorsement offered special benefits and discounts only to churchgoers and "people of faith," a practice which the Department of Housing and Urban Development claimed violated the Fair Housing Act...
Mississippi Supreme Court Rules In Challenge By Members of Church Damaged By Katrina
Posted on September 20, 2009In Schmidt v. Catholic Diocese of Biloxi, (MS Sup. Ct., Sept. 17, 2009), members of St. Paul Catholic Church in Pass Christian, Mississippi brought suit after the diocese effectively closed the church that had been damaged by Hurricane Katrina and merged the parish into a newly created one...
White House and State Department Messages Mark Eid-ul-Fitr
Posted on September 20, 2009Yesterday the White House issued a statement from President Obama and the First Lady extending greetings to Muslims on the ending of Ramadan and the celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr. A posting on the White House blog from D. Paul Monteiro, Deputy Associate Director, White House Office of Public Engagement, indicated that several government agencies have participated this year in events to mark Ramadan...
President Reaches Out Internationally With Rosh Hashanah Greetings
Posted on September 18, 2009Rosh Hashanah begins this evening. It has become standard practice for the U.S. President to issue holiday greetings to those celebrating the Jewish holy days. This year the White House broke new technological ground in reaching out to Jews around the world...
Jewish Newspaper Interviews Scalia On Religion and State
Posted on September 18, 2009In an interview this week with the Jewish newspaper Hamodia, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spoke about the Court's Establishment Clause jurisprudence and about the role religion should play in American life. He said: My court has a series of opinions that say that the Constitution requires neutrality on the part of government, not just between denominations ...
State Department Hosts Iftar
Posted on September 18, 2009Earlier this week, the U.S. State Department hosted its annual Iftar dinner in honor of Ramadan. The State Department has posted the full text of remarks at the dinner by Farah Anwar Pandith, Special Representative to Muslim Communities, and by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton...
Creationist Views of Florida Mayoral Candidate Debated
Posted on September 18, 2009The St. Petersburg (FL) Times reported on Wednesday that the Creationist views of St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Bill Foster have become an election issue. Foster believes that the earth was created in literal six days, and that dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time...
EEOC Sues Clothing Chain Over "Look Policy" Barring Head Coverings
Posted on September 18, 2009The EEOC announced yesterday that it has filed a federal religious discrimination lawsuit against the retail clothing chain Abercrombie & Fitch for refusing to hire a 17-year old Muslim because she wore a hijab (head scarf). The complaint filed in an Oklahoma federal district court alleges that an Abercrombie Kids store in a Tulsa, Oklahoma mall interviewed Samantha Elauf for a sales position, but refused to hire her because wearing of a head covering violated the company's "Look Policy...
School Principal, Athletic Director Acquitted of Contempt In Prayer Case
Posted on September 18, 2009Late yesterday afternoon, a Florida federal district court judge acquitted a Santa Rosa County (FL) high school principal and the school's athletic director of criminal contempt charges growing out of their failure to follow the terms of a temporary injunction against faculty-led school prayer...
National Groups Want Bush Administration's RFRA Memo Withdrawn
Posted on September 18, 2009Yesterday 58 national civil rights and religious groups sent a letter (full text) to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder seeking a change in an interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act issued by the Bush administration in 2007. In the 2007 memo, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel concluded that RFRA trumps the religious anti-discrimination provisions of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, allowing a Christian youth program to receive a federal grant even though the organization hires only Christian staff...
Bankruptcy Judge Accommodates Hindu Temple In Chapter 11
Posted on September 18, 2009Yesterday's Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that a Georgia federal bankruptcy judge has found a creative solution to what could have become a troublesome church-state problem. After the Hindu Temple of Georgia defaulted on a $2.3 million loan and faced foreclosure on its 9-acre property in Norcross, Georgia, it filed for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection...
Court Says Congregation Cannot Disaffiliate From National Church Body
Posted on September 17, 2009In Classis of Central California v. Miraloma Community Church, (CA Ct. App., Sept. 15, 2009), a California Court of Appeals held that a local congregation of the Reformed Church in America lacked authority to amend its governing documents to disaffiliate from the national church in order to avoid a takeover by its hierarchical governing body, the classis...
Today Is Constitution Day, As Contempt Trial In School Prayer Case Begins
Posted on September 17, 2009Today is Constitution Day, marking the 222nd anniversary of the signing of the 1787 Constitution. Liberty Counsel is circulating a press release noting that the criminal contempt trial of the principal and athletic coach of Pace High School in Santa Rosa County, Florida, begins today...
City Council Acts To Keep Invocations Non-Sectarian
Posted on September 17, 2009Yet another city council has reacted to a letter from the Freedom from Religion Foundation objecting to sectarian invocations. With almost no discussion, the Tracy, California City Council voted Tuesday to take steps to assure that invocations are non-sectarian...
Florida Church's Lawsuit Challenges Zoning Denial
Posted on September 17, 2009Yesterday's Jacksonville (FL) News reports that the predominantly African-American First Baptist Church of Mandarin has filed a federal lawsuit-- apparently under RLUIPA-- against St. Johns County, Florida challenging the county's denial of its zoning application to build a sanctuary, ancillary buildings and a commercial retail area to support its mentoring program, the Jesus Christ Institute...
Do Government Economic Incentives Trigger Church-State Limits For Grocery?
Posted on September 17, 2009In St. Louis (MO), some are arguing that a new downtown grocery store, Culinaria (owned by the Schunck's grocery chain), should be subject to church-state separation requirements because more than half of its funding came from government sources. Funding sources included tax credits and a leasing arrangement which results in the Missouri Development Finance Board owning the building in which the store is located...
Dutch Supreme Court Says Football Chant Violated Ban on Insulting of Religious Group
Posted on September 17, 2009The Netherlands Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court's conviction and sentence of a football fan under Section 137c of the Dutch Penal Code that prohibits "insulting of a group of people because of their ... their religion or belief..." The conviction grew out of an odd football tradition in the country (explained by Counter Jihad)...
Treatment Of Muslims By French Army Criticized
Posted on September 17, 2009World Bulletin yesterday reported that the France's Defense Ministry is exerting additional control over Muslim officers in the French army by arranging their travel this year for the Hajj. The Ministry will provide a plane to fly them to Saudi Arabia and will organize their stay...
Teacher Awarded Qualified Immunity In Suit For Remark Against Creationism
Posted on September 17, 2009A long-running lawsuit in which a California high school student and his parents sued history teacher James Corbett for making remarks hostile to religion has finally come to a close. In May, the court found that one of the teacher's comments-- calling Creationism "superstitious nonsense"-- violated the Establishment Clause...
Israeli Student's Legalistic Protest of Hametz Law Fails
Posted on September 16, 2009YNet News yesterday reported on the results of the trial in Israel growing out of an incident earlier this year that attracted significant attention. Yeshiva student Aryeh Yerushalmi protested an Israeli court's interpretation of the law that prohibits the public display of leavened products for sale or consumption during Passover...
Missouri Court Says Negligence Is Enough In Sex Abuse Case Against Church
Posted on September 16, 2009Yesterday's Missourian reports that in a lawsuit against a St. Joseph Missouri Methodist church, a state trial court has held for the first time under Missouri law that a church can be sued for negligence in a clergy sexual abuse case. Earlier Missouri cases had required plaintiffs to show that a church actually knew the abuser was going to harm children and failed to take actions to prevent it, in order to recover against the church.
Cuba Will Now Permit Group Christian Services Inside Prisons
Posted on September 16, 2009AP reported yesterday that Cuba's Communist government has relaxed tensions with religious groups by extending opportunities for prison inmates to worship. Authorities have agreed they will allow inmates to attend Roman Catholic Mass and Protestant services inside prisons...
New Poll Compares Conservative and Progressive Religious Activists
Posted on September 16, 2009Public Religion Research yesterday released a 40-page report titled Faithful, Engaged, and Divergent: A Comparative Portrait of Conservative and Progressive Religious Activists in the 2008 Election and Beyond. Religion Dispatches accurately describes the study (based on extensive polling) as revealing few surprises...
Christian Citizenship Applicant Protests Vaccination Requirement
Posted on September 16, 2009Yesterday's Christian Post reports on Simone Davis, a 17-year old British citizen, who has been living with her grandmother in Florida since 2000. Now she is attempting to obtain U.S. citizenship, but objects on religious and moral grounds to the requirement that applicants for permanent residence show they have received a list of vaccinations, including Gardasil that protects against cervical cancer from sexually transmitted viruses...
City's Settlement of RLUIPA Lawsuit Leaves Challenged Ordinance In Effect
Posted on September 16, 2009The city of Bellmead, Texas (under prodding from a federal judge as trial approached) is close to settling a RLUIPA lawsuit brought against it by the Church of the Open Door which was refused zoning permission to move its halfway house for released prisoners into a former nursing home building it had purchased...
EEOC Sues On Behalf of Jehovah's Witness Fired For Refusing Halloween Participation
Posted on September 16, 2009Yesterday's Charleston Regional Business Journal reports that the EEOC has filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against the former owner of an ambulance company that was based in Orangeburg, South Carolina. The EEOC alleges that in 2006 the company fired a Jehovah's Witness employee who refused on religious grounds to represent the company at a local Halloween carnival...
10 Commandments on City Hall Property Is Problematic
Posted on September 15, 2009A new molded concrete depiction of the Ten Commandments has gone up on the city-owned Veterans Plaza next to the city building in Baker, Louisiana. According to the Baton Rouge (LA)Advocate last week, both this monument and an identical one nearby on the grounds of the Baker First Baptist Church face the Baker High School campus across the street...
Teens Sue After Ejection From Stadium For Refusing To Stand During "God Bless America"
Posted on September 15, 2009The Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger last week reported on a federal lawsuit filed by three high school students against Thomas Cetna, owner of the minor league baseball team, the Newark Bears. The students claim that Cetna cursed them and had security officers eject them from the stadium when they refused to stand during the 7th inning stretch while "God Bless America" was being sung...
Proposed Landmark Law Would Protect Church Slated For Closing
Posted on September 15, 2009The Cleveland, Ohio Catholic Diocese has ordered fifty churches to close by next Summer as part of a downsizing plan. However the city of Lakewood is about to pass an ordinance to limit the impact of the closing on historic and ornate St. James Church...
3rd Circuit Hears Oral Arguments On School Holiday Concert Policy
Posted on September 15, 2009The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday heard oral arguments in Stratechuk v. Board of Education, South Orange Maplewood School District. In the case, a New Jersey federal district court upheld a school board's holiday music policy that barred inclusion of religious holiday music in school holiday concerts...
Goa Rejects Christian Requests For Burial Grounds
Posted on September 15, 2009In the Indian state of Goa, Christian leaders are criticizing a statement made by the mayor of the Corporation of City of Panjim. Today's Times of India reports that in rejecting applications of various religious groups for burial grounds in the city, Mayor Carolina Po declared: "The corporators feel that people who have converted to other religious sects should ask those people who led them to convert to provide them with burial grounds also...
Advocacy Group Launching Campaign To Encourage Religious Speech On Public Campuses
Posted on September 15, 2009Arizona Republic's Livewire Blog reported yesterday that Alliance Defense Fund is using a $9.2 million anonymous donation as the catalyst to launch its $20 million "University Project." The Project is a legal campaign to get public colleges and universities to encourage religious speech on campuses.
Religious Homeless Shelter and Treatment Program Not Limited By Fair Housing Act
Posted on September 14, 2009In Intermountain Fair Housing Council v. Boise Rescue Mission Ministries, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82459 (D ID, Sept. 10, 2009), an Idaho federal district court held that the homeless shelter component of the Boise Rescue Mission is not a "dwelling" and therefore is not subject to the religious anti-discrimination provisions of the federal Fair Housing Act...
Recent Articles of Interest
Posted on September 14, 2009From SSRN:Wilbren Van der Burg & Frans W.A. Brom, In Defense of State Neutrality, (in: K.P. Rippe (Hrsg.), Angewandte Ethik in der Pluralistischen Gesellschaft, Freiburg, CH: Freiburger Universitätsverlag, 53-82).From SmartCILP and elsewhere:Brooke Goldstein & Eitan Meyer Aaron, "Legal jihad": How Islamist Lawfare Tactics are Targeting Free Speech, 15 ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law 395-410 (2009)...
Suit Challenging Star of David In US Supreme Court Dismissed As Frivolous
Posted on September 14, 2009In Smith v. Roberts, (IN Ct. App., Sept. 8, 2009), an Indiana state Court of Appeals rather easily dismissed as frivolus an unusual lawsuit filed by an Indiana resident against U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts. According to the court, plaintiff's "complaint alleges there is a Star of David carved into the Supreme Court building and 'alleges that Roberts has acted negligently in his officials [sic] duties by allowing and continuely [sic] establishing, advocating, and advancing the Jewish religion in violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution of America [sic]...
Paper Reports On Parallel Orthodox Jewish Social Service System
Posted on September 14, 2009Saturday's Asbury Park (NJ) Press reports on the parallel system of social services maintained by the large Orthodox Jewish community in Lakewood, New Jersey: With their own judicial order, ambulance brigade, civilian patrol, school system and political force, Orthodox Jews here live, in large part, in a parallel society, with dual public services mirroring those municipal bodies that officially govern...
Moves Seek Return of 17-Year Old Convert To Ohio
Posted on September 13, 2009Extensive press attention has been given to the case of 17-year old Rifqa Bary who last month fled her home near Columbus, Ohio after converting from Islam to Christianity. A Florida court ordered that Rifqa remain in temporary foster care with the Christian family with whom she has been placed while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates her allegations that her father threatened to kill her because of her conversion...
Lame Duck Hardliners In Indonesian Province Press For Strict Sharia Criminal Code
Posted on September 13, 2009From the Brisbane Times, ABC News and the Jakarta Post this week we piece together the following story. In Indonesia's province of Aceh in 2005, separatist rebels and the government signed a peace accord after 29 years of conflict. (Background.) Four years earlier, the government had granted broad elements of autonomy to the province which proceeded to adopt a code partially enforcing Islamic law...
Court Blocks Release of Names of Referendum Petition Signers
Posted on September 13, 2009In Washington state, a group called Protect Marriage Washington obtained enough signatures on petitions to place Referendum-71 on this fall's ballot. The Secretary of State certified the referendum earlier this month. It seeks to overturn SB 5688, Washington's recently-enacted domestic partnership law...
Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases
Posted on September 13, 2009In Searles v. Werholtz, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79719 (D KS, Sept. 2, 2009), a Kansas federal district court granted a prison food service provider's motion for summary judgment, finding that plaintiff had not produced evidence he was denied a properly prepared kosher diet...
British Court Allows Appeal of Order Barring Church's Anti-Gay Ad
Posted on September 13, 2009In Belfast, Northern Ireland, the Sandown Free Presbyterian Church has been granted permission by a High Court judge to appeal a ruling against it issued in April by the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority. According to yesterday's Belfast Telegraph the court concluded that ASA order may have infringed the church's rights to religious belief and freedom of expression...
India's Supreme Court Orders Reconsideration of Decision on School's No-Beards Policy
Posted on September 13, 2009On Friday, a two-judge panel of India's Supreme Court ordered reconsideration of a decision on enforcement of a Catholic schools' grooming policy that was handed down by a different panel of the Court in March (see prior posting). At issue is a Muslim student's challenge to his dismissal from Nirmala Convent Higher Secondary School because he refused to shave his beard...
Dawkins, Armstrong Debate Evolution and God In the Wall Street Journal
Posted on September 12, 2009Under the caption Man vs. God, today's Wall Street Journal publishes a lengthy and interesting exchange between biologist Richard Dawkins and religious historian Karen Armstrong on evolution and the existence of God. Here is an excerpt from Dawkins article: Making the universe is the one thing no intelligence, however superhuman, could do, because an intelligence is complex?statistically improbable ?and therefore had to emerge, by gradual degrees, from simpler beginnings: from a lifeless universe?the miracle-free zone that is physics...
8th Circuit Says No Damage Claims Against States Under RLUIPA Prisoner Provisions
Posted on September 12, 2009The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has joined the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Circuits in holding that while RLUIPA's prisoner provisions are an appropriate use of Congress' spending power, states do not waive their sovereign immunity from damage claims under the Act by accepting federal prison funds...
House Resolution Marks Today's Anniversary of 9-11
Posted on September 11, 2009The House of Representatives on Wednesday marked today's anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by passing H. Res. 722 by a vote of 416-yes; 0-no; 18-not voting. The Resolution mourns and remembers those killed on that day. It also: "asserts, in the strongest possible terms, that the fight against terrorism is not a war on any nation, any people, or any faith," and "calls on all Americans to renew their devotion to the universal ideals that make the Nation great: freedom, pluralism, equality, and the rule of law...
Appeal To Utah Supreme Court Filed By FLDS In Trust Reformation Case
Posted on September 11, 2009Yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune reports that five members of the FLDS Church, including two of its bishops, have asked the Utah Supreme Court to review a trial court ruling that refused to permit them to intervene in proceedings brought by Utah's Attorney General to reform the United Effort Plan trust...
Ramdadan Brings Arrests For Eating In Egypt; Ridicule of Bachelors In Nigeria
Posted on September 11, 2009For the first time this year, Egypt's Ministry of Interior has begun arresting those caught eating or drinking in public during Ramadan. Al Arabiya reported Wednesday that in the governorate of Aswan, 150 Egyptians were charged with the misdemeanor of publicly breaking the fast...
Admissions Criteria of British Jewish School Bend After Court Decision
Posted on September 11, 2009Yesterday's London Jewish Chronicle reports that for the first time London's Jewish Free School has admitted a student who was not considered Jewish under Orthodox religious law as interpreted by the Office of Britain's Chief Rabbi. The student's mother was converted to Judaism by a rabbi from one of the non-Orthodox movements in Judaism...
Chabad Group Sues Connecticut Town Over Zoning Refusal
Posted on September 11, 2009Yesterday's Litchfield County (CT) Times reports that a RLUIPA lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Connecticut on Wednesday by Chabad Lubavitch of Litchfield County and its rabbi, Joseph Eisenbach, challenging the refusal by the town of Litchfield to allow Chabad to restore and add onto a Victorian house on the edge of the town's Historic District...
Suit Challenges Brooklyn Housing Project As Favoring Hasidic Residents of Area
Posted on September 11, 2009The Brooklyn Paper reported yesterday on a state court lawsuit filed in New York by a coalition of forty excluded community groups in North Brooklyn claiming religious and racially discriminatory impacts from a proposed Broadway Triangle rezoning plan...
Britain Appoints First Jewish Civilian Chaplain For Military Forces
Posted on September 10, 2009Britain's Ministry of Defence announced Tuesday that Rabbi Arnold Saunders has been appointed the first Jewish Civilian Chaplain to the British military. He will be responsible for serving Jewish personnel in all three branches of the military services...
Plea Deal Entered In Charges of Importation of Monkey Parts
Posted on September 10, 2009Yesterday's Staten Island (NY) Advance reports that a plea deal in federal court in New York brings to a conclusion the 3-year old case against Liberian native Mamie Manneh who had been charged with importing parts of endangered African primates without the permit required by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and failing to disclose to border officials the true nature of the product she was importing...
Suit Challenges Mississippi's Use of Religious Themes In Abstinence Teen Summits
Posted on September 10, 2009The ACLU of Mississippi yesterday announced that it has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to end religious messages that are part of state-sponsored and state-funded "abstinence-only-until-marriage" programs. The complaint (full text) in Robinson v. Thompson, (SD MI, filed 9/9/2009), alleges that an annual teen summit held by the state to promote National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month has featured Christian prayer, religious themes and overtly Christian comments as part of speakers' presentations...
Finland Convicts City Council Member for Anti-Islam Blog Posting
Posted on September 10, 2009A trial court in Helsinki, Finland has convicted Jussi Halla-aho, a member of Helsinki's City Council, of violating the sanctity of religion through an anti-Islamic posting on his blog last June. Today's Helsingin Sanomat reports that the court fined Halla-aho 330 Euros...
Muslim Prayer Rally Planned For D.C.; Some Christians Object
Posted on September 10, 2009A New Jersey mosque is organizing a national prayer rally in Washington, DC on Sept. 25. Hassen Abdellah, president of Dar-ul-Islam mosque, expects 50,000, mostly Muslims, from around the country to attend the event on Capitol Hill whose focus will be a Friday prayer service at 1:00 p...
Poll On Views of Religious Similarities and Religious Discrimination Released
Posted on September 10, 2009The Pew Forum yesterday released a poll of Americans' views of religious similarities and differences. 65% of those surveyed say that Islam is either very different or somewhat different from their own religion. 58% of those surveyed view Muslims as being subject to much discrimination...
City Council Substitutes Pledge of Allegiance For Prayer
Posted on September 10, 2009The Freedom from Religion Foundation continues to write to city councils around the country objecting to their opening their sessions with sectarian prayers, and the cities continue to respond in various ways. In Tehachapi, California on Tuesday, City Council opened its meeting with recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance instead of the usual prayer...
Maryland Town Will Buy Land In Religious Bias Settlement
Posted on September 09, 2009Today's Frederick (MD) News-Post reports that the town of Walkersville, Maryland has agreed in general on a settlement in a lawsuit against it brought by the owners of land that the Ahmadiyya Movement of Islam had hoped to buy to construct a mosque. In the lawsuit the seller alleged that his sale of the land was blocked by government officials and private citizens in concerted actions motivated by anti-Muslim hostility...
USCIRF Faces Some Opposition In Congress
Posted on September 09, 2009The Washington Post yesterday reports that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom could disappear in 2011 when its current authorization sunsets. Earlier this year the Commission survived attempts to cut its funding as some in Congress think other approaches to international religious freedom would be more productive...
Lawsuit Seeks To Halt Baptist Group's National Election
Posted on September 09, 2009In Washington, D.C. yesterday, Rev. Henry J. Lyons of Tampa, Florida filed a lawsuit attempting to enjoin Thursday's scheduled election for president of the National Baptist Convention USA-- the oldest and largest predominantly Black religious denomination in the U...
California Legislature Orders More Police Training On Dealing With Sikh Kirpan
Posted on September 09, 2009Last week, the California legislature passed and sent to the Governor for his signature AB 504 mandating additional training materials for law enforcement officers on how to deal with Sikhs carrying kirpans. Yesterday's Oakland Tribune says that Sikhs have been arrested for wearing the kirpan-- a ceremonial dagger-- by officers who approach them in a disrespectful way and assume they have been involved in a crime...
Arizona Supreme Court Rejects Free Exercise Defense To Marijuana Charges
Posted on September 09, 2009In State of Arizona v. Hardesty, (AZ Sup. Ct. Sept. 8, 2009), the Arizona Supreme Court rejected an atempt by a member of the Church of Cognizance to raise a defense under Arizona's Free Exercise of Religion Act to prosecution for possession of marijuana...
9th Circuit: It Was OK To Ban Ave Maria From High School Graduation Ceremony
Posted on September 09, 2009In a 2-1 decision yesterday in Nurre v. Whitehead, (9th Cir., Sept. 8, 2009), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held that school officials did not violate a student's free speech rights when they barred her from performing an instrumental version of Ave Maria at her Everett, Washington high school's graduation ceremony...
Defiant Sudanese Journalist Sentenced For Wearing Pants
Posted on September 08, 2009In Khartoum, Sudan yesterday the high profile trial of a defiant woman journalist who is challenging the country' sharia-based laws relating to dress requirements resumed. (See prior posting.) The Los Angeles Times reports that journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein was convicted of public indecency for wearing pants at an outdoor cafe...
Kentucky High School Team's Trip To Revival Raises Parental Concerns
Posted on September 08, 2009In Breckinridge County, Kentucky, some Breckinridge County High School parents are upset about a bus trip for the football team organized last month by Coach Scott Mooney. USA Today yesterday reported that the trip to Franklin Crossroads Baptist Church included a revival at which 8 or 9 of the 20 players attending were baptized...
New Religious Education Law Being Drafted In Kyrgyzstan
Posted on September 08, 2009Forum 18 yesterday reported on the draft text of a new Law on Religious Education and Educational Institutions that is being drafted by Kyrgyzstan's State Agency for Religious Affairs (SARA). Kanybek Osmonaliev, had of SARA, says a new law is needed in order to reduce the number of Islamic educational institutions and to require them to offer a proper balance of religious and secular subjects...
Dress Code Loosened For Women Lawyers In Gaza
Posted on September 08, 2009In Gaza, the Supreme Justice Council last week announced that, contrary to a pronouncement in July, female lawyers will not be required to wear traditional Islamic dress when appearing in court. YNet News reported Sunday that in a press release the Council said: "female lawyers are asked only to appear in modest dress from now on...
Magistrate Says Remove "Five Percenters" From Prison "Security Threat Group" List
Posted on September 08, 2009The Nation of Gods and Earths / Five Percenters (NGE) -- an offshoot group of the Nation of Islam -- is classified by many prison systems as a Security Threat Group (STG). (Background.) Last month in Hardaway v. Haggerty, (ED MI, Aug. 17, 2009), a Michigan federal magistrate judge recommended that the STG designation be removed from the group...
Bishops' Labor Day Statement Highlights Unionization Principles For Catholic Health Agencies
Posted on September 07, 2009The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued its Labor Day 2009 statement, The Value of Work; The Dignity of the Human Person. The statement highlights an elaborate agreement reached in June on unionization of workers at Catholic health care facilities...
Connecticut Diocese Plea to Stay Release of Abuse Records Referred To Full Supreme Court
Posted on September 07, 2009As previously reported, the Bridgeport, Connecticut Roman Catholic Diocese has been trying to obtain a stay of an order issued in May by the Connecticut Supreme Court requiring release of some 12,600 pages of documents filed in 23 cases alleging sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy...
Minnesota Senator's State Fair Joke Misfires
Posted on September 07, 2009Op Ed News reported on an awkward lack of religious sensitivity by Minnesota U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar yesterday during CNN correspondent John King's interview with her at the Minnesota State Fair. (Transcript). As King bantered about items the Republicans were handing out at the Fair, Klobuchar replied: "I have for you chocolate covered bacon, one of our fair delicacies...
Recent Articles of Interest
Posted on September 07, 2009From SSRN:Jackson Nyamuya Maogoto, Legalising Divorce in the Republic of Ireland: A Canonical Harness to the Legal Liberation of the Right to Marriage Among the Disenfranchised, (September 1, 2009).John D. Inazu, No Future Without (Personal) Forgiveness: Re-Examining the Role of Forgiveness in Transitional Justice, (Human Rights Review, Vol...
Christian Groups Are Proselytizing Dearborn, Michigan's Muslims
Posted on September 06, 2009Today's Detroit Free Press reports that at least eight Christian groups from across the United States have organized proselytization campaigns aimed at Dearborn, Michigan's large Islamic population. The efforts have already resulted in various lawsuits (see prior postings 1, 2), assertions that opponents of the efforts are stifling free speech, and debates about how Islam can co-exist with Christianity in the West...
South African Lawsuit Challenges Halal Certification Organization
Posted on September 06, 2009Today's Johannesburg Times reports on a lawsuit that has been filed in South Africa in the High Court in Johannesburg by the Muslim organization "Scholars of Truth." The group seeks to stop the South African National Halal Association (Sanha) from continuing to act as a certifier of Halal chickens...
In India, Suit Threatened Over Compulsory Hindu Prayer In Schools
Posted on September 06, 2009India's Education Ministry last month ordered that beginning Sept. 5, all students in state-run schools must recite the "bhojan mantra" before their mid-day meals. IANS reports today that a group of socio-cultural organizations will file suit in the Madhya Pradesh high court asking that the court order an end to the practice...
Large Churches Face Zoning Hurdles
Posted on September 06, 2009Today's Baltimore Sun carries an interesting analysis of zoning opposition to building of mega-churches (and similarly large synagogues and mosques). Dave Travis, a consultant who tracks these trends says: "There's still a general impression that most churches are small: The white frame church down there on the corner, the little brick building that has a hundred people...
Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases
Posted on September 06, 2009In Houseknecht v. Doe, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77950 (ED PA, Aug. 28, 2009), a Pennsylvania federal district court rejected an inmate's complaint that his rights under the Free Exercise Clause and RLUIPA were infringed when, because he was placed in protective custody, he was denied access to formal worship services and formal Bible study classes...
Louisiana Governor's State-Paid Trips To Churches Raise Controversy
Posted on September 05, 2009Controversy between Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and his critics has been escalating since an article in the New Orleans Advocate a week ago disclosed that at least 15 times this year Jindal used his state helicopter to attend church services around the state...
Wisconsin County Seeks Compromise To Avoid Liability Over Monument
Posted on September 05, 2009In Chippewa County, Wisconsin, officials are scrambling to come up with an acceptable compromise over feared church-state challenges to a monument that was put up on the grounds of the County Building. As reported by KBJR-TV, Business North and Chippewa Valley Newspapers, a private committee came up with plans for a monument to Chippewa County Deputy Jason Zunker who was struck and killed in January 2008 while directing traffic...
White House Visitor Logs Will Now Be Routinely Released; Lawsuits Settled
Posted on September 05, 2009ABC News reported yesterday that the Justice Department has settled several Freedom of Information Act lawsuits brought by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). All the suits seek release of logs identifying visitors to the White House and the Vice President's Residence...
3rd Circuit Tells BIA: Reconsider Whether Iran May Torture Christian Convert
Posted on September 05, 2009In Ghaziaskar v. Attorney General for the United States, (3d Cir., Sept. 3, 2009), the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, while upholding a portion of the Board of Immigration Appeal's determinations, remanded to BIA the claim by an Iranian immigrant that if he were deported to Iran it is more likely than not that he would face torture...
Controversy Persists Over Virginia Gubernatorial Candidate's 20-Year Old Thesis
Posted on September 04, 2009A controversy has been developing in Virginia this week over the masters' thesis written twenty years ago by now Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell. (Washington Post 8/30.) The 93-page thesis titled The Republican Party's Vision for the Family: The Compelling Issue of the Decade was written while McDonnell was a student at what is now Regent University, founded by Pat Robertson...
Opinion Issued In Case Ordering Parochial School Student Into Public School Band
Posted on September 04, 2009A Pennsylvania federal district court has now issued a detailed written opinion explaining the temporary restraining order it issued last week (see prior posting) requiring the the Burrell (PA) High School to permit a student who transferred to a parochial school to remain in the high school band...
Jury Rejects Dance Teacher's Religious Discrimination Claim
Posted on September 04, 2009In San Diego, California yesterday, a state court jury rejected a former public school dance teacher's religious discrimination lawsuit against the Lemon Grove (CA) School District. According to 10News, Kathy Villalobos claimed the school district fired her for playing dance music containing religious lyrics...
Groups Urge Change In Senate Bill To Permit Head Coverings In Drivers License Photos
Posted on September 04, 2009Yesterday more than a dozen religious advocacy and interfaith groups sent a letter (full text) to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee urging them to support an amendment to S. 1261, the PASS ID Act, that is pending in the Senate...
Court Enforces Biblically Based Arbitration Agreement
Posted on September 04, 2009In Easterly v. Heritage Christian Schools., Inc., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76269 (SD IN, Aug. 26, 2009), an Indiana federal district court enforced a Biblically-based arbitration agreement between a high school English teacher and the Christian school at which she was employed for some 20 years before she was forced from her job...
Obama Issues Proclamation On Remembrance of 9-11 Victims
Posted on September 04, 2009President Obama yesterday issued a Proclamation (full text) declaring Sept. 4-6 as National Days of Prayer and Remembrance 2009. The Proclamation focuses on the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as well as on members of the armed forces "who work every day to keep our Nation safe from terrorism and other threats to our security...
Italian Prime Minister In Historic Feud With The Vatican
Posted on September 04, 2009Today's Brisbane (Australia) Times reports from Italy on what it calls an historic and potentially disastrous schism between Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the Vatican. It all began when the Italian daily la Repubblica began repeatedly to ask Berlusconi to explain his relationships with several young women, including an aspiring teen model from Naples...
Iowa School District Unveils Revised Religious Liberty Draft Policy
Posted on September 04, 2009After withdrawing its original draft policy on religious liberty in schools (see prior posting), Spencer, Iowa school officials today unveiled a new draft (full text). It provides in part:Teachers shall prepare and teach lessons throughout the year and throughout the curriculum that:Approach religion as academic, not devotionalStrive for student awareness of religions, not acceptance of religionsStudy about religion, but do not practice religion in the classroomExpose students to diversity of religious views, not impose any particular viewEducate about a variety of religions, not promote or denigrate religionInform students about various beliefs, not conform students to any particular beliefDemonstrate the impact of economic, social, political and cultural effects of religion throughout historyAre age appropriateThe Spencer Daily Reporter covers these developments.
Religious Peyote Exemption Does Not Invalidate Federal Drug Laws
Posted on September 03, 2009In United States v. Valazquez, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77946 (WD OK, Aug. 31, 2009), a defendant facing federal drug charges argued that the federal controlled substances laws are unconstitutional because of the exemption they grant to the Native American Church for the use of peyote...
Churches Sue To Prevent Noise Ordinance From Limiting Their Carillon Bells
Posted on September 03, 2009Three churches in Phoenix, Arizona yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Phoenix challenging its noise ordinance that has been applied to limit ringing of carillon bells by local churches. The complaint (full text) in St. Mark Roman Catholic Parish Phoenix v...
Dutch Prosecutors Will Move Against Anti-Jewish Cartoon
Posted on September 03, 2009According to Dutch News yesterday, the Dutch public prosecution department has announced that it will file charges against the Arab European League for a cartoon it has posted on its website. The cartoon depicts two men in business suits discussing how to increase the numbers killed in the Holocaust...
Canadian Court Rejects Challenge To Quebec's New Religious Survey Courses
Posted on September 03, 2009In the Canadian province of Quebec, a trial court judge has rejected a challenge by Christian parents to the mandatory new course in grades 1 through 11 in Quebec schools that teaches about a broad range of world religions. The Ethics and Religious Culture course covers Christianity, Judaism, aboriginal spirituality, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism...
Canadian Tribunal Says Internet Hate Speech Law Is Unconstitutional
Posted on September 03, 2009In a 107-page opinion handed down yesterday, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) held that Canada's Internet hate speech law is unconstitutional. The CHRT is an adjudicative body that hears discrimination charges referred to it by the Canadian Human Rights Commission...
Remarks At Kennedy Memorial Service Raise Issue On Mormon Temple Zoning
Posted on September 02, 2009According to yesterday's Belmont (MA) Citizen-Herald, remarks delivered by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch at the memorial service for Sen. Edward Kennedy last Friday (full text) have caused some former litigants to question a decision handed down in 2001 by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court...
Obama Hosts Iftar Dinner With Interesting Guest List
Posted on September 02, 2009Last night at the White House, President Obama hosted an iftar dinner marking the Muslim observance of Ramadan. This follows a precedent begun by President Bill Clinton and continued by President George W. Bush (New York Times, Huffington Post). The guest list for last night's dinner was particularly interesting-- cabinet members, members of Congress, ambassadors from counties with significant Muslim populations (including Israel), members (including Jewish and Christian members) of the President?s Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and various Muslim notables...
"Classical" Charter School Sues Challenging Ban On Use of Religious Texts
Posted on September 02, 2009Yesterday, an Idaho charter school filed a federal lawsuit against members of the Idaho Public Charter School Commission and other state officials, challenging a Commission order banning the use of the Bible or any other religious documents or texts in public charter school classrooms...
Federal Community Service Agency Designates This Week As "Interfaith Service Week"
Posted on September 02, 2009The Corporation for National & Community Service (a federal agency) announced yesterday that President Obama's "United We Serve" initiative has designated Aug. 31 through Sept. 6 as "Interfaith Service Week." The week honors efforts of faith-based organizations working across religious lines to strengthen communities...
Consent Order Settles Suit On In-School Posters Announcing Prayer Events
Posted on September 02, 2009In May, a Tennessee federal district court issued a preliminary injunction barring Wilson County (TN)'s Lakeview Elementary School from enforcing a broadly written school speech policy to suppress religious references on posters made by students and parents to publicize "See You At the Pole" and National Day of Prayer events at the school...
Q&A On Faith Healing and the Law Posted
Posted on September 02, 2009The Pew Forum on Monday posted a Q&A interview on Faith Healing and the Law featuring George Washington University Professor Robert W. Tuttle. Among other issues, Tuttle reflects on the Establishment Clause questions posed by state law exemptions from abuse and neglect statutes for those who rely on faith healing for their children.
Former Miss California Sues Claiming Religious Discrimination
Posted on September 01, 2009Former Miss California USA, Carrie Prejean, yesterday filed a lawsuit in a California state court against Miss California pageant officials accusing them of religious discrimination, as well as defamation , disclosure of private medical facts and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress...
Scotish Tribunal Asks European Court If Volunteer Is Covered By Discrimination Directive
Posted on September 01, 2009In Scotland, a Glasgow employment tribunal has ruled that a case should be referred to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary determination of whether EU's employment discrimination directive applies to a volunteer. Today's Scotsman reports on the religious discrimination charges filed by Church of Scotland minister Mahboob Masih, who for six years co-hosted a radio show for Awaz FM on a voluntary basis...
6th Circuit Rejects Discrimination Claim, But Finds Standing For Funding Challenge
Posted on September 01, 2009In Pedreira v. Kentucky Baptist Homes For Children, Inc., (6th Cir., Aug. 31, 2009), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on two separate groups of claims against KBHC, a faith-based agency providing residential treatment facilities and other services for abused and neglected children...
Resignation of Scranton Bishops May Reflect Rejection of Anti-Obama Wing
Posted on September 01, 2009At a press conference (video) yesterday, the Catholic diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania announced that 63-year old Bishop Joseph F. Martino has resigned for health reasons. (Full text of Bishop Martino's statement.) Also retiring is 77-year old Auxiliary Bishop John M...
Suit Challenging "40 Developmental Assets" Program Is Settled
Posted on September 01, 2009Last October, a federal district court rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to the Cherry Creek, Colorado School District's "40 Developmental Assets" program. (See prior posting.) In a suit brought by Freedom from Religion Foundation, plaintiffs objected to one of the 40 positive behaviors that parents were encouraged to build in their children-- encouraging children to spend one or more hours per week in activities in a religious institution...
3rd Circuit: Harassment Case Alleges Sexual Orientation, Not Religious, Discrimination
Posted on September 01, 2009In Prowel v. Wise Business Forms, Inc., (3d Cir., Aug. 28, 2009), the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a Title VII religious discrimination claim by plaintiff who alleged that his employer harassed him because he did not conform to his co-workers' religious beliefs...
Civil Rights Division Will Return To Traditional Agenda Without Ending Religious Discrimination Initiatives
Posted on September 01, 2009Today's New York Times reports that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is pressing major changes in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division by refocusing on its traditional role that emphasized racial discrimination cases. The Division will again focus on high-impact cases involving voting rights, housing, employment discrimination, bank lending and Congressional redistricting...
Christian Groups May Not Intervene To Challenge Plan B Decision
Posted on September 01, 2009A New York federal district court has denied a motion by three conservative Christian groups to intervene in a lawsuit in order to challenge a ruling by the court requiring the Food and Drug Administration to make Plan B emergency contraceptives available to 17-year olds without a prescription...
Court Says Injunction Request Is Moot In Suit Against History Teacher
Posted on September 01, 2009In C. F. v. Capistrano Unified School District, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76932 (CD CA, July 27, 2009), a California federal district court refused to grant injunctive and declaratory relief to a high school student and his parents in their suit against high school history teacher James Corbett...
Parishioners Come Armed To Defend Pastor Who Prays For Obama's Death
Posted on August 31, 2009In Tempe, Arizona yesterday, members of the Faithful Word Baptist Church came to services armed with guns after Pastor Steven Anderson said he and his congregation have received death threats. The threats came in response to a sermon by Anderson earlier this month titled "Why I Hate Barack Obama", in which Anderson said that he prays for Obama's death...
Paper Explores Different Takes on Rifqa Bary's Case In Florida
Posted on August 31, 2009Yesterday's Orlando (FL) Sentinel carries a long article giving a different perspective on the family of Rifqa Bary, the 17-year old girl who fled her parents' home in Columbus, Ohio after converting from Islam to Christianity. The girl says her father threatened to kill her because she converted...
High School Band T-Shirt Pulled Back After Evolution Theme Draws Complaints
Posted on August 31, 2009In Sedalia, Missouri, T-shirts promoting the Smith-Cotton High School band's fall program have been pulled back by school officials after complaints from some parents. Yesterday's Springfield (MO) News-Leader reports that the T-shirts feature an image of a monkey progressing through various stages of evolution to eventually become a human being...
Space Shuttle Carries Relic From Historic Christian Missionary Aviation Episode
Posted on August 31, 2009The U.S. space shuttle Discovery docked with the international space station yesterday, bringing equipment, food and new laboratory equipment. (Reuters.) While a great deal of attention has been given to the new treadmill (named after Comedy Central television host Stephen Colbert) which was on board Discovery, less attention has been given to another item taken along on the trip...
Muslim Man Complains Probation Service In Britain Refuses Religious Accommodation
Posted on August 31, 2009In Birmingham, England, a Muslim man-- once active in the Conservative Party-- is objecting to the way he is being treated by the West Midlands Probation Service. Yesterday's Birmingham Mail reports that 43-year old Gulfram Khan was sentenced to a total of 270 hours of community service on two separate charges...
Recent Articles and Book of Interest
Posted on August 31, 2009From SSRN:Brian Michael McCall, The Architecture of Law: Building Law on a Solid Foundation the Eternal and Natural Laws, (August 26, 2009).Bernadette A. Meyler, Commerce in Religion, (Notre Dame Law Review, Vol. 84, No. 2, 2008).Bernadette A. Meyler, Summum and the Establishment Clause, (Northwestern University Law Review Colloquy, Vol 104, p...
EEOC Says Meatpacker Should have Adjusted Break Times For Muslim Workers
Posted on August 30, 2009According to an announcement on Friday by CAIR-Chicago, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has concluded that Swift Co. violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act when it refused to accommodate a request by Somali Muslim employees at its Grand Island, Nebraska meatpacking plant for adjustments in their break schedules...
Minnesota Investigating Use Of Lease Aid Funds By Charter School
Posted on August 30, 2009Yesterday's Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that, in its latest encounter with the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, the Minnesota Department of Education is investigating whether the charter school improperly used state funds to subsidize mosques on its two campuses...
Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases
Posted on August 30, 2009In McBride v. Frank, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74284 (ED WI, Aug. 21, 2009), a Wisconsin federal district court held that an inmate was barred from relitigating his claim that his free exercise rights were violated by a denial of religious materials while in segregation...
Ted Kennedy Laid To Rest; His Complex Relationship With Catholic Church Is Explored
Posted on August 30, 2009A funeral mass (background) was recited yesterday for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Boston Herald), with Cardinal Sean P. O?Malley, archbishop of Boston, in attendance (Boston Globe). Kennedy has been described by Tim Rutten in the Los Angeles Times as "America's most famous Catholic politician and its most visible link to the bonds of identity and solidarity that have for so long joined Catholics to the Democratic Party...
Iowa School District's Religion Policy Is Being Redrafted
Posted on August 29, 2009Last month (as reported by the National Examiner) the Spencer, Iowa school board proposed a draft policy on Religious Liberty in Spencer Community Schools. (Full text of proposal, Word doc.) The policy would have protected student and staff religious expression, student distribution of religious material and would have added two new courses to the high school curriculum: "The Bible in History and Literature" and "Critic [sic...
School District's Mission Statement Challenged For Including Belief in God
Posted on August 29, 2009The Freedom from Religion Foundation announced on Wednesday that it has written the Lake Local School District in Uniontown, Ohio to complain about the school district's mission statement which reads: We Value: Responsibility, honesty, respect, integrity, commitment, belief in God and religious freedom, our community, our partnerships, and every person as a unique individual with the ability to acquire and apply knowledge...
Michigan School Board Reinstitutes "Christmas Break"
Posted on August 28, 2009The Petoskey, Michigan School Board, during a closed portion of its August 18 meeting, voted unanimously to change the school calendar so that "Winter Holiday Break" is now called "Christmas Break." The Petoskey News-Review last week reported that the change was made in response to an e-mail (full text) from the Board's treasurer, Jack Waldvogel...
EEOC Sues Company That Refused Alternative Drug Test For Employee
Posted on August 28, 2009The EEOC on Wednesday filed a Title VII religious discrimination lawsuit against GKN Driveline North America, Inc., a Sanford, North Carolina automotive components company. According to Industry Week, the lawsuit charges that the company refused to accommodate an employee's religious beliefs...
Justic Ginsburg Denies Petition For Stay By Bridgeport Catholic Diocese
Posted on August 28, 2009Last May, the Connecticut Supreme Court granted the request of four newspapers for release of some 12,600 pages of documents filed in 23 cases alleging sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy. (See prior posting.) On motion of the Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocese, the Connecticut Supreme Court issued a stay until the U...
Malaysia Bars Muslims From Attending Concert Sponsored By Guinness
Posted on August 28, 2009In Malaysia, government regulations prohibit concerts from being sponsored by makers of alcoholic beverages. CBC News yesterday reported that an exception to the rule was made for a concert by the hip-hop group, Black Eyed Peas, to be sponsored next month in Kuala Lumpur by the Irish beer company Guinness...
Collateral Defendants Settle In Suit Claiming Religion In Class of Ohio Science Teacher
Posted on August 28, 2009In June 2008, a Mt. Vernon, Ohio family filed a federal civil rights suit against controversial Middle School science teacher John Freshwater, claiming that he taught religion in his classroom. Also named as defendants in the lawsuit were he school board, Superintendent Steve Short and middle school principal William White...
Court Says There Was No Discrimination Against Muslim School Employee
Posted on August 28, 2009Mohammed v. Wisconsin Insurance Security Fund, (WI App., Aug. 27, 2009), is a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by a Muslim man who was employed as a hall monitor by the Racine (WI) school system. The suit was originally filed in federal district court, but ended up being litigated before the Wisconsin Insurance Security Fund after the school district's insurance company became insolvent and a court barred actions against the company's insureds...
Cert. Filed In Case Invoving Religious Speech By High School Valedictorian
Posted on August 28, 2009Yesterday a petition for certiorari (full text) was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in Corder v. Lewis Palmer School District No. 38. In the case, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected constitutional claims brought by a Colorado high school valedictorian who was forced to apologize after she delivered remarks at a high school's graduation ceremony encouraging students to accept Jesus Christ...
Group Challenges Toledo City Council Invocations
Posted on August 28, 2009Continuing its efforts around the country to challenge invocations offered to open city council meetings, the Freedom from Religion Foundation announced yesterday that it had written to the mayor of Toledo, Ohio and the City Council president objecting to sectarian prayers that have been offered by clergy at Council meetings...
New York Releases 2008 Hate Crime Statistics
Posted on August 27, 2009Last week, New York's Division of Criminal Justice Services released its 2008 report on hate crimes in the state. (Full text of report.) It identified 596 instances, involving 610 victims. Two-thirds were crimes against persons (particularly assault and intimidation), while one-third were property crimes...
Court Says No Establishment Clause Violation By Orthodox Jewish School Board Majority
Posted on August 27, 2009In Incantalupo v. Lawrence Union Free School District, (ED NY, Aug. 24, 2009), a New York federal district judge issued an unusually strong opinion rejecting an Establishment Clause challenge to the Lawrence (NY) School Board's consolidation plan that would close one of the district's school buildings...
Bangladesh Court Orders Police To Investigate Fatwa and Village Arbitration
Posted on August 27, 2009Bangladesh's High Court has issued a directive to police to investigate extra-judicial punishments that are being meted out by village mullahs as self-appointed arbitrators who pronounce fatwas. Dhaka's Daily Star today says that poor women have often been the victims of the so-called fatwa and village arbitration...
Florida Standardized Test Dates Conflict With Holidays In 2011
Posted on August 27, 2009The Miami Herald yesterday reported that when Florida's legislature in 2008 moved the dates for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test later in the year to give students more time to prepare, they failed to consider possible conflicts with religious holidays...
TRO Lets Parochial School Musician Into Public School Band
Posted on August 27, 2009Yesterday a Pennsylvania federal district court granted a temporary restraining order allowing Alexander Trefelner, an eighth grade saxaphone player, to remain in the Burrell (PA) High School band, even though Trefelner will be a student at St. Joseph Catholic High School...
Kentucky's Required Display of Findings On God Violate Establishment Clause
Posted on August 27, 2009In American Atheists, Inc. v. Commonwealth of Kentucky, (Franklin KY Cir. Ct., Aug. 26, 2009), a Kentucky trial judge struck down a provision in state law requiring the state Department of Homeland Security to promote and display specified findings of the state legislature...
Court Preliminarily Enjoins Enforcement of Illinois Pharmacy Board Rule
Posted on August 27, 2009A release this week from the American Center for Law & Justice reports that last Friday, an Illinois trial court judge granted a preliminary injunction, pending a decision on the merits, preventing enforcement of a State Pharmacy Board rule requiring pharmacies to dispense Plan B and other forms of emergency contraception...
Sen. Ted Kennedy Dies; Remembering His Views On Religion In Public Life
Posted on August 26, 2009Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died last night of brain cancer. (AP). President Obama eulogized him, calling him "the greatest United States Senator of our time." (Full text of President's statement.) Sen. Kennedy was a strong supporter of religious freedom and church-state separation...
3rd Circuit Dismisses Abortion Protesters' Bid To Stand On Handicapped Ramp
Posted on August 26, 2009On Monday, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a free exercise claim by protesters who sought access to a handicapped entrance ramp outside an abortion clinic in York, Pennsylvania. The protesters claimed that their Christian religious beliefs required them to share their pro-life views with others...
Catholic Magazine Publishes Reflections On the Obama-Notre Dame Controversy
Posted on August 26, 2009The new issue of America magazine carries two articles reflecting on the controversy earlier this year surrounding Notre Dame's awarding of an honorary degree to President Barack Obama. (See prior posting.) One article is by John M. D?Arcy, bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, where Notre Dame is located...
Washington State Bans All Holiday Displays Inside Capitol Building
Posted on August 26, 2009As reported by the Everett (WA) Herald, the state of Washington's Department of General Administration last week adopted a new interim policy (full text) on the use of public areas of the Capitol. Earlier this year, the state began rule making proceedings to avoid the confusion that resulted last year from numerous competing requests to put up holiday displays...
Mosques Will Aid Malaysian State Officials In Syariah Enforcement
Posted on August 26, 2009In Malaysia, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) has issued authority letters to more than 370 mosques authorizing 4 leaders in each mosque to aid the government in enforcing the Selangor Syariah Crimes Enactment 1995. Yesterday's Malay Mail reports that the mosque officials were given authority to note information about any Muslim found drinking alcohol in public and to hand them over to police or religious enforcement officers...
Suit Will Charge Judge With Improperly Requiring Removal of Hijab
Posted on August 26, 2009The Detroit News reports that the Michigan chapter of CAIR today will file suit against Wayne County Circuit Judge J. William Callahan. The suit will claim that the judge ordered a Muslim woman, Raneen Albaghdady, to remove her headscarf (hijab) during a hearing on her application to change her name...
Paper Surveys Scope of Tax Exemptions for Church Property
Posted on August 26, 2009Sunday's Rochester (NY) Democrat & Chronicle carries a lengthy investigative report on tax exemptions for local property held for religious use. It says that in 2008, the value of properties exempted from taxes for religious purposes in Monroe Count (NY) was almost $756 million...
Florida Governor's Western Wall Notes Seem To Work So Far
Posted on August 25, 2009Florida Governor Charlie Crist told a group of real estate agents that when he visited Israel as part of a trade mission in 2007, he placed a note in the Western Wall in Jerusalem asking God to protect Florida from storms. No major hurricanes hit Florida that year...
Some Claims Against Archdiocese In Clergy Abuse Case Can Proceed
Posted on August 25, 2009Goebel v. Johnston, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74242 (ED MO, Aug. 21, 2009), is a clergy sexual abuse case which was removed to federal court on diversity of citizenship grounds. This opinion involves rulings on motions by the Archdiocese of St. Louis to dismiss various claims against it that are part of the lawsuit...
Some Claims Dismissed In Sikh's Employment Discrimination Case Against IRS
Posted on August 25, 2009In Tagore v. United States, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74235 (SD TX, Aug. 21, 2009), a Texas federal district court dismissed a portion of the claims brought by a former Internal Revenue Service employee who was fired after she insisted on wearing her kirpan-- a ceremonial dagger worn by Sikhs-- in a Houston federal office building...
Utah Judge Orders Sale of Supposed Temple Site By FLDS Trust
Posted on August 25, 2009In a state trial court in Utah yesterday, Judge Denise Lindberg issued an order for the sale of Berry Knoll Farm by the United Effort Plan Trust which holds property that belonged to the FLDS Church. FLDS Church members, many in polygamous relationships, as well as some who are no longer members, live on the land...
School Girls In Gaza Must Wear Traditional Arab Dress
Posted on August 24, 2009Both Haaretz and YNet News report today that authorities in the Gaza Strip are insisting that girls in government-run schools wear traditional Arab clothing to class. Girls not wearing the ghalabia (in dark blue) and a white head covering will be sent home...
Wisconsin Bishops Object To State's Mandate of Contraceptive Coverage In Health Policies
Posted on August 24, 2009The Wisconsin Catholic Conference has issued a statement (full text) objecting to provisions in the state's new Budget Bill requiring health insurance providers to include contraceptive services as part of any plan coverage. The statement by the bishops says in part: "This mandate will compel Catholic dioceses, parishes, and other agencies that buy health insurance to pay for a medical service that Catholic teaching holds to be gravely immoral...
Recent Articles and Books of Interest
Posted on August 24, 2009From SSRN:Ayelet Shachar & Ran Hirschl, The New Wall of Separation: Permitting Diversity, Restricting Competition, (Cardozo Law Review, Vol. 30, pp. 2535-2560, 2009).Andrew F. March, Islamic Legal Theory, Secularism and Religious Pluralism: Is Modern Religious Freedom Sufficient for the Shari'a 'Purpose [Maqsid]' of 'Preserving Religion [Hifz Al-Din]?', (August 14, 2009)...
Foster Care Extended For 17-Year Old Muslim Convert To Christianity
Posted on August 23, 2009Reports from the Orlando Sentinel and St. Petersburg Times provide details on an order issued Friday by a state court judge in Orlando, Florida in the case of 17-year old Rifqa Bary who fled her home near Columbus, Ohio after converting from Islam to Christianity...
Michigan Amends Faith Based Office's Charter To Reflect Federal Changes
Posted on August 23, 2009On Thursday, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm announced that she had issued Executive Order 2009-41 to make changes in the document governing the state's office that reaches out to faith-based organizations. The changes to Executive Order 2005-6 are intended to mirror changes made at the federal level by the Obama administration...
College In India Illegally Bans Hijab Under Hindu Student Pressure
Posted on August 23, 2009In India, conflict between a Hindu student group and Muslim students has surfaced at SVS College in the Indian state of Karnataka. UAE's The National reported yesterday that officials at the private, state-assisted, college imposed an illegal ban on Muslim students wearing the hijab (headscarf) under pressure from the student branch of the right-wing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)...
Bolivia-Vatican Sign Treaty On Social Services
Posted on August 23, 2009Zenit reports that on Thursday the Vatican and Bolivia signed a Treaty of Inter-Institutional Cooperation. In the treaty, Bolivia recognizes the importance of the Catholic Church's social services in the country. The Church, in turn, agrees to give more attention to the most depressed areas of Bolivia, support government social policies in the framework of Catholic social thought, and to report periodically on its progress in these areas.
10th Circuit Refuses To Stay Order On 10 Commandments Monument
Posted on August 23, 2009On Friday, by a 2-1 vote, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request by Haskell County, Oklahoma commissioners to allow them to keep their Ten Commandments monument in place on the court house lawn while the county seeks review in the U.S...
Report Says Shiites On Trial In Jordan
Posted on August 23, 2009The Associated Press reports today that in Jordan six Shiite Muslims are being tried before a closed military tribunal for instigating religious sectarianism in the majority Sunni country. The first of its kind trial apparently reflects Jordan's concern about the growing influence of Iran and Hezbollah movement in the country.
Court Hears Arguments In Challenge To State Humane Slaughter Act
Posted on August 23, 2009In Everett, Washington last Friday, a state court judge heard arguments in a challenge by an animal rescue group to Washington state's Humane Slaughter Act. The group argues that the exemption for ritual slaughtering of animals (RCW 16.50.150) violates the Establishment Clause in the federal and Washington state constitutions, the federal equal protection clause and the state's privileges and immunities clause...
Philippine Presidential Race Draws Religious Leaders As Candidates
Posted on August 23, 2009In the Philippines, two religious leaders have announced that they will run in next year's presidential elections, and a third is considering doing so. According to yesterday's Philippine Star, former Catholic priest Ed Panlilio, Governor of the province of Pampanga, was the first to announce...
Satmar Police Recruit Files Religious Discrimination Complaint
Posted on August 23, 2009Friday's Lower Hudson (NY) Journal News reports on a religious discrimination complaint filed with the EEOC against the town of Ramapo, New York and its police department by Baile Glauber who joined the Ramapo police force after being raised in the Satmar Hasidic Jewish community...
Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases
Posted on August 23, 2009In Seneca v. Arizona, (9th Cir., Aug. 19, 2009), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed part of a district court's decision to dismiss an inmate's free exercise and RLUIPA claims. The appellate court held that plaintiff's challenge to the requirement for a verification letter to change religions was not moot...
Santa Rosa School Clerk Cleared On Civil Contempt Charge Over Banquet Prayer
Posted on August 22, 2009Ruling on a civil contempt motion brought by the ACLU, a Florida federal judge on Friday concluded that a school clerk did not violate a preliminary injunction barring the Santa Rosa County (FL) school district and its employees from including prayers in any school event...
Malaysian Woman Sentenced To Caning; Syariah Judge Says Sentence Is Illegal
Posted on August 22, 2009In Malaysia, 32-year old Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, a Muslim woman, has become the first woman sentenced under the country's Islamic law to caning for drinking alcohol. Reuters reported Friday that Kartika-- who in 2007 was caught drinking beer at a hotel bar in Kuantan-- has defiantly asked that her punishment be carried out in public...
Ramadan Begins With UAE Seeking To Keep Prices In Check; Others Viewing Economy's Impact
Posted on August 21, 2009Ramadan begins this weekend-- tonight in North America, last night in other parts of the world. In the United Arab Emirates, the Ministry of Economy is working to to prevent market instability, manipulation of food prices and monopoly practices in markets for foodstuffs and other essentials...
Condo Residents Get Shabbat Elevator, Ending Discrimination Complaints
Posted on August 21, 2009Today's Baltimore Jewish Times reports that efforts by Orthodox Jewish residents of the Strathmore Tower condominium in Baltimore (MD) to obtain a "Shabbat elevator" have finally been successful. The 6-3 vote by the condominium board to start work on the changes resolves a two-year dispute in which the Maryland Commission on Human Relations issued a report finding probable cause for charges of religious discrimination...
Utah and Arizona Issue Updated Guide On Polygamous Communities
Posted on August 21, 2009The Utah and Arizona Attorneys General have released a revised edition of The Primer, a guide designed to assist law enforcement and human services agencies that provide assistance to fundamentalist Mormon families. It provides basic information on more than a dozen polygamous communities, using description mostly prepared by the groups themselves...
2nd Circuit Narrows Remedy Against Postal Unit Operating On Church Premises
Posted on August 21, 2009In Cooper v. U.S. Postal Service, (2d Cir., Aug. 20, 2009), the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals held that religious displays by the Full Gospel Interdenominational Church in the Contract Postal Unit it operates along side its ministry and outreach efforts in a store front facility in Manchester, Connecticut violate the Establishment Clause...
President Sends Greetings To Muslims As Ramadan Begins
Posted on August 21, 2009Today President Obama sent the greeting of Ramadan Kareem to Muslims who are beginning the month-long observance of Ramadan. The White House website carries written greetings plus a 5-minute video address by the President reaching out to Muslims in the U...
Canadian Court Affirms Abortion Opponent's Tax Protest Conviction
Posted on August 21, 2009In Canada, the Court of Appeal of New Brunswick has rejected a Catholic anti-abortion activist's claim that his he should be excused from filing Canadian income tax returns or paying income taxes because a portion of tax revenues are used to fund abortions...
Driver Refuses To Operate Bus Carrying Atheist Ad
Posted on August 20, 2009Now that the Des Moines, Iowa Area Regional Transit Authority has finally decided to allow an atheist group to run its ads on twenty local buses (see prior posting), transit officials face a different issue. Bus driver Angela Shiel refuses to drive a bus which carries the ad...
Muslim Charity's Rights Violated In Freezing of Assets
Posted on August 20, 2009On Tuesday, an Ohio federal district court in a 100-page opinion in KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development, Inc. v. Geithner, (ND OH, Aug. 18, 2009) held that the federal Office of Foreign Assets Control violated the due process rights of a Muslim charity when in 2006 it froze its assets without providing notice of the reasons or an opportunity for a hearing...
Louisiana Parish School Board Expands Invocation Invitee List
Posted on August 20, 2009Apparently in a move to strengthen its hand in a pending lawsuit, the Tangipahoa (LA) Parish School Board made a change in its invocation policy. The Advocate reports that at Tuesday's Board meeting, members unanimously agreed that the list of clergy who will be invited to offer prayers can be expanded to include ministers, imams and rabbis from houses of worship outside Tangipahoa Parish attended by Tangipahoa residents...
Advocacy Groups Caution Illinois On Grants To Religious Organizations
Posted on August 20, 2009Americans United and the Anti Defamation League in a joint letter (full text) to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity cautions the state about proceeding with $40 million in grants to 97 religious institutions without instituting proper safeguards...
Settlement Reached In New Haven Street Preacher Case
Posted on August 20, 2009A consent judgment (full text) was entered Monday in Connecticut federal district court in Morrell v. City of New Haven, (D CT, Aug. 17, 2009). Under terms of the order, New Haven, Connecticut police agree not to apply Connecticut's disorderly conduct statute (Conn...
Obama On Conference Calls With Faith Groups On Health Care
Posted on August 20, 2009President Obama yesterday participated in two faith-based conference calls urging support for health care reform. The Washington Post reports that first Obama spoke with Jewish leaders on a call organized by the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism...
New Venezuela Education Law Eliminates Religious Education In Schools
Posted on August 19, 2009Last week Venezuela's National Assembly passed a controversial new Education Law that impacts the teaching of religion in schools. According to a Catholic News Service report yesterday: "One clause of the new law, which covers all levels of education and both public and private institutions, requires education to have a 'lay character ? in all circumstances' and leaves religious education to families...
Oklahoma Court's Ruling Apparently Invalidates Medical Providers Conscience Provisions
Posted on August 19, 2009In 2008, the Oklahoma legislature enacted the Freedom of Conscience Act, SB 1878 (full text Word doc). The bill not only contains very broad conscience protections for medical personnel who object to participating in a variety of procedures, but it also requires medical providers, before performing an abortion, to conduct an ultrasound and describe and display in detail the ultrasound image to the woman seeking the abortion...
Egypt's Mubarak Visits White House; Advocates Want Obama To Raise Human Rights Issues
Posted on August 19, 2009Yesterday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak visited the White House. Ahead of the visit, groups such as U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (text of letter) and the Institute on Religion and Public Policy (text of letter) urged the President to raise questions of religious freedom with Mubarak...
Sex Offender Challenging NC Law Barring Church Attendance Near Child-Care
Posted on August 19, 2009Yesterday's Charlotte (NC) Observer reports that James Nichols, a sex offender who has completed his prison sentence, has enlisted the ACLU to help him challenge a North Carolina law barring registered sex offenders from being within 300 feet of a school, playground, day care or children's museum...
Group Opens San Francisco Office, Calling Area Hostile To Religious Liberty
Posted on August 19, 2009The Pacific Justice Institute has opened a new office in Oakland, California to serve the San Francisco Bay area. Yesterday's San Franciso Business Times interviewed Kevin Snider who will head the office. Snider said: "The San Francisco region is without a doubt one of the most hostile places in the country toward religious liberties and values...
US Catholic Bishiops Unveil Health Care Reform Website; Oppose Abortion Coverage
Posted on August 18, 2009The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has created a new website on Health Care Reform. Zenit yesterday reported that the site includes letters from bishops to Congress, videos, statistics, FAQ's , and links to legislators. While the bishops view health care as a basic right, they raise concerns that it not become a vehicle for promoting abortion rights or reversing the present ban on federal funding of abortions...
Sri Lanka Proposes Ban On Religious-Themed Political Parties
Posted on August 18, 2009In Sri Lanka, in the wake of the government's victory in May in its 25-year civil war with the Tamil Tigers, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has proposed changes in the country's Parliamentary Elections Act. Aiming at small and regional political parties, he has proposed a ban on political parties whose names signify an ethnic or religious group...
Salvation Army Drug Treatment Employee Is Not State Actor
Posted on August 18, 2009In Cain v. Caruso, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70009 (ED MI, Aug. 11, 2009), a Michigan federal district court adopted the recommendations of a magistrate judge in lawsuit filed by a parolee who failed to complete his drug treatment program that was a condition of his parole...
Tensions Increase This Summer In Catskills Between Hasidim and Locals
Posted on August 18, 2009Last week the Forward carried an article detailing tensions in Sullivan County, in New York's Catskill Mountains, between local residents and the Skver Hasidim, a Orthodox Jewish sect currently based in New Square, New York. In 2006, the Skvers bought the 450-acre former Homowack property which they initially operated as a summer resort for their members and operated this summer as a girls' camp...
Pagan Group's Right To Use Park For Ceremony Is Questioned
Posted on August 18, 2009KERO News yesterday reported on a confrontation of sorts that occurred in a Bakersfield, California park last week when a group of pagans chose the park to use for their harvest ritual. Ravens Folk Kindred, a group of Odinists, apparently frightened neighbors as they raised their tattooed arms into the air...
Appeal Filed In Challenge To Texas Agency's Neutrality on Creationism
Posted on August 18, 2009Earlier this Spring, an appeal was filed with the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Comer v. Scott. In the case the district court had rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to a policy of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) that required its Director of Science to remain publicly neutral regarding the teaching of creationism...
2010 Census Again Will Not Count Overseas Mormon Missionaries
Posted on August 18, 2009Sunday's Salt Lake (UT) Tribune reported that, as in past years, the 2010 census will not count the estimated 11,000 Mormon missionaries living overseas. The only individuals not in the U.S. who are counted by the census are federal civilian and military personnel and those on merchant vessels...
Idaho Charter School Barred From Using Bible As Textbook
Posted on August 17, 2009The Idaho Public Charter School Commission on Friday ruled that an Idaho charter school cannot use the Bible as one of its textbooks, according to the Idaho Press-Tribune. The Nampa Classical Academy had planned to use the Bible and other religious texts, but not to teach religion...
Nigerian Police Remove Muslim Sect Members From Compound
Posted on August 17, 2009Concerned about a repeat of religious violence that occurred last month (see prior posting), authorities in Nigeria yesterday raided the compound of a Darul Islam sect in the central state of Niger and removed some 4000 members. AFP reported yesterday that 1500 police from Abuja carried out the operation after state officials expressed concern that the existence and activities of the sect in the town of Mokwa could cause a "religious crisis...
Recent Articles of Interest
Posted on August 17, 2009From SSRN:Steven Douglas Smith, The Establishment Clause and the 'Problem of the Church', (San Diego Legal Studies Paper No. 09-024, Aug. 5, 2009).Roberta F. Mann, Is Sharif's Castle Deductible?: Islam and the Tax Treatment of Mortgage Debt, (William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, Vol...
Numerous New Prisoner Free Exercise Cases Have Become Available This Week
Posted on August 16, 2009In Berryman v. Granholm, (6th Cir., Aug. 12, 2009), the U.S. 6th Circuit court of Appeals upheld a Michigan prison's suspension of plaintiff from its kosher meal program (with the ability to reapply after 60 days) after he ordered and signed for non-kosher food...
Cape Cod Town Allows Prayer Station At Beach Parking Lot
Posted on August 16, 2009Today's Cape Cod Times editorializes on a recent 4-0 decision by the Falmouth (MA) Board of Selectmen to allow four local churches to combine to set up a "prayer station" in the parking lot at Old Silver Beach in North Falmouth. Volunteers staffing the booth can only talk to those who approach them, and no solicitation or proselytizing is allowed...
Principal Chosen For NY Hebrew Language Charter School
Posted on August 15, 2009The Forward earlier this week carried an interesting profile of Maureen Campbell, the principal of New York City's first Hebrew language charter school. Campbell attended Vassar, spent a semester at Oxford, and then graduated from Columbia University's Teachers College...
EEOC Sues Puerto Rico Hospital Claiming Religious Discrimination
Posted on August 15, 2009The EEOC announced on Thursday that it has filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against Puerto Rico?s largest medical center, Hospital Auxilio Mutuo. The hospital refused to accommodate a male registered nurse whose Santeria religious beliefs requires him to wear his hair long...
Court Dismisses Civil Rights Claim Against Mormon Church By FLDS Member
Posted on August 14, 2009In Cooke v. Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70192 (D AZ, Aug. 11, 2009), a member of the FLDS Church filed a federal civil rights action against the mainstream Church of Latter Day Saints claiming that it acted in collusion with the states of Arizona and Utah to engage in religious persecution of the FLDS Church...
British Borough Council Warns of Health Dangers In Purported Muslim Holy Water
Posted on August 14, 2009In Britain, the London borough of Wandsworth's Council on Wednesday issued a public health alert warning Muslims of imitation holy water containing potentially lethal concentrations of arsenic. Sellers in the area claim that the bottled water comes from the holy Well of Zam Zam in Mecca...
Court Rejects Challenge To Recitation of Pledge By Judge
Posted on August 14, 2009Missouri's attorney general, Chris Koster, released a statement on July 30 praising a decision by the St. Francois County (MO) Circuit Court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging another judge's practice of opening his courtroom session with the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance...
Muslim Group Sues Portland, Maine Over Zoning Restrictions
Posted on August 14, 2009The Maine Civil Liberties Union announced yesterday that it has filed suit on behalf of the Portland Masjid and Islamic Center, challenging the city of Portland's zoning determination that a group of Afghani Muslims may not use a former television repair shop they purchased as a site for prayer services and religious study...
Italian Court Bars School Favoritism For Courses In Catholicism
Posted on August 14, 2009In Italy, an Administrative Tribunal in the district of Lazio (which includes Rome) has ruled that schools may no longer give credit for students who study Catholicism during public school "religion hours,"since schools deny academic credit to students who study other religions...
Jehovah's Witnesses Lose Challenge To Puerto Rico Controlled Access Laws
Posted on August 14, 2009In Watchtower Bible Tract Society of New York, Inc. v. Sanchez-Ramos, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69837 (D PR, Aug. 10, 2009), a federal district court in Puerto Rico rejected an "as applied" constitutional challenge by Jehovah's Witnesses to a Puerto Rico law that permits neighborhoods to close off access to streets by using walls and gates...
Hamas Fights Islamist Group In Gaza Over Declaration of "Islamic Emirate"
Posted on August 14, 2009Jerusalem Post reports that fighting today in the Gaza Strip between Hamas forces and the radical Islamist group Jund Ansar Allah killed 5 and wounded at least 50. The fighting, which began near a mosque in Rafah, was triggered when Islamist leader Abdel-Latif Moussa (also known by his nom de guerre, Abu al-Nour al-Maqdessi) declared "the birth of the Islamic Emirate" in Gaza...
South African Broadcast Commission Rejects Complaint Against Radio Islam
Posted on August 13, 2009On Tuesday, South Africa's Broadcasting Complaints Commission dismissed a complaint against Radio Islam that had been filed by a member of the Jewish community. In I and Apolakow v. Radio Islam, (BCCSA, Aug. 11, 2009), the Commission held that broadcasts which, among other things, said that Jews could not be trusted and that Zionists control the Western media, had not overstepped the bounds of bona fide religious speech...
Tulsa Mayoral Candidate Wants Creationism Exhibit Added To Zoo
Posted on August 13, 2009Anna Falling, one of eleven candidates running in the Republican primary for mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma, says that her top priority is placing a Christian creationism display in the Tulsa zoo. Asked about problems of crime, budget concerns and street repairs, she said: "If we can?t come to the foundation of faith in this community, those other answers will never come...
Study Finds Less Press Coverage of Obama's Faith-Based Initiative
Posted on August 13, 2009The Pew Forum yesterday released a study comparing newspaper coverage of President George W. Bush's Faith-Based Initiative with coverage of President Barack Obama's Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships program during the first 6 months of each administration...
President Awards Medal of Freedom To 16 Amidst Some Controversy Over One Awardee
Posted on August 13, 2009At a White House ceremony yesterday, Barack Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 16 recipients. (Full text of President's remarks). Among the recipients were Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Rev. Joseph Lowery. The decision to include Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former U...
Michigan City Rejects Anti-Discrimination Ordinance; Alaska City Passes Ban
Posted on August 13, 2009The Jackson, Michigan City Council on Tuesday defeated by a vote of 5-2 a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance. The proposed law would have banned discrimination on the basis of "race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, height, weight, condition of pregnancy, marital status, physical or mental limitation, source of income, family responsibilities or status, educational association, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or HIV status...
Vermont Town Rejects Proposed Policy On Religion In Schools
Posted on August 13, 2009In the village of Benson, Vermont, the school board on Tuesday unanimously rejected a proposed policy on religious expression in the schools. The policy was drafted by a task force made up of teachers, administrators, parents and community members after a principal last year removed from walls students' artwork showing holiday symbols...
French Swimming Pool Bars Muslim Woman Wearing Full-Body "Burquini"
Posted on August 13, 2009In France, a public swimming pool in Paris has refused to allow a young Muslim woman to swim wearing a "burquini"-- a wet suit and hood designed for women who want to swim without revealing their body. The suits are becoming increasingly popular in the West...
India Added To USCIRF's Watch List
Posted on August 13, 2009The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom yesterday added India to the 11 countries already on its "watch list," a notch below the 13 designated as "countries of particular concern. (See prior posting.) The move came as USCIRF released its country report on India-- added as a chapter to its 2009 annual report...
Profile of WallBuilders Head Who Is On Texas Education Review Panel
Posted on August 12, 2009AlterNet yesterday carried a long profile of WallBuilders founder David Barton, who in June was appointed a member of a Texas State Board of Education Panel charged with reviewing the state's social studies curriculum. (See prior posting.) Here are some excerpts from the AlterNet piece: From his base in Aledo, a town of about 2,000 just west of Fort Worth, Barton runs an outfit called WallBuilders that issues a steady stream of books, videos, DVDs, pamphlets and other materials designed to "prove" that the United States was founded to be a Christian nation...
Florida Court Gives 17-Year Old Protective Custody After Her Conversion To Christianity
Posted on August 12, 2009In Orlando, Florida on Monday a judge ordered a 17-year old Rifqa Bary into emergency custody of the state's Department of Children and Families. The girl fled her Muslim family in Ohio saying she was afraid her father would hurt or kill her or send her back to their native Sri Lanka because she had converted to Christianity...
Kmiec Confirmed As US Ambassador To Malta
Posted on August 12, 2009Blog of Legal Times yesterday reported that the U.S. Senate last week unanimously confirmed Pepperdine Law School Professor Douglas Kmiec as the U.S. ambassador to Malta. Kmiec previously served as dean of Catholic University Law School and on the faculty of Notre Dame Law School...
EEOC Says Catholic College Discriminated By Dropping Contraception Coverage
Posted on August 12, 2009Last year, Charlotte, North Carolina's Belmont Abbey College got its health insurance carrier to drop coverage for voluntary sterilization, abortion, and contraception because the coverage is contrary to Catholic teaching. That led eight faculty members to file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charging the college, run by Benedictine monks, with religious and gender-based discrimination in violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act...
Indonesia May Be Moving Toward Imposing More Islamic Restrictions
Posted on August 12, 2009Today's Malaysian Insider carries an article on developments in Indonesia that some argue are moving it away from its secular and multi-religious foundations. Indonesia's Parliament is debating a draft law that would require all businesses to obtain halal certification for products they sell...
Religious Right and Left Spar Over Health Care Reform
Posted on August 12, 2009Religious liberals and conservatives are weighing in on opposite sides of the health care reform debate. The religious left, including leaders such as Jim Wallis of the Sojourners, began a campaign on Monday titled "40 Days for Health Care Reform" (Reuters, 8/7...
6th Circuit: Deportee Failed To Prove Falun Gong Status
Posted on August 11, 2009In Jiang v. Holder, (6th Cir., Aug. 7, 2009), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ordered deportation of a citizen from China who came to the U.S. on a fiancee visa but never married her sponsor. Qiao Zhen Jiang however claimed that her removal should be withheld because she would face religious persecution upon her return...
Muslims In Germany Find Their Role As New Mosque Is Built
Posted on August 11, 2009Yesterday's Christian Science Monitor examines the attitudes of Germans as the country's largest mosque is being built in Cologne. Cologne's Muslim population of 120,000 has its roots in immigration of Turkish "guest workers" in the 1960's who then stayed...
Army Reaches Out To Jewish Soldiers At Ft. Benning After Discrimination Charge
Posted on August 11, 2009JTA reported yesterday that the army base at Ft. Benning, Georgia, has taken steps in response to discrimination claims by a Jewish soldier who was told by one drill sergeant to remove his yarmulke in the mess hall and was subjected to anti-Semitic taunts by others...
Virginia Jail Reverses Policy On Censorship of Religious Material
Posted on August 11, 2009The ACLU announced yesterday that Rappahannock Virginia's Regional Jail has changed its policy so that it no longer censors religious material sent to inmates. Responding to an earlier complaint from the ACLU (see prior posting), the jail's superintendent explained in a letter (full text) to the ACLU that originally its policy banned inmates receiving mail that included material copied from the Internet, whether that was religious or other material...
"In God We Trust" Proposal Withdrawn By City Commission In Florida
Posted on August 10, 2009Kissimmee, Florida's City Commission last week changed its mind about a proposal to add "In God We Trust" to the city's logo. While the proposal passed on the first of two readings, public and business reaction caused the Commission to pass another resolution instructing city staff to stop work on designing the new logo...
Activists Force Syrian Government To Shelve Proposed Personal Status Law
Posted on August 10, 2009The August issue of Syria Today reports that civil rights activists have gotten the government to shelve a new secretly-drafted personal status law that would have codified conservative principles of sharia law. Opponents successfully argued that the proposed law violated Syria's constitution, interfered with rulings of religious courts and reversed progress on women's and children's rights...
Senate Rejects Charitable Donation of "Clunkers" In Extending Program
Posted on August 10, 2009The U.S. Senate last Thursday approved a House bill that extended the "cash of clunkers" automobile purchase incentive program by appropriating an additional $2 billion for it. The Senate considered and defeated seven amendments. Unless the Senate passed the House bill without amendment, the program would effectively have been killed since the bill would have to go back to the House which is already in recess until September...
Recent Articles of Interest
Posted on August 10, 2009From SSRN:William A. Wooten, The Coach?s Pre-Game Prayer: Probably Wrong But Feels Right, (August 3, 2009).Thomas Charles Berg, Lemon v. Kurtzman: The Parochial-School Crisis and the Establishment Clause, (in Law and Religion Cases in Context, Leslie Griffin ed...
Obama Nominations for 3rd and 6th Circuits: What Do We Know of Their Views On Religion Issues?
Posted on August 09, 2009President Barack Obama on Friday sent two nominations for vacant Court of Appeals judgeships to the Senate. (White House press release.) Nashville attorney and ERISA specialist Jane Stranch has been nominated for the 6th Circuit. Stranch has been active in the Episcopal Church, serving as a Vice-Chancellor for the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee...
Christians- Muslims Disagree Over Kadhi Proposal For Kenyan Constitution
Posted on August 09, 2009In Kenya, disagreement between majority Christians and the 10% Muslim population has broken out over a proposal to place in Kenya's new constitution provisions regarding Kadhi courts. According to yesterday's Christian Post, the proposal would go beyond confirming the existing regional Kadhi courts that adjudicate family law and inheritance matters for Muslims...
Paper Profiles Principal Facing Contempt Charges Over Prayer
Posted on August 09, 2009Today's Pensacola (FL) News Journal carries a fascinating lengthy profile of Frank Lay, long-time principal of Santa Rosa County (FL) Pace High School who faces criminal contempt charges for defying a temporary injunction against prayer and religious activity at his school...
Recent Prisoner Religion and Free Exercise Cases
Posted on August 09, 2009In Sterr v. Baptista, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66039 (CD CA, July 20, 2009), a California federal district court rejected a challenge by a prisoner who practices Asatru/Odinism to the prison's decision to replace vegetation on sacred ground used by "earth-based religions" to all grass, and a change in schedule for access to classrooms and a sanctuary...
Feelings Run High Over Lodi CA Prayer Policy
Posted on August 07, 2009Passions seem to be running high over Lodi, California City Council's decision that prayers delivered at the beginning of Council meetings should be non-sectarian. Yesterday's San Jose Mercury News reports that Council postponed Wednesday's scheduled discussion of the policy to a special meeting scheduled for Sept...
Conservative Rabbi Sues Challenging Georgia's Kosher Food Labeling Act
Posted on August 07, 2009Yesterday in Atlanta, Georgia, a rabbi filed a state court lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Georgia's Kosher Food Labeling Act (OCGA Sec. 26-2-330 ff.). The complaint (full text) in Lewis v. Perdue, (Super. Ct. Fulton Co., filed 8/9/2009), claims that by defining "kosher food" as "food prepared under and of products sanctioned by the orthodox Hebrew religious rules and requirements," Sec...
County Wants Return of Settlement From Church of Universal Love and Music
Posted on August 07, 2009After last week's drug raid at the Church of Universal Love and Music (see prior posting), Fayette County, Pennsylvania has now filed a motion in federal court seeking to recover from the Church the $75,000 the county paid in a settlement of a RLUIPA zoning lawsuit against it...
Harvard Dean, Expert on Religion and Pluralism, Nominated for LSC Board
Posted on August 07, 2009Martha L. Minow, who earlier this year was named Dean of the Harvard Law School, has now also been nominated by President Barack Obama to be a board member of the Legal Services Corporation. One of Minow's major research interests has been religion and pluralism...
Iowa Bus System Removes Atheist Ads After Complaints Received
Posted on August 07, 2009The controversy over ads on the side of buses placed by atheist groups has now moved to Des Moines, Iowa. WHO-TV News reported Wednesday that DART, the agency which operates buses in the city, is removing ads already on buses reading: "Don't believe in God? You are not alone...
11th Circuit Remands Asylum Case For Further Findings on Religious Persecution
Posted on August 07, 2009In Kazemzadeh v. U.S. Attorney General, (11th Cir., Aug. 6, 2009), the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision remanded for further fact finding a petition for asylum and withholding of removal filed by an Iranian man who had converted from Islam to Christianity...
Suit Claims Free Exercise Right For Parochial School Student To Be In Public School Band
Posted on August 06, 2009In Burrell, Pennsylvania, a talented eighth-grade saxophone player and his family have filed a federal lawsuit against the Burrell School District alleging that musician Alexander Trefelner's free exercise rights are being infringed by school district policy...
Suit Charges Jewish Majority On School Board With Establishment Clause Violations
Posted on August 06, 2009In Long Island, New York, attorneys for public school children have filed a federal lawsuit against the Lawrence School District claiming that the Orthodox Jewish majority on the board have implemented policies that violate the Establishment Clause. 5Towns Jewish Times yesterday reported that a major issue of contention is the decision by the board to close school Number 6 in Woodmere, the newest school in the district...
Korea's Constitutional Court Upholds Ban on Columbaria Near Schools
Posted on August 06, 2009Korea's Constitutional Court on July 30 upheld a law that bans locating a columbarium within 200 meters of a school. Indian Catholic reports the court held that the law can be applied to columbaria owned by religious organizations as well as those owned privately...
Court Permits Forfeiture Of Dinosaur Adventure Land Properties For Taxes Due
Posted on August 06, 2009In United States v. Hovind, (ND FL, July 29, 2009), a Florida federal district court permitted the federal government to move ahead with its criminal forfeiture of properties that make up Dinosaur Adventure Land (as well as related bank accounts) to cover back taxes of Christian evangelist Kent Hovind...
Criminal Contempt Charges Unsealed In Santa Rosa School Prayer Case
Posted on August 05, 2009Yesterday's Pensacola (FL) News Journal reported that a federal judge on Monday unsealed criminal contempt charges against a high school principal and its athletic director who are charged with ignoring an injunction against faculty-led prayer. In January, nine days after U...
AT&T Pays $1.3 M In Religious Discrimination Case
Posted on August 05, 2009The EEOC announced last week that a Satisfaction of Judgment was entered in an Arkansas federal district court in EEOC v. Southwestern Bell Telephone, LP. In the case, the EEOC sued AT&T alleging religious discrimination in violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act...
Sudanese Woman Reporter Challenging Sharia Indecency Punishment
Posted on August 05, 2009In Sudan, where sharia law is widely applied (background), journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein wants to challenge the validity of applying public indecency laws-- with flogging as punishment-- to women who wear trousers. Middle East Online reported yesterday on Hussein's arrest, along with 12 other women who were wearing trousers, at a Khartoum restaurant...
Minister Sentenced On Tax and Bank Fraud Charges
Posted on August 05, 2009The Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office announced yesterday that former pastor Otis Ray Hope was sentenced to 37 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, on criminal tax charges and for conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He was also ordered to pay over $2...
Pro-Life Group Gets Non-Profit Status After IRS Questions
Posted on August 05, 2009A press release issued yesterday by the Thomas More Society reports that the Internal Revenue Service has issued a Determination Letter granting Section 501(c)(3) tax exempt status to the newly formed Coalition for Life of Iowa. Earlier the IRS questioned the "educational" nature of the Coalition's materials, prayer meetings, talks and other Pro-Life activities...
Virginia Saudi Academy Gets Zoning Exemption
Posted on August 04, 2009Yesterday, by a vote of 6-4, the Fairfax County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors agreed to grant the Islamic Saudi Academy a zoning exemption so it can expand its second campus. The Washington Post reports that this will allow the school to eventually enroll 500 more students...
Rabbi Pleads Guilty In Charitable Tax Fraud Scheme
Posted on August 04, 2009The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced yesterday that a Brooklyn, New York rabbi has pled guilty to conspiring to obstruct the Internal Revenue Service by soliciting charitable donations with secret promises to refund up to 95% of the funds to the donors...
Federal Magistrate Rejects Free Exercise Challenge To Marijuana Laws
Posted on August 04, 2009In Hutchinson v. State of Maine, (D ME, July 20, 2009), a Maine federal magistrate judge recommended rejecting a free exercise challenge to Maine's prohibition on the cultivation of marijuana. Plaintiff James Hutchinson, who had been convicted on marijuana charges, brought a civil suit challenging the law...
Israeli Gays Say Orthodox Created Culture That Led To Shooting Last Week
Posted on August 04, 2009Time reported yesterday that in Israel, police are conducting a manhunt throughout Tel Aviv seeking the masked gunman who killed two and wounded 15 at a gay youth organization's headquarters on Saturday night. Haaretz said that the gunman stormed into a basement room in the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association building and opened fire on teenagers attending a weekly support group meeting...
Jewish School's Appeal Will Be One of the First In Britain's New Supreme Court
Posted on August 04, 2009In Britain beginning Oct. 1, a new Supreme Court will take over the appellate jurisdiction that has traditionally been exercised by the House of Lords. The change was authorized by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. (Background.) One of the first case that will be heard by the new court is an appeal by London's Jewish Free School of a controversial decision striking down its admissions policy...
New Iqbal Pleading Standard Leads To Dismissal of Part of School-Music Lawsuit
Posted on August 04, 2009In S.D. v. St. Johns County School District, (MD FL, July 29, 2009), a Florida federal district court applied the Supreme Court's new pleading standards announced in Ashcroft v. Iqbal to dismiss a portion of a lawsuit claiming that a school's music program violated free exercise and establishment clause constraints...
Russian Supreme Court Bans Radical Islamic Group
Posted on August 04, 2009Interfax reported yesterday that the Appeal Board of the Russian Supreme Court has banned all activities in Russia of the Islamic group, Tablighi Jamaat. Upholding a finding by the Prosecutor General's Office that Tablighi Jamaat is an extremist group, the Court found that the group's advocacy of a Global Caliphate "threaten[s] interethnic and inter-religious stability in Russian society and territorial integrity of the Russian Federation...
En Banc Rehearing Sought In Washinton State Pharmacy Board Conscience Case
Posted on August 04, 2009Last week, a Washington state pharmacy filed a petition and an accompanying legal memorandum (full text) with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals seeking an en banc rehearing in Stormans Inc. v. Selecky. Last month, a 3-judge panel in the case refused to preliminarily enjoin enforcement of Washington State Pharmacy Board regulations that require pharmacists to fill all prescriptions (including Plan B, the "morning after" contraceptive) even if doing so violates their religious beliefs...
IRS Proposes Rules To Clarify Who May Authorize Church Audit
Posted on August 04, 2009BNA Daily Report for Executives [subscription required] reports that the Internal Revenue Service, in proposed regulations that will be published in tomorrow's Federal Register, is attempting to clarify which high level Treasury official has authority to make a determination under IRC Sec...
USCIRF Writes Clinton Urging Her To Raise Religious Freedom Issues In Africa
Posted on August 03, 2009Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will begin a ten-day trip to seven African countries beginning August 4. (State Department briefing.) The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has written Clinton asking her to raise religious freedom issues when she visits Nigeria, and when she meets with Somalian officials at the AGOA Forum in Kenya...
Italy Approves Use of RU-486 Amidst Threats of Excommunications
Posted on August 03, 2009CathNews today reports that the Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) on Thursday approved the use of the abortion drug Mifepristone, also known as RU-486. AIFA required that it be administered only in a hospital setting. Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, Pope Benedict XVI's top expert on bioethical issues, said that the Church would excommunicate any doctor who prescribes the drug and any woman who takes it.
Drug Raid On Church of Universal Love and Music Leads to 22 Arrests
Posted on August 03, 2009In Fayette County, Pennsylvania on Saturday, the County Drug Taskforce arrested 22 people in a raid on the Church of Universal Love and Music. Yesterday's Pittsburg Post-Gazette reports that the raid took place during a 3-day music festival attended by around 800 people...
Court Says Atheists Challenging School Program May Not Proceed Anonymously
Posted on August 03, 2009In Freedom from Religion Foundation v. Creek, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65818 (D CO, July 22, 2009), a Colorado federal magistrate judge denied plaintiffs' request that they be allowed to proceed using pseudonyms. Plaintiffs were atheists who were challenging as a violation of the Establishment Clause a Colorado school district's adoption of a program known as "40 Developmental Assets...
Recent Articles of Interest
Posted on August 03, 2009From SSRN:Anthony Bessette, Regulating and Punishing Adultery in Korea and East Asia, (July 27, 2009). Nomi Maya Stolzenberg, Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet: A Religious Group's Quest for its Own Public School, (Law and Religion: Cases In Context, Gregory Alexander & Eduardo Penalver, eds...
New IRS Form 990 Pushes Non-Profits To Comply With State Rules
Posted on August 02, 2009Beginning this year, a newly designed IRS annual return on Form 990 must be filed by non-profits. While churches and various church-affiliated organizations are exempt from filing the form, other religious organizations must do so. An article yesterday in On Philanthropy , as well as an earlier article in Nonprofit Business Advisor, point out that among the new questions on Form 990 is Section C, Line 17 asking for a list of all states in which a copy of the federal Form 990 is required to be filed...
India's High Court Prospectively Bars Shrines On Public Land
Posted on August 02, 2009Merinews and the Calcutta Telegraph report on a decision handed down Friday by a 2-judge panel of the Supreme Court of India regarding the building of religious shrines. The decision involved an appeal by the Central government of an order against the government of Gujarat requiring it to remove all religious shrines that encroach on public land...
Suit Threatened Against British Photographer Who Used Church For Photo Shoot
Posted on August 02, 2009In Cornwall, England, attorneys for the vicar of the 13th century Anglican church in St. Michael Penkivel have threatened photographer Andy Craddock with legal action. Yesterday's London Daily Mail reports that Craddock and his girlfriend walked into the open church building with two models who posed for an erotic photo shoot, using the the church interior as a backdrop...
Establishment Clause Challenge To Homeless Shelter Lease and Sale Moves Ahead
Posted on August 02, 2009In Community House, Inc. v. City of Boise, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65958 (D ID, July 29, 2009), an Idaho federal district court refused to grant defendants summary judgment and allowed plaintiffs to move ahead on their Establishment Clause challenge to the city of Boise's lease and eventual sale of a homeless shelter to Boise Rescue Mission...
Religious Discrimination Challenges To Placement On No-Fly List Dismissed
Posted on August 02, 2009In Ibrahim v. Department of Homeland Security, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 64619 (ND CA, July 27, 2009), Rahinah Ibrahim, a Muslim woman who is a citizen of Malaysia and was a graduate student at Stanford University in 2005, challenged the placement of her name on the Transportation Safety Administration's no-fly list and her treatment at the San Francisco airport...
Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases
Posted on August 02, 2009In Smith v. Ozmint, (4th Cir., July 31, 2009), the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals held that the South Carolina Department of Corrections had not justified under RLUIPA its policy of forcibly shaving the heads of maximum security inmates who wear long hair as a matter of religious belief...
Developments In Two Faith Healing Trials
Posted on August 02, 2009There have been developments in two separate cases in which parents who relied on faith healing instead of seeking medical assistance were charged in the deaths of their children. In Wausau, Wisconsin, Dale Neumann was convicted Saturday of second degree reckless homicide in the 2003 death of his daughter...
5th Circuit Says Ban On Santeria Sacrifices Violates Texas RFRA
Posted on August 01, 2009In Merced v. Kasson (consolidated with Merced v. City of Euless) , (5th Cir., July 31, 2009), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals held that a city's prohibition of animal sacrifices essential to Santeria religious practice violates the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act (TRFRA)...
Authorities Investigating Muslim Violence Against Christians In Pakistani City
Posted on August 01, 2009In Pakistan's province of Punjab, in the city of Gojra, violence broke out Saturday between Muslim extremists (members of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba group) and Christians. AP reports that hundreds of Muslims began torching Christian homes after a false report that a Quran had been defaced...
Vietnam Orders Buddhist Monks To Leave Monastery
Posted on August 01, 2009The New York Times today reports on the standoff between Vietnamese authorities and Buddhist monks at Bat Nha Monastery. They were ordered last October by the chairman of Vietnam?s National Committee on Religious Affairs to leave the monastery. The monks, who are followers of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, have been training other monks there since 2005 after Hahn?who developed the philosophy called Engaged Buddhism-- was welcomed back from 39 years of exile in France...
10th Circuit Denies En Banc Review In 10 Commandments Case By 6-6 Vote
Posted on July 31, 2009By a vote of 6 - 6 yesterday, the judges on the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals denied an en banc rehearing in a Ten Commandments case. The 3-judge panel had invoked the Establishment Clause to invalidate a display of the Ten Commandments on the courthouse lawn in Stigler, Oklahoma...
IRS Is Investigating Virginia Church
Posted on July 31, 2009According to the Washington Post, the IRS is investigating Sterling, Virginia's Calvary Temple. (Washington Post background article on Calvary Temple.) The investigation is apparently focused on Pastor Star R. Scott who controls the church's $8.5 million in real estate and hundreds of thousands of dollars of autos used in a "racing ministry...
Nigerian Islamist Leader Killed In Police Custody
Posted on July 31, 2009Nigeria's Vanguard yesterday reported that Mohammed Yusuf, head of the fundamentalist Islamic group Boko Haram, has been killed after being taken into police custody. Recent violence in northern Nigeria by Boko Haram rebels has killed some 300. (See prior posting...
Settlement Reached In Church's Use of Pensacola FL Park
Posted on July 31, 2009Alliance Defense Fund yesterday announced that a settlement has been reached in the lawsuit brought against the city of Pensacola, Florida by St. Faustina Old Catholic Church challenging restrictions on use of a downtown park for a weekly picnic by a Bible study group that shared its food with the hungry...
Some Polish Catholics Protest Upcoming Madonna Concert
Posted on July 31, 2009August 15 is the Catholic feast of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary. Freemuse and Indeks 73 both report this week that in Poland, conservative Catholics are protesting the Madonna concert scheduled for that day in Warsaw. Appeals are being made to the President of the city Warsaw, the mayor of Bemowo (the Warsaw district where the concert is going to take place) and the Minister of the Interior and Administration to convince them to cancel or postpone the concert...
Judge Allows Temporary Occupancy of Synagogue After Code Controversy
Posted on July 31, 2009The Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record yesterday reported on a building code controversy between the town of Bethel, New York and the local Satmar Bungalow Colony of Hasidic Jews. Apparently town building inspector Tim Dexter issued a building permit for a synagogue and community center building without plans havng gone through the town Planning Board...
Navy Affiliated Website Ends Ban On Religious Discussion Groups
Posted on July 31, 2009Last month, Liberty Counsel complained to the Navy about the discussion board Guidelines on its Navy for Moms website. They banned religious discussions and the creation of religious discussion groups on the site. (See prior posting.) On Wednesday, Liberty Counsel announced that the Guidelines have been modified...
Federal Claims Court Agrees That Religious Foundation Is Not A "Church"
Posted on July 30, 2009In Foundation of Human Understanding v. United States, (Fed. Cl., July 21, 2009), the U.S. Court of Federal Claims agreed with the Internal Revenue Service that the Foundation of Human Understanding, while qualifying as a non-profit organization, had lost its status as a "church" under IRC § 170(b)(1)(A)(i)...
Atheist Delivers Protest Invocation At County Commission Meeting
Posted on July 30, 2009On Tuesday in Cobb County, Georgia, Edward Buckner, president of American Atheists and candidate for state Attorney General, used the invocation time at the county Board of Commissioners meeting to stage a protest against invocations. Today's Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that Bruckner requested that he be allowed to deliver the invocation, and that Commission chairman Samuel Olens granted the request...
AU Wants Senate Committee To Question Army Head Nominee On Church-State Issues
Posted on July 30, 2009Today, the Senate Armed Services Committee holds a hearing to consider the nomination of John M. McHugh as Secretary of the Army. McHugh is currently a Republican member of the House of Representatives from New York, and was previously the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee...
Jordan's Parliament Split On Religious Groups Under Societies Act
Posted on July 30, 2009For a year, Jordan's Parliament has been debating amendments to the Societies Act which governs the operation of civil society organizations. (Background). Today's Jordan Times reports that the latest controversy surrounds a government proposal, approved by the Senate but rejected by the House of Representatives, that would allow all non-Muslim organizations to operate in the country under the law...
Faith-Based Alternatives To Traditional Insurance Pose Issue Under Reform Legislation
Posted on July 30, 2009Amidst the many complexities of health care reform is the little-noticed problem of faith-based health care sharing ministries. BeliefNet yesterday reported on the concern of these Christian groups over whether they will be considered appropriate insurance under the insurance mandate that is likely to be in new legislation...
IRS Drops Church Investigation Until Procedural Problems Are Resolved
Posted on July 30, 2009The Internal Revenue Service earlier this month sent a letter (full text) to the Minnesota-based Warroad Community Church indicating that it is closing an ongoing investigation of the church "because of a pending issue regarding the procedure used to initiate the inquiry...
Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy Counterclaims Against ACLU
Posted on July 30, 2009In Minneapolis (MN) yesterday, the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, a charter school being sued for promoting Islam, filed a counterclaim against the ACLU. Last week, a federal district court upheld the ACLU's standing to bring an Establishment Clause claim against the school...
Suit Challenges Selective Service Handling of Conscientious Objectors
Posted on July 30, 2009Twenty-one year old Tobin D. Jacobrown, a Quaker, yesterday filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Washington, DC, challenging the Selective Service System's refusal to include space to register as a conscientious objector on current selective service forms...
Government Report Says Most Volunteering Is Through Faith-Based Organizations
Posted on July 29, 2009The Corporation for National & Community Service, a federal agency, yesterday announced that it has issued a new report titled Volunteering in America 2009 (Research Highlights). A portion of the research focuses on Volunteering in America's Faith-Based Organizations...
New York's Syrian Jewish Community Reacts To Rabbis' Arrests
Posted on July 29, 2009New York's Jewish Week and the Forward in two articles yesterday both reported on reactions within Brooklyn NY/ Deal NJ's close-knit Syrian Jewish community to last week's indictment of six rabbis-- 3 of them prominent in the Syrian community. Charges by federal authorities in New Jersey focused on money laundering by the rabbis...
"WWJD" Debt Collection Suit Voluntarily Dismissed After Counterclaims Filed
Posted on July 29, 2009Both AP and a Liberty Counsel press release yesterday report that a lawsuit under the Fair Debt Practices Collection Act against Bullseye Collection Agency of Monticello, MN has been voluntarily dismissed. The suit was brought by Mark and Sarah Neill who received a collection letter from Bullseye with "WWJD" (What Would Jesus Do?) at the top...
Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign Lawsuit Settled
Posted on July 29, 2009AP reported Monday that the Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign has settled its federal lawsuit against the Bloomington Public Transportation Corporation. IABC had been refused ad space to run its ad reading: " You Can Be Good Without God." (See prior posting...
Dearborn (MI) Wrestling Coach Sues Principal Claiming Religious Bias
Posted on July 28, 2009In Dearborn, Michigan (a city with a large Muslim population), a long-serving and "legendary" high school wrestling coach who was fired has filed a federal religious discrimination lawsuit against the principal of Fordson High School and the Dearborn school system...
Japan's Catholic Bishops Says Clergy Should Not Serve As Citizen Judges
Posted on July 28, 2009Asahi Shimbun and Bloomberg News today report on the message (full text) issued last month by the Catholic Bishop's Conference of Japan on Catholic participation in Japan's new "citizen judge" system. The system, introduced in May, has citizens sitting alongside professional judges in serious criminal cases...
Author Criticizes Religious Views of Nominee For Head of NIH
Posted on July 28, 2009Author Sam Harris published an op-ed in yesterday's New York Times criticizing President Obama's nomination of Francis Collins to head the National Institutes of Health. Collins has been presented as a strong advocate of the compatibility of science and religion...
At Washington Meeting With Chinese, Obama Raises Religious Freedom Issue
Posted on July 28, 2009Yesterday, the first U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue opened in Washington with some 200 Chinese officials in attendance. President Obama spoke at the conference which is co-chaired by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy F...
Nigerian Rebels Demanding Sharia Expand Attacks On Security Forces
Posted on July 28, 2009Toronto's National Post reports that in Nigeria, the Muslim rebel group Boko Haram on Monday expanded its attacks against Nigerian security forces to in Yobe, Kano and Borno states. At least 80 people were killed after attacks the day before killing 50 in neighbouring Bauchi state...
India's Defense Minister OK's Beards In Military For Muslim Men
Posted on July 27, 2009In India, Defence Minister A. K. Antony has instructed all branches of the armed forces that they should permit Muslim recruits and officers to wear beards. Indian Muslim reported yesterday that the government's policy change came as a lawsuit against the Indian Air Force challenging its grooming policy was pending before India's Supreme Court.
Texas County May Contract With Chaplain Service For Employees
Posted on July 27, 2009The Plano, Texas Star last Friday reported that Collin County commissioners voted last week to "try out" the services of Marketplace Chaplains, a Christian organization that offers brief, regular visits by Chaplains during which time they can build a relationship with employees...
Recent Articles of Interest
Posted on July 27, 2009From SSRN:Elliott Visconsi, The Invention of Criminal Blasphemy: Rex v. Taylor (1676), (Representations, Vol. 103, pp. 30-52, Summer 2008).Lea Bishop Shaver, The Inter-American Human Rights System: An Effective Institution for Regional Rights Protection?, (July 22, 2009)...
Suit Against Children Services Officials By Muslim Mother Is Mostly Dismissed
Posted on July 26, 2009Abdulsalaam v. Franklin County Board of Commissioners, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63296 (SD OH, July 23, 2009), involved a suit under 42 USC 1981 and 1983 against state officials and agencies in Ohio by a mother and her three daughters who were separated for a year when the daughters were placed in county child services custody...
"Flying Imams" Can Proceed Against Airport Security Officers For Search and Arrest
Posted on July 26, 2009In the so-called "flying Imams" case (see prior posting), a Minnesota federal district court on Friday refused to dismiss false arrest, unreasonable search and seizure and equal protection claims against Metropolitan Airport Commission officers. The six plaintiffs, all imams, were removed from U...
USAID Inspector General Raises Questions About Religious Nature of Some Grants
Posted on July 26, 2009On July 17 the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Agency for International Development issued issued a report titled Audit of USAID's Faith-Based and Commuinty Initiatives. As summarized in the report's introduction: This audit surveyed 31 USAID regional legal advisors, as well as 9 of the 10 faith-based organizations that receive the most USAID funding, concerning the use of USAID funds for religious activities...
Georgia Judicial Council Permits Religious Head Coverings In Courtrooms
Posted on July 26, 2009In a press release issued Friday, Georgia's Supreme Court announced that all courts in the state will now permit head coverings for religious or medical reasons to be worn in court rooms. AP reports on the policy change impelled by an incident last year when a judge in Douglasville (GA) sentenced a woman to ten days for contempt for refusing to remove her hijab...
Canada's High Court Rejects Hutterite Challenge To License Photo Requirement
Posted on July 26, 2009In Alberta v. Hutterian Brethren of Wilson Colony, (Sup. Ct. Canada, July 24, 2009), Canada's Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision rejected a constitutional challenge brought by the Hutterites to Alberta's requirement that all drivers licenses contain a photo of the license holder...
Islamic Restictions Increasingly Being Enforced In Gaza
Posted on July 26, 2009Israel's Haaretz today reports on the growing enforcement of Islamic law in the Gaza Strip by its Hamas dominated government. Already women lawyers are required to wear the hijab head covering in court. Modesty patrols are requiring women at beaches to wear head coverings and are inspecting isolated cars to prevent men and women from being together in them...
Analysis Says European Fears Regarding Muslim Communities Appear Unfounded
Posted on July 26, 2009Today's London Guardian, in a long article, reports that Europe's fear of the mass radicalization of its Muslim population now appears unfounded. Focusing on a recent Gallup poll, the article discusses Europe's fears earlier this decade of terrorism, a cultural "invasion," and high Muslim fertility rates...
Recent Prisoner and Institutionalized Persons Free Exercise Cases
Posted on July 26, 2009In Blount v. Ray, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61521 (WD VA, July 17, 2009), a Virginia federal district court dismissed an inmate's RLUIPA claim that he was wrongly removed from his religious Common Fare Diet. The court held that plaintiff had not shown his sincerity regarding his religious dietary beliefs continued at the time he was removed from the food plan, since he refused to sign a CFD agreement...
Evangelist Tony Alamo Convicted On Mann Act Charges
Posted on July 25, 2009Yesterday in Texarkana, Arkansas, Christian evangelist Tony Alamo was convicted in federal court on ten charges of violating the Mann Act by taking underage girls across state lines to have sex with them. According to the AP, five women, now age 17 to 33, testified that Alamo "married" them in private ceremonies while they were minors...
3rd Circuit Says RLUIPA Zoning Challenge Is Not Ripe
Posted on July 25, 2009In Congregation Anshei Roosevelt v. Planning and Zoning Board of the Borough of Roosevelt, (3d Cir. July 22, 2009), the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals held that a RLUIPA challenge to a zoning board?s decision was not ripe for review. At issue was whether a synagogue located in Roosevelt, New Jersey, whose occupancy was grandfathered under the relevant zoning ordinances, needed to file an application for a zoning variance when it entered an arrangement for a Yeshiva (a Jewish school) to also operate in its building...
Religious Objections To USDA's Animal Tagging Program Rejected
Posted on July 24, 2009A federal district court yesterday rejected a challenge to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Animal Identification System (NAIS). In Farm-To-Consumer Legal Defense Fund v. Vilsack, (D DC, July 23, 2009), plaintiffs claim that "NAIS requires Premises Identification Numbers ('PINs') for each of their farms and radio frequency identification devices ('RFIDs') for each of their cattle, both of which result in the collection of information into a huge national database against their wills and in violation of their religious beliefs...
Court Says It Can Apply Neutral Principles To Fiduciary Claim Against Church Trustees
Posted on July 24, 2009In Askew v. Trustees of the General Assembly of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, Inc., (ED PA, July 21, 2009), a Pennsylvania federal district court concluded that it could use neutral principles of law to resolve breach of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment claims brought against church trustees and officers, as well as a claim that Church Articles do not comply with Pennsylvania's non-profit corporation law...
Nigeria Begins New Push To Tax Unrelated Income of Religious Groups
Posted on July 24, 2009In Nigeria, government officials met Monday with religious leaders to discuss its new efforts to enforce federal tax laws against religious organizations. While the income of churches and other non-profits is exempt from taxation, the Internal Revenue Service is attempting to tax income from unrelated for-profit businesses owned by churches as well as donations and gifts given to religious leaders...
Utah Court Rejects Settlement In FLDS Trust Reform; Texas Custody Case Ends
Posted on July 24, 2009In Salt Lake City, Utah on Wednesday, state court Judge Denise Lindberg rejected a settlement proposed last month by Utah's Attorney General in the complicated attempt to reform the FLDS United Effort Plan Trust. The trust holds land that the FLDS Church held and on which its members, many in polygamous relationships, lived...
Oregon Jury Acquits Faith Healing Parents On All But One Misdemeanor Charge
Posted on July 24, 2009After a trial lasting nearly four weeks, a jury in Oregon yesterday rejected manslaughter charges against Carl and Raylene Worthington, members of the Followers of Christ, a group that rejects medical treatment in favor of faith healing. AP reports that Raylene was acquitted of all charges, while Carl was convicted only on a misdemeanor charge of criminal mistreatment...
Nurse Sues Hospital Claiming She Was Required To Assist In Abortion Procedure
Posted on July 24, 2009On Tuesday, a nurse at New York City's Mt. Sinai Hospital filed a lawsuit against the hospital claiming that it violated the Church Amendment, 42 U.S.C. § 300a7(c), when it required her to assist in an abortion performed on a woman who was 22-weeks pregnant...
4th Circuit Says Warden Has Qualified Immunity In Demotion of Rastafarian Officer
Posted on July 24, 2009Booth v. State of Maryland, (4th Cir., July 21, 2009), involved a Rastafarian who was demoted from his position in a Maryland prison as acting lieutenant. Plaintiff alleged the demotion stemmed from dislike of the fact that he wore his hair in dreadlocks for religious reasons...
Saskatchewan Court Says Marriage Commissioner May Not Refuse To Perform Gay Weddings
Posted on July 24, 2009In Nichols v. M.J., (Sask. Q.B., July 17, 2009), the Queen's Bench for the Canadian province of Saskatchewan upheld a decision of the province's Human Rights Commission that a government marriage commissioner illegally discriminated against a gay man when the commissioner refused to perform a marriage ceremony for him...
Court Refuses To Strike Allegation In School Music Lawsuit
Posted on July 23, 2009As previously reported, a lawsuit against the St. John's County, Florida school district challenges on Establishment Clause grounds certain songs selected by Webster School's music teacher for students to perform. In S.D. v. St. Johns County School District, 2009 U...
Questions Raised Over Financing Of Rep. Keith Ellison's Hajj Trip
Posted on July 23, 2009Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison-- Congress' only Muslim member-- is the target of critics who have raised concerns about the financing of a pilgrimage (Hajj) he took last year to the Muslim holy city of Mecca. BeliefNet yesterday (carrying an article from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune) reports that the Muslim American Society of Minnesota (MAS) paid for the trip as a way to improve communications between American Muslims and the wider Muslim world...
India's Supreme Court Withdraws Opinion On Catholic School's Grooming Policy
Posted on July 23, 2009Today's Indian Catholic reports that on July 6, India's Supreme Court withdrew a March 30 ruling (see prior posting) that upheld the right of a Catholic school to enforce its grooming policy. Sixteen year old Muslim student, Mohammed Salim, left the Nirmala Convent Higher Secondary School when it insisted that he comply with its requirement that male students be clean shaven...
County Will End Ban On Sunday Sales Despite Some Religious Objections
Posted on July 23, 2009The Aiken (SC) Standard reports that Aiken County Council voted 7-2 on Tuesday to suspend the county's blue laws that prohibit sale of various items before 1:30 p.m. on Sundays. Final passage is expected on the proposal's third reading next month. Proponents said that schools are losing sales tax dollars as residents shop in neighboring counties in Georgia on Sundays...
Sikh Crime Victims In London Can Now Request Sikh Officer For Case
Posted on July 23, 2009In Britain, London's Metropolitan Police have responded to cultural misunderstandings in criminal investigations by instituting a new program. Yesterday's BBC News reports that Sikh crime victims will now be able to request that a Sikh police officer be a part of the crime investigation...
Buddhist Candidate For Virginia Legislature Responds To Concerns
Posted on July 23, 2009Yesterday's Waynesboro (VA) News Virginian reports that the Virginia legislature could have its first practicing Buddhist member next year. Erik Curren, who began practicing Buddhism over a decade ago, is the Democratic candidate for the 2oth District seat in Virginia's House of Delegates...
Anti-Separationist Billboards Placed In Two Florida Counties
Posted on July 23, 2009In Pinellas and Hillsborough counties in Florida, Christian activist Terry Kemple, head of the Community Issues Council, with financial support from retired businessman Gregg Smith, is sponsoring ten billboards attacking the notion of separation of church and state...
5 Rabbis Among 44 Arrested In New Jersey Public Corruption and Money Laundering Probe
Posted on July 23, 2009In a press release today, the U.S. Department of Justice announced:The mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus and Ridgefield, the Jersey City deputy mayor and council president, two state assemblymen, numerous other public officials and political figures and five rabbis from New York and New Jersey were among 44 individuals charged today in a two-track federal investigation of public corruption and a high-volume, international money laundering conspiracy...
PA Supreme Court: Civil Courts Can Hear Defamation Claim Against Catholic School
Posted on July 22, 2009In Connor v. Archdiocese of Philadelphia, (PA Sup. Ct., July 20, 2009), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that civil courts have jurisdiction over a suit growing out of the expulsion of a 7th-grade student from a Catholic parochial school. The student was expelled for allegedly bringing a penknife to school, a fact disputed by his parents...
Wisconsin Supreme Court: Ministerial Exception Applies To Catholic School Teacher
Posted on July 22, 2009In Coulee Catholic Schools v. Labor and Industry Review Commission, (WI Sup. Ct., July 21, 2009), in a 4-3 decision, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin applied the "ministerial exception" to hold that Wendy Ostland, a first grade teacher in a Catholic school, was constitutionally precluded from bringing an age discrimination claim under the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act...
ACLU Has Taxpayer Standing To Challenge Charter School As Promoting Islam
Posted on July 22, 2009In American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota v. Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, (D MN, July 21, 2009), a Minnesota federal district court held that plaintiff has taxpayer standing to challenge as an Establishment Clause violation the funding of a charter school by the state of Minnesota...
Kentucky County Removes 10 Commandments After Lawsuit Is Filed
Posted on July 22, 2009WYMT-TV reported yesterday that in response to a lawsuit filed earlier this month, Jackson County, Kentucky officials have taken down the nine copies of the Ten Commandments that had been on the walls of the county court house. (See prior posting.) Judge executive William O...
Kenya Says Muslim Girls Can Wear Hijab To School
Posted on July 22, 2009In Kenya, Education Permanent Secretary Prof. Karega Mutahi last week issued a circular to school principals and education officials confirming that Muslim girls are free to wear the hijab (head covering) to school. Spero News reported yesterday that the action came after some 20 public schools had suspended Muslim students for wearing the hijab.
Non-Muslims Find British Shariah Courts Attractive
Posted on July 22, 2009The London Times reported yesterday that increasing numbers of non-Muslims in Britain are turning to Shariah arbitration tribunals in commercial disputes and other civil matters. The Muslim Arbitration Tribunal said that 5% of its cases (20 cases so far this year) involved non-Muslims who were attracted by the less formal nature of the arbitration process...
Russian Schools Will Begin Courses On Religions and Ethics
Posted on July 22, 2009Russian schools in 18 regions (about 20%) of the country next year will begin a pilot program to teach about religion and ethics. Yesterday's Fresno Bee reported that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has announced a program under which schools will offer several choices: a course in one of the four traditional religions (Russian Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism or Judaism), a course presenting an overview of all four faiths, or a course in secular ethics...
Protests Continue Over LDS Regulation Of Plaza In Salt Lake City
Posted on July 21, 2009The Salt Lake Tribune this month has carried a series of articles (1, 2, 3) on the latest controversy over how the LDS Church administers Main Street Plaza, an area in downtown Salt Lake City that the Church purchased from the city in transactions beginning in 1999...
Opponents of Hate Crimes Bill Add Amendments That Make It More Contentious
Posted on July 21, 2009Yesterday the U.S. Senate passed four amendments to the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Enforcement Act that it adopted last week as part of the Defense Authorization Act. (See prior posting). Three of the amendments were introduced by Sen. Jeff Sessions and, according to the Advocate, are seen by the Human Rights Campaign as "poison pills" designed to defeat the entire hate crimes bill...
Project Will Rate Muslim Countries On Adherence To Shariah
Posted on July 21, 2009UAE's The National today reports on the Cordoba Initiative. Led by New York-based Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, its goal is to create a "Shariah Index" that will rate majority-Muslim countries on how closely they adhere to the principles of Islam. Rauf says: "What are the principles that make a state Islamic? We can say among them is justice, protection of religion and minorities and elimination of poverty, and so on...
Members of Congress Join In Rally To Protest Falun Gong Persecution By China
Posted on July 21, 2009Last week, members of Congress joined activists in a rally on Capitol Hill to mark the tenth anniversary of the start of persecution of the Falun Gong by the government of China. Yesterday's Epoch Times reports that speakers at the rally included New Jersey Rep...
Obama Meets At White House With Mormon Leader
Posted on July 21, 2009Yesterday President Obama met at the White House with Thomas S. Monson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. KSL-TV and the Salt Lake Tribune both report on the meeting at which Monson presented the President with a specially-researched 5-volume leather-bound history of the Obama family gong back hundreds of years...
Laotian Village Chief Tells Christian Families To Renounce Their Beliefs
Posted on July 21, 2009The Christian Post yesterday reported on an incident in a small village in Laos that has been publicized internationally by Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom. According to the report: The chief of Katin village, along with village security, social and religious affairs officials, warned all 53 Christian residents that they should revert to worshiping local spirits in accordance with Lao tradition or risk losing all village rights and privileges ? including their livestock and homes...
Senate Passes Resolution Condemning Anti-Semitism
Posted on July 21, 2009Yesterday the U.S. Senate passed by unanimous consent S. Con. Res. 11 condemning all forms of anti-Semitism and reaffirming the support of Congress for the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism. The Resolution now goes to the House of Representatives...
Competing Lawsuits Filed In Dispute Over Religious Services At Co-op Unit
Posted on July 20, 2009Canopus is a Putnam County, New York cooperative comprised of 22 free-standing homes on 15 acres of land. A longstanding dispute between Anthony Bondi, Jr., a lessee of one of the homes, and his neighbors has led to competing lawsuits being filed in state court in New York...
Recent Articles of Interest
Posted on July 20, 2009From SSRN:William W. Van Alstyne, Religion in the Workplace: A Report on the Layers of Relevant Law in the United States, (Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal, Vol. 30, No. 3, 2009).Reid K. Weisbord & Peter DeScioli, The Effects of Donor Standing on Philanthropy: Insights from the Psychology of Gift-Giving, (Gonzaga Law Review, Vol...
Texas Town Is Changing City Council Invocation Policy
Posted on July 20, 2009San Marcos, Texas City Council has responded to complaints by Americans United and the ACLU that invocations opening Council meetings have almost always been specifically Christian in content. The Austin American Statesman reported last Friday that Council has directed City Attorney Michael Cosentino to develop a policy that prohibits prayers which proselytize or advance one religion...
Iranian Singer Sentenced In Abstentia To 5 Years For Recording of Quranic Verses
Posted on July 20, 2009In Iran, popular singer-composer Mohsen Namjoo-- described as Iran's Bob Dylan-- has been sentenced in abstentia to five years in prison for dishonoring the Quran. Reports last week by Press TV, AFP and the blog Freemuse give details. An Iranian Quran scholar filed a complaint against Namjoo charging that he had presented "an insulting, sneering performance of Quranic verses with musical instruments...
Consent Order Entered In Challenge To City's Speech Ordinance
Posted on July 20, 2009Earlier this month, a New Jersey federal district court entered a Consent Order (full text) reflecting a settlement in Wollod v. City of Wildwood, New Jersey, (D NJ, July 8, 2009). The lawsuit, brought by a Christian evangelist, challenged ordinances that restrict the distribution of literature in the beach town...
Israeli Court Awards Damages To Bedouin Family Excluded From Swimming Pool
Posted on July 20, 2009In Israel, the Beersheba Magistrate's Court today awarded damages equivalent to $2560 (US) to a Bedouin family who were denied entry to a swimming pool in the town of Ofakim. According to YNet News, plaintiffs in the lawsuit alleged discrimination on the basis of religion, race and nationality...
British Police Can Obtain Accommodation for Pagan Holidays
Posted on July 19, 2009BBC News reported Thursday that discussions between the recently-formed Pagan Police Association and Britain's Home Office have resulted in arrangements for Pagan police in some areas to schedule their vacation times to coincide with Pagan holidays. They will be able to take off for up to eight days of pagan holidays each year-- such as the summer solstice and Halloween...
Washington State Begins Rulemaking To Head Off Holiday Display Confusion At Capitol
Posted on July 19, 2009In anticipation of this year's holiday season, the Washington state Department of General Administration last week issued a Pre-proposal Statement of Inquiry and a letter announcing the start of a rule-making process on use of public areas of the Capitol campus...
Priest's Conviction Upheld Over Challenge To Testimony Regarding Religion
Posted on July 19, 2009State v. Bussmann, (MN Ct. App., July 14, 2009), was an appeal after a retrial of Catholic priest John Joseph Bussmann on a charge of criminal sexual conduct with a woman he employed as director of youth ministries. In 2007 the Minnesota Supreme Court, in a fragmented decision, concluded that Bussmann's earlier conviction under the clergy criminal sexual conduct statute, based on the admission of extensive evidence concerning religious doctrine and church policies and practices, violated the Establishment Clause...
Court Says FLDS Members Cannot Intervene In UEP Trust Litigation
Posted on July 19, 2009KSL News reports that on Friday, a Utah judge rejected a motion by several leading members of the FLDS Church to intervene in a court case that is seeking to reform the terms of the United Effort Plan Trust-- the trust that holds title to FLDS Church property...
2nd Circuit: Muslim Scholar Gets Chance To Challenge Visa Denial
Posted on July 19, 2009A Muslim scholar who was prevented from accepting a tenured position at Notre Dame University when his visa was revoked will have his day in court after all. Swiss-based Tariq Ramadan was barred from the U.S. after he disclosed in an interview that he had donated $1,336 to the Association de Secours Palestinien, a group which directed funds to Hamas...
Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases
Posted on July 19, 2009In Barnes v. Pierce, (5th Cir., July 10, 2009), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an inmate's claims under the 1st and 14th Amendments and RLUIPA that his rights were violated when he was precluded from participating in any religious services while on cell restriction, and otherwise was limited to one primary religious service per week...
Hawaiian Church Sued Over Constrution On Former Cemetery Site
Posted on July 18, 2009AP reports on a lawsuit filed in Hawaii last Wednesday to require Honolulu's Kawaiahao Church and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to fully comply with state burial laws in a construction project on land that was once a cemetery. The church is building a $17...
3rd Circuit: Trial Court Properly Refused To Interfere In State Civil Rights Probe
Posted on July 18, 2009In Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association v. Vespa-Papaleo, (3d Cir., July 15, 2009), the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals said that the district court correctly applied the Younger abstention doctrine when it refused enjoin two related investigations by the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights...
8th Circuit Upholds School's Literature Distribution Policy
Posted on July 17, 2009In Roark v. South Iron R-1 School District, (8th Cir., July 16, 2009), the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a school district's policy on distribution of "printed material" in schools by outside organizations. The policy requires the organization to obtain advance approval, but approval will be given unless the material is libelous, obscene, or unlawful; advertises products or services; endorses a candidate; promotes alcohol, tobacco, drugs, or other illegal activity; or is likely to cause substantial disruption at the school...
Obama Nominates Jacqueline Berrien To Head EEOC
Posted on July 17, 2009The White House announced yesterday that President Barack Obama has sent to the Senate the nomination of Jacqueline A. Berrien to chair the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Berrien currently serves as Associate Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF)...
State Agency Removes Website Links To "Open and Affirming" Churches
Posted on July 17, 2009Connecticut's Department of Children and Families has removed from its website links to "open and affirming" churches-- i.e. churches that welcome gays, lesbians and persons who are bisexual and transgender. Yesterday's Hartford Courant reports that the links were removed after the Family Institute of Connecticut (FIC), a group that opposes same-sex marriage, threatened to sue...
Washington Supreme Court Finds Permit Moratorium Violated Church's Rights
Posted on July 17, 2009In City of Woodinville v. Northshore United Church of Christ, (WA Sup. Ct., July 16, 2009), the Washington state Supreme Court held that the city of Woodinville violated a church's free exercise rights protected By Art. I, Sec. 11 of the Washington Constitution when it refused to process the church's application for a temporary use permit so it could host a Tent City for the homeless for a period of 90 days...
South Africa's Constitutional Court Protects Widows In Polygamous Muslim Marriages
Posted on July 17, 2009On Wednesday, South Africa's Constitutional Court held that all the wives in a polygamous Muslim marriage are entitled to claim a share of their husband's property when the husband dies without leaving a will. In Hassam v. Jacobs NO, (So. Afr. Const. Ct...
Senate Passes Hate Crimes Bill As Amendment To Defense Authorization Act
Posted on July 17, 2009On Thursday night, the U.S. Senate agreed to add the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act as an amendment to the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act. First by a vote of 78-13, the Senate agreed to an amendment clarifying that the hate crime provisions should not be construed or applied to infringe on First Amendment rights...
US Military Trains Afghan Army To Show Its Muslim Face To Locals
Posted on July 17, 2009The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported on efforts by the U.S. military in Afghanistan to train the Afghan National Army to use religion to counter propaganda of the Taliban. Taliban fighters ride motorcycles through small villages telling locals that the Afghan army is led by godless Communists who are trying to rid the country of Islam...
Minister's Editorial Is Not Basis For Revoking His Probation
Posted on July 16, 2009A Michigan appellate court, while upholding the conviction of Rev. Edward Pinkney for paying voters $5 apiece to vote in an election for the recall of a city commissioner and for possessing absentee ballots, reversed the lower court's revocation of Pinkney's probation...
Sotomayor Questioned About Her Free Exercise Jurisprudence
Posted on July 16, 2009Finally yesterday, in the third day of Judiciary Committee hearings on the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, one Senator asked her a question about her decisions on religious freedom. Here, from the full transcript, is the relevant exchange between her and Sen...
Ohio Church Groups Say They Will Try To Block Newly Authorized Slot Machines
Posted on July 16, 2009After a long political battle, the Ohio legislature on Monday passed a balanced budget (H.B. 1) by authorizing the Governor to permit installation of slot machines (video lottery terminals "VLTs") at Ohio's seven race tracks. The slots are projected to bring in $933 million in revenue to the state...
Suit Charges Military Contractor With Refusing To Accommodate Wearing of Hijab
Posted on July 16, 2009In Houston (TX), a federal lawsuit charging religious discrimination has been filed against K.B.R., Inc. (the former Kellogg Brown & Root). The company is particularly known for its extensive work in Iraq under contracts with the military. The complaint (full text) in Tounkara v...
Article Profiles Activities of Child Evangelism Fellowship
Posted on July 16, 2009The August issue of Harper's magazine carries a long article by by Rachel Aviv titled Like I Was Jesus: How To Bring a Nine Year Old To Christ. It explores the work of Child Evangelism Fellowship, the group that won an important Supreme Court victory in 2001 in Good News Club v...
Court Upholds University's Facilities Use Policy
Posted on July 15, 2009In Rock for Life- UMBC v. Hrabowski, (D MD, July 8, 2009), a Maryland federal district court rejected claims by a student anti-abortion group that its 1st and 14th Amendment rights were violated by university restrictions on the location of a display sponsored by the group...
Lawsuit Challenges Congress' Decision To Add Motto and Pledge To Capitol Visitor Center
Posted on July 15, 2009The Freedom from Religion Foundation yesterday filed suit in federal district court in Wisconsin challenging Congress' directive to the Architect of the Capitol to engrave the motto "In God We Trust" and the Pledge of Allegiance in the Capitol Visitor Center...
Court Enjoins Community College's Sexual Harassment Policy As Overbroad
Posted on July 15, 2009In Lopez v. Candaele, (CD CA, July 10, 2009), a California federal district court issued a preliminary injunction enjoining enforcement of Los Angeles Community College District?s Sexual Harassment Policy. The court found that the policy is overbroad, prohibiting a substantial amount of protected speech...
Senate Appropriations Bill Has Security Funds For Non-Profits; Extends Religious Worker Program
Posted on July 15, 2009Last Thursday, the U.S. Senate passed its version of H.R. 2892, the Homeland Security Appropriations Act. A conference committee was appointed to reconcile differences between the Senate version and the version the House has already passed. Two interesting provisions are included in the Senate bill:As reported by JTA, Title III's appropriations for the State Homeland Security Grant Program [pg...
Sikh Group Wants Governor To Veto Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act
Posted on July 15, 2009Yesterday the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund wrote Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, asking him to veto the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act (SB 786) which was passed by the state legislature several weeks ago. (Full text of letter.) The bill generally requires employers to reasonably accommodate employees' religious practices and observances...
Texas Board of Education Panel Splits On Role of Religion In History Curriculum
Posted on July 15, 2009The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported on the work of the Texas State Board of Education's panel of experts who are reviewing the state's social studies curriculum. The panel is evenly divided between social conservatives and more moderate or liberal in-state university faculty with expertise in education or social sciences...
Issues of Religion Largely Absent From Second Day of Sotomayor Hearings
Posted on July 15, 2009Yesterday, at the second day of hearings on the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor as Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, religion, religious freedom and church-state issues received little attention either in questions posed to the nominee or in her answers...
Evangelist Challenges University's Speech Policy
Posted on July 15, 2009On Monday, a traveling Christian evangelist filed a federal lawsuit against Georgia Southern University, challenging its campus speech policy. The complaint (full text) in Bloedorn v. Grube, (SD GA, filed 7/13/2009), alleges that while the University has opened accessible areas on campus for outside speakers, it still requires application for a permit and reserves discretion to approve or disapprove any particular speaker...
Malaysian Police Investigate Reporter's Activities In Attending Mass Under False Pretenses
Posted on July 14, 2009In Malaysia, where causing religious disharmony can be prosecuted as a crime, police are investigating two Muslim men who attended a Roman Catholic mass as part of an investigative article published in the Malay-language Al-Islam magazine. AP today reports that the article was intended to investigate rumors that Muslim teenagers were being converted to Christianity...
Leahy To Introduce Hate Crimes Bill As Amendment To Defense Authorization Act
Posted on July 14, 2009Sen. Patrick Leahy yesterday announced that he would introduce the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act as a bipartisan amendment to the National Defense Authorization bill this week. Last year the Senate approved the measure as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill, but it was removed in conference after opposition from the Bush White House...
Issues of Religion Play Little Role In First Day of Sotomayor Hearings
Posted on July 14, 2009Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held its first day of hearings on the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. The day began with opening statements from each member of the Committee. Then the Senators from Sotomayor's home state of New York (Sens...
FCC Change In TV Rules Impacts Many Church Wireless Microphone Systems
Posted on July 14, 2009According to an ABP report yesterday, many churches will be surprised to learn that they have been affected by the Federal Communications Commission's decision requiring television stations, as of June 12, to end analog broadcasts. As part of the conversion, all stations were required to move to channels 2 through 51-- something made possible by the improved efficiency of digital transmissions...
Groups Oppose Expansion of Virginia Islamic Saudi Academy
Posted on July 14, 2009The Fairfax County, Virginia Board of Supervisors held a public hearing yesterday on the proposed expansion of the campus of the Islamic Saudi Academy. The controversial college and preparatory school has close ties with the Saudi government. Fox News reported yesterday that a coalition of around ten groups oppose the expansion...
Lawsuit In Egypt Seeks To Rescind Prize Given To Controversial Writer
Posted on July 13, 2009In Egypt, supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood have filed a lawsuit seeking to have the Ministry of Culture's State Award of Merit in Social Sciences withdrawn from author Sayed al-Qimni. Al Arabiya today reports that opponents object that: "His works deride Islam and he is skeptical about the message of Prophet Mohamed...
Russian Orthodox Church Gets New Power To Preview Duma Legislation
Posted on July 13, 2009The Moscow Times reported last week that the Russian Orthodox Church will now be consulted in advance by United Russia deputies in the lower house of legislature so it can preview all legislation that will be considered by the State Duma. The agreement came after Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill conferred with two senior United Russia deputies over the Duma's ratification in May of the European Social Charter...
World Football Regulator Warns Brazil's Team Over Religious Slogans On T-Shirts
Posted on July 13, 2009FIFA, world football's governing body, has sent a warning letter to the Brazilian football federation after their players wore T-shirts with Christian slogans during the finals of the Confederations Cup last month. Apparently the T-shirts were under their jerseys, and were displayed after the game in victory photos...
Recent Articles of Interest
Posted on July 13, 2009From SSRN:Amos N. Guiora, Religious Extremism: A Fundamental Danger, (South Texas Law Review, Vol. 50, No. 743, 2009).From SmartCILP and elsewhere;Casey Luskin, Does Challenging Darwin Create Constitutional Jeopardy? A Comprehensive Survey of Case Law Regarding the teaching of Biological Origins, 32 Hamline Law Review 1 (2009)...
Group Presses 2 California Cities To End Sectarian Invocations
Posted on July 12, 2009The Freedom from Religion Foundation continues to demand that city councils across the country end the practice of opening their sessions with sectarian Christian prayer. Two California cities-- Tracy and Lodi-- are currently among its targets. The Tracy Press on Friday editorialized: Tracy's prayer policy may be inclusive in its intentions, but it's exclusive in its practice of rotating only those religious leaders (all Christian, like the council) who have come forth to offer invocations...
Nominee To Head NIH Is Strong Advocate For Compatibilibty of Science and Faith
Posted on July 12, 2009This past Wednesday, the White House announced the nomination of renowned geneticist Dr. Francis S. Collins to head the National Institutes of Health. Collins headed the NIH's Human Genome Project. Yesterday and today, articles in the Wall Street Journal and AlterNet focus on another part of Collins' biography-- his strong advocacy for the position that science (including evolutionary theory) and religious faith are compatible...
Summum's Challenge To Duchesne City Dismissed After Case Was Mooted
Posted on July 12, 2009Last March, after the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum that a Utah city need not accept a "Seven Aphorisms" monument for a local park where a 10 Commandments monument already stood, it remanded to the lower courts a more complicated companion case, Summum v...
Catholic Chaplains Complain About California's Proposed Lethal Injection Protocol
Posted on July 12, 2009On June 30, the California Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections held a hearing on its Proposed Regulations on lethal injections (full text). Executions in California were suspended in 2006 after a federal district court in Morales v. Hickman raised questions about whether California's protocol for executions created too great a risk of extreme pain...
Rights Group Says Arrest By Saudi Religious Police Led To Honor Killing
Posted on July 12, 2009In Saudi Arabia, the Society for Defending Women?s Rights says that the country's religious police, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, are ultimately responsible for the "honor killing" of two sisters by their brother. Qatar's The Peninsula reported yesterday that Society claimed religious police sparked the anger of the women's brother by arresting the women, ages 19 and 21, for mixing with unrelated males...
British House of Lords Keeps Free Speech Defense To Inciting Hatred Against Gays
Posted on July 12, 2009In Britain last Thursday, the House of Lords, by a vote of 186-133, deleted from the proposed Coroners and Justice Bill section 61 which would have done away with a statutory free speech defense to the crime of inciting homophobic hatred. The defense is found in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 which outlaws inciting hatred on the ground of sexual orientation, but goes on to provide: In this Part, for the avoidance of doubt, the discussion or criticism of sexual conduct or practices or the urging of persons to refrain from or modify such conduct or practices shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred...
Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases
Posted on July 12, 2009In Isom v. Lowe, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56922 (MD PA, July 6, 2009), a Pennsylvania federal district court held that prison officials were justified in taking a Muslim prisoner off the "Common Fare" diet after it was found that he was purchasing and consuming regular items from the Commissary that do not comply with the "Common Fare" diet...
Ireland Passes New Blasphemy Law, Reducing Penalties for Violation
Posted on July 11, 2009This week, Ireland's parliament, the Oireachtas, passed the Defamation Act 2009 to replace the Defamation Act 1961. Section 36 of the new law imposes a fine of up to 25,000 Euros on anyone who publishes or utters blasphemous matter. In defining the offense, the new law provides: (2) For the purposes of this section, a person publishes or utters blasphemous matter if?(a) he or she publishes or utters matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantialnumber of the adherents of that religion, and(b) he or she intends, by the publication or utterance of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage...
Arizona Governor Signs Students' Religious Liberties Act
Posted on July 11, 2009On July 10, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed HB 2357, the Students' Religious Liberties Act. It bars public schools from discriminating against parents or students on the basis of religious viewpoints or expression, including religious viewpoints included in class assignments, artwork or coursework...
British Methodists Ban Its Members From Joining British National Party
Posted on July 10, 2009Ekklesia reported yesterday that Britain's Methodist Church has passed a resolution at its annual conference providing that: "No member of the Church can also be a member of a political party whose constitution, aims or objectives promote racism. This specifically includes, but is not solely limited to, the British National Party...
Canadian FLDS Faces Property, Polygamy Prosecution, Issues
Posted on July 10, 2009While the U.S. media have given a good deal of attention to the FLDS Church members living in the twin towns of Colorado City, AZ and Hildale, UT, there is also a group of FLDS members in the Canadian town of Bountiful, in British Columbia. This week reports surfaced on two rather interesting developments affecting that community...
ACLU Objects To Jail's Censorship Of Biblical Verses In Correspondence
Posted on July 10, 2009An ACLU press release yesterday disclosed that the ACLU has written the Superintendent of Virginia's Rappahannock Regional Jail (full text of letter) demanding that it end its rather unusual policy on censorship of incoming letters to inmates. The jail takes out all Biblical passages from incoming mail, as well as any material inserted into a letter by cutting and pasting it from the Internet...
Church Controversy Moves To Florida State Court
Posted on July 10, 2009In Palm City Florida, a state court lawsuit was filed Wednesday by seven members of the Palm City Christian Church against the church's pastor, Anthony Galbicka. TC Palm reports the suit charges the pastor with breach of fiduciary duty and seeks a ruling "ousting" Pastor Tony and voiding "improper and/or illegal" actions he took...
House Passes Resolution Calling for Motto To Be Added To Visitor Center
Posted on July 10, 2009The House of Representatives yesterday, by a vote of 410-8, passed H. Con. Res. 131, directing the Architect of the Capitol to engrave the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Motto, "In God We Trust," in the Capitol Visitor Center. Reporting yesterday on the House action, the Fresno Bee said that Sen...
President Obama Meets With Pope Benedict XVI
Posted on July 10, 2009President Barack Obama and Pope Benedict XVI held private talks for about 40 minutes this afternoon at the Vatican. Reuters and AFP both report on the meeting at which Obama briefed the Pope on the just completed G-8 Summit meetings. They also discussed the sensitive issue of bioethics on which the two have significant disagreements...
Questions Raised Over Canadian Prime Minister At Funeral Mass
Posted on July 09, 2009Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper has created at least a protocol stir. Last Friday he attended the New Brunswick funeral of former Canadian governor general Romeo Leblanc, a Catholic. St. John's (NB) Telegraphic Journal and CTV Toronto both reported yesterday that a television clip of Harper, a Protestant, receiving communion at the Catholic funeral mass, raises a question of what he did with the communion wafer he received...
House Climate Change Bill Includes Provisions Of Interest
Posted on July 09, 2009On June 26, the U.S. House of Representatives passed and sent to the Senate the massive American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (HR 2454). Several provisions in the climate bill are of interest to followers of church-state issues:Section 202 includes faith institutions and other non-profits in the group of nonresidential buildings that are eligible for assistance in retrofitting to achieve energy efficiency and improvements in water use...
9th Circuit Vacates Preliminary Injunction Against Pharmacy Board Regulations
Posted on July 09, 2009In Stormans Inc. v. Selecky, (9th Cir., July 8. 2009), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a preliminary injunction issued by a federal district court enjoining enforcement of Washington State Pharmacy Board regulations that require pharmacists to fill all prescriptions (including Plan B, the "morning after" contraceptive) even if doing so violates their religious beliefs...
Activities of White House Faith-Based Director Are Outlined
Posted on July 09, 2009Beliefnet yesterday carried an interesting portrayal of the activities of 26-year old Joshua DuBois, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Every morning he sends a devotional message to President Obama's Blackberry, and daily receives some 750 e-mails from religious leaders, government officials and reporters...
Police Say Theft of Body May Have Been For Religious Ritual
Posted on July 09, 2009Stamford, Connecticut police are investigating the theft of a young girl's body yesterday from a Connecticut cemetery, saying they suspect some sort of ritualistic religious motivation. They say "a lot of things point to" that conclusion. AP reports that the body was that of a 2-year old girl who had lived much longer than expected in light of a condition that kept her brain from developing fully...
Pope "Gently Fires" Officials Responsible For Lifting Excommunication of Holocaust Denier
Posted on July 09, 2009Zenit, the National Catholic Reporter and the London Mail all report that yesterday at the Vatican, the other shoe dropped in the embarrassing lifting by Pope Benedict XVI of the excommunication of Holocaust-denying Lefebvrite Bishop Richard Williamson...
Massachusetts Sues Challenging Constitutionality of DOMA
Posted on July 09, 2009Yesterday the state of Massachusetts filed suit in federal district court challenging the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The complaint (full text) in Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (D MA, filed 7/8/2009), alleges that in enacting the law, the federal government violated the 10th Amendment and exceeded its powers under the Spending Clause...
California Cities Welcome Sikh Police Officers
Posted on July 08, 2009The Sikh American Legal Defense Fund today announced that six California police departments have reaffirmed their commitment to equal employment opportunities for Sikhs. Their religiously mandated turbans and uncut hair will not be impediments to their being hired...
Yankees Settle Lawsuit Over Restrictions During Playing of "God Bless America"
Posted on July 08, 2009The New York Times and AP reported yesterday that a federal lawsuit filed last April against the New York Yankees and the city of New York has been settled. Plaintiff, Bradford Campeau-Laurion, claimed he was the victim of religious and political discrimination when a police officer enforced a policy of restricting fan movement during the playing of "God Bless America"-- a song played during the 7th inning stretch at Yankee baseball games...
Pope Issues Encyclical On Globalization and Econmic Development
Posted on July 08, 2009Yesterday, on the eve of the G-8 economic summit in Italy, Pope Benedict XVI issued his third encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth). The document includes extensive discussion of issues relating to global economic development. The Vatican also issued a summary synthesizing the highlights of the longer document...
In Louisiana, Catholic Death-Row Inmates Will Have Access To Mass
Posted on July 07, 2009Catholic prisoners on death row at Louisiana's maximum-security state penitentiary at Angola will now have an opportunity to celebrate mass. Yesterday's New Orleans Times-Picayune reports on a settlement reached in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of death-row inmate Donald Lee Leger who objected that mostly Baptist religious services were shown on television sets...
Turkey's Government Unhappy With Planned Reality TV Show Aimed At Conversion
Posted on July 07, 2009Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate is refusing to send an imam to appear on a new reality television program being launched in September by Istanbul-based television station Kanal T. Reuters last Friday reported that the planned show, Penitents Compete, will feature a rabbi, an imam, a priest and a Buddhist monk, each of whom will try, on camera, to convert ten atheists...
Malaysian Court Says Art Director Died A Muslim-- No Jurisdiction To Hear Family's Objections
Posted on July 07, 2009In Malaysia, the Selangor High Court has ruled that art director Mohan Singh will be buried according to Muslim rites by the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais). Today's New Straits Times reports on the complicated decision. Mohan died May 25, and his family claimed he was a practicing Sikh...
Britain's International Development Program Will Double Aid To Faith-Based Groups
Posted on July 07, 2009Ekklesia reports that a White Paper issued yesterday by Britain's Department for International Development promises to double the funding for faith-based groups providing international aid. The report, titled Building Our Common Future, promises (at Sec...