Religion & Law

New Developments In the Abortion Rights Controversy

Posted on November 05, 2020
The past few days have brought several developments in the battle over abortion rights. In Colorado, an Initiative measure on the ballot that would have banned abortions after 22 weeks of gestation was defeated 59% to 41% (89% of precincts reporting)...

Supreme Court Will Hear Oral Arguments Today In Catholic Foster Care Agency Case

Posted on November 04, 2020
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. In the case,  the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld against 1st Amendment challenges the City of Philadelphia's policy of refusing to contract with foster care agencies, such as Catholic Social Services, that will not place children with same-sex married couples...

Religious Voter Trends To Watch In Today's Election

Posted on November 03, 2020
A Religion News Service analysis suggests 7 religious voter trends to watch for as election results begin to be reported today: Black Protestant turnout; Muslim turnout in Michigan; Jewish turnout in Pennsylvania and Florida; Shifts among white mainliners and Catholics in the Rust Belt; Small but important shifts among Hispanic and Latino religious voters; Any movement among white evangelicals; and Latter-day Saints in Arizona.

Suit Filed Over School's Ban On Religious Messages On COVID-19 Masks

Posted on November 03, 2020
Suit was filed yesterday in a Mississippi federal district court challenging the policy of a Mississippi elementary school that prohibits display of religious (as well as political and sexual) messages on masks worn during the COVID-19 pandemic. The complaint (full text) in L...

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New Survey On Attitudes Toward LGBT Rights

Posted on November 03, 2020
The Public Religion Research Institute yesterday released polling results on the extent of support in the U.S. for same-sex marriage and LGBT anti-discrimination laws. The study finds that majorities of Americans favor allowing same-sex marriage, oppose allowing religiously affiliated agencies that receive taxpayer funding to refuse to accept qualified same-sex couples as foster parents, oppose religiously-based refusals to serve gays and lesbians, and favor allowing transgender individuals to serve in the armed forces...

Britain's Equality Commission Cites Labour Party For Antisemitism

Posted on November 02, 2020
Last week, Britain's Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) issued a 130-page report (full text) on its investigation into antisemitism in Britain's Labour Party. According to the EHRC's Announcement of the report, the agency has served the Labour Party with an "unlawful act" notice...

Ballot Measures To Watch In Tomorrow's Election

Posted on November 02, 2020
While national attention on tomorrow's election has been focused on the Presidential and Congressional races, individuals in several states will be voting on ballot measures that impact churches, relate to law and religion or deal with religiously sensitive topics...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on November 02, 2020
 From SSRN:Kyle Velte, et. al.,  Brief of Amici Curiae Legal Scholars in Support of Equality in Support of Respondents, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (August 19, 2020).Jonathan Harkavy, 2020 Supreme Court Commentary: Employment Law, (September 9, 2020)...

Court Upholds New York's COVOD-19 Cluster Action Initiative

Posted on November 01, 2020
In Soos v. Cuomo, (ND NY, Oct. 30, 2020), a New York federal district court refused to enjoin New York's Cluster Action Initiative begun in early October that targets specific areas for enhanced COVID-19 restrictions.  Houses of Worship were a specific concern of Gov...

State Department Allows "Israel" To Be Listed As Birthplace On Passports of Americans Born In Jerusalem

Posted on October 31, 2020
Last Wednesday, Politco reported:The Trump administration is expected to soon announce that the U.S. passports of Americans born in Jerusalem can now mention Israel as the country of birth.The decision, confirmed by a U.S. official Wednesday, is the latest by President Donald Trump that favors Israel in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict...

Parents' Challenge To School's LGBT Non-Discrimination Rules Dismissed For Lack of Standing

Posted on October 31, 2020
 In Reynolds v. Talberg, (WD MI, Oct 30, 2020), a Michigan federal district court dismissed, primarily for lack of standing, parents' challenge to a school district's policies that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression...

1st Circuit Upholds Maine's Exclusion of Sectarian Schools From Tuition Reimbursement

Posted on October 30, 2020
In Carson v. Makin, (1st Cir., Oct. 29, 2020), the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Maine's statutory provisions that pay tuition to out-of-district public or private high schools for students whose districts do not operate a high school...

9th Circuit: No Qualified Immunity For Refusing Inmate's Religious Diet Request

Posted on October 30, 2020
In Thomas v. Baca, (9th Cir., Oct. 28, 2020), the U.S.9th Circuit Court of Appeals held that qualified immunity was not a defense under the facts of this case for prison officials who refused an inmate's request for a vegetarian-kosher diet. The inmate showed his request was rooted in deep religious belief...

Indian Tribe Loses Free Exercise Claim In Suit Over Handling of Human Remains At Alamo

Posted on October 30, 2020
In Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation v. Alamo Trust, Inc., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 201209 (WD TX, Sept. 23, 2020), a Texas federal district court dismissed a suit brought by an Indian tribe complaining that-- because they are not a federally recognized tribe-- they were excluded from the human remains protocol governing remains found during renovations at the Alamo...

European Court Rules On Jehovah's Witness Right To Payment For Surgery Without Blood Transfusion

Posted on October 30, 2020
In A. v. Vesel?bas ministrija, (Eur. Ct. Justice, Oct. 29, 2020), the European Court of Justice instructed a Latvian court on the criteria to apply in a case in which a Jehovah's Witness child living in Latvia needed heart surgery, but the family had religious objections to blood transfusions...

Suit Challenges Michigan Mask Mandate Imposed On Catholic School

Posted on October 29, 2020
Suit was filed last week in a Michigan federal district court challenging state COVID-19 orders requiring elementary school students to wear masks during the school day. The complaint (full text) in Resurrection School v. Gordon, (WD MI, filed 10/22/2020), alleges, among other things, that the requirement violates students' free exercise and free speech rights...

Suit Challenges Missionaries Class In Oklahoma Elementary School

Posted on October 29, 2020
 Suit was filed in an Oklahoma federal district court this week by secular humanists who object to an Oklahoma elementary school's "Missionaries" program which brings Christian missionaries into the school as part of the regular curriculum for students in pre-K through 8th grade...

President Sets Refugee Numbers for FY 2021 With Emphasis On Persecuted Minority Religions

Posted on October 29, 2020
In a Memorandum (full text) issued on Oct. 27, President Trump set the number of refugees to be admitted to the United States in FY 2021 (July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021) as 15,000.  Of this number, 6,000 are unused spaces from FY 2020 that were not used because of the COVID-19 crisis...

6th Circuit: Bus Ad Ban Is Unconstituitonal

Posted on October 28, 2020
In American Freedom Defense Initiative v. Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART), (6th Cir., Oct. 23, 2020), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals held unconstitutional a Detroit public transit authority's rejections of an ad aimed at Muslims considering leaving Islam...

Religious Affiliation of 2020 Electorate Reviewed

Posted on October 28, 2020
The Pew Research Center this week published an overview of the characteristics of the 2020 electorate. It had this to say about the religious affiliation of registered voters in the U.S.:Christians account for the majority of registered voters in the U...

4th Circuit Hears Oral Arguments In Conversion Therapy Ban Challenge

Posted on October 27, 2020
Yesterday the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Doyle v. Hogan. (Audio of full oral arguments.) In the case, a Maryland federal district court dismissed free speech and free exercise of religion challenges to Maryland's ban on mental health professionals engaging in conversion therapy with minors...

University Student Government Court Orders Reinstatement of Student Senate President Ousted For Religious Views

Posted on October 27, 2020
 In a 19-page decision, the Florida State University Student Supreme Court held that a Catholic student who had been removed as Student Senate president because of religious views he expressed criticizing Black Lives Matter, the ACLU and Reclaim the Block as taking views opposed to Catholic teachings...

Religious Claim To Cancel Social Security Participation Fails

Posted on October 27, 2020
 In Davis El v. Saul, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 194196 (MD TN, Oct. 20, 2020), a Tennessee federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendation (2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 195880 (Aug. 31, 2020)) and dismissed a suit by plaintiff who claimed that his free exercise rights, and other constitutional rights, were violated because the government gave him no way to terminate his participation in the Social Security system...

Court Refuses To Dismiss Indictment In Tree of Life Synagogue Case

Posted on October 27, 2020
In United States v. Bowers, (WD PA, Oct. 15, 2020), a Pennsylvania federal district court refused to dismiss an indictment under the federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the Church Arson Act brought against defendant charged in the 2018 attack on Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on October 26, 2020
 From SSRN:Timothy Lubin, Dignity and Status in Ancient and Medieval India, (Human Dignity in Asia: A Dialogue between Law and Culture, edited by Jimmy Chia-Shin Hsu (Cambridge University Press, Forthcoming).Neil James Foster, Statutory Construction and Biblical Hermeneutics- Law in the Service of the Gospel?,  ((2020) 252 St Mark's Review 106-128)...

US Signs Multinational Women's Health Declaration That Rejects Abortion

Posted on October 24, 2020
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that on Oct. 22, the United States co-sponsored a virtual signing ceremony for the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women's Health and Strengthening the Family. The Declaration (full text) which calls for universal health care and supporting the role of the family was signed by 32 countries...

Poland's Top Court Invalidates Law Permitting Abortion In Cases of Fetal Defects

Posted on October 23, 2020
Amnesty International and AP report that yesterday Poland's Constitutional Court has held unconstitutional the provision in Poland's Act on Family Planning, Human Embryo Protection, and Conditions of Legal Pregnancy Termination that permits abortion in cases of  "severe and irreversible fetal defect or incurable illness that threatens the fetus? life...

Title VII Religious Exemption Does Not Protect Against Suit Over Sexual Orientation Discrimination

Posted on October 23, 2020
 In Starkey v. Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis, Inc., (SD IN, Oct. 21,2020), an Indiana federal district court held that a former Catholic school guidance counselor who was fired because of her same-sex marriage may bring a discrimination claim under Title VII...

Student Sues Over Ban On Shirt With Anti-Gay Message

Posted on October 23, 2020
Suit was filed in a Tennessee federal district court last week by a high school student and her father challenging a public school's interpretation of a Policy in its Student Handbook that bars clothing with offensive messages, including sexual connotations...

5th Circuit: Exception To Notice Requirement Under Texas RFRA Applies

Posted on October 23, 2020
 In Gonzales v. Mathis Independent School District, (5th Cir., Oct. 22, 2020), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a Texas federal district court's issuance of a preliminary injunction to prevent a public school's exclusion of a student from extracurricular activities...

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