Religion & Law

Preliminary Injunction Denied In Suit By Counseling Student Objecting To Remediation Plan

Posted on August 22, 2010
In Keeton v. Anderson-Wiley, (SD GA, Aug. 20, 2010), a Georgia federal district court refused to issue a preliminary injunction in a suit by a graduate student in counseling at Augusta State University who was required to complete a Remediation Plan regarding counseling of homosexual clients in order to remain in the program...

Westboro Leader In Interview Justifies Picketing Of Soldiers' Funerals

Posted on August 22, 2010
The Huffington Post on Friday carried an interview by investigative reporter Joshua Kors of Pastor Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in which Phelps justifies his group's confrontational picketing of veterans' funerals and other venues. Here are a few excerpts:Phelps: The mission of the church is to preach to a doomed world, to let them know about the second coming of Jesus...

Court Enforces Restrictive Covenant To Bar Construction of Chabad Center

Posted on August 22, 2010
In Criscenzo v. Chabad-Lubavitch of  the Shoreline, Inc., (CT Super. Ct., Aug. 13, 2010), a Connecticut trial court judge enforced a restrictive covenant in a deed to bar Chabad Lubavitch from building a Chabad center to be used as a synagogue, school and activity center on residential property in the town of Guilford...

Magistrate Rejects Challenge To North Dakota Ten Commandments Monument

Posted on August 22, 2010
In Red River Freethinkers v. City of Fargo, (D ND, Aug. 16, 2010), a North Dakota federal magistrate judge recommended that a lawsuit seeking removal of a Ten Commandments monument from the civic plaza, land owned by the city of Fargo, be dismissed. In 2005, the court rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to the monument by the same plaintiffs...

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EEOC Lawsuit Charges Failure To Accommodate Employee's Sabbath

Posted on August 22, 2010
The EEOC announced in an Aug. 12 press release that it has filed suit in a North Carolina federal district court against Measurement, Inc., an educational company, charging that it fired an employee rather than accommodate her religious needs to avoid work on Saturdays...

West Reacts Strongly To Stoning Sentences Under Islamic Law

Posted on August 22, 2010
In its Behind the News section, today's New York Times carries an article exploring the particularly strong reaction in Western countries to two recent cases of execution by stoning under Islamic law. In Afghanistan last week, the Taliban stoned a young couple to death for trying to elope...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on August 22, 2010
In Vazquez v. Ragonese, (3d Cir., Aug. 18, 2010), the 3rd Circuit remanded to the district court for consideration under RLUIPA of a prisoner's claims that prior institutions have failed to forward certain religious items (including oil, soaps, tarot cards and a multi-colored beaded necklace) to him after he was transferred to another institution...

US Soldiers Pressured To Attend Commanding General's Religious Concerts

Posted on August 21, 2010
Talk To Action reported Thursday on a series of Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concerts at Fort Eustice and Fort Lee, both Army bases in Virginia. Supposedly attendance is voluntary, but soldiers feel pressured to attend. It is reported that in May an NCO put group of soliders at Ft...

FLDS Wants Utah High Court To Stay Trustee's Action On UEP Trust

Posted on August 20, 2010
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that members of the FLDS church filed a petition with the Utah Supreme Court yesterday asking it to stay, pending its decision in the matter, all but the most necessary acts regarding the United Effort Plan Trust which is being reformed under trial court supervision...

Pew Poll Shows More Americans Think Obama Is Muslim

Posted on August 20, 2010
Yesterday the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released a new poll on Religion, Politics and the President. The finding making the most headlines (ABC News) is that a growing number of Americans incorrectly believe that President Obama is Muslim...

City Incurs High Legal Fees Battling Hindu Woman Over Assessment To Remove Tree

Posted on August 20, 2010
WLS-AM 890 reported yesterday that the city of Evanston, Illinois has incurred some $40,000 in legal fees seeking to collect a $635 special assessment against Padma Rao who refused to pay on religious grounds.  The assessment involved an alley paving project, and required the removal of a tree that stood near Rao's condominium...

Muslim Disney Employee Files EEOC Complaint Over Wearing Hijab

Posted on August 20, 2010
The Orange County (CA) Register reported on Wednesday that a Muslim employee at a cafe in a Disneyland resort hotel has filed a compliant with the EEOC charging discrimination. Imane Boudlal says she was sent home four times for attempting to wear a hijab in her work as a hostess at Storytellers Cafe in Disney's Grand Californian Hotel...

Court Refuses To Issue Preliminary Injunction Against University's Speaker Rules

Posted on August 20, 2010
In McGlone v. Bell, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84578 (MD TN, Aug. 16, 2010), a Tennessee federal district court refused to grant a preliminary injunction in a suit brought by a Christian evangelist challenging Tennessee Technological University's policy on outside speakers' use of campus facilities...

Evangelist Franklin Graham Says President Obama Was Born A Muslim But Has Now Accepted Jesus Christ

Posted on August 20, 2010
In a rather surprising interview (video) with CNN's John King yesterday, a leading Christian evangelist, Franklin Graham, made these comments on President Obama's religious beliefs (excerpts as reported by ABC News):I think the president's problem is that he was born a Muslim, his father was a Muslim...

Time's Cover Story Asks Whether US Is Islamophobic

Posted on August 20, 2010
The cover of this week's Time magazine features the question: "Is America Islamophobic?" The lead story, abridged online, observes in part:Although the American strain of Islamophobia lacks some of the traditional elements of religious persecution ? there's no sign that violence against Muslims is on the rise, for instance ? there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that hate speech against Muslims and Islam is growing both more widespread and more heated...

New York's Ban On Sunday Service of Process Only Applies If Service Interrupts Person's Sabbath

Posted on August 19, 2010
New York's General Business Law, Sec. 11, prohibits service of process in civil cases on Sundays. However in Carbon Capital Management, LLC v American Express Co., (Sup. Ct. NY Nassau, July 29, 2010), a New York trial court upheld the validity of service on Sunday on the concierge in defendant's apartment builiding...

Last Catholic Adoption Agency In Britain Loses Attempt To Operate Without Placements To Same-Sex Couples

Posted on August 19, 2010
Today's London Telegraph reports that the last Catholic adoption agency operating in Britain has lost its attempt to continue to operate while refusing to place children with same-sex couples. Since the Equality Act Sexual Orientation Regulations came into effect (see prior posting), eleven Catholic adoption agencies have either closed down or severed their ties with the church...

10th Circuit Says Utah Highway Patrol Cross Memorials Violate Establishment Clause

Posted on August 19, 2010
In American Atheists, Inc. v. Duncan, (10th Cir., Aug. 18, 2010), the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Utah Highway Patrol Association violated the Establishment Clause when it put up on public land some 13 crosses, each 12 feet high, as memorials to Utah Highway Patrol members who were killed in the line of duty...

Australian Judge Says Witness Cannot Wear Niqab

Posted on August 19, 2010
In a widely followed case in Perth, Australia (see prior posting), a District Court judge has ruled that a female witness may not testify wearing a niqab. However the court will consult with the woman's attorneys about other ways to accommodate her concerns about modesty...

Maryland Farms Cater To Muslim Immigrants For Slaughter of Goats

Posted on August 19, 2010
Today's Washington Post reports on the booming business-- especially before Ramadan and other feasts-- of farmers in Maryland who sells goats to Muslim immigrants who want to slaughter them in accordance with their own Halal traditions. The federal Meat Inspection Act permits this, so long as the customer buys the animal alive and slaughters it without help from the farmer...

Federal Circuit Says "Church" Satus Under Internal Revenue Code Requires Regular Communal Worship

Posted on August 19, 2010
In Foundation of Human Understanding v. United States, (Fed. Cir., Aug. 16, 2010), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that the Foundation of Human Understanding, while retaining its 501(c)(3) non-profit status, did not qualify as a "church" for purposes of Sec...

Bosnian Parliament To Consider Ban On Niqab

Posted on August 19, 2010
A release from the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) published yesterday in BikyaMasr reports that the Central Parliament in Bosnia is about to consider a bill to ban Muslim women from wearing the full face veil in public.  The proposed law, which would fine women 50 Euros for violations, bans clothing that prevents identification...

Senate Follows House In Adopting Resolution On Religous Minorities In Iraq

Posted on August 18, 2010
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom yesterday issued a release applauding the U.S. Senate's Aug. 5 adoption of S. Res. 322, expressing concern about the plight of religious minorities in Iraq. The House of Representatives adopted a similar resolution, H...

Establishment Clause Challenge To Illinois Capital Appropriations Bill Fails

Posted on August 18, 2010
In Sherman v. Quinn, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 83313 (CD IL, Aug. 16, 2010), an Illinois federal district court has dismissed both facial and as-applied Establishment Clause challenges to Illinois 2009 capital appropriations bill.  Activist Rob Sherman had sought to enjoin appropriations to 176 groups...

Dearborn, MI High School Football Coaches Accommodate Ramadan

Posted on August 18, 2010
At Dearborn, Michigan's Fordson High School, where 95% of the football team's players are Muslim, coach Walter Zaban has made some unusual changes to the practice schedule to accommodate the Ramadan fasting by his players. The Detroit News reported last week that most of last week's practices began at 11:00 p...

Missouri Federal District Court Strikes Down MO Funeral Picketing Law

Posted on August 18, 2010
In Phelps-Roper v. Koster, (WD MO, Aug. 16, 2010), a Missouri federal district court ruled that Missouri's statutes barring protests near a funeral are unconstitutional. Missouri enacted two versions of the statute-- the narrower version to take effect if the broader version is declared unconstitutional...

North Carolina Appeals Court Says Presbyterian College's Police Force Violates Establishment Clause

Posted on August 18, 2010
In State of North Carolina v. Yencer, (NC App., Aug. 17, 2010), the North Carolina Court of Appeals held that the campus police force at religiously-affiliated Davidson College is unconstitutional because it violates the Establishment Clause for the state to delegate discretionary police powers to a religious institution...

Court Rejects Challenge By Donors and Diocese To Plans For Sale of Catholic High School

Posted on August 17, 2010
In Anderson v. Loretto High School, (CA App., Aug. 10, 2010), a California appellate court concluded that the Roman Catholic Bishop of Sacramento and seven donors to a $4.5 million capital campaign of a Catholic high school are  not entitled to a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction to require the proceeds of the sale of the school to a private company to be held in escrow...

Christian Student Disrupts Muslim Worship At Nigerian University

Posted on August 17, 2010
A Christian law student at Nigeria's University of Ibadan has created a campus furor by intruding on a Muslim worship service shouting that those in attendance should accept Jesus.  Next reports that the incident occurred last Friday, the first Friday of Ramadan, at a Jumat service led by the university's Chief Imam...

Heated Debate on 10 Commandments Proposal At Marion, IL City Council

Posted on August 17, 2010
WSIL TV News today reports on a rather heated exchange last night at a meeting of the Marion, Illinois City Council.  A large crowd came to the meeting to support a proposal by Marion resident Ken Kessler who wants a Ten Commandments monument to be placed on the town's Tower Square...

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