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Religion & Law

Religion Clause

Current legal, political and scholarly developments relating to free exercise of religion and separation of church and state.
By Howard M. Friedman

Post Frequency: 19.9/day

Last Entry: November 05, 2020 at 07:00:00

Tajik City Bans Call To Prayer Via Loud Speakers

Posted on August 11, 2010
Radio Free Europe yesterday reported that as Ramadan is about to begin around the world today and tomorrow, officials in the northern Tajikistan city of Panjakent have banned the adhan (the Muslim call to prayer) being transmitted through loud speakers...

Minister Arrested For Picketing HIgh School Over "Demon" Mascot

Posted on August 11, 2010
In Warner Robins, Georgia, police Monday arrested Pastor Donald Crosby for leading a group of picketers outside Warner Robins High School without a permit. He was also charged with disorderly conduct for his response when he was asked to leave...

Teacher At Muslim University In India Excused From Burqa Requirement

Posted on August 10, 2010
In India, a teacher at Aliah University, West Bengal's first Muslim University, has won her battle to teach without wearing a burqa. Indian Express reports today that the West Bengal Students' Union had told all teachers to wear burqas to class, but Sirin Middya refused and for three months has not been able to hold class...

Morocco Closes Over 1200 Mosques For Safety Reasons

Posted on August 10, 2010
Authorities in Morocco have ordered the complete closure of 1,256 mosques and the partial closure of 416 others for safety reasons. AFP today reports that the government inspected 19,205 mosques after the collapse of a minaret in February killed 41 and injured 76...

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DC Circuit Strikes Down National Park Speech Permit Rules

Posted on August 10, 2010
In Boardley v. United States Department of the Interior, (DC Cir., Aug. 6, 2010), the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down as unconstitutionally overbroad on their face requirements that individuals and small groups obtain a permit before engaging in expressive activities in national parks, even in designated free speech areas...

New York MTA Accepts Controversial Anti-Mosque Ad After Lawsuit Is Filed

Posted on August 10, 2010
After a lawsuit was filed on Friday, the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority agreed to permit a banner ad on its buses, sponsored by the American Freedom Defense Initiative opposing the proposed mosque and Islamic center near Ground Zero. (Press release from David Yerushalmi law firm)...

Kentucky Lawsuit Seeking To Hold Vatican On Priest Abuse Is Dropped By Plaintiffs

Posted on August 10, 2010
Today's Washington Post reports that plaintiffs in O'Bryan v. Holy See have filed a motion with a Kentucky federal district court asking that their lawsuit be dismissed. The three plaintiffs in the case had sought to hold the Vatican liable for their abuse by priests and had hoped to depose Pope Benedict XVI in the case...

Christian School In California Fires Catholic Employees For Inconsistent Beliefs

Posted on August 10, 2010
Yesterday's Riverside (CA) Press-Enterprise reports that a Christian school in Corona (CA) has fired four teachers and seven other employees-- most of whom are Catholic-- because their religious beliefs do not coincide with those of Crossroads Christian Church that sponsors the 583- student school...

Consent Order Allows Kosher Slaughtering To Continue In New Zealand While Suit Is Pending

Posted on August 09, 2010
In New Zealand where the Jewish community has filed suit challenging the government's refusal to exempt kosher slaughtering from a new Animal Welfare Slaughter Code that requires animals be stunned before being killed (see prior posting), the parties have agreed to allow kosher slaughtering to continue while the litigation is pending...

Baha'i Leaders In Iran Sentenced To 20 Years

Posted on August 09, 2010
CNN reported yesterday that in Iran, according to the Baha'i International Community, seven top Baha'i leaders who were arrested in 2008 and held without charges have now each been sentenced to 20 years in prison. During the trial, the accused had only about one hour's access to counsel...

UAE Islamic Authority Says Workers Can Break Ramadan Fast To Avoid Heat-Related Health Problems

Posted on August 09, 2010
Ramadan begins this week. AFP reports that in the United Arab Emirates, the General Authority for Islamic Affairs and Endowments has issued a ruling that workers facing high heat and humidity can break their Ramadan fast before sundown to avoid health problems...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on August 09, 2010
From SSRN:David B. Owens, No Bueno, Buono: An Essay on Salazar v. Buono and Establishment Clause Remedies, (June 7, 2010).Rony Guldmann, Beyond the Jurisprudence of Politeness: On the Relativity of Religious Neutrality, (July 20, 2010).Ori Aronson, Out of Many: Military Commissions, Religious Tribunals, and the Democratic Virtues of Court Specialization, (Virginia Journal of International Law, Vol...

NYT Reviews Growing Opposition To Mosque Projects Around the Country

Posted on August 08, 2010
Today's New York Times carries a front-page story titled Across Nation, Mosque Projects Meet Opposition. The article observes:In all of the recent conflicts, opponents have said their problem is Islam itself. They quote passages from the Koran and argue that even the most Americanized Muslim secretly wants to replace the Constitution with Islamic Shariah law...

California School District Backed In Offering Bible As Literature and History Course

Posted on August 08, 2010
One News Now reports that church members, students, parents and residents from the surrounding cities packed the room in which the board of the Chino Valley Unified School District met last Thursday to support the decision the Board reached last month (One News Now, 7/5) to offer an elective course in Bible as/in Literature and History in district high schools...

Recent Prisoner and Institutionalized Persons Free Exercise Cases

Posted on August 08, 2010
In Ward v. Rabideau, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77535 (WD NY, July 30, 2010), a New York federal district judge held that Jewish prisoners had raised material factual issues that preclude summary judgment of defendants on their complaint that inedible and improperly prepared food was served to inmates at Groveland Correctional Facility requesting a kosher diet...

Court OK's Sectarian City Council Invocations

Posted on August 07, 2010
A New York federal district court this week rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to sectarian prayers offered at Town Board meetings in Greece, New York. In Galloway v. Town of Greece, (WD NY, Aug. 5, 2010), the court, in an 83-page decision, upheld the town's policy of inviting clergy from all denominations in the town to offer an invocation, without any guidance or restriction on the content of their prayer...

Suits Against Scientology By 2 Sea Org Members Dismissed Under Ministerial Exception Doctrine

Posted on August 06, 2010
In two related cases brought by a husband and wife, a California federal district court yesterday applied the constitutionally compelled "ministerial exception" doctrine to dismiss suits against the Church of Scientology alleging violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act...

Will Effective Portions of Arizona's SB 1070 Hit Church Vans?

Posted on August 06, 2010
While portions of Arizona's SB 1070 targeting illegal immigrants was struck down by a federal court last month (full text of decision), other portions of the law have gone into effect. According to New America Media today, church leaders are particularly concerned about one of those provisions that has gone into effect, Sec...

Southern Baptist Minister In Runoff For U.S. House In Georgia's 7th District

Posted on August 06, 2010
The Macon Telegraph yesterday profiled Rev. Jody Hice who will be one of two candidates in the run-off next Tuesday for the Republican nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives in Georgia's Republican-leaning 7th District that encompasses the eastern suburbs of Atlanta...

French Jews Wage Legal Battle To Reclaim Family Names

Posted on August 06, 2010
London's Jewish Chronicle yesterday reported on the legal battle being waged by some Jews in France who want to reclaim their traditional family name. Many years ago, their parents changed the family name to something that sounds more French to avoid anti-Semitism...

Australian Judge To Rule On Whether Witness Can Wear Niqab

Posted on August 06, 2010
Controversy over Muslim women wearing the full-face veil has now made its way to Australia. According to WA Today, the former director of the Muslim Ladies College of Australia, Anwar Sayed, is on trial in a court in Perth for fraudulently obtaining over $750,000 (AU) in public funding...

Kenya Passes New Constitution Despite Opposition From Churches

Posted on August 05, 2010
The New York Times reports that in yesterday's referendum in Kenya, 67% of the voters approved the country's new constitution (full text of draft document) according to provisional results released today. The new constitution limits the powers of the president, provides for land reform and creates a bill of rights...

U.S. Court Orders Russia To Return Book Collection To Jewish Group

Posted on August 05, 2010
In Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States v. Russian Federation, (D DC, July 30, 2010), the DC federal district court found that plaintiff had presented a legally sufficient prima facie case and entered a default judgment against the Russian Federation ordering it to return two collections of valuable religious books and manuscripts (the Library and the Archive) to Chabad...

Religious Leaders React On Both Sides of Prop 8 Decision

Posted on August 05, 2010
USA Today this morning reviews the reaction of a number of religious leaders on both sides of the debate to a California federal district court's ruling yesterday (see prior posting) that Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriage, is unconstitutional...

Maryland Court Orders Closure of Chabad Center

Posted on August 05, 2010
A Montgomery County, Maryland state trial judge last week ordered the Chabad Israeli Center in Rockville (MD) to close down for violating a court order that only allowed it to operate Friday evenings and Saturday mornings for Sabbath services. Yesterday The Gazette (suburban Maryland) reported that in fact meetings were held there at other times and a few girls stayed at the residence for a few nights...

Pakistan Court Hears Arguments On Permanently Banning Facebook Over Blasphemous Pages

Posted on August 05, 2010
Pakistan's The News reports today on proceedings in the Lahore High Court seeking a permanent ban on Facebook for again displaying blasphemous material. A temporary ban was placed on the site in May because of a page promoting "Everybody Draw Muhammad" day...

Chelsea Clinton's Interfaith Marriage, and Presiding Rabbi, Subject of NYT Articles

Posted on August 04, 2010
Today's New York Times in two articles explores aspects of Chelsea Clinton's interfaith marriage last week end. One article explores the conflicted feelings in the Jewish community over the marriage-- pride in the societal openness reflected by the marriage, but concern that interfaith marriages undermine the passing on of Jewish tradition...

New Twist In Rifqa Bary Case; Parents, Girl Disagree Over Cancer Treatment

Posted on August 04, 2010
Yesterday's Columbus Dispatch reports on the latest twist in the case of Rifqa Bary, the 17-year old who ran away from her home in Ohio to Florida last year saying her father threatened to kill her for converting from Islam to Christianity. The parents denied the claim as Rifqa was returned to Ohio but placed in foster care...

Former Commissioners Question Dominance of One Church On City's Human Rights Commission

Posted on August 04, 2010
In Sioux City, Iowa, two former members of the city's Human Rights Commission told City Council on Monday that they are concerned about the lack of diversity in membership on the Commission. Yesterday's Sioux City Journal reports that of the eleven current members of the Commission, 5 are members of Cornerstone World Outreach Church, and one is a former member...

Mayor Bloomberg Lauds Religious Liberty While Others Challenge Mosque Decision

Posted on August 04, 2010
Following yesterday's vote by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission that essentially refused to block plans to build a mosque and Islamic Center near Ground Zero, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, in view of the Statue of Liberty and surrounded by religious leaders on Governors' Island, praised the Commission's decision and gave an impassioned defense of the American tradition of religious liberty...

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