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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

German Court Says High School Can Bar Islamic Prayer

Posted on May 28, 2010
In Germany, an appellate court yesterday held that a high school can bar a 16-year old Muslim student from performing namaz, Islamic prayer rituals, at school during his break time. Last year, the Berlin administrative court ruled that Diesterweg High School in Berlin-Wedding must allow a Muslim student known in the litigation as Yunus M...

Catholic School Teacher Fired For Facebook Posting Gets Unemployment Comp

Posted on May 28, 2010
An Iowa administrative law judge has held that a fired Catholic school teacher is entitled to unemployment compensation benefits because the school failed to prove misconduct. Today's Des Moines Register reports that St. Edmonds Catholic School in Fort Dodge (IA) fired 8th-grade math teacher Abby Nurre because of the views she expressed online...

Lawsuit Challenges Detroit Area Bus Authority's Refusal of Ad Aimed At Muslims

Posted on May 28, 2010
A federal lawsuit was filed yesterday against the Detroit-area transportation authority challenging its refusal to accept a bus ad directed at Muslims leaving their faith. The ad, sponsored by the Freedom Defense Initiative, read: "Fatwa on your head? Is your family or community threatening you? Leaving Islam? Got questions? Get Answers!" The complaint (full text) in American Freedom Defense Initiative v...

North Dakota Allows "ISNOGOD" Personalized Plate

Posted on May 28, 2010
In Bismarck, North Dakota, the state's Department of Transportation director has granted the appeal of a Fargo resident, Brian Magee for the issuance of a personalized license plate reading ISNOGOD. Yesterday's Bismarck Tribune reports that in his appeal Magee had argued that the state had authorized personalized plates advocating religions, such as ILOVGOD...

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President Signs Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament Act

Posted on May 28, 2010
On Monday, President Obama signed S. 1067, the "Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act." In his Signing Statement, the President said: "The legislation crystallizes the commitment of the United States to help bring an end to the brutality and destruction that have been a hallmark of the LRA across several countries for two decades, and to pursue a future of greater security and hope for the people of central Africa...

Opponent Criticizes Massachusetts Governor For Statements At Muslim Forum

Posted on May 28, 2010
In Massachusetts, state Treasurer Timothy Cahill who is running as an Independent candidate for governor this fall has strongly criticized Gov. Deval Patrick for his performance last Saturday at a forum at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury...

Activist Challenges Illinois Tourism Grant To Restore Bald Knob Cross

Posted on May 28, 2010
Chicago activist Rob Sherman is pressuring a group that has restored the Bald Knob Cross of Peace, in the Ozark Mountains in southern Illinois, to return the $20,000 from a state grant that was used for part of the cost of the renovations. WSIL-TV reported yesterday that Sherman argues the grant to the Friends of Bald Knob Cross from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity violates Art...

New Zealand Effectively Bans Kosher Slaughtering

Posted on May 28, 2010
Yesterday New Zealand's ministry of Agriculture and Forestry announced adoption of the Animal Welfare (Commercial Slaughter) Code of Welfare 2010. J-Wire reports that the new Code effectively bans kosher slaughtering in New Zealand by requiring that all animals slaughtered commercially be stunned prior to killing...

Court Orders Hearing On Preliminary Injunction In Challenge To NY Housing Project

Posted on May 27, 2010
In Broadway Triangle Community Coalition v. Bloomberg, (Sup. Ct. NY, May 20, 2010), a New York state trial court ordered that a further hearing be held next month on a motion for a preliminary injunction to stop a housing development in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn...

Court Refuses To Add State As Party In Challenge To Released Time Program

Posted on May 27, 2010
In Moss v. Spartanburg County School District No. 7, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51359 (D SC, May 25, 2010), a South Carolina federal district court has denied a motion by the Spartanburg (SC) School District to join the state of South Carolina as a defendant in the lawsuit against the school district over its released time program...

New Controversy Over Muhammad Cartoon-- This Time In South African Paper

Posted on May 27, 2010
A new controversy over a newspaper's publication of a drawing of the Prophet Muhammad has erupted, this time over a cartoon published in the May 21 edition of South Africa's Mail & Guardian. As described by the paper's editor Nic Dawes, the cartoon shows "the Prophet Muhammad reclining on a therapist's couch and saying sadly 'Other prophets' followers have a sense of humour'...

Proposed Amendment Would Allow Military Chaplains To Close Prayers With Sectarian Language

Posted on May 27, 2010
Rep. Michele Bachman (R-MN) has introduced in the House Rules Committee an amendment to H.R. 5136, the proposed 2011 Defense Authorization Act, that would give all military chaplains the prerogative, if called on to lead a prayer outside of a religious service, "to close that prayer according to the dictates of the Chaplain's conscience...

Cuba's Raul Castro Negotiates With Catholic Church Over Political Prisoners

Posted on May 27, 2010
Yesterday's Miami (FL) Herald reports on talks held by Cuban leader Raul Castro with the Cuban Catholic Church's Cardinal Jaime Ortega on the fate of political prisoners. Analysts say the talks are noteworthy because they represent Cuba's acceptance of the Catholic Church as a middleman for the resolution of important issues in the country.

College Graduation Prayers Generate Faculty Complaints

Posted on May 27, 2010
The Montana ACLU has written higher education officials relaying complaints of several faculty at Montana State University-Northern over the invocation and benediction delivered at this year's graduation ceremony. (Full text of letter.) Pastor Tim Zerger, a Christian evangelical minister affiliated with Community Alliance Church, delivered prayers that were seen by numerous faculty as proselytizing...

Church Members Fail To Show "Proper Purpose" To Inspect Certain Church Records

Posted on May 26, 2010
In Two Rivers Baptist Church v. Sutton, (TN App., May 20, 2010), 54 members of the church who had sued the senior pastor and other church officers in a dispute over governance of the church sought various church records under Tennessee's non-profit corporation law...

Times Square Bombing Suspect Gets Halal Food

Posted on May 26, 2010
AOL News reports that last week a federal magistrate judge granted a request by accused Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad that he be served halal food at the federal-run Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. In federal prison, Muslims requesting a halal diet are served kosher food which meets the same criteria...

Military Religious Freedom Advocate Mikey Weinstein Profiled

Posted on May 26, 2010
Foreign Policy yesterday carried a profile of Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. It says: Although he is frequently attacked for waging a war on Christianity, all but a fraction of Weinstein's clients are practicing Catholics and Protestants of mainline denominations who claim to be targeted by proselytizing evangelical superiors...

Hindu Group In India Opposes State's Construction of Buddha Park

Posted on May 26, 2010
In the Indian city of Patna (in the state of Bihar), the state government plans to tear down an old Hindu Shiva temple on the site of the former Bankipore jail in order to build a Buddha Park. Today's Times of India reports that Bharat Sadhu Samaj has decided to launch a statewide protest...

Group Urges States Not To Contract To Send Inmates To Planned Christian Prison

Posted on May 26, 2010
As reported last November, a non-profit Texas-based prisons ministry, Corrections Concepts Inc., plans to build a private all-Christian 600-bed prison in Wakita, Oklahoma. The facility will be for men near the end of their sentences who volunteer to be housed there and agree to participate in its program...

To Help In Deciding, Judge Visits Church Where Graduation Is Scheduled

Posted on May 26, 2010
In Bridgeport, Connecticut, federal district judge Janet Hall is hearing the lawsuit against the Enfield (CT) Public Schools brought by the ACLU and Americans United. The suit challenges Enfield's plans to hold this year's graduation ceremonies for two high schools in First Cathedral Church in Bloomfield (CT)...

Kenya Court Says Kadhis Courts Inconsistent With Other Parts of Constitution

Posted on May 25, 2010
In Kenya, the Nairobi High Court sitting as a Constitutional Court yesterday struck down the provision in the current Kenya Constitution that provides for Kadhis courts (Sec. 66). The court's opinion (excerpts) holds that Section 66 is inconsistent with Sec...

Suit Threatened Over Student Who Is Disciplined For Wearing Rosary Beads

Posted on May 25, 2010
The American Center for Law & Justice (press release) is threatening to file a lawsuit against Schenectady, New York school officials on behalf of a middle school student who was sent home for wearing a Rosary outside of his shirt. The plastic Rosary is made of light purple beads and a white Crucifix...

School Responds To No-Prayer Injunction By Ending Review of Student Graduation Speeches

Posted on May 25, 2010
Earlier this month, an Indiana federal district court issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the planned student-led prayer at suburban Indianapolis' Greenwood High School's upcoming graduation. The school conducts a student ballot at an assembly in which students vote on whether to have a fellow student deliver a non-denominational prayer at graduation...

Defendant Sentenced For Cyber Attack On Scientology Website

Posted on May 25, 2010
A press release from the Church of Scientology reports that yesterday a Los Angeles federal district court sentenced Brian Thomas Mettenbrink, convicted of engaging in a cyber attack on Scientology's website, to 12 months in prison and payment of $20,000 restitution...

US Amicus Brief To High Court Favors Vatican In Abuse Lawsuit

Posted on May 25, 2010
Last week, the United States filed an amicus brief (full text) with the U.S. Supreme Court after being invited to express its views on whether certiorari should be granted in Holy See v. Doe, (Docket No. 09-1). In the case, the 9th Circuit held that the "tortious act" exception in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act means that the Vatican is not shielded from a claim by a victim of sexual abuse based on the doctrine of respondeat superior...

Czech President, Prague Archbishop Sign Agreement On Joint Care of Cathedral

Posted on May 25, 2010
In the Czech Republic yesterday, an 18-year long dispute between the government and the Catholic Church over the ownership of St. Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle was resolved with the signing of an agreement by Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka...

Israeli Right Wingers Say They Will Protest Bar Mitzvah of Rahm Emanuel's Son

Posted on May 24, 2010
The Jerusalem Post reports that White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel arrived in Israel on Friday. He has made the trip for a long-planned Bar Mitzvah of his son Zach and his nephew Noah. Plans had been to hold the ceremonies at Jerusalem's Western Wall over Memorial Day week end...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on May 24, 2010
From SSRN:Ian S. Speir, Clemency in Jewish Law, (May 18, 2010).Ellen P. Aprill, An Overview of Tax Issues for Synagogues (and Other Religious Congregations), (Loyola-LA Legal Studies Paper No. 2010-24, May 19, 2010).Kristen Stilt, How is Islam the Solution?: Constitutional Visions of Contemporary Islamists, (Texas International Law Journal, Forthcoming)...

Supreme Court Agrees To Review Arizona Tuition Tax Credit

Posted on May 24, 2010
The U.S. Supreme today agreed to review two consolidated cases involving an Establishment Clause challenge to Arizona's school tuition tax credit program. It granted certiorari in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn, (Docket No. 09-987, cert...

Supreme Court Grants Cert. In RLUIPA Damages Case

Posted on May 24, 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court this morning granted certiorari in Sossamon v. Texas, (Docket No. 08-1438, cert. granted 5/24/2010). (Order List.) The suit was brought by an inmate who objected to the prison's policy of prohibiting congregational worship in the prison's chapel...

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