Religion & Law

Canadian Judge Refuses To Let Sikh Witness Wear Kirpan

Posted on April 23, 2010
A Canadian trial court in Windsor, Ontario yesterday refused to permit a key witness in a contentious lawsuit between two factions at a local Sikh temple to enter the courtroom wearing his kirpan (ceremonial dagger). According to the Montreal Gazette, Superior Court Justice Steven Rogin said that the witness, a physician and gurdwara leader, will not be permitted to bring his kirpan into the courthouse even though the ban may breach his charter right to freedom of religion...

Kentucky High Court Voids Funding of Pharmacy Building, Scholarships At Baptist University

Posted on April 23, 2010
In University of the Cumberlands v. Pennybacker, (KY Sup. Ct., April 22, 2010), the Kentucky Supreme Court held that a $10 million state appropriation for construction of a pharmacy school at a Baptist college violates the provision in Kentucky's Constituiton that prohibits public funding of "any church, sectarian or denominational school" (Sec...

Korea's Supreme Court Says Private Mission School Must Respect Students' Religious Rights

Posted on April 23, 2010
South Korea's Supreme Court yesterday sent back for retrial a damage action brought by a 24-year old law student who six years ago was expelled by a Protestant high school for protesting a required religion class. JoongAng Daily reports on the decision that held students' religious freedom must be respected even by private mission schools because students are assigned to the schools through a random lottery instead of by their own choice...

Taxpayer May Not Intervene To Challenge Settlement of Suit By School District

Posted on April 23, 2010
In Doe v. Cheatham County School Board of Education, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38883 (MD TN, April 20, 2010), a Tennessee federal district court refused to permit a citizen/taxpayer to intervene to challenge a settlement of an Establishment Clause lawsuit that was brought by the ACLU against Cheatham County (TN) public schools...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Canadian FLDS Leader Denied Advance of Legal Fees In B.C. Polygamy Reference

Posted on April 23, 2010
In the Canada last October, British Columbia's Attorney General decided that instead of appealing the dismissal of polygamy charges that were filed against the leaders of two FLDS factions, the province would instead ask the British Columbia Supreme Court for clarification on the law's constitutionality...

Government Will Appeal Decision Striking Down National Day of Prayer

Posted on April 23, 2010
Yesterday the U.S. Department of Justice filed a Notice of Appeal to the 7th Circuit in Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. v. Obama. According to the AP, the United states will appeal both last week's decision finding that the statute creating the National Day of Prayer violates the Establishment Clause (see prior posting), but also the court's decision last month holding that plaintiffs had standing to bring the challenge...

Church Property Tax Disputes Continue In Various Locations

Posted on April 23, 2010
Disputes over tax exemptions for property owned by religious institutions continue to arise around the country. In Congregation Rabbinical College of Tartikov, Inc. v. Town of Ramapo, (NY App. Div., April 20, 2010), a New York appellate court held that town tax authorities improperly revoked the tax exemption for property that was being leased out as a religious summer camp by the rabbinical college that owned it...

Supreme Court's Attorneys' Fees Decision Will Impact Religious Rights Cases

Posted on April 22, 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday decided an attorneys' fee case that will be important to lawyers bringing cases seeking to vindicate free exercise or establishment clause rights. 42 USC Sec. 1988 authorizes the award of reasonable attorneys' fees to the prevailing party in civil rights lawsuits, including those under Section 1983, RLUIPA and RFRA...

Lawsuit Argues Publisher's Pension Plan Was Not An Exempt Church Plan

Posted on April 22, 2010
The Wall Street Journal reports on a federal lawsuit filed in Minneapolis yesterday by employees and retirees of Augsburg Fortress, the company that publishes hymnals, theological works and other books for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. Plaintiffs are suing the company after it announced it was terminating its seriously underfunded pension plan and would distribute out the remaining assets to employees and retirees...

Jehovah's Witness Loses Unemployment Comp Bid Over Beliefs About Birthday Celebrations

Posted on April 22, 2010
In Calhoun Jewelers, LLC v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, (PA Commnwlth. Ct., April 20, 2010), a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court held that a Jehovah's Witness employee failed to show that she had a compelling reason based on sincerely held religious belief to leave her job...

OIC Will Set Up New Committee On Human Rights

Posted on April 22, 2010
After a meeting Tuesday with U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay, the Organization of the Islamic Conference announced that it is setting up a permanent independent committee to deal with issues of human rights. MidEast News Source reports that the new committee will likely begin work following a meeting of OIC foreign ministers in Tajikistan next month...

Russian Court Says Scientology Titles Are Extremist Literature

Posted on April 22, 2010
A court in the Siberian city of Surgut has approved the request of prosecutors to list 28 works by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard to the Russian Federation's list of extremist literature. The Moscow Times reported yesterday that transport prosecutors in Surgut and Khanty-Mansiisk customs officers seized the books and recordings and had them examined by psychiatrists, psychologists and sociologists...

Bill To Permit Mennonites To Self-Insure Autos Goes To Georgia Governor For Signature

Posted on April 22, 2010
WSAV News reports that yesterday the Georgia state Senate passed, and sent to the governor for his signature, HB 656. The law will allow a 100-member community of Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonites who live in Metter (GA), near Savannah, to self-insure rather than buy auto insurance...

French Government Will Propose Burqa Ban In All Public Places

Posted on April 22, 2010
Today Britain's The Independent reports that French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government has decided that next month it will propose a complete ban on wearing the burqa in any public place. Sarkozy insisted that the ban is needed to protect the "dignity of women...

Miami Transit Authority Backs Off Decision To Pull Anti-Muslim Ads

Posted on April 22, 2010
In Miami, Florida, the Miami-Dade County Transit Authority has backed off of its original decision to pull ten ads that were set to be placed on Miami buses by an organization known as Stop Islamization of America. Last Friday's Miami Herald reported that the Transit Authority decided to stop the ads after complaints from CAIR that the ads were offensive to Muslims...

Suit For Clergy Sex Abuse Relies On Alien Tort Claims Act

Posted on April 22, 2010
The Los Angeles Times reports that on Tuesday, a lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Los Angeles (CA) invoking the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act in a clergy sex abuse case. The Act allows foreign victims of human rights violations to sue for damages in U...

U.S. Sentencing Commission Incorporates New Hate Crimes Law Into Sentencing Guidelines

Posted on April 21, 2010
The U.S. Sentencing Commission announced on Monday that it has voted to send to Congress for promulgation several amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines. One portion of the amendments adds language to incorporate the new provisions of the recently enacted Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr...

Florida Legislature Considering Proposals To Lower Church-State Wall In Schools

Posted on April 21, 2010
Yesterday's St. Petersburg (FL) Times reports on the continuing efforts in the Florida legislature to allow greater mixing of religion and publicly funded education. Yesterday the Senate Education Pre-K-12 Committee unanimously approved SB 1580 that would "permit the delivery of an inspirational message, including a prayer or an invocation, at a noncompulsory high school activity, including a student assembly, a sports event, or other school-related activity, if a majority of the participating students request the delivery of an inspirational message and select a student representative to deliver the message...

City Permanently Enjoined From Enforcing Noise Law Against Church Bells

Posted on April 21, 2010
After issuing a preliminary injunction last month prohibiting the city of Phoenix (AZ) from enforcing its noise ordinance against churches because of their carillon bells (see prior posting), on Monday an Arizona federal district court made the injunction permanent...

Chinese Lawyers Who Defended Falun Gong Face Disbarment

Posted on April 21, 2010
Epoch Times reported yesterday that in China, two human rights lawyers who attempted to defend Falun Gong practitioners are about to have their licenses suspended. The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice will be holding a public hearing tomorrow on revocation of the law licenses of Tang Jitian and Liu Wei...

Objections Raised To Pentagon's Speaker For National Day of Prayer

Posted on April 21, 2010
AP reported yesterday that the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is objecting to an invitation extended by the Pentagon to evangelist Franklin Graham to speak on May 6 for the National Day of Prayer. MRFF president, Mikey Weinstein, says that Graham has offended Muslims who work for the Department of Defense by describing Islam as "a very evil and wicked religion...

Government Policy and Poverty Encourage Polygamy In Gaza

Posted on April 21, 2010
Palestine Note reported yesterday that societal pressures and government policies are encouraging polygamy in Gaza. Permitted by Islam, the difficult economic conditions in Gaza are encouraging poorer women to become second wives. Also the Hamas government is backing the Palestine Marriage Fund which encourages men to marry the widows of so-called "martyrs...

Islamist Website Threatens "South Park" Creators Over Muhammad Episode

Posted on April 21, 2010
CNN reports that the radical Islamic website Revolutionmuslim.com on Sunday posted an entry that can be seen as a physical threat to the creators of the television cartoon series South Park . The posting was triggered by an episode of the program that included a satirical discussion of whether the image of the Prophet Muhammad could be shown...

Ohio High Court Says No Tax Exemption For Church's Low-Income Apartments

Posted on April 21, 2010
In NBC-USA Housing, Inc.?Five v. Levin, (OH Sup. Ct., April 12, 2010), the Ohio Supreme Court held that a federally subsidized apartment complex for low-income tenants operated by the National Baptist Convention (NBC) and a local church does not qualify for the property tax exemption under Ohio Rev Code 5709...

Tennessee AG Opinion Says "Jesus Is Lord" Plates Violate Establishment Clause

Posted on April 20, 2010
Tennessee Attorney General Opinion 10-52 (April 15, 2010) concludes that the state's issuance of a specialty license plate carrying the motto "Jesus is Lord" would violate the Establishment Clause. The Opinion relied on a 2006 decision in a 6th Circuit case holding that Tennessee's messages on specialty license plates are government speech...

Brazil Is Latest Focus In Church Sex Abuse Scandal

Posted on April 20, 2010
AP today reports that the latest focus in the clergy sex abuse scandal is Latin America with charges against three Brazilian priests, including 83-year old Monsignor Luiz Marques Barbosa. Last month, a Brazilian television network broadcast a video of Barbosa in bed with a 19-year old former altar boy...

Indonesia's Constitutional Court Upholds Blasphemy Law

Posted on April 20, 2010
Yesterday in an 8-1 decision, Indonesia's Constitutional Court upheld the country's blasphemy law. (Background.) The New York Times and Human Rights Watch both report on the decision. Section 156a of the Indonesian Criminal Code, which supplements a 1965 presidential decree, recognizes six religions, and imposes penalties of up to five years in prison for anyone who deliberately in public expresses hostility, hatred or contempt against one of these religions...

White House Reaches Out To Muslim Americans

Posted on April 20, 2010
Yesterday's New York Times carried a length front-page story titled White House Quietly Courts Muslims in U.S. It reports that while the President himself has not visited an American mosque or met with U.S. Muslim or Arab-American leaders, others in his administration are meeting extensively with U...

Cert. Denied In Bail Plea of Kosher Meat Plant Executive

Posted on April 20, 2010
Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in Rubashkin v. United States, (Docket No. 09-1099, April 19, 2010). (Order List.) In the case, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to release Sholom Rubashkin, former vice-president of the Postville, Iowa Agriprocessors, Inc...

Alamo Seeks New Trial Because of Sentencing Judge's Religious Comments

Posted on April 19, 2010
Yesterday's Texarkana Gazette reports that self-proclaimed prophet and church leader Tony Alamo last week filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that the sentencing judge "imposed his own sense of religiosity" in sentencing Alamo to 175 year prison on Mann Act charges...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.