Religion & Law

French Politicians Criticize Restaurant Chain For Serving Halal Meat

Posted on February 18, 2010
Reuters today reports that in France, various politicians are criticizing Quick, a fast-food chain, for deciding to serve only halal meat in eight of its restaurants that have a large Muslim clientele. Marine Le Pen, vice president of the far-right National Front, argued that the restaurant's customers "are forced because of halal meat to pay a tax to Islamic organizations" that certify the food...

EEOC Files One Religious Discrimination Suit; Settles Another

Posted on February 18, 2010
The EEOC announced last week that it had filed suit in a North Carolina federal district court against a Goldsboro, North Carolina construction company that refused to accommodate the religious needs of Seventh Day Adventist employees. The lawsuit against T...

Settlement Reached In Suit Alleging Proselytizing of Clients By Salvation Army

Posted on February 18, 2010
The New York Civil Liberties Union yesterday announced a settlement agreement relating to part of the claims in Lown v. Salvation Army. In 2005 (see prior posting), a New York federal district court permitted a taxpayer's suit to proceed challenging the alleged use of government social service funds by the Salvation Army to proselytize clients...

County Commissioners Will Lead Prayer Instead of Ministers

Posted on February 18, 2010
Buncombe County, North Carolina county commissioners have been discussing with their county attorney the implications of a federal court decision ruling that the invocation policy in another North Carolina county violates the Establishment Clause. Last month, a federal district court held that Forsyth County's policy as implemented advances one particular faith...

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

Court Orders Exhumation So Deceased's Cremation Wishes Can Be Carried Out

Posted on February 18, 2010
In Hiller v. Washington Cemetery, (NJ App., Feb. 16, 2010), a New Jersey appellate court agreed that the body of decedent Irving Gottesman should be disinterred so that it can be cremated and his ashes scattered in accordance with his clearly expressed wishes...

USCIRF Accused of Anti-Muslim Bias

Posted on February 18, 2010
A Washington Post report yesterday says that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is itself being accused of religious bias. The article by reporter Michelle Boorstein reports that USCIRF staff, former staff and some former commissioners charge that the agency "is rife, behind-the-scenes, with ideology and tribalism, with commissioners focusing on pet projects that are often based on their own religious background...

Court Tells Prosecutor To Remove Ash Wednesday Markings

Posted on February 18, 2010
Ash Wednesday yesterday led to an unusual ruling in a Marshall County, Iowa courtroom. Today's Marshalltown (IA) Times-Republican reports that after the lunch recess in an attempted murder trial, the prosecutor handling the case returned to court with ash on his forehead-- a traditional Catholic practice on the day on which Lent begins...

9th Circuit Rejects Church Members' Attempt To Prevent Marijuana Seizure

Posted on February 18, 2010
In Multi-Denominational Ministry of Cannabis and Rastafari, Inc. v. Holder, (9th Cir., Feb. 16, 2010), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed an action by members of a religious organization seeking to enjoin further seizures by government officials of their marijuana plants...

Utah Supreme Court Hears Arguments In Two FLDS Cases

Posted on February 18, 2010
The Utah Supreme Court yesterday heard oral arguments (recording of full arguments) in two cases relating to the ongoing efforts of the state of Utah to reform the FLDS United Effort Plan Trust. Yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune reports that the first case, FLDS v...

New Hampshire House Refuses To Backtrack On Same-Sex Marriage

Posted on February 18, 2010
The Concord (NH) Union Leader reports that on Monday the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted down two proposals that would have backed away from the state's recognition of same-sex marriage. By a vote of 201-135, the House defeated a proposed state constitutional amendment (CACR 28) that would have defined marriage as being only between a man and a woman...

Virginia Legislature Approves Pro-Choice License Plates, But With Disagreement On Use of Fees

Posted on February 17, 2010
In Virginia, both the House of Delegates and the state Senate have passed bills authorizing a license plate with the message: "Trust Women/ Respect Choice." The House version (HB 1108), passed yesterday by a vote of 77-22, however eliminated a provision that would have directed a portion of the fees from the plates to Planned Parenthood...

Pope Meets With Irish Bishops Over Sex Abuse Scandal

Posted on February 17, 2010
The Vatican yesterday issued a statement (full text) after Pope Benedict XVI's two-day summit with Irish bishops on the priest sex abuse scandal in that country. The Murphy Commission Report issued last year faulted the Church's handling of abuse cases for 30 years ending in 2004...

Colorado Senate Committee Rejects Proposal For Religious Bill of Rights In Schools

Posted on February 17, 2010
The Colorado Independent reports that on Monday, a committee of the Colorado State Senate defeated by a vote of 4-3 the controversial proposed "Religious Bill of Rights for Individuals Connected to Public Schools Act" (SB 10-089). The bill would have required the state board of education to prepare and distribute documents setting out rights of students, parents, teachers and employees to engage in various types of religious expression in the schools...

Contempt Charged As Father Violaes TRO On Daughter's Religious Training

Posted on February 17, 2010
Yesterday's Chicago Sun-Times reports on an ugly in-court battle in Chicago over a 3-year old's religious upbringing while her parents are going through a divorce. Joseph and Rebecca Reyes married in 2004. He was Catholic and she was Jewish. When their daughter was born several years later, Joseph converted to Judaism-- under pressure from his wife's family according to him...

Palestinian Authority Raising Hurdles for Miss Palestine Contest

Posted on February 17, 2010
Palestinian advertising firm owner Salwa Youssef began last year to plan the first Miss Palestine beauty pageant. Contestants will model traditional Palestinian clothing and there will be no bathing suit pageant. However, according to yesterday's Christian Science Monitor, the secular Palestinian Authority government of President Mahmoud Abbas-- sensitive to pressure from religious and cultural conservatives-- is placing hurdles in the way of the plans...

White House Statement Marking Ash Wednesday

Posted on February 17, 2010
The White House today issued the following statement marking Ash Wednesday: Michelle and I join Christians here in America and around the world in observing Ash Wednesday. We mark this solemn day of repentance and promise, knowing that Lent is a time for millions to renew faith and also deepen a commitment to loving and serving one another...

FLDS Appoints New President As Trust Reform Efforts Drag On

Posted on February 16, 2010
AP reported yesterday that the polygamous Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) has filed documents with the Utah Department of Commerce naming Wendell Loy Nielsen as president replacing the jailed Warren Jeffs. The 69-year old Nielson, who has been running the day-to-day affairs of FLDS for some time, was indicted on three counts of bigamy in 2008 following the raid of the FLDS Yearning for Zion Ranch...

Court Orders Religious Highway Billboards Removed

Posted on February 16, 2010
A Kentucky state trial court judge has ordered two highway billboards that display religious messages to be taken down within 60 days, finding that they violate state highway beautification laws. Yesterday's Louisville Courier-Journal reports that the billboards violate restrictions on placing billboards within 660 feet of a highway, except in commercial or industrial zones, or under certain other exceptions...

School Yearbook Photo Raises First Amendment Concerns

Posted on February 16, 2010
In Arlington, Washington, the president of the Arlington High School debate club, honors student Justin Surber, is at the center of a First Amendment controversy. Once a week, to provoke debate Surber wears to school a T-shirt picturing philosopher Friedrich Nietzche and a quote from him: "God is dead...

Jewish Groups Split On Issues In Pending Supreme Court CLS Case

Posted on February 16, 2010
An article yesterday from JTA discusses the differences of opinion within the Jewish community over which side to support in the pending Supreme Court case of Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. At issue in the case is whether the University of California's Hastings College of Law may impose its policy against discrimination on the basis of religion and sexual orientation on a student religious group seeking formal recognition...

Newly Merged School Board Will Open Meetings With Prayer

Posted on February 16, 2010
According to a report yesterday from WQAD News, the Mercer County, Illinois School Board has decided to open each of its meetings with a prayer. Superintendent Alan Boucher said they were advised by legal counsel that this would be permissible so long as prayers are non-sectarian and the Board does not favor one religion over another...

First Step in Mexico On Church-State Separation Amendment to Constitution

Posted on February 16, 2010
Business Week reports last week that the lower house of Mexico's Congress has approved a constitutional amendment that formally establishes separation of church and state. The amendment "guarantees the autonomy of institutions from religious norms, rules and convictions or individual ideologies, as well as the equality of people before the law independent of their convictions...

USCIRF Wants US To Raise Religious Freedom Questions In UN On 4 Countries

Posted on February 15, 2010
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom last Friday wrote Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (full text of letter) urging that U.S. representatives to the United Nations raise religious freedom issues at this month's Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review session...

In Morocco, Debate Over Ban On Sale of Alcohol To Muslims

Posted on February 15, 2010
AFP reported yesterday on the efforts in Morocco to repeal laws that prohibit the sale of alcohol to Muslims. The ban, imposed by royal decree in 1967, is largely ignored in the country and the wine industry is an increasingly important part of the country's economy...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on February 15, 2010
From SSRN:Paul E. McGreal, The Unpublished Free Exercise Opinion in Jensen v. Quaring, (Southern Illinois University Law Journal, Fall 2009).Robert A. Kahn, News Value, Islamophobia, or the First Amendment? Why and How the Philadelphia Inquirer Published the Danish Cartoons, (U of St...

President Addresses Islamic World Forum; Appoints New Envoy To OIC

Posted on February 14, 2010
Yesterday President Obama addressed by video the U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar. The White House has posted the text and a video of his remarks. The President said: "the United States and Muslims around the world have often slipped into a cycle of misunderstanding and mistrust that can lead to conflict rather than cooperation...

British Tories Debate Role of Christian Conservatives In Party

Posted on February 14, 2010
Friday's Financial Times carries a lengthy article analyzing the growing importance of Christian conservatives in Britain's Conservative Party. Here is an excerpt: As Conservatives grasp the real possibility of victory this year, some are asking what degree of power a few evangelical Christians ? only 3 per cent of the party members, according to one poll ? will wield...

Welcome To the Blogosphere to Religious Left Law

Posted on February 14, 2010
Welcome to the blogosphere to Religious Left Law. One of the blog's contributors, Prof. Robert Hockett, describes its purpose: Our aim is to offer a site at which people who adhere to a variety of faith traditions, with perhaps varying degrees of intensity across persons and through time, might discuss legal and cognate subjects together in mutual respect and affection...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on February 14, 2010
In Iron Thunderhorse v. Pierce, (5th Cir., Feb. 9, 2010), the 5th Circuit rejected a RLUIPA claim by a Native American inmate. The court upheld prison restrictions denying plaintiff permission to grow his hair, prohibiting him from performing pipe ceremonies in his cell, and limiting vendors from whom he could buy a headband...

British Appeals Court Says Airline's Ban on Religious Jewelry Was Not Employment Discrimination

Posted on February 13, 2010
In Eweida v. British Airways, PLC, (Eng. & Wales Ct. App., Feb. 12, 2010), Britain's Court of Appeal rejected claims that British Airways had discriminated against employee Nadia Ewieda when, because of its dress rules, it prevented her from wearing a small visible cross with her British Airways uniform...

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