Religion & Law

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on January 24, 2010
In Merrell v. Lawler, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3218 (MD PA, Jan. 15, 2010), a Pennsylvania federal district court dismissed an inmate's free exercise claim, but with leave to amend. Plaintiff alleged that because of a back injury, he was unable to climb steps to get to the fourth tier where the chapel was located...

Mother Who Starved Children, Relying on God, Convicted of Endangerment

Posted on January 23, 2010
The Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger reports that a Sussex County (NJ) jury on Thursday convicted 50-year old Estelle Walker of child endangerment. Police found Walker's four malnourished children in a lakeside cabin in 2006. Walker's lawyer claimed that Walker was not responsible because she acted out a a delusional religious belief that God will provide...

Philippines Makes Eid'l Adha a National Holiday

Posted on January 23, 2010
The Manila (Philippines) Bulletin on Friday reported on the signing last month by President Maria Gloria Arroyo of a new law that makes the Muslim holiday of Eid'l Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) a national holiday in the Philippines. Under a law that Arroyo signed in 2002, Eid'l Fitr is already a national holiday...

Tribal Government Funds Rebuilding of Catholic Church On Reservation

Posted on January 23, 2010
The Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 imposes most of the restrictions found in the Constitution's Bill of Rights and in the 14th Amendment on Tribal governments. However, it does not impose Establishment Clause limitations on tribes. This has permitted the tribal government of California's Rincon Indian Band to pay $3...

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Pope Keeps Cardinal Bertone On As Secretary of State

Posted on January 23, 2010
Zenit reported this week that Pope Benedict XVI will keep Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone as the Vatican's Secretary of State even though the Cardinal has reached age 75 which makes him eligible for retirement. A letter from the Pope announcing his decision said that Bertone had played a particularly valuable role in building a dialogue with Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who is the founder of the traditionalist Society of St...

California Proposes Halal and Expanded Vegetarian Diets For Prisons

Posted on January 23, 2010
On Jan. 16, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation issued a Notice of Proposed Regulations that would add a halal meat alternative program as a third religious dietary option for inmates at all adult institutions in the state. Participation in the program will be open to Muslim inmates and other inmates with a religious need to consume halal meat, as determined by a Muslim Chaplain...

Passenger's Tefillin Leads To Security Scare and Emergency Landing

Posted on January 22, 2010
A U.S. Airways Express plane with 15 passengers aboard en route from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Louisville yesterday made an emergency landing in Philadelphia after a flight attendant became concerned when a 17-year old Jewish youth put on tefillin for his morning prayers...

Group Urges Action To Appoint International Religious Freedom Ambassador

Posted on January 22, 2010
CNSNews reported yesterday that the Christian Advocacy group, Open Doors USA, has begun a petition drive to urge President Obama to fill the vacant position of Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. Open Doors spokesperson Lindsay Vessey said that an appointment is needed to demonstrate the importance of international religious freedom...

Bible References On Rifle Sights Will End

Posted on January 22, 2010
Trijicon, Inc. issued a statement yesterday voluntarily agreeing to stop its previously reported practice of including coded references to Bible verses as part of the serial number on rifle sights supplied to the military. The New York Times reports that the company will also supply the Pentagon with 100 free modification kits that will allow the military to remove the serial numbers from rifles of units deployed in combat...

Alaska Appellate Court Says Religious Belief in Marijuana Was Not Sincere

Posted on January 22, 2010
In Lineker v. State, (AK Ct. App., Jan 20, 2010), the Alaska Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision upheld a trial court's finding that defendants had not established that their possession of marijuana was supported by a sincere religious belief. Judge Mannheimer dissenting argued that the trial court's findings in places seemed to assess the sincerity of defendants' beliefs by examining whether they were unorthodox...

Court Holds Church Can Tear Down Historic Rectory

Posted on January 22, 2010
In Stamford, Connecticut, a state trial court judge on Wednesday refused to enjoin St. Andrew's Episcopal Church from tearing down its its 136-year old rectory building. The Stamford Advocate reports that in a 26-page opinion the court rejected the challenge brought under a rarely used state law that allows any citizen to sue to prevent the "unreasonable" destruction of historic buildings...

Suit Challenges Regulation of Spiritual Counsellors As Fortune Tellers

Posted on January 22, 2010
Yesterday's Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch reports on a lawsuit filed in federal district court in Virginia challenging the constitutionality of a Chesterfield County (VA) law that regulates "spiritual counsellors" in the same way that fortune tellers are regulated...

Diocese Challenges Designation of Church As Historic District

Posted on January 22, 2010
Yesterday's Springfield (MA) Republican reported that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield has filed suit in state court seeking to enjoin enforcement of a city ordinance enacted last December that creates an historic district out of Our Lady of Hope Church...

Egypt's High Administrative Court Overturns Ban On Niqab In University Exams

Posted on January 22, 2010
World Bulletin reports that on Wednesday, Egypt's High Administrative Court overturned a ban imposed by the Minister of Higher Education on female students wearing the full-face niqab in university examinations. The court said: Freedom to wear the niqab is guaranteed by human rights and constitutional liberties, and a girl's right to dress the way she sees fit in accordance with her beliefs and her social environment is a firm right that cannot be violated...

Court Rejects Claim of Religious Exemption From Income Taxes

Posted on January 21, 2010
In Bennett-Bey v. Shulman, (D DC, Jan. 20, 2010), the federal district court for the District of Columbia dismissed a pro se complaint in which plaintiff claimed a free exercise exemption from having federal income taxes withheld from her salary. Tanya Bennett-Bey alleged that she had sovereign immunity from federal taxes because she is a beneficiary of the Great Moorish Estate Express Trust, which makes her "a Moorish American Citizen...

Rifqa Bary Remains In Foster Care, Agrees to Counseling

Posted on January 21, 2010
The Columbus Dispatch reported yesterday that a sort of detente has been reached in the case of Rifqa Bary, the 17-year old who fled her home in Ohio after converting from Islam to Christianity. She fled to a pastor in Florida, claiming her father had threatened to kill her because of the conversion...

Japan's Supreme Court Says City's Gift of Site For Shrine Is Unconstitutional

Posted on January 21, 2010
Japan's Supreme Court yesterday ruled that the city of Sunagawa violated the Japanese Constitution when it allowed city-owned land to be used without charge as a site for a Shinto shrine. Article 20 of the Constitution bans religious organizations from receiving any privileges from the State and bars the government from engaging in religious activity...

Hundreds Killed In Muslim-Christian Violence In Nigeria

Posted on January 21, 2010
Reports from the Nigerian city of Jos say that between 200 and 400 people were killed and over 4,000 were injured in three days of violence between Muslims and Christians that began January 17. The Kyiv Post reports that most of the violence took place in the city's poor neighborhoods...

Visa Bans for Two Muslim Scholars Lifted

Posted on January 21, 2010
Reuters reported yesterday that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has signed orders ending the bans on granting visas to two Muslim scholars--Prof. Tariq Ramadan of Oxford University and Prof. Adam Habib of Johannesburg University. Originally government officials gave no reason for revoking Ramadan's visa, but later said it was based on a provision of the Patriot Act that allows exclusion of individuals who have supported terrorism...

Supreme Court Decision Impacts Those Seeking Asylum Because of Religious Persecution

Posted on January 21, 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday handed down an immigration law opinion that has important implications in cases in which an individual about to be deported or removed seeks to reopen proceedings to claim asylum because of religious persecution in his country of origin...

Vatican Issues Guidelines For Scheduled Mideast Synod

Posted on January 20, 2010
The Vatican yesterday released a document titled Guidelines for Mideast Synod. The synod, scheduled for Oct. 10-24, is expected to attract some 150 bishops, mostly from Eastern rite churches. Haaretz reports that there are some 17 million Christians in the Middle East from Iran to Egypt...

British Equality Commission Opens Consultation on Equality Guides

Posted on January 20, 2010
Last week, Britain's Equality and Human Rights Commission opened its consultation on drafts of three guides under Britain's Equality Bill. The Bill is in its final stages of Parliamentary passage. The three proposed guides are: (1) Employment; (2) Equal Pay; and (3) Services, Public Functions and Associations...

British Proposal Would Permit Religious Same-Sex Commitment Ceremonies

Posted on January 20, 2010
Ekklesia reported yesterday on a proposal to create more options in Britain for same-sex commitment ceremonies. The proposal is now before the House of Lords. Currently under Britain's Civil Partnership Act 2004, same-sex commitment ceremonies can only be conducted by civil registrars...

Cert. Denied In Kindergarten Bible Reading Ban

Posted on January 20, 2010
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in Busch v. Marple Union School District, (Docket No. 09-315, 1/19/2010). (Order List.) In the case, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, upheld a Pennsylvania elementary school's restriction that barred a kindergartner's mother from reading aloud from the Bible as part of a "show and tell" activity in her son's classroom...

Free Exercise Claim Growing Out of Auto Search Dismissed

Posted on January 20, 2010
In Turner v. Craig, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3356 (ND CA, Jan. 14, 2010), plaintiff alleged that he was arrested after a traffic stop by defendant police officers. Officers searched his vehicle and took a bottle of "blessing oil" that defendant uses for religious purposes from the car's glove box...

NY Prison Chaplain Administrator Charges Discrimination

Posted on January 19, 2010
Askew v. New York State, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3297 (ND NY, Jan. 15, 2010), involves discrimination charges by a Protestant Ministerial Program Coordinator (MPC) employed by the New York Department of Correctional Services. Glorya Askew is the only female and only African-American Protestant MPC...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on January 19, 2010
From SSRN: Robert C. Blitt, Should New Bills of Rights Address Emerging International Human Rights Norms? The Challenge of 'Defamation of Religion', (January 18, 2010). Bruce Garen Peabody, Analogize This: Partial Constitutional Text, Religion, and Maintaining Our Political Order, (Cardozo Law Review, Forthcoming)...

Military Contractor Secretly Placing Biblical References On Rifle Sights

Posted on January 19, 2010
In an investigative report yesterday, ABC News revealed one of the more unusual examples of religion intruding in the military. A Michigan company, Trijicon, has a $660 million contract to supply up to 800,000 high-powered rifle sights to the Marine Corps, and additional sights to the Army...

India's Supreme Court Refuses To Order Constitution Amended To Clarify Status of Sikhs

Posted on January 19, 2010
India's Supreme Court yesterday dismissed a lawsuit asking it to order the government to amend India's Constitution to eliminate a provision in Explanation II to Article 25 that says the reference in the Constitution to the power to legislate regarding Hindu religious institutions should be construed to also include Sikh, Jain and Buddhist institutions...

Ohio High Schoolers Fight Removal of God From School Mission Statement

Posted on January 19, 2010
In Uniontown, Ohio, the school board last month voted to change the school's mission statement to temporarily remove "belief in God" from the school district's mission statement after a complaint from the Freedom from Religion Foundation. (See prior posting...

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