Religion & Law

British Faith Schools Criticize Government's Admissions Guidelines

Posted on January 12, 2010
Yesterday's London Mail reports that government-supported faith schools in Britain are criticizing admissions guidelines promulgated by the Department of Children, Schools and Families. Designed to prevent discrimination against working-class students, the guidelines allow schools to favor pupils who are members of the faith promoted by the school, but not to discriminate on the basis of their level of observance...

Pope Addresses Environment, Religion and State In Annual New Year Address

Posted on January 12, 2010
Pope Benedict XVI yesterday delivered his annual New Year address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. Zenit reports on the address (full text) which focused on the environment, but related the issue to a broad range of international issues...

German State Checks IDs of All Attending Mosques

Posted on January 12, 2010
A 2003 law in the German state of Lower Saxony allows police to question and search individuals in public places regardless of suspicion of wrongdoing when done to prevent crimes of "grave and international concern." Yesterday's Boston (MA) Global Post reports that police are using this authority to routinely monitor those attending mosques...

Nevada Court Rejects Proposed Personhood Amendment

Posted on January 12, 2010
Yesterday, in a decision apparently issued orally from the bench, a Nevada trial court judge ruled that a petition seeking to place a proposed "Personhood Amendment" to the state Constitution on the November ballot cannot be circulated. The proposed amendment reads: "In the great state of Nevada,the term 'person' applies to every human being...

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Cert. Denied In Establishment Clause Challenge To Sheriff's Christian Speaker

Posted on January 12, 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday denied certiorari in Milwaukee Deputy Sheriff's Association v. Clarke, Docket No. 09-460 (Jan. 11, 2010), refusing to review the 7th Circuit's decision in the case. (Order List.) In the case below, the Court of Appeals held that a Wisconsin sheriff's department violated the Establishment Clause when it invited representatives of the Fellowship of the Christian Centurions, a peer support group for law enforcement officers, to speak at several mandatory employee meetings.

IRS Updates Procedures For Obtaining Non-Profit Determinations

Posted on January 11, 2010
The Internal Revenue Service today published Rev. Proc. 2010-9 (Jan. 11, 2010), updating the procedures for issuing of determination letters and rulings under Sections 501 of the Internal Revenue Code on the exempt status of non-profit organizations. This includes religious organizations applying for non-profit status...

Catholic Bishops Press Congress For Immigration Reform In 2010

Posted on January 11, 2010
Last week, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced a new campaign for immigration reform in 2010. USCCB is taking three step: (1) launching a nationwide postcard campaign as part of its "Justice of Immigrants" campaign; (2) launching two new websites-- Justice for Immigrants and National Migration Week; and (3) sending out a nationwide action alert asking for Congress to quickly enact immigration reform...

White House Introduces Commerce Department Faith-Based Head

Posted on January 11, 2010
Last week, the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships posted an interview with Cedric Grant, Director of the faith-based office at the Department of Commerce. Grant says his most important activity so far has been outreach efforts for the 2010 Census...

Utah County Will Balance Budget By Police Fee, Including On Churches

Posted on January 11, 2010
Salt Lake County, Utah is proposing to balance its budget by assessing a law enforcement fee on homes, businesses, churches and non-profits. Yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune reports that the amount of the annual fee will depend on the demand for police services that is generated by the particular type of property...

Recent Articles and Book of Interest

Posted on January 11, 2010
From SSRN:Cornelia Koch, Classroom Crucifixes, Teacher Headscarves, Faith Healers and More - The German Experience of Religious Freedom Under a Bill of Rights, (U. of Adelaide Law Research, Aug. 13, 2009).Adam S. Hofri-Winogradow, The Muslim-Majority Character of Israeli Constitutional Law, (Middle East Law and Governance, Vol...

Prop 8 Trial Begins Monday With Dispute Over Televising of Proceedings

Posted on January 10, 2010
In San Francisco tomorrow, the federal district court trial challenging the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8 barring same-sex marriage begins. (See prior posting.) Invoking a policy change instituted by the Ninth Circuit in December, the district court is permitting limited televising of the trial...

Indian Buddhists Protest Hindu Control Over Temple

Posted on January 10, 2010
In India, a group of Buddhists have gone on a hunger strike to protest the governance arrangements of the Mahabodhi Temple, in the holy city of Gaya in the province of Bihar. Pakistan's Daily Times yesterday reported that the strikers, in a makeshift tent just outside the office of the Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee object to a law enacted 60 years ago that sets up an 8-member committee to run the Temple...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on January 10, 2010
In Merring v. O'Brien, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 120 (MD PA, Jan. 4, 2010), a Pennsylvania federal district court dismissed an inmate's claim that he was not provided with a Bible when he was booked and he did not receive one for three weeks, despite his complaints...

Pennsylvania Court Rejects Catholic Day Care's Challenge To Licensing Rules

Posted on January 10, 2010
In St. Elizabeth's Child Care Center v. Department of Public Welfare, (PA Comnwlth. Ct., Jan. 7, 2010), a Pennsylvania state appellate court rejected free exercise challenges by a Catholic child day-care center to the requirement that it obtain a state certificate of compliance in order to operate...

Study Shows Faith-Based Initiative Increased Interest, But Not Social Services By Congregations

Posted on January 09, 2010
An interesting post at Call & Response blog yesterday by Duke University Prof. Mark Chaves, Director of the National Congregations Study, analyzes the actual impact of President George W. Bush's Faith-Based Initiative on religious congregations. He concludes that: data from 1998 and 2006-07 show that neither the overall percent of congregations that report social services (82% in 2006), nor the percent with a staff person devoting at least quarter-time to social services (11%), nor the percent who received government funding (4%), have increased since 1998...

Many Issues of Religon and Human Rights Remain In Latest Kenya Draft Constitution

Posted on January 09, 2010
Kenya is in the complex process of drafting and adopting a new constitution. (See prior posting.) The public comment period on the Committee of Experts' draft expired Dec. 15. It was supposed to be redrafted taking the comments into account, forwarded to the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Constitution, and then forwarded to the National Assembly which is to hold a referendum on it...

Suit Charges Company With Forcing Scientology On Employees

Posted on January 09, 2010
A state court lawsuit filed last month in Bound Brook, New Jersey charges that a health and wellness company, Open House Direct, forced two former employees to take courses in Scientology in order to keep their jobs. One of the employees, Maurice Grays, charges that company co-owner John Buckley harassed him to become a Scientologist and forced him to buy a Scientology library and pay course tuition...

Pennsylvania Says Hasidic Jewish Summer Camp Does Not Qualify For Property Tax Exemption

Posted on January 09, 2010
In Mesivtah Eitz Chaim of Bobov, Inc. v. Pike County Board of Assessment Appeals, (PA Comn. Ct., Dec. 29, 2009), a Pennsylvania appellate court upheld the denial of a property tax exemption to a 60-acre Jewish summer camp located in Pennsylvania and operated by the Bobov Orthodox Jewish community (also known as the Bobover Hasidim) headquartered in Brooklyn, N...

In Canada, Fired Minister of Historic Church No Longer In Contempt of Earlier Order

Posted on January 09, 2010
In British Methodist Episcopal Church v. Davis, (ON Ct. App., Jan. 8, 2010), an Ontario (Canada) Court of Appeal held that the former minister of the historic British Methodist Episcopal Church in Guelph (ON) was no longer in contempt of a prior lower court order requiring her to deliver all documents, records and property of the church in her possession, not interfere with any religious services and not attend the church without consent of church officials...

Protests, Church Attacks Greet Malaysian Decision on Use of "Allah" By Catholic Paper

Posted on January 08, 2010
In Malaysia, last week's High Court decision (see prior posting) allowing the Catholic newspaper, The Herald, to use the word "Allah" in its Malay-language edition to refer to God, has generated protests in mosques and arson attacks on four Christian churches...

President Sends Greetings On Orthodox Christmas

Posted on January 08, 2010
Yesterday the White House issued a statement (full text) from President Barack Obama extending warmest wishes to Orthodox Christians celebrating the Great Feast of the Nativity.

New Jersey Senate Rejects Same-Sex Marriage Bill

Posted on January 08, 2010
The New Jersey Senate yesterday voted down A818, the proposed Civil Marriage and Religious Protection Act that would have legalized same-sex marriage in the state. Yesterday's Christian Science Monitor and the Asbury Park Press report that the vote was 20 opposed, and 14 in favor, with 5 senators not voting...

Challenge To Military Prayers Dismissed For Failure To Exhaust Intramilitary Remedies

Posted on January 08, 2010
In Chalker v. Gates, (D KS, Jan. 7, 2010), a Kansas federal district court dismissed for failure to exhaust intramilitary remedies a claim by a soldier stationed at Ft. Riley that his rights were violated when he was required to attend three Army functions at which sectarian Christian prayers were delivered...

Obama Says Must Engage With Muslims To Prevent Lone-Wolf Radicalizations

Posted on January 08, 2010
Yesterday, President Obama delivered widely-covered Remarks on Strengthening Intelligence and Aviation Security (full text) summarizing the results of initial reviews he ordered after the attempted Christmas-day bombing of a plane heading to Detroit. A portion of the President's remarks were addressed to the issue of al Qaeda's attempts to radicalize and recruit lone individuals around the world...

Church's Appeal of Zoning Decision Is Only Partly Successful

Posted on January 08, 2010
In Our Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church v. Saville, (IL App., Dec. 31, 2009), an Illinois appellate court rejected a free exercise challenge to the Aurora (IL) Zoning Ordinance as well as a challenge under the Illinois Religious Freedom Restoration Act...

Literal Belief In Bible Becomes Issue In Alabama Gubernatorial Primary

Posted on January 08, 2010
Seven candidates are running in this year's Republican primary for Governor of Alabama. One of the candidates, Chancellor of the Department of Postsecondary Education, Bradley Byrne, is now under fire from opponents because of this statement quoted last November in the Mobile Press-Register: "I believe there are parts of the Bible that are meant to be literally true and parts that are not...

AALS 2009 Newsletter Has Lengthy Law and Religion Bibliography

Posted on January 07, 2010
The Association of American Law Schools Section on Law and Religion has issued its December 2009 Newsletter containing a 35-page bibliography of articles, books and websites on law and religion published during the past year.

Irsaeli Court Overturns City's Freeze On Synagogue Construction

Posted on January 07, 2010
In Israel, a Tel Aviv District Court has ruled that construction of a planned Orthodox synagogue in the city of Netanya can proceed. Arutz Sheva reported on the case yesterday. Last March, Reform Jewish groups obtained an administrative order freezing all budgetary allocations for synagogue construction in the city until funding was made available for construction of a Reform synagogue as well...

New Report Ranks 50 Worst Countries For Persecuting Christians

Posted on January 07, 2010
The group Open Doors yesterday released its 2010 World Watch List of the 50 countries where persecution of Christians for religious reasons is most severe. The 10 worst in the list are: North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Maldives, Afghanistan, Yemen, Mauritania, Laos and Uzbekistan...

Indian Court Upholds Ban On Book Critical of Islam

Posted on January 07, 2010
In Bhasin v. State of Maharashtra, (Bombay High Ct., Jan. 6, 2010), India's High Court of Judicature at Bombay upheld a ban imposed by the State of Maharashtra on circulation of the book by R.V. Bhasin titled Islam ? A Concept of Political World Invasion By Muslims...

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