Religion Clause: Religion & Law

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Religion & Law Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

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

CAIR Says New TSA Security Policies Target American Muslims

Posted on January 07, 2010
Last Sunday, in the wake of the unsuccessful attempt to bomb an airplane coming into Detroit, the Transportation Security Administration announced that it "is mandating that every individual flying into the U.S. ... traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening...

Proposed Russian Law Would Return State-Owned Religious Property To Orthodox Church

Posted on January 07, 2010
According to Interfax yesterday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says that a bill has been drafted to deal with transferring state-owned religious property back to the Russian Orthodox Church. Putin said that all assets must be transferred "in a proper form and accompanied by proper financial procedures...

9th Circuit: Asylum Application By Muslim Convert To Christianity Was Timely

Posted on January 06, 2010
In Taslimi v. Holder, (9th Cir., Jan. 4, 2010), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held that an Iranian woman who had converted from Islam to Christianity while in the United States had not waited too long to apply for asylum. The conversion took place in 2002, ten years after she entered the United States on a one-year visitor's visa...

Religious Parties Likely Banned In Bangladesh

Posted on January 06, 2010
BDNews24 reports on an important constitutional development in Bangladesh. In 2005, a High Court invalidated the Fifth Amendment to Bangladesh's Constitution which was meant to provide constitutional legitimacy to governments in power after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975...

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

Indian Court Delays Start of Shariah-Compliant Investment Company

Posted on January 06, 2010
In India yesterday, the Kerala High Court ordered the Kerala government not to start operations of a proposed Islamic investment company in which the Kerala State Industrial Development Commission would hold 11% ownership. The company is to issue Shariah compliant investment products...

Uzbek Court Rejcts Fines But Upholds Convictions of 3 Baptist Officials

Posted on January 06, 2010
Baptist Press yesterday reported that a court in Uzbekistan last month overturned high fines that were levied in October against the president of the Baptist Union, a Baptist Union accountant and a Baptist camp director. However their criminal convictions were left standing, as was the bar on their holding responsible positions in the Baptist Union for three years...

ACLU Enters Agreement With School Board Barring Bible Distribution

Posted on January 06, 2010
The ACLU of Tennessee announced yesterday that it had entered a Settlement Agreement (full text) with Wilson County (TN) school officials under which the schools agree to refrain from permitting the distribution of Bibles to students on school grounds during school hours...

Suit Challenges Oregon Law On Mandatory Workplace Meetings, But Not Religious Speech Provision

Posted on January 06, 2010
In Oregon, a business group, Associated Oregon Industries, had filed a federal lawsuit challenging Oregon's Senate Bill 519 that took effect January 1. The new law prohibits employers from firing or penalizing workers who refuse to attend employer-sponsored meetings discussing political issues or candidates, religious matters or union organizing...

In Florida, Quaker High School Teacher Sues Claiming Discrimination

Posted on January 06, 2010
In Ocala, Florida, teacher Ronald Wray has filed suit against the Marion County School Board charging that he was effectively forced to resign from his construction teaching position at Marion Technical Institute because of a hostile work environment...

Challenge To Jail Holiday Music Dismissed

Posted on January 06, 2010
As previously reported, six lawsuits were filed in recent months against Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio by prisoners who object to his playing Christmas and holiday tunes all day long at all of the county's jails. The play list included Dr...

Businessman Creates Protest To Swiss Ban on Minarets

Posted on January 05, 2010
Today's Wall Street Journal reports on the attention being given to a protest mounted by a Swiss businessman who strongly disagrees with the result of November's Swiss referendum banning any new construction of minarets. (See prior posting.) In Bussigny, Switzerland, businessman Guillaume Morand quickly constructed an illuminated 20-foot high plastic and wood minaret, attached to the chimney of his shoe store warehouse...

Report Details Crimes Against U.S. Christian Churches In 2009

Posted on January 05, 2010
Christian Post reported yesterday that a new report for 2009 on "Crimes Against Christian Organizations in the United States" indicates that there were at least 1,237 crimes committed against Christian churches and ministries in the United States last year...

Orthodox Church In Russia Poised For More Political Involvement

Posted on January 05, 2010
Yesterday's Georgian Daily says that Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirrill is positioning the Russian Orthodox Church for a greater role in Russian politics. The paper first cites a speech by Kirrill to the Russian Academy of State Service in which he argued that Russia should be judged by its unique values and not by "alien" European criteria-- a position that echos the views of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin...

Attorney Hit With Rule 11 Sanctions For Campaign To Recuse Catholic Judge

Posted on January 05, 2010
A Florida federal district court judge has imposed extensive Rule 11 sanctions on attorney Loring Spotler who turned motions to force the judge to recuse himself into a "dogged and relentless" campaign against the judge when the motions were denied. In a group of cases captioned Bettis v...

South African President Takes 3rd Wife In Zulu Ceremony

Posted on January 05, 2010
South African President Jacob Zuma yesterday married his third wife in a traditional Zulu ceremony, according to the London Guardian. The Zulu tribe practices polygamy by tradition, and it is recognized under South African law. South Africa's Constitution (Sec...

Recent Articles and Book of Interest

Posted on January 05, 2010
From SmartCILP:Steven F. Friedell, Some Observations About Jewish Law in Israel's Supreme Court, 8 Washington University Global Studies Law Review 659-700 (2009).Jose Gabilondo, Institutional Pluralism from the Standpoint of Its Victims: Calling the Question on Indiscriminate (In)tolerance [Abstract], 21 Law & Literature 387-401 (2009)...

Court Says Minister's Breach of Contract Claim Might Be Able To Proceed

Posted on January 05, 2010
In Mundie v. Christ United Church of Christ, (PA Super, Dec. 31, 2009), a Pennsylvania appellate court refused to dismiss at this stage of the litigation a breach of contract lawsuit by a pastor who had been terminated by his congregation's Consistory...

Virgina Muslim Prison Chaplains Want More State Support

Posted on January 04, 2010
Virginia is one of the few states that does not have its own staff of professional chaplains. Instead it contracts with the Chaplain Service of the Churches of Virginia, a Protestant group, to provide religious programs for inmates of all faiths. The chaplain group receives $780,000 per year from the prison commissary fund to help subsidize its activities...

Report Says Egypt Court Upholds Ban of Niqab In University Exam Rooms

Posted on January 04, 2010
Reuters and UAE's The National report that yesterday an administrative court in Cairo, Egypt upheld the decision by higher education minister Hany Helal and heads of three universities to bar women from wearing the niqab (full face veil) while taking university exams...

A Survey of Law & Religion Casebooks For Law Schools

Posted on January 04, 2010
As the new semester is about to begin, here is a listing of casebooks and teaching materials on law and religion designed for law schools and law students available from major law book publishers (listed alphabetically by author): Ariens & Destro, Religious Liberty in a Pluralistic Society, 2d ed...

Proposed Monument To Secular Government Raises Opposition

Posted on January 03, 2010
Yesterday's Cumberland (MD) Times-News reports on a battle over monuments on public property that has a new twist. Edward W.?Taylor Jr., of the Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization, is objecting to the decision by the Allegany County(MD) Board of Commissioners to allow a monument honoring the U...

British Clergy Want Health & Safety Law Protection

Posted on January 03, 2010
In Britain, clergy are seeking to get legislation to protect their safety in the work place. Today's London Telegraph reports that the Church of England succeeded in 2005 in preventing clergy from being covered by the health and safety laws that protect other employees...

Hamas Hands Out Islamic Robes To Young Women In Gaza

Posted on January 03, 2010
In Gaza, Hamas in cooperation with the Association of Young Muslim Women is beginning a project to hand out free Islamic robes and veils to young women in secondary schools. Xinhua today reports that the distribution began in two neighborhoods in east Gaza City where 600 robes were distributed...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on January 03, 2010
In Peyton v. Felker, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 120287 (ED CA, Dec. 7, 2009), a California federal district court dismissed, with leave to amend, an inmate's claim that two prison officials retaliated against him after he exercised his First Amendment right to practice his religion...

Atheist Group Challenges Ireland's New Blasphemy Law

Posted on January 02, 2010
Ireland's new blasphemy law came into force yesterday. It prohibits intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of any religion by publishing or uttering grossly abusive insults to matters held sacred by the religion. Yesterday's London Guardian reported that to challenge the law, a group known as Atheist Ireland published "25 Blasphemous Quotations" on its website...

Danish Cartoonist Who Drew Muhammad Caricature Is Attacked In His Home

Posted on January 02, 2010
In Aaarhus, Denmark yesterday, a 28-year old Somali man broke into the house of cartoonist Kurt Westegaard armed with an axe and a knife, shouting that he wanted to kill the 74-year old Westegaard. Westegaard drew the now-famous caricature of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban that was published along with 11 other cartoons in 2005 by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten...

Happy 2010 To Religion Clause Readers!

Posted on January 01, 2010
Dear Religion Clause Readers:Happy New Year! As we enter 2010, I want to again thank all of you who read Religion Clause-- both long time followers and those who have joined us more recently. With the advent of the Obama administration last January, some readers asked me whether there would continue to be sufficient church-state and religious liberty developments to sustain the blog...

Jordan Seeks Dead Sea Scrolls From Canada Under UN Convention

Posted on January 01, 2010
Invoking the the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, the government of Jordan has asked Canada to seize the portion of the 2000-year old Dead Sea Scrolls that are on display until January 3 from Israel at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum...

Ex-Indonesian President, Moderate Religious Reformer, Dies

Posted on January 01, 2010
Voice of America reports that former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid (know as Gus Dur) died on Wednesday at the age of 69. In a release issued yesterday, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom chair Leonard Leo paid tribute to Dur's interfaith initiatives...

Claims Against Jewish Newspaper Dismissed To Avoid Religious Entanglement

Posted on January 01, 2010
In Abdelhak v. Jewish Press, Inc., (NJ App. Div., Dec. 31, 2009), a New Jersey appellate court dismissed a complaint alleging defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress on the ground that the claims could not be decided without excessively entangling the court in matters of religious doctrine and practice...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

California's Proposed Student Civil Rights Act Gives Broad Definition to "Religion"
On Tuesday, the California Senate Judiciary Committee approved by ...

Fish on "Religion Without Truth"
Here's a (relatively) recent Stanley Fish Think Again column, call...