Religion & Law

Court OKs Eminent Domain In Cemetery Acquisition for O'Hare Airport Expansion

Posted on December 20, 2009
The Chicago Tribune reports that on Friday, an Illinois state trial court ruled that Chicago can proceed with acquiring by eminent domain the 6.3 acre St. Johannes Cemetery in order to build a new runway at O'Hare Airport. Some 900 known graves will be moved...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on December 20, 2009
In Manning v. Ryan, (9th Cir., Dec. 14, 2009), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld dismissal of a prisoner's free exercise claim because plaintiff failed to comply with the trial court's order to serve the remaining defendant with the amended complaint...

India's Parliament Gets Report Urging Delinking Scheduled Caste Status From Religion

Posted on December 20, 2009
In India on Friday, the Report of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities was finally submitted to Parliament. The report of the Commission that is headed by former India Supreme Court Justice Ranganath Misra was originally circulated two years ago, but then disappeared from public view...

2nd Circuit: No Right To Be Free of Selective Immigration Law Enforcement

Posted on December 20, 2009
In Turkmen v. Ashcroft, (2d Cir., Dec. 18, 2009), the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims by seven Arab and Muslim detainees who were in the United States illegally. The now-deported detainees argued that their period of detention before they were removed from the country was illegally prolonged so the government could investigate whether they were tied to terrorism...

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U.S. Muslim Groups Express Increasing Suspicion of FBI Activities

Posted on December 18, 2009
A front-page article in today's New York Times reports on the increasing tensions in the U.S. between the FBI and Muslim organizations. A relationship that had been built beginning in 2001 has unraveled after FBI informers have infiltrated mosques to locate those who may be planning terrorist activity...

Irish Court Upholds Regulation of Sale of Mass Cards

Posted on December 18, 2009
RTE News and IOL News report that a High Court judge in Ireland yesterday upheld the constitutionality of Section 99 of the 2007 Charities Act that bans the sale of any Mass card except pursuant to an arrangement with a bishop of the Church or a provincial of a religious order...

Court Upholds Executed Prisoner's Religious Objection To Autopsy

Posted on December 18, 2009
In Nashville on Wednesday, a Davidson County, Tennessee, judge ruled that the state must honor the request of executed prisoner Cecil Johnson that no autopsy be performed on his body. According to yesterday's Tennessean, Chancellor Russell T. Perkins ruled that the state had not presented a compelling reason to reject the strong religious objections to an autopsy that Johnson expressed in a letter to the court before his execution by lethal injection...

Latino Elected Officials Using Jesus Poster To Encourage Census Participation

Posted on December 18, 2009
USA Today reported yesterday that the National Association of Latino Elected Officials is leading the drive to encourage Latinos to take part in next year's census through the use of a poster depicting Jesus. This will counter efforts by at least one other Latino group that is encouraging Hispanics to boycott the census to protest Congress' failure to liberalize immigration laws...

Several Governments Decide To Concede On Establishment Clause Challenges

Posted on December 18, 2009
In at least three recent cases, governmental bodies have decided to forgo the cost of defending against Establishment Clause challenges. In Lockland, Ohio (suburban Cincinnati) on Monday, officials took down a 10 Commandments sign that has been displayed for several years...

Provisions That Kept Sex Offenders From Attending Church Held Unconstitutional

Posted on December 18, 2009
In State of North Carolina v. Demaio, (NC Super. Ct., Dec. 17, 2009), a Chatham County North Carolina trial court dismissed charges against two registered sex offenders who had been indicted for attending church at a congregation that also had a nursery for children on premises...

Mosque Sues To Challenge Rezoning Denial

Posted on December 18, 2009
Suburban Atlanta (GA) Dar-e Abbas Islamic center yesterday filed suit to challenge Lilburn, Georgia's denial of its request for rezoning of a tract of land and for a special use permit to build a mosque, gymnasium and related cemetery. The complaint (full text) in A...

6th Circuit Denies En Banc Rehearing In Faith-Based Funding Case

Posted on December 18, 2009
The Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal reports that the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday denied an en banc rehearing in Pedreira v. Kentucky Baptist Homes For Children, Inc. In August, a 3-judge panel of the 6th Circuit held that plaintiffs have standing as state taxpayers to maintain an Establishment Clause challenge to the $100 million of state funds paid to KBHC to care for children...

UN General Assembly Passes Defamation of Religion Resolution With Less Support Than Last Year

Posted on December 18, 2009
Today for the fifth year in a row, the United Nations General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution calling for "adequate protection against acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from the defamation of religions, and incitement to religious hatred in general...

Washington University Creates New Center on Religion & Politics

Posted on December 17, 2009
Washington University (St. Louis) yesterday announced the establishment of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics. The Center is funded by a $30 million endowment gift from the Danforth Foundation. John C. Danforth served as U.S. Senator from Missouri for 18 years...

Arizona County Jails Will Continue All-Day Christmas Music

Posted on December 17, 2009
According to a report yesterday from UPI, Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio will once again this year have Christmas and holiday tunes played all day long at all of the county's jails. Six lawsuits have been filed by prisoners who object to the music, alleging forced religious participation and cruel and unusual punishment...

Pew Forum Issues New Study On Religious Restrictions Around the World

Posted on December 17, 2009
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Lifeyestereday released a 72-page report titled Global Restriction on Religion. It finds that 64 nations have high or very high restrictions on religion, affecting nearly 70% of the world's population. The report tracks both official government policies and hostile acts from private individuals, organizations and social groups...

Court Upholds Application of Clergy-Penitent Privilege For Confession To LDS Bishop

Posted on December 17, 2009
In State of Arizona v. Archibeque, (AZ Ct. App., Dec. 15, 2009), an Arizona appellate court held that the clergy-penitent privilege applies to a confession made by defendant, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, to his Bishop. It also held that the presence of defendant's wife during the confession, and his disclosures to her regarding his sexually touching his stepdaughter made prior to his confession, did not waive the privilege...

Religious Tolerance Is Dramatically Improved At Air Force Academy

Posted on December 17, 2009
An AP report yesterday says that religious tolerance has dramatically improved at the U.S. Air Force Academy. After extensive complaints, and even a lawsuit, charging Christian proselytizing of cadets, Academy superintendent, Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Gould, says there has been a top down campaign to insure respect for beliefs of all cadets and a proactive attempt to accommodate all religions, as well as nonbelievers...

School Excuses Atheist Student From Reading Bible As Literature

Posted on December 17, 2009
Newton, Massachusetts school officials have decided that 15-year old high school student Jack Summers will be excused from reading parts of the Bible that were assigned in a sophomore literature course that includes Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, Antigone and works by Shakespeare...

Full 9th Circuit Hears Oral Arguments In Establishment Clause Challenge To San Francisco Resolution

Posted on December 17, 2009
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday en banc heard oral arguments in Catholic League for Religious and Civil and Rights v. City and County of San Francisco. (Audio recording of full arguments.) In June, a 3-judge panel of the 9th Circuit rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to a strongly worded resolution passed by San Francisco's Board of Supervisors...

New Mexico Court Upholds Human Rights Agency's Finding Against Photographer

Posted on December 17, 2009
In Elane Photography, LLC v. Willock, (NM Dist. Ct., Dec. 11, 2009), a New Mexico trial court held that a limited liability company owned by a husband and wife and operating a photography business violated New Mexico's Human Rights Act when owner-photographer Elaine Huguenin refused to photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony...

Commentary: My Initial Reactions To the British Decision in the JFS Case

Posted on December 17, 2009
While I usually refrain from personal commentary on developments, what follows is my initial analysis of yesterday's JFS decision in Britian (--HMF):Yesterday Britain's new Supreme Court issued a ruling on racial and religious discrimination (see prior posting) whose lessons are broader than so far has generally been suggested...

Quebec Issues New Policy Against Homophobia

Posted on December 16, 2009
In Canada last Friday, Quebec's Minister of Justice released the first-ever Quebec Policy Against Homophobia. The new 40-page policy document follows up on a report issued in 2007 (background). Key principles set out in the new policy include elimination of discrimination and respect for the dignity and differences of sexual minority members...

UK Court of Appeal: No Discrimination In Requring Official To Register Civil Partnerships

Posted on December 16, 2009
In Ladele v. London Borough of Islington, (EWCA, Dec. 15, 2009), the Court of Appeals of England and Wales agreed with Britain's Employment Appeals Tribunal (see prior posting) that a Christian marriage registrar was not subjected to illegal discrimination when she was disciplined and threatened with dismissal for refusing to register same-sex civil partnerships...

Rifqa Bary's Parents Want Ohio Social Services To Screen Daughter's Christmas Cards

Posted on December 16, 2009
The Jawa Report last week reprinted a motion filed at the beginning of December by attorneys for Rifqa Bary, the 17-year old convert to Christianity who fled her Ohio family and went to Florida, saying she was afraid her father would kill her because of her conversion...

DC Circuit Hears Oral Arguments In Challege To Inaugural Oath and Prayers

Posted on December 16, 2009
Yesterday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Newdow v. Roberts. The case challenges the addition of "So help me God" in the oath administered to President Obama, as well as prayers offered by clergy as part of the inaugural ceremony...

Florida Court Says No-Aid Claim Against Faith-Based Treatment Program Can Proceed

Posted on December 16, 2009
In Council for Secular Humanism, Inc. v. McNeil, (FL Ct. App., Dec. 15, 2009), a Florida state appellate court held that plaintiffs stated a valid claim under the "no-aid" provision of Florida's Constitution (Art. I, Sec. 3) when they challenged per diem payments by the state to two Christian ministries for prisoners placed in their faith-based substance abuse transitional housing programs...

Vietnam President Visits Pope; Church Order Seeks Return of Land

Posted on December 16, 2009
Last week, Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet met in the Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI in talks that moved toward normalizing relations between Vietnam and the Holy See. (AFP). According to a separate AFP story yesterday, a few days before the meeting, a Catholic religious order in southern Vietnam asked communist authorities to stop construction on a city park that they say is on property that belongs to the Church...

D.C. Council Votes Final Passage of Gay Marriage Bill

Posted on December 16, 2009
Washington, D.C.'s City Council yesterday, by a vote of 11-2, gave final approval to the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009. The bill, which permits same-sex marriages to be performed in D.C., now goes to Mayor Adrian A...

Lawsuits Challenge Brooklyn Diocese Over Election Calls

Posted on December 16, 2009
In a press release issued yesterday, New York City Atheists says it is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio charging that the Church made Robo-calls during the last election urging voters to cast their ballot for New York State Assemblyman Vito Lopez...

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