Religion & Law

5th Circuit Hears Arguments In Native American School Boy's Hair Style Case

Posted on December 05, 2009
Yesterday the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Arocha v. Needville Independent School District. (Recording of full oral arguments.) In the case, a Texas federal district court enjoined school officials from enforcing the district's hair style policy against a 5-year old whose family taught him to wear his hair in two long braids in the tradition of Native American religions...

South African Court Allows Zulu Thanksgiving Ritual To Proceed

Posted on December 04, 2009
IOL reports that in South Africa today, the Pietermaritzburg High Court dismissed a challenge by Animal Rights Africa to the Ukweshwama ceremony practiced by Zulus. The ceremony involves the bare-handed killing of a bull as a way of thanking God for the first crops of the season...

Court Says White Supremacist Movement Is Not A "Religion"

Posted on December 04, 2009
In Conner v. Tilton, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111892 (ND CA, Dec. 2, 2009), in a decision unusually detailed in its analysis for a case brought by a prisoner pro se, a California federal district court held that the White supremacist Creativity Movement is not a "religion" for purposes of the First Amendment or RLUIPA...

Intervention Denied In Case Challenging Parsonage Allowance

Posted on December 04, 2009
In Freedom from Religion Foundation v. Geithner, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111776 (ED CA, Dec. 2, 2009), a California federal district court refused to permit a pastor to intervene in FFRF's Establishment Clause challenge to the parsonage allowance provisions in the federal and California tax laws...

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Obama Lights National Christmas Tree

Posted on December 04, 2009
President Obama and his family last night lit the National Christmas Tree-- a 40 foot Colorado blue spruce growing on the Ellipse just south of the White House. AP reports on the ceremony which featured celebrity entertainers, Santa and Mrs. Claus, and Michelle Obama reading The Night Before Christmas to a group of children...

9th Circuit Grants Indian Tribes Preliminary Injunction Against Mt. Tebo Mining Project

Posted on December 04, 2009
In South Fork Bank Council of Western Shoshone of Nevada v. U.S. Department of the Interior, (9th Cir., Dec. 3, 2009), a group of Indian tribes sought a preliminary injunction to stop Barrick Gold Corp.'s open pit gold mining project on Nevada's Mt. Tebo...

State TV In Iran Bans Make-Up For Women

Posted on December 04, 2009
ProductionME reported yesterday that Ezatollah Zarghami, head of Iran's state television, has ordered that women appearing on television will not be permitted to wear make-up. Saying that make-up is against Islamic Sharia law, Zarghami told producers to be vigilant...

'Tis The Season For Battles Over Holiday Displays On Public Property

Posted on December 04, 2009
This is the time of year when disputes over holiday displays on public property and be expected. Here is a sampling of the most recent.According to an editorial in the Desert Valley (NV) Times, some residents of Mesquite, Nevada boycotted the mayor's tree lighting ceremony on Tuesday because a notice of the event she sent out referred to it as a "holiday tree...

Bridgeport Diocese Releases Priest Sexual Abuse Records

Posted on December 03, 2009
On Tuesday, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport (CT) announced that it had complied with the heavily contested court order requiring it to release previously sealed documents relating to 23 now-settled sexual abuse lawsuits against seven priests...

Church Challenge To Zoning Enforcement Not Barred By Claim Preclusion

Posted on December 03, 2009
In McGuire v. Clackamas County Counsel, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111390 (D OR, Nov. 24, 2009), an Oregon federal district court rejected a magistrate's findings that "claim preclusion" required dismissal of claims by the pastor-founders of a local church alleging that application of local zoning ordinances violated their free exercise of religion...

FLDS Church Asks Court To Replace Special Fiduciary

Posted on December 03, 2009
Yesterday the FLDS Church took yet another step in opposing long-running efforts by a Utah state court to reform the $120 million United Effort Plan Trust which holds land that before 2005 had been controlled communally by leaders of the polygamous FLDS Church...

British Tribunal Says Counselor Can Be Fired For Refusing To Counsel Gay Couples

Posted on December 03, 2009
In McFarlane v. Relate Avon Ltd., (EAT, Nov. 30, 2009), Britain's Employment Appeal Tribunal rejected claims by a counselor employed by a relationship counseling service that his dismissal violated Britain's Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations...

New York Senate Defeats Same-Sex Marriage Bill; DC Bill Moves Ahead

Posted on December 03, 2009
Yesterday the New York State Senate, by a vote of 24-38, defeated a bill that would have permitted same-sex marriage in the state. The bill, strongly supported by Gov. David Patterson, had already passed the state Assembly. AP reports that the bill lost by a wider margin than had been expected...

5th Circuit OK's School Rules on Student Distribution of Materials

Posted on December 03, 2009
In Morgan v. Plano Independent School District, (5th Cir., Dec. 1, 2009), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals found that rules adopted in 2005 by a Texas school district restricting student distribution of written materials are constitutional, at least on their face...

Arkansas Appellate Court Upholds Removal of Children From Alamo Compound

Posted on December 02, 2009
The Arkansas Court of Appeals on Nov. 18 decided three cases involving children who were taken into emergency custody by the Arkansas Department of Human Services from the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries compound in Fouke, Arkansas. (See prior posting...

National Mock Trial Championship Changes Rules To Allow Religious Accommodation

Posted on December 02, 2009
After extensive controversy both in 2007 and last year, the National High School Mock Trial Championship has changed its rules to permit teams to request schedule adjustments for religious reasons. The new Policy on Competition Schedule Accommodation for Religious Reasons applies when arguments scheduled for Friday or Saturday conflict with "firmly held religious beliefs and practices of any of the members of a registered team?s official competition roster...

Appellate Court Upholds Refusal To Order Divorced Father To Take Childern To Church

Posted on December 02, 2009
In Finnerty v. Cutter, (IN Ct. App., Nov. 30, 2009), an Indiana appellate court rejected a divorced mother's claim that a trial court had abused its discretion in failing to order her former husband to take their children to church on Sundays during his parenting time...

German High Court Says Berlin Went Too Far In Sunday Store Openings

Posted on December 02, 2009
Germany's Federal Constitutional Court yesterday ruled that the city of Berlin had gone too far in permitting stores to be open on ten Sundays per year, including the four Sundays before Christmas. According to The Local, the justices cited the so-called Church Article of the 1919 Weimar Constitution that provides Sundays are to remain protected as days of rest and spiritual improvement...

Swiss Peoples Party Looking Toward More Restrictions On Muslims

Posted on December 02, 2009
After winning a surprising victory this week on its initiative to ban building of minarets in Switzerland, the right wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) is planning to press for other restrictions. According to Islam Online yesterday, SVP member of Parliament Adrian Amstutz says: "Forced marriages, female circumcision, special dispensation from swimming lessons and the burka are top of the list...

Ohio Social Worker Files Case-Management Plan for Rifqa Bary

Posted on December 02, 2009
An AP report yesterday gave an update on the status of Rifqa Bary, the Ohio teenager who fled from her Muslim family to Florida after she converted to Christianity, saying she was afraid her father would kill her. Florida courts eventually returned her to the custody of courts in Ohio, where she was placed in foster care...

Jewish Group Withdraws Trademark Suit Against Gas Chain After Settlement

Posted on December 02, 2009
The Gary (IN) Post-Tribune reported yesterday that the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (OU) has withdrawn a trademark infringement suit that it had filed in Indiana federal district court against Luke Oil Co. The OU reached an agreement with Luke Oil that the service station chain would stop using a logo-- a U inside a circle next to the name Luke-- on cups and on walls above food inside its convenience stores...

Suit Charges Airport Service Company With Religious Discrimination

Posted on December 02, 2009
A federal lawsuit filed yesterday in Indianapolis, Indiana charges Air Serv Corp. with employment discrimination after it refused to hire a Sikh man who applied for a position as a shuttle bus driver. According to the complaint (full text) in Singh v...

Chelsea Clinton's Engagement Is Commentary on Interfaith Relations In the U.S.

Posted on December 01, 2009
Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is engaged to Marc Mezvinsky whose father and mother were both members of the U.S. House of Representatives. It is an interesting commentary on religion in contemporary United States that the interfaith nature of the upcoming marriage is receiving only minimal coverage...

Renaming of "Christmas Parade" Is Short-Lived

Posted on December 01, 2009
Today's Merced (CA) Sun-Star chronicles a short battle in this year's "Christmas wars." The Christmas Parade which had been sponsored for 15 years by a private group was turned over to the city after the usual organizers ran out of energy to put on the event...

Settlement Reached In Street Preachers' Challenge of Town's Noise Ordinance

Posted on December 01, 2009
Seacoast Online yesterday reported that a settlement has been entered by a New Hampshire federal district court in a challenge by two Christian evangelists to Hampton, New Hampshire's statute barring loud and unreasonable noise in public places. (See prior posting...

Several Jewish Groups Working To Get Rid of Stupak Amendment In Health Care Bill

Posted on December 01, 2009
According to The Forward yesterday, several Jewish groups that favor abortion rights are working to keep the House-passed Stupak amendment out of the Senate version of the health care reform bill. The groups include the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the National Council of Jewish Women, the American Jewish Congress and the Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs...

Reactions To Sunday's Swiss Vote Banning Minarets

Posted on December 01, 2009
To no one's surprise, Switzerland is facing broad-based protests from around the world after voters on Sunday approved an initiative that banned future construction of minarets in the country. An AFP report says the Vatican joined Muslim leaders in decrying the vote, as did the Lutheran World Federation (ENI) and Asma Jahangir, UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief...

Parties Settle In Lesbian's Suit Against California Clinic

Posted on October 01, 2009
Last year in North Coast Women's Care Medical Group, Inc. v. San Diego County Superior Court, (CA Sup. Ct., Aug. 18, 2008), the California Supreme Court held unanimously that a medical clinic's physicians are prohibited by the Unruh Civil Rights Act from discriminating against patients on the basis of sexual orientation...

NY Jewish Schools Get No Child Left Behind Tutors For First Time

Posted on October 01, 2009
The Jewish Press reported yesterday that for the first time, some 14,000 young students from 50 yeshivas in New York City will be able to access tutoring services paid for by the No Child Left Behind Act's Title I program. The tutors offer students help with reading, writing and arithmetic...

Many Pakistani Mosques and Madressahs Face Shut Off Of Electricity

Posted on October 01, 2009
In Pakistan, the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) notified the Ministry of Religious Affairs earlier this month that over 1,600 mosques and madressahs have not paid their electric bills. They owe the equivalent of $1.49 million (US). According to Pakistan's The News today, KESC will be sending a final one-week notice to delinquent customers and then will be shutting off their power...

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