Religion & Law

New Religious Education Law Being Drafted In Kyrgyzstan

Posted on September 08, 2009
Forum 18 yesterday reported on the draft text of a new Law on Religious Education and Educational Institutions that is being drafted by Kyrgyzstan's State Agency for Religious Affairs (SARA). Kanybek Osmonaliev, had of SARA, says a new law is needed in order to reduce the number of Islamic educational institutions and to require them to offer a proper balance of religious and secular subjects...

Dress Code Loosened For Women Lawyers In Gaza

Posted on September 08, 2009
In Gaza, the Supreme Justice Council last week announced that, contrary to a pronouncement in July, female lawyers will not be required to wear traditional Islamic dress when appearing in court. YNet News reported Sunday that in a press release the Council said: "female lawyers are asked only to appear in modest dress from now on...

Magistrate Says Remove "Five Percenters" From Prison "Security Threat Group" List

Posted on September 08, 2009
The Nation of Gods and Earths / Five Percenters (NGE) -- an offshoot group of the Nation of Islam -- is classified by many prison systems as a Security Threat Group (STG). (Background.) Last month in Hardaway v. Haggerty, (ED MI, Aug. 17, 2009), a Michigan federal magistrate judge recommended that the STG designation be removed from the group...

Bishops' Labor Day Statement Highlights Unionization Principles For Catholic Health Agencies

Posted on September 07, 2009
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued its Labor Day 2009 statement, The Value of Work; The Dignity of the Human Person. The statement highlights an elaborate agreement reached in June on unionization of workers at Catholic health care facilities...

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Connecticut Diocese Plea to Stay Release of Abuse Records Referred To Full Supreme Court

Posted on September 07, 2009
As previously reported, the Bridgeport, Connecticut Roman Catholic Diocese has been trying to obtain a stay of an order issued in May by the Connecticut Supreme Court requiring release of some 12,600 pages of documents filed in 23 cases alleging sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy...

Minnesota Senator's State Fair Joke Misfires

Posted on September 07, 2009
Op Ed News reported on an awkward lack of religious sensitivity by Minnesota U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar yesterday during CNN correspondent John King's interview with her at the Minnesota State Fair. (Transcript). As King bantered about items the Republicans were handing out at the Fair, Klobuchar replied: "I have for you chocolate covered bacon, one of our fair delicacies...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on September 07, 2009
From SSRN:Jackson Nyamuya Maogoto, Legalising Divorce in the Republic of Ireland: A Canonical Harness to the Legal Liberation of the Right to Marriage Among the Disenfranchised, (September 1, 2009).John D. Inazu, No Future Without (Personal) Forgiveness: Re-Examining the Role of Forgiveness in Transitional Justice, (Human Rights Review, Vol...

Christian Groups Are Proselytizing Dearborn, Michigan's Muslims

Posted on September 06, 2009
Today's Detroit Free Press reports that at least eight Christian groups from across the United States have organized proselytization campaigns aimed at Dearborn, Michigan's large Islamic population. The efforts have already resulted in various lawsuits (see prior postings 1, 2), assertions that opponents of the efforts are stifling free speech, and debates about how Islam can co-exist with Christianity in the West...

South African Lawsuit Challenges Halal Certification Organization

Posted on September 06, 2009
Today's Johannesburg Times reports on a lawsuit that has been filed in South Africa in the High Court in Johannesburg by the Muslim organization "Scholars of Truth." The group seeks to stop the South African National Halal Association (Sanha) from continuing to act as a certifier of Halal chickens...

In India, Suit Threatened Over Compulsory Hindu Prayer In Schools

Posted on September 06, 2009
India's Education Ministry last month ordered that beginning Sept. 5, all students in state-run schools must recite the "bhojan mantra" before their mid-day meals. IANS reports today that a group of socio-cultural organizations will file suit in the Madhya Pradesh high court asking that the court order an end to the practice...

Large Churches Face Zoning Hurdles

Posted on September 06, 2009
Today's Baltimore Sun carries an interesting analysis of zoning opposition to building of mega-churches (and similarly large synagogues and mosques). Dave Travis, a consultant who tracks these trends says: "There's still a general impression that most churches are small: The white frame church down there on the corner, the little brick building that has a hundred people...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on September 06, 2009
In Houseknecht v. Doe, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77950 (ED PA, Aug. 28, 2009), a Pennsylvania federal district court rejected an inmate's complaint that his rights under the Free Exercise Clause and RLUIPA were infringed when, because he was placed in protective custody, he was denied access to formal worship services and formal Bible study classes...

Louisiana Governor's State-Paid Trips To Churches Raise Controversy

Posted on September 05, 2009
Controversy between Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and his critics has been escalating since an article in the New Orleans Advocate a week ago disclosed that at least 15 times this year Jindal used his state helicopter to attend church services around the state...

Wisconsin County Seeks Compromise To Avoid Liability Over Monument

Posted on September 05, 2009
In Chippewa County, Wisconsin, officials are scrambling to come up with an acceptable compromise over feared church-state challenges to a monument that was put up on the grounds of the County Building. As reported by KBJR-TV, Business North and Chippewa Valley Newspapers, a private committee came up with plans for a monument to Chippewa County Deputy Jason Zunker who was struck and killed in January 2008 while directing traffic...

White House Visitor Logs Will Now Be Routinely Released; Lawsuits Settled

Posted on September 05, 2009
ABC News reported yesterday that the Justice Department has settled several Freedom of Information Act lawsuits brought by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). All the suits seek release of logs identifying visitors to the White House and the Vice President's Residence...

3rd Circuit Tells BIA: Reconsider Whether Iran May Torture Christian Convert

Posted on September 05, 2009
In Ghaziaskar v. Attorney General for the United States, (3d Cir., Sept. 3, 2009), the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, while upholding a portion of the Board of Immigration Appeal's determinations, remanded to BIA the claim by an Iranian immigrant that if he were deported to Iran it is more likely than not that he would face torture...

Controversy Persists Over Virginia Gubernatorial Candidate's 20-Year Old Thesis

Posted on September 04, 2009
A controversy has been developing in Virginia this week over the masters' thesis written twenty years ago by now Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell. (Washington Post 8/30.) The 93-page thesis titled The Republican Party's Vision for the Family: The Compelling Issue of the Decade was written while McDonnell was a student at what is now Regent University, founded by Pat Robertson...

Opinion Issued In Case Ordering Parochial School Student Into Public School Band

Posted on September 04, 2009
A Pennsylvania federal district court has now issued a detailed written opinion explaining the temporary restraining order it issued last week (see prior posting) requiring the the Burrell (PA) High School to permit a student who transferred to a parochial school to remain in the high school band...

Jury Rejects Dance Teacher's Religious Discrimination Claim

Posted on September 04, 2009
In San Diego, California yesterday, a state court jury rejected a former public school dance teacher's religious discrimination lawsuit against the Lemon Grove (CA) School District. According to 10News, Kathy Villalobos claimed the school district fired her for playing dance music containing religious lyrics...

Groups Urge Change In Senate Bill To Permit Head Coverings In Drivers License Photos

Posted on September 04, 2009
Yesterday more than a dozen religious advocacy and interfaith groups sent a letter (full text) to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee urging them to support an amendment to S. 1261, the PASS ID Act, that is pending in the Senate...

Court Enforces Biblically Based Arbitration Agreement

Posted on September 04, 2009
In Easterly v. Heritage Christian Schools., Inc., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76269 (SD IN, Aug. 26, 2009), an Indiana federal district court enforced a Biblically-based arbitration agreement between a high school English teacher and the Christian school at which she was employed for some 20 years before she was forced from her job...

Obama Issues Proclamation On Remembrance of 9-11 Victims

Posted on September 04, 2009
President Obama yesterday issued a Proclamation (full text) declaring Sept. 4-6 as National Days of Prayer and Remembrance 2009. The Proclamation focuses on the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as well as on members of the armed forces "who work every day to keep our Nation safe from terrorism and other threats to our security...

Italian Prime Minister In Historic Feud With The Vatican

Posted on September 04, 2009
Today's Brisbane (Australia) Times reports from Italy on what it calls an historic and potentially disastrous schism between Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the Vatican. It all began when the Italian daily la Repubblica began repeatedly to ask Berlusconi to explain his relationships with several young women, including an aspiring teen model from Naples...

Iowa School District Unveils Revised Religious Liberty Draft Policy

Posted on September 04, 2009
After withdrawing its original draft policy on religious liberty in schools (see prior posting), Spencer, Iowa school officials today unveiled a new draft (full text). It provides in part:Teachers shall prepare and teach lessons throughout the year and throughout the curriculum that:Approach religion as academic, not devotionalStrive for student awareness of religions, not acceptance of religionsStudy about religion, but do not practice religion in the classroomExpose students to diversity of religious views, not impose any particular viewEducate about a variety of religions, not promote or denigrate religionInform students about various beliefs, not conform students to any particular beliefDemonstrate the impact of economic, social, political and cultural effects of religion throughout historyAre age appropriateThe Spencer Daily Reporter covers these developments.

Religious Peyote Exemption Does Not Invalidate Federal Drug Laws

Posted on September 03, 2009
In United States v. Valazquez, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77946 (WD OK, Aug. 31, 2009), a defendant facing federal drug charges argued that the federal controlled substances laws are unconstitutional because of the exemption they grant to the Native American Church for the use of peyote...

Churches Sue To Prevent Noise Ordinance From Limiting Their Carillon Bells

Posted on September 03, 2009
Three churches in Phoenix, Arizona yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Phoenix challenging its noise ordinance that has been applied to limit ringing of carillon bells by local churches. The complaint (full text) in St. Mark Roman Catholic Parish Phoenix v...

Dutch Prosecutors Will Move Against Anti-Jewish Cartoon

Posted on September 03, 2009
According to Dutch News yesterday, the Dutch public prosecution department has announced that it will file charges against the Arab European League for a cartoon it has posted on its website. The cartoon depicts two men in business suits discussing how to increase the numbers killed in the Holocaust...

Canadian Court Rejects Challenge To Quebec's New Religious Survey Courses

Posted on September 03, 2009
In the Canadian province of Quebec, a trial court judge has rejected a challenge by Christian parents to the mandatory new course in grades 1 through 11 in Quebec schools that teaches about a broad range of world religions. The Ethics and Religious Culture course covers Christianity, Judaism, aboriginal spirituality, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism...

Canadian Tribunal Says Internet Hate Speech Law Is Unconstitutional

Posted on September 03, 2009
In a 107-page opinion handed down yesterday, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) held that Canada's Internet hate speech law is unconstitutional. The CHRT is an adjudicative body that hears discrimination charges referred to it by the Canadian Human Rights Commission...

Remarks At Kennedy Memorial Service Raise Issue On Mormon Temple Zoning

Posted on September 02, 2009
According to yesterday's Belmont (MA) Citizen-Herald, remarks delivered by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch at the memorial service for Sen. Edward Kennedy last Friday (full text) have caused some former litigants to question a decision handed down in 2001 by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court...

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