Religion & Law

2010 Census Again Will Not Count Overseas Mormon Missionaries

Posted on August 18, 2009
Sunday's Salt Lake (UT) Tribune reported that, as in past years, the 2010 census will not count the estimated 11,000 Mormon missionaries living overseas. The only individuals not in the U.S. who are counted by the census are federal civilian and military personnel and those on merchant vessels...

Idaho Charter School Barred From Using Bible As Textbook

Posted on August 17, 2009
The Idaho Public Charter School Commission on Friday ruled that an Idaho charter school cannot use the Bible as one of its textbooks, according to the Idaho Press-Tribune. The Nampa Classical Academy had planned to use the Bible and other religious texts, but not to teach religion...

Nigerian Police Remove Muslim Sect Members From Compound

Posted on August 17, 2009
Concerned about a repeat of religious violence that occurred last month (see prior posting), authorities in Nigeria yesterday raided the compound of a Darul Islam sect in the central state of Niger and removed some 4000 members. AFP reported yesterday that 1500 police from Abuja carried out the operation after state officials expressed concern that the existence and activities of the sect in the town of Mokwa could cause a "religious crisis...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on August 17, 2009
From SSRN:Steven Douglas Smith, The Establishment Clause and the 'Problem of the Church', (San Diego Legal Studies Paper No. 09-024, Aug. 5, 2009).Roberta F. Mann, Is Sharif's Castle Deductible?: Islam and the Tax Treatment of Mortgage Debt, (William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, Vol...

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Numerous New Prisoner Free Exercise Cases Have Become Available This Week

Posted on August 16, 2009
In Berryman v. Granholm, (6th Cir., Aug. 12, 2009), the U.S. 6th Circuit court of Appeals upheld a Michigan prison's suspension of plaintiff from its kosher meal program (with the ability to reapply after 60 days) after he ordered and signed for non-kosher food...

Cape Cod Town Allows Prayer Station At Beach Parking Lot

Posted on August 16, 2009
Today's Cape Cod Times editorializes on a recent 4-0 decision by the Falmouth (MA) Board of Selectmen to allow four local churches to combine to set up a "prayer station" in the parking lot at Old Silver Beach in North Falmouth. Volunteers staffing the booth can only talk to those who approach them, and no solicitation or proselytizing is allowed...

Principal Chosen For NY Hebrew Language Charter School

Posted on August 15, 2009
The Forward earlier this week carried an interesting profile of Maureen Campbell, the principal of New York City's first Hebrew language charter school. Campbell attended Vassar, spent a semester at Oxford, and then graduated from Columbia University's Teachers College...

EEOC Sues Puerto Rico Hospital Claiming Religious Discrimination

Posted on August 15, 2009
The EEOC announced on Thursday that it has filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against Puerto Rico?s largest medical center, Hospital Auxilio Mutuo. The hospital refused to accommodate a male registered nurse whose Santeria religious beliefs requires him to wear his hair long...

Court Dismisses Civil Rights Claim Against Mormon Church By FLDS Member

Posted on August 14, 2009
In Cooke v. Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70192 (D AZ, Aug. 11, 2009), a member of the FLDS Church filed a federal civil rights action against the mainstream Church of Latter Day Saints claiming that it acted in collusion with the states of Arizona and Utah to engage in religious persecution of the FLDS Church...

British Borough Council Warns of Health Dangers In Purported Muslim Holy Water

Posted on August 14, 2009
In Britain, the London borough of Wandsworth's Council on Wednesday issued a public health alert warning Muslims of imitation holy water containing potentially lethal concentrations of arsenic. Sellers in the area claim that the bottled water comes from the holy Well of Zam Zam in Mecca...

Court Rejects Challenge To Recitation of Pledge By Judge

Posted on August 14, 2009
Missouri's attorney general, Chris Koster, released a statement on July 30 praising a decision by the St. Francois County (MO) Circuit Court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging another judge's practice of opening his courtroom session with the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance...

Muslim Group Sues Portland, Maine Over Zoning Restrictions

Posted on August 14, 2009
The Maine Civil Liberties Union announced yesterday that it has filed suit on behalf of the Portland Masjid and Islamic Center, challenging the city of Portland's zoning determination that a group of Afghani Muslims may not use a former television repair shop they purchased as a site for prayer services and religious study...

Italian Court Bars School Favoritism For Courses In Catholicism

Posted on August 14, 2009
In Italy, an Administrative Tribunal in the district of Lazio (which includes Rome) has ruled that schools may no longer give credit for students who study Catholicism during public school "religion hours,"since schools deny academic credit to students who study other religions...

Jehovah's Witnesses Lose Challenge To Puerto Rico Controlled Access Laws

Posted on August 14, 2009
In Watchtower Bible Tract Society of New York, Inc. v. Sanchez-Ramos, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69837 (D PR, Aug. 10, 2009), a federal district court in Puerto Rico rejected an "as applied" constitutional challenge by Jehovah's Witnesses to a Puerto Rico law that permits neighborhoods to close off access to streets by using walls and gates...

Hamas Fights Islamist Group In Gaza Over Declaration of "Islamic Emirate"

Posted on August 14, 2009
Jerusalem Post reports that fighting today in the Gaza Strip between Hamas forces and the radical Islamist group Jund Ansar Allah killed 5 and wounded at least 50. The fighting, which began near a mosque in Rafah, was triggered when Islamist leader Abdel-Latif Moussa (also known by his nom de guerre, Abu al-Nour al-Maqdessi) declared "the birth of the Islamic Emirate" in Gaza...

South African Broadcast Commission Rejects Complaint Against Radio Islam

Posted on August 13, 2009
On Tuesday, South Africa's Broadcasting Complaints Commission dismissed a complaint against Radio Islam that had been filed by a member of the Jewish community. In I and Apolakow v. Radio Islam, (BCCSA, Aug. 11, 2009), the Commission held that broadcasts which, among other things, said that Jews could not be trusted and that Zionists control the Western media, had not overstepped the bounds of bona fide religious speech...

Tulsa Mayoral Candidate Wants Creationism Exhibit Added To Zoo

Posted on August 13, 2009
Anna Falling, one of eleven candidates running in the Republican primary for mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma, says that her top priority is placing a Christian creationism display in the Tulsa zoo. Asked about problems of crime, budget concerns and street repairs, she said: "If we can?t come to the foundation of faith in this community, those other answers will never come...

Study Finds Less Press Coverage of Obama's Faith-Based Initiative

Posted on August 13, 2009
The Pew Forum yesterday released a study comparing newspaper coverage of President George W. Bush's Faith-Based Initiative with coverage of President Barack Obama's Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships program during the first 6 months of each administration...

President Awards Medal of Freedom To 16 Amidst Some Controversy Over One Awardee

Posted on August 13, 2009
At a White House ceremony yesterday, Barack Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 16 recipients. (Full text of President's remarks). Among the recipients were Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Rev. Joseph Lowery. The decision to include Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former U...

Michigan City Rejects Anti-Discrimination Ordinance; Alaska City Passes Ban

Posted on August 13, 2009
The Jackson, Michigan City Council on Tuesday defeated by a vote of 5-2 a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance. The proposed law would have banned discrimination on the basis of "race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, height, weight, condition of pregnancy, marital status, physical or mental limitation, source of income, family responsibilities or status, educational association, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or HIV status...

Vermont Town Rejects Proposed Policy On Religion In Schools

Posted on August 13, 2009
In the village of Benson, Vermont, the school board on Tuesday unanimously rejected a proposed policy on religious expression in the schools. The policy was drafted by a task force made up of teachers, administrators, parents and community members after a principal last year removed from walls students' artwork showing holiday symbols...

French Swimming Pool Bars Muslim Woman Wearing Full-Body "Burquini"

Posted on August 13, 2009
In France, a public swimming pool in Paris has refused to allow a young Muslim woman to swim wearing a "burquini"-- a wet suit and hood designed for women who want to swim without revealing their body. The suits are becoming increasingly popular in the West...

India Added To USCIRF's Watch List

Posted on August 13, 2009
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom yesterday added India to the 11 countries already on its "watch list," a notch below the 13 designated as "countries of particular concern. (See prior posting.) The move came as USCIRF released its country report on India-- added as a chapter to its 2009 annual report...

Profile of WallBuilders Head Who Is On Texas Education Review Panel

Posted on August 12, 2009
AlterNet yesterday carried a long profile of WallBuilders founder David Barton, who in June was appointed a member of a Texas State Board of Education Panel charged with reviewing the state's social studies curriculum. (See prior posting.) Here are some excerpts from the AlterNet piece: From his base in Aledo, a town of about 2,000 just west of Fort Worth, Barton runs an outfit called WallBuilders that issues a steady stream of books, videos, DVDs, pamphlets and other materials designed to "prove" that the United States was founded to be a Christian nation...

Florida Court Gives 17-Year Old Protective Custody After Her Conversion To Christianity

Posted on August 12, 2009
In Orlando, Florida on Monday a judge ordered a 17-year old Rifqa Bary into emergency custody of the state's Department of Children and Families. The girl fled her Muslim family in Ohio saying she was afraid her father would hurt or kill her or send her back to their native Sri Lanka because she had converted to Christianity...

Kmiec Confirmed As US Ambassador To Malta

Posted on August 12, 2009
Blog of Legal Times yesterday reported that the U.S. Senate last week unanimously confirmed Pepperdine Law School Professor Douglas Kmiec as the U.S. ambassador to Malta. Kmiec previously served as dean of Catholic University Law School and on the faculty of Notre Dame Law School...

EEOC Says Catholic College Discriminated By Dropping Contraception Coverage

Posted on August 12, 2009
Last year, Charlotte, North Carolina's Belmont Abbey College got its health insurance carrier to drop coverage for voluntary sterilization, abortion, and contraception because the coverage is contrary to Catholic teaching. That led eight faculty members to file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charging the college, run by Benedictine monks, with religious and gender-based discrimination in violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act...

Indonesia May Be Moving Toward Imposing More Islamic Restrictions

Posted on August 12, 2009
Today's Malaysian Insider carries an article on developments in Indonesia that some argue are moving it away from its secular and multi-religious foundations. Indonesia's Parliament is debating a draft law that would require all businesses to obtain halal certification for products they sell...

Religious Right and Left Spar Over Health Care Reform

Posted on August 12, 2009
Religious liberals and conservatives are weighing in on opposite sides of the health care reform debate. The religious left, including leaders such as Jim Wallis of the Sojourners, began a campaign on Monday titled "40 Days for Health Care Reform" (Reuters, 8/7...

6th Circuit: Deportee Failed To Prove Falun Gong Status

Posted on August 11, 2009
In Jiang v. Holder, (6th Cir., Aug. 7, 2009), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ordered deportation of a citizen from China who came to the U.S. on a fiancee visa but never married her sponsor. Qiao Zhen Jiang however claimed that her removal should be withheld because she would face religious persecution upon her return...

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