Religion & Law

Muslims In Germany Find Their Role As New Mosque Is Built

Posted on August 11, 2009
Yesterday's Christian Science Monitor examines the attitudes of Germans as the country's largest mosque is being built in Cologne. Cologne's Muslim population of 120,000 has its roots in immigration of Turkish "guest workers" in the 1960's who then stayed...

Army Reaches Out To Jewish Soldiers At Ft. Benning After Discrimination Charge

Posted on August 11, 2009
JTA reported yesterday that the army base at Ft. Benning, Georgia, has taken steps in response to discrimination claims by a Jewish soldier who was told by one drill sergeant to remove his yarmulke in the mess hall and was subjected to anti-Semitic taunts by others...

Virginia Jail Reverses Policy On Censorship of Religious Material

Posted on August 11, 2009
The ACLU announced yesterday that Rappahannock Virginia's Regional Jail has changed its policy so that it no longer censors religious material sent to inmates. Responding to an earlier complaint from the ACLU (see prior posting), the jail's superintendent explained in a letter (full text) to the ACLU that originally its policy banned inmates receiving mail that included material copied from the Internet, whether that was religious or other material...

"In God We Trust" Proposal Withdrawn By City Commission In Florida

Posted on August 10, 2009
Kissimmee, Florida's City Commission last week changed its mind about a proposal to add "In God We Trust" to the city's logo. While the proposal passed on the first of two readings, public and business reaction caused the Commission to pass another resolution instructing city staff to stop work on designing the new logo...

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Activists Force Syrian Government To Shelve Proposed Personal Status Law

Posted on August 10, 2009
The August issue of Syria Today reports that civil rights activists have gotten the government to shelve a new secretly-drafted personal status law that would have codified conservative principles of sharia law. Opponents successfully argued that the proposed law violated Syria's constitution, interfered with rulings of religious courts and reversed progress on women's and children's rights...

Senate Rejects Charitable Donation of "Clunkers" In Extending Program

Posted on August 10, 2009
The U.S. Senate last Thursday approved a House bill that extended the "cash of clunkers" automobile purchase incentive program by appropriating an additional $2 billion for it. The Senate considered and defeated seven amendments. Unless the Senate passed the House bill without amendment, the program would effectively have been killed since the bill would have to go back to the House which is already in recess until September...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on August 10, 2009
From SSRN:William A. Wooten, The Coach?s Pre-Game Prayer: Probably Wrong But Feels Right, (August 3, 2009).Thomas Charles Berg, Lemon v. Kurtzman: The Parochial-School Crisis and the Establishment Clause, (in Law and Religion Cases in Context, Leslie Griffin ed...

Obama Nominations for 3rd and 6th Circuits: What Do We Know of Their Views On Religion Issues?

Posted on August 09, 2009
President Barack Obama on Friday sent two nominations for vacant Court of Appeals judgeships to the Senate. (White House press release.) Nashville attorney and ERISA specialist Jane Stranch has been nominated for the 6th Circuit. Stranch has been active in the Episcopal Church, serving as a Vice-Chancellor for the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee...

Christians- Muslims Disagree Over Kadhi Proposal For Kenyan Constitution

Posted on August 09, 2009
In Kenya, disagreement between majority Christians and the 10% Muslim population has broken out over a proposal to place in Kenya's new constitution provisions regarding Kadhi courts. According to yesterday's Christian Post, the proposal would go beyond confirming the existing regional Kadhi courts that adjudicate family law and inheritance matters for Muslims...

Paper Profiles Principal Facing Contempt Charges Over Prayer

Posted on August 09, 2009
Today's Pensacola (FL) News Journal carries a fascinating lengthy profile of Frank Lay, long-time principal of Santa Rosa County (FL) Pace High School who faces criminal contempt charges for defying a temporary injunction against prayer and religious activity at his school...

Recent Prisoner Religion and Free Exercise Cases

Posted on August 09, 2009
In Sterr v. Baptista, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66039 (CD CA, July 20, 2009), a California federal district court rejected a challenge by a prisoner who practices Asatru/Odinism to the prison's decision to replace vegetation on sacred ground used by "earth-based religions" to all grass, and a change in schedule for access to classrooms and a sanctuary...

Feelings Run High Over Lodi CA Prayer Policy

Posted on August 07, 2009
Passions seem to be running high over Lodi, California City Council's decision that prayers delivered at the beginning of Council meetings should be non-sectarian. Yesterday's San Jose Mercury News reports that Council postponed Wednesday's scheduled discussion of the policy to a special meeting scheduled for Sept...

Conservative Rabbi Sues Challenging Georgia's Kosher Food Labeling Act

Posted on August 07, 2009
Yesterday in Atlanta, Georgia, a rabbi filed a state court lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Georgia's Kosher Food Labeling Act (OCGA Sec. 26-2-330 ff.). The complaint (full text) in Lewis v. Perdue, (Super. Ct. Fulton Co., filed 8/9/2009), claims that by defining "kosher food" as "food prepared under and of products sanctioned by the orthodox Hebrew religious rules and requirements," Sec...

County Wants Return of Settlement From Church of Universal Love and Music

Posted on August 07, 2009
After last week's drug raid at the Church of Universal Love and Music (see prior posting), Fayette County, Pennsylvania has now filed a motion in federal court seeking to recover from the Church the $75,000 the county paid in a settlement of a RLUIPA zoning lawsuit against it...

Harvard Dean, Expert on Religion and Pluralism, Nominated for LSC Board

Posted on August 07, 2009
Martha L. Minow, who earlier this year was named Dean of the Harvard Law School, has now also been nominated by President Barack Obama to be a board member of the Legal Services Corporation. One of Minow's major research interests has been religion and pluralism...

Iowa Bus System Removes Atheist Ads After Complaints Received

Posted on August 07, 2009
The controversy over ads on the side of buses placed by atheist groups has now moved to Des Moines, Iowa. WHO-TV News reported Wednesday that DART, the agency which operates buses in the city, is removing ads already on buses reading: "Don't believe in God? You are not alone...

11th Circuit Remands Asylum Case For Further Findings on Religious Persecution

Posted on August 07, 2009
In Kazemzadeh v. U.S. Attorney General, (11th Cir., Aug. 6, 2009), the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision remanded for further fact finding a petition for asylum and withholding of removal filed by an Iranian man who had converted from Islam to Christianity...

Suit Claims Free Exercise Right For Parochial School Student To Be In Public School Band

Posted on August 06, 2009
In Burrell, Pennsylvania, a talented eighth-grade saxophone player and his family have filed a federal lawsuit against the Burrell School District alleging that musician Alexander Trefelner's free exercise rights are being infringed by school district policy...

Suit Charges Jewish Majority On School Board With Establishment Clause Violations

Posted on August 06, 2009
In Long Island, New York, attorneys for public school children have filed a federal lawsuit against the Lawrence School District claiming that the Orthodox Jewish majority on the board have implemented policies that violate the Establishment Clause. 5Towns Jewish Times yesterday reported that a major issue of contention is the decision by the board to close school Number 6 in Woodmere, the newest school in the district...

Korea's Constitutional Court Upholds Ban on Columbaria Near Schools

Posted on August 06, 2009
Korea's Constitutional Court on July 30 upheld a law that bans locating a columbarium within 200 meters of a school. Indian Catholic reports the court held that the law can be applied to columbaria owned by religious organizations as well as those owned privately...

Court Permits Forfeiture Of Dinosaur Adventure Land Properties For Taxes Due

Posted on August 06, 2009
In United States v. Hovind, (ND FL, July 29, 2009), a Florida federal district court permitted the federal government to move ahead with its criminal forfeiture of properties that make up Dinosaur Adventure Land (as well as related bank accounts) to cover back taxes of Christian evangelist Kent Hovind...

Criminal Contempt Charges Unsealed In Santa Rosa School Prayer Case

Posted on August 05, 2009
Yesterday's Pensacola (FL) News Journal reported that a federal judge on Monday unsealed criminal contempt charges against a high school principal and its athletic director who are charged with ignoring an injunction against faculty-led prayer. In January, nine days after U...

AT&T Pays $1.3 M In Religious Discrimination Case

Posted on August 05, 2009
The EEOC announced last week that a Satisfaction of Judgment was entered in an Arkansas federal district court in EEOC v. Southwestern Bell Telephone, LP. In the case, the EEOC sued AT&T alleging religious discrimination in violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act...

Sudanese Woman Reporter Challenging Sharia Indecency Punishment

Posted on August 05, 2009
In Sudan, where sharia law is widely applied (background), journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein wants to challenge the validity of applying public indecency laws-- with flogging as punishment-- to women who wear trousers. Middle East Online reported yesterday on Hussein's arrest, along with 12 other women who were wearing trousers, at a Khartoum restaurant...

Minister Sentenced On Tax and Bank Fraud Charges

Posted on August 05, 2009
The Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office announced yesterday that former pastor Otis Ray Hope was sentenced to 37 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, on criminal tax charges and for conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He was also ordered to pay over $2...

Pro-Life Group Gets Non-Profit Status After IRS Questions

Posted on August 05, 2009
A press release issued yesterday by the Thomas More Society reports that the Internal Revenue Service has issued a Determination Letter granting Section 501(c)(3) tax exempt status to the newly formed Coalition for Life of Iowa. Earlier the IRS questioned the "educational" nature of the Coalition's materials, prayer meetings, talks and other Pro-Life activities...

Virginia Saudi Academy Gets Zoning Exemption

Posted on August 04, 2009
Yesterday, by a vote of 6-4, the Fairfax County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors agreed to grant the Islamic Saudi Academy a zoning exemption so it can expand its second campus. The Washington Post reports that this will allow the school to eventually enroll 500 more students...

Rabbi Pleads Guilty In Charitable Tax Fraud Scheme

Posted on August 04, 2009
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced yesterday that a Brooklyn, New York rabbi has pled guilty to conspiring to obstruct the Internal Revenue Service by soliciting charitable donations with secret promises to refund up to 95% of the funds to the donors...

Federal Magistrate Rejects Free Exercise Challenge To Marijuana Laws

Posted on August 04, 2009
In Hutchinson v. State of Maine, (D ME, July 20, 2009), a Maine federal magistrate judge recommended rejecting a free exercise challenge to Maine's prohibition on the cultivation of marijuana. Plaintiff James Hutchinson, who had been convicted on marijuana charges, brought a civil suit challenging the law...

Israeli Gays Say Orthodox Created Culture That Led To Shooting Last Week

Posted on August 04, 2009
Time reported yesterday that in Israel, police are conducting a manhunt throughout Tel Aviv seeking the masked gunman who killed two and wounded 15 at a gay youth organization's headquarters on Saturday night. Haaretz said that the gunman stormed into a basement room in the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association building and opened fire on teenagers attending a weekly support group meeting...

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