Religion & Law

Jordan's Parliament Split On Religious Groups Under Societies Act

Posted on July 30, 2009
For a year, Jordan's Parliament has been debating amendments to the Societies Act which governs the operation of civil society organizations. (Background). Today's Jordan Times reports that the latest controversy surrounds a government proposal, approved by the Senate but rejected by the House of Representatives, that would allow all non-Muslim organizations to operate in the country under the law...

Faith-Based Alternatives To Traditional Insurance Pose Issue Under Reform Legislation

Posted on July 30, 2009
Amidst the many complexities of health care reform is the little-noticed problem of faith-based health care sharing ministries. BeliefNet yesterday reported on the concern of these Christian groups over whether they will be considered appropriate insurance under the insurance mandate that is likely to be in new legislation...

IRS Drops Church Investigation Until Procedural Problems Are Resolved

Posted on July 30, 2009
The Internal Revenue Service earlier this month sent a letter (full text) to the Minnesota-based Warroad Community Church indicating that it is closing an ongoing investigation of the church "because of a pending issue regarding the procedure used to initiate the inquiry...

Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy Counterclaims Against ACLU

Posted on July 30, 2009
In Minneapolis (MN) yesterday, the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, a charter school being sued for promoting Islam, filed a counterclaim against the ACLU. Last week, a federal district court upheld the ACLU's standing to bring an Establishment Clause claim against the school...

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Suit Challenges Selective Service Handling of Conscientious Objectors

Posted on July 30, 2009
Twenty-one year old Tobin D. Jacobrown, a Quaker, yesterday filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Washington, DC, challenging the Selective Service System's refusal to include space to register as a conscientious objector on current selective service forms...

Government Report Says Most Volunteering Is Through Faith-Based Organizations

Posted on July 29, 2009
The Corporation for National & Community Service, a federal agency, yesterday announced that it has issued a new report titled Volunteering in America 2009 (Research Highlights). A portion of the research focuses on Volunteering in America's Faith-Based Organizations...

New York's Syrian Jewish Community Reacts To Rabbis' Arrests

Posted on July 29, 2009
New York's Jewish Week and the Forward in two articles yesterday both reported on reactions within Brooklyn NY/ Deal NJ's close-knit Syrian Jewish community to last week's indictment of six rabbis-- 3 of them prominent in the Syrian community. Charges by federal authorities in New Jersey focused on money laundering by the rabbis...

"WWJD" Debt Collection Suit Voluntarily Dismissed After Counterclaims Filed

Posted on July 29, 2009
Both AP and a Liberty Counsel press release yesterday report that a lawsuit under the Fair Debt Practices Collection Act against Bullseye Collection Agency of Monticello, MN has been voluntarily dismissed. The suit was brought by Mark and Sarah Neill who received a collection letter from Bullseye with "WWJD" (What Would Jesus Do?) at the top...

Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign Lawsuit Settled

Posted on July 29, 2009
AP reported Monday that the Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign has settled its federal lawsuit against the Bloomington Public Transportation Corporation. IABC had been refused ad space to run its ad reading: " You Can Be Good Without God." (See prior posting...

Dearborn (MI) Wrestling Coach Sues Principal Claiming Religious Bias

Posted on July 28, 2009
In Dearborn, Michigan (a city with a large Muslim population), a long-serving and "legendary" high school wrestling coach who was fired has filed a federal religious discrimination lawsuit against the principal of Fordson High School and the Dearborn school system...

Japan's Catholic Bishops Says Clergy Should Not Serve As Citizen Judges

Posted on July 28, 2009
Asahi Shimbun and Bloomberg News today report on the message (full text) issued last month by the Catholic Bishop's Conference of Japan on Catholic participation in Japan's new "citizen judge" system. The system, introduced in May, has citizens sitting alongside professional judges in serious criminal cases...

Author Criticizes Religious Views of Nominee For Head of NIH

Posted on July 28, 2009
Author Sam Harris published an op-ed in yesterday's New York Times criticizing President Obama's nomination of Francis Collins to head the National Institutes of Health. Collins has been presented as a strong advocate of the compatibility of science and religion...

At Washington Meeting With Chinese, Obama Raises Religious Freedom Issue

Posted on July 28, 2009
Yesterday, the first U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue opened in Washington with some 200 Chinese officials in attendance. President Obama spoke at the conference which is co-chaired by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy F...

Nigerian Rebels Demanding Sharia Expand Attacks On Security Forces

Posted on July 28, 2009
Toronto's National Post reports that in Nigeria, the Muslim rebel group Boko Haram on Monday expanded its attacks against Nigerian security forces to in Yobe, Kano and Borno states. At least 80 people were killed after attacks the day before killing 50 in neighbouring Bauchi state...

India's Defense Minister OK's Beards In Military For Muslim Men

Posted on July 27, 2009
In India, Defence Minister A. K. Antony has instructed all branches of the armed forces that they should permit Muslim recruits and officers to wear beards. Indian Muslim reported yesterday that the government's policy change came as a lawsuit against the Indian Air Force challenging its grooming policy was pending before India's Supreme Court.

Texas County May Contract With Chaplain Service For Employees

Posted on July 27, 2009
The Plano, Texas Star last Friday reported that Collin County commissioners voted last week to "try out" the services of Marketplace Chaplains, a Christian organization that offers brief, regular visits by Chaplains during which time they can build a relationship with employees...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on July 27, 2009
From SSRN:Elliott Visconsi, The Invention of Criminal Blasphemy: Rex v. Taylor (1676), (Representations, Vol. 103, pp. 30-52, Summer 2008).Lea Bishop Shaver, The Inter-American Human Rights System: An Effective Institution for Regional Rights Protection?, (July 22, 2009)...

Suit Against Children Services Officials By Muslim Mother Is Mostly Dismissed

Posted on July 26, 2009
Abdulsalaam v. Franklin County Board of Commissioners, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63296 (SD OH, July 23, 2009), involved a suit under 42 USC 1981 and 1983 against state officials and agencies in Ohio by a mother and her three daughters who were separated for a year when the daughters were placed in county child services custody...

"Flying Imams" Can Proceed Against Airport Security Officers For Search and Arrest

Posted on July 26, 2009
In the so-called "flying Imams" case (see prior posting), a Minnesota federal district court on Friday refused to dismiss false arrest, unreasonable search and seizure and equal protection claims against Metropolitan Airport Commission officers. The six plaintiffs, all imams, were removed from U...

USAID Inspector General Raises Questions About Religious Nature of Some Grants

Posted on July 26, 2009
On July 17 the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Agency for International Development issued issued a report titled Audit of USAID's Faith-Based and Commuinty Initiatives. As summarized in the report's introduction: This audit surveyed 31 USAID regional legal advisors, as well as 9 of the 10 faith-based organizations that receive the most USAID funding, concerning the use of USAID funds for religious activities...

Georgia Judicial Council Permits Religious Head Coverings In Courtrooms

Posted on July 26, 2009
In a press release issued Friday, Georgia's Supreme Court announced that all courts in the state will now permit head coverings for religious or medical reasons to be worn in court rooms. AP reports on the policy change impelled by an incident last year when a judge in Douglasville (GA) sentenced a woman to ten days for contempt for refusing to remove her hijab...

Canada's High Court Rejects Hutterite Challenge To License Photo Requirement

Posted on July 26, 2009
In Alberta v. Hutterian Brethren of Wilson Colony, (Sup. Ct. Canada, July 24, 2009), Canada's Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision rejected a constitutional challenge brought by the Hutterites to Alberta's requirement that all drivers licenses contain a photo of the license holder...

Islamic Restictions Increasingly Being Enforced In Gaza

Posted on July 26, 2009
Israel's Haaretz today reports on the growing enforcement of Islamic law in the Gaza Strip by its Hamas dominated government. Already women lawyers are required to wear the hijab head covering in court. Modesty patrols are requiring women at beaches to wear head coverings and are inspecting isolated cars to prevent men and women from being together in them...

Analysis Says European Fears Regarding Muslim Communities Appear Unfounded

Posted on July 26, 2009
Today's London Guardian, in a long article, reports that Europe's fear of the mass radicalization of its Muslim population now appears unfounded. Focusing on a recent Gallup poll, the article discusses Europe's fears earlier this decade of terrorism, a cultural "invasion," and high Muslim fertility rates...

Recent Prisoner and Institutionalized Persons Free Exercise Cases

Posted on July 26, 2009
In Blount v. Ray, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61521 (WD VA, July 17, 2009), a Virginia federal district court dismissed an inmate's RLUIPA claim that he was wrongly removed from his religious Common Fare Diet. The court held that plaintiff had not shown his sincerity regarding his religious dietary beliefs continued at the time he was removed from the food plan, since he refused to sign a CFD agreement...

Evangelist Tony Alamo Convicted On Mann Act Charges

Posted on July 25, 2009
Yesterday in Texarkana, Arkansas, Christian evangelist Tony Alamo was convicted in federal court on ten charges of violating the Mann Act by taking underage girls across state lines to have sex with them. According to the AP, five women, now age 17 to 33, testified that Alamo "married" them in private ceremonies while they were minors...

3rd Circuit Says RLUIPA Zoning Challenge Is Not Ripe

Posted on July 25, 2009
In Congregation Anshei Roosevelt v. Planning and Zoning Board of the Borough of Roosevelt, (3d Cir. July 22, 2009), the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals held that a RLUIPA challenge to a zoning board?s decision was not ripe for review. At issue was whether a synagogue located in Roosevelt, New Jersey, whose occupancy was grandfathered under the relevant zoning ordinances, needed to file an application for a zoning variance when it entered an arrangement for a Yeshiva (a Jewish school) to also operate in its building...

Religious Objections To USDA's Animal Tagging Program Rejected

Posted on July 24, 2009
A federal district court yesterday rejected a challenge to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Animal Identification System (NAIS). In Farm-To-Consumer Legal Defense Fund v. Vilsack, (D DC, July 23, 2009), plaintiffs claim that "NAIS requires Premises Identification Numbers ('PINs') for each of their farms and radio frequency identification devices ('RFIDs') for each of their cattle, both of which result in the collection of information into a huge national database against their wills and in violation of their religious beliefs...

Court Says It Can Apply Neutral Principles To Fiduciary Claim Against Church Trustees

Posted on July 24, 2009
In Askew v. Trustees of the General Assembly of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, Inc., (ED PA, July 21, 2009), a Pennsylvania federal district court concluded that it could use neutral principles of law to resolve breach of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment claims brought against church trustees and officers, as well as a claim that Church Articles do not comply with Pennsylvania's non-profit corporation law...

Nigeria Begins New Push To Tax Unrelated Income of Religious Groups

Posted on July 24, 2009
In Nigeria, government officials met Monday with religious leaders to discuss its new efforts to enforce federal tax laws against religious organizations. While the income of churches and other non-profits is exempt from taxation, the Internal Revenue Service is attempting to tax income from unrelated for-profit businesses owned by churches as well as donations and gifts given to religious leaders...

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