Religion & Law

Utah Court Rejects Settlement In FLDS Trust Reform; Texas Custody Case Ends

Posted on July 24, 2009
In Salt Lake City, Utah on Wednesday, state court Judge Denise Lindberg rejected a settlement proposed last month by Utah's Attorney General in the complicated attempt to reform the FLDS United Effort Plan Trust. The trust holds land that the FLDS Church held and on which its members, many in polygamous relationships, lived...

Oregon Jury Acquits Faith Healing Parents On All But One Misdemeanor Charge

Posted on July 24, 2009
After a trial lasting nearly four weeks, a jury in Oregon yesterday rejected manslaughter charges against Carl and Raylene Worthington, members of the Followers of Christ, a group that rejects medical treatment in favor of faith healing. AP reports that Raylene was acquitted of all charges, while Carl was convicted only on a misdemeanor charge of criminal mistreatment...

Nurse Sues Hospital Claiming She Was Required To Assist In Abortion Procedure

Posted on July 24, 2009
On Tuesday, a nurse at New York City's Mt. Sinai Hospital filed a lawsuit against the hospital claiming that it violated the Church Amendment, 42 U.S.C. § 300a7(c), when it required her to assist in an abortion performed on a woman who was 22-weeks pregnant...

4th Circuit Says Warden Has Qualified Immunity In Demotion of Rastafarian Officer

Posted on July 24, 2009
Booth v. State of Maryland, (4th Cir., July 21, 2009), involved a Rastafarian who was demoted from his position in a Maryland prison as acting lieutenant. Plaintiff alleged the demotion stemmed from dislike of the fact that he wore his hair in dreadlocks for religious reasons...

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Saskatchewan Court Says Marriage Commissioner May Not Refuse To Perform Gay Weddings

Posted on July 24, 2009
In Nichols v. M.J., (Sask. Q.B., July 17, 2009), the Queen's Bench for the Canadian province of Saskatchewan upheld a decision of the province's Human Rights Commission that a government marriage commissioner illegally discriminated against a gay man when the commissioner refused to perform a marriage ceremony for him...

Court Refuses To Strike Allegation In School Music Lawsuit

Posted on July 23, 2009
As previously reported, a lawsuit against the St. John's County, Florida school district challenges on Establishment Clause grounds certain songs selected by Webster School's music teacher for students to perform. In S.D. v. St. Johns County School District, 2009 U...

Questions Raised Over Financing Of Rep. Keith Ellison's Hajj Trip

Posted on July 23, 2009
Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison-- Congress' only Muslim member-- is the target of critics who have raised concerns about the financing of a pilgrimage (Hajj) he took last year to the Muslim holy city of Mecca. BeliefNet yesterday (carrying an article from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune) reports that the Muslim American Society of Minnesota (MAS) paid for the trip as a way to improve communications between American Muslims and the wider Muslim world...

India's Supreme Court Withdraws Opinion On Catholic School's Grooming Policy

Posted on July 23, 2009
Today's Indian Catholic reports that on July 6, India's Supreme Court withdrew a March 30 ruling (see prior posting) that upheld the right of a Catholic school to enforce its grooming policy. Sixteen year old Muslim student, Mohammed Salim, left the Nirmala Convent Higher Secondary School when it insisted that he comply with its requirement that male students be clean shaven...

County Will End Ban On Sunday Sales Despite Some Religious Objections

Posted on July 23, 2009
The Aiken (SC) Standard reports that Aiken County Council voted 7-2 on Tuesday to suspend the county's blue laws that prohibit sale of various items before 1:30 p.m. on Sundays. Final passage is expected on the proposal's third reading next month. Proponents said that schools are losing sales tax dollars as residents shop in neighboring counties in Georgia on Sundays...

Sikh Crime Victims In London Can Now Request Sikh Officer For Case

Posted on July 23, 2009
In Britain, London's Metropolitan Police have responded to cultural misunderstandings in criminal investigations by instituting a new program. Yesterday's BBC News reports that Sikh crime victims will now be able to request that a Sikh police officer be a part of the crime investigation...

Buddhist Candidate For Virginia Legislature Responds To Concerns

Posted on July 23, 2009
Yesterday's Waynesboro (VA) News Virginian reports that the Virginia legislature could have its first practicing Buddhist member next year. Erik Curren, who began practicing Buddhism over a decade ago, is the Democratic candidate for the 2oth District seat in Virginia's House of Delegates...

Anti-Separationist Billboards Placed In Two Florida Counties

Posted on July 23, 2009
In Pinellas and Hillsborough counties in Florida, Christian activist Terry Kemple, head of the Community Issues Council, with financial support from retired businessman Gregg Smith, is sponsoring ten billboards attacking the notion of separation of church and state...

5 Rabbis Among 44 Arrested In New Jersey Public Corruption and Money Laundering Probe

Posted on July 23, 2009
In a press release today, the U.S. Department of Justice announced:The mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus and Ridgefield, the Jersey City deputy mayor and council president, two state assemblymen, numerous other public officials and political figures and five rabbis from New York and New Jersey were among 44 individuals charged today in a two-track federal investigation of public corruption and a high-volume, international money laundering conspiracy...

PA Supreme Court: Civil Courts Can Hear Defamation Claim Against Catholic School

Posted on July 22, 2009
In Connor v. Archdiocese of Philadelphia, (PA Sup. Ct., July 20, 2009), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that civil courts have jurisdiction over a suit growing out of the expulsion of a 7th-grade student from a Catholic parochial school. The student was expelled for allegedly bringing a penknife to school, a fact disputed by his parents...

Wisconsin Supreme Court: Ministerial Exception Applies To Catholic School Teacher

Posted on July 22, 2009
In Coulee Catholic Schools v. Labor and Industry Review Commission, (WI Sup. Ct., July 21, 2009), in a 4-3 decision, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin applied the "ministerial exception" to hold that Wendy Ostland, a first grade teacher in a Catholic school, was constitutionally precluded from bringing an age discrimination claim under the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act...

ACLU Has Taxpayer Standing To Challenge Charter School As Promoting Islam

Posted on July 22, 2009
In American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota v. Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, (D MN, July 21, 2009), a Minnesota federal district court held that plaintiff has taxpayer standing to challenge as an Establishment Clause violation the funding of a charter school by the state of Minnesota...

Kentucky County Removes 10 Commandments After Lawsuit Is Filed

Posted on July 22, 2009
WYMT-TV reported yesterday that in response to a lawsuit filed earlier this month, Jackson County, Kentucky officials have taken down the nine copies of the Ten Commandments that had been on the walls of the county court house. (See prior posting.) Judge executive William O...

Kenya Says Muslim Girls Can Wear Hijab To School

Posted on July 22, 2009
In Kenya, Education Permanent Secretary Prof. Karega Mutahi last week issued a circular to school principals and education officials confirming that Muslim girls are free to wear the hijab (head covering) to school. Spero News reported yesterday that the action came after some 20 public schools had suspended Muslim students for wearing the hijab.

Non-Muslims Find British Shariah Courts Attractive

Posted on July 22, 2009
The London Times reported yesterday that increasing numbers of non-Muslims in Britain are turning to Shariah arbitration tribunals in commercial disputes and other civil matters. The Muslim Arbitration Tribunal said that 5% of its cases (20 cases so far this year) involved non-Muslims who were attracted by the less formal nature of the arbitration process...

Russian Schools Will Begin Courses On Religions and Ethics

Posted on July 22, 2009
Russian schools in 18 regions (about 20%) of the country next year will begin a pilot program to teach about religion and ethics. Yesterday's Fresno Bee reported that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has announced a program under which schools will offer several choices: a course in one of the four traditional religions (Russian Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism or Judaism), a course presenting an overview of all four faiths, or a course in secular ethics...

Protests Continue Over LDS Regulation Of Plaza In Salt Lake City

Posted on July 21, 2009
The Salt Lake Tribune this month has carried a series of articles (1, 2, 3) on the latest controversy over how the LDS Church administers Main Street Plaza, an area in downtown Salt Lake City that the Church purchased from the city in transactions beginning in 1999...

Opponents of Hate Crimes Bill Add Amendments That Make It More Contentious

Posted on July 21, 2009
Yesterday the U.S. Senate passed four amendments to the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Enforcement Act that it adopted last week as part of the Defense Authorization Act. (See prior posting). Three of the amendments were introduced by Sen. Jeff Sessions and, according to the Advocate, are seen by the Human Rights Campaign as "poison pills" designed to defeat the entire hate crimes bill...

Project Will Rate Muslim Countries On Adherence To Shariah

Posted on July 21, 2009
UAE's The National today reports on the Cordoba Initiative. Led by New York-based Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, its goal is to create a "Shariah Index" that will rate majority-Muslim countries on how closely they adhere to the principles of Islam. Rauf says: "What are the principles that make a state Islamic? We can say among them is justice, protection of religion and minorities and elimination of poverty, and so on...

Members of Congress Join In Rally To Protest Falun Gong Persecution By China

Posted on July 21, 2009
Last week, members of Congress joined activists in a rally on Capitol Hill to mark the tenth anniversary of the start of persecution of the Falun Gong by the government of China. Yesterday's Epoch Times reports that speakers at the rally included New Jersey Rep...

Obama Meets At White House With Mormon Leader

Posted on July 21, 2009
Yesterday President Obama met at the White House with Thomas S. Monson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. KSL-TV and the Salt Lake Tribune both report on the meeting at which Monson presented the President with a specially-researched 5-volume leather-bound history of the Obama family gong back hundreds of years...

Laotian Village Chief Tells Christian Families To Renounce Their Beliefs

Posted on July 21, 2009
The Christian Post yesterday reported on an incident in a small village in Laos that has been publicized internationally by Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom. According to the report: The chief of Katin village, along with village security, social and religious affairs officials, warned all 53 Christian residents that they should revert to worshiping local spirits in accordance with Lao tradition or risk losing all village rights and privileges ? including their livestock and homes...

Senate Passes Resolution Condemning Anti-Semitism

Posted on July 21, 2009
Yesterday the U.S. Senate passed by unanimous consent S. Con. Res. 11 condemning all forms of anti-Semitism and reaffirming the support of Congress for the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism. The Resolution now goes to the House of Representatives...

Competing Lawsuits Filed In Dispute Over Religious Services At Co-op Unit

Posted on July 20, 2009
Canopus is a Putnam County, New York cooperative comprised of 22 free-standing homes on 15 acres of land. A longstanding dispute between Anthony Bondi, Jr., a lessee of one of the homes, and his neighbors has led to competing lawsuits being filed in state court in New York...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on July 20, 2009
From SSRN:William W. Van Alstyne, Religion in the Workplace: A Report on the Layers of Relevant Law in the United States, (Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal, Vol. 30, No. 3, 2009).Reid K. Weisbord & Peter DeScioli, The Effects of Donor Standing on Philanthropy: Insights from the Psychology of Gift-Giving, (Gonzaga Law Review, Vol...

Texas Town Is Changing City Council Invocation Policy

Posted on July 20, 2009
San Marcos, Texas City Council has responded to complaints by Americans United and the ACLU that invocations opening Council meetings have almost always been specifically Christian in content. The Austin American Statesman reported last Friday that Council has directed City Attorney Michael Cosentino to develop a policy that prohibits prayers which proselytize or advance one religion...

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