Religion & Law

RLUIPA Challenge To Zoning Denial For Christian Drug Treatment Center Is Filed

Posted on February 08, 2011
In Vestal, New York, a lawsuit was filed by Candlehouse Teen Challenge over the town's refusal to make zoning changes that would permit creation of a Christian-based rehabilitation center for recovering female drug addicts. The Binghamton (NY) Press Connects reported yesterday that the suit filed in state court alleges violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Person Act, as well as violations of the Fair Housing Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act...

Indonesian Mob Burns 2 Christian Churches Protesting Light Blasphemy Sentence

Posted on February 08, 2011
In the Indonesian town of Temanggung in Central Java yesterday, a Muslim mob set two churches on fire in protest of what they saw as too light a sentence being imposed on a Christian man for blasphemy.  AFP reports that violence broke out after a court sentenced Antonius Bawengan to five years in prison for distributing leaflets insulting to Islam...

India's Relations With Tibetan Lama Have Become Tense

Posted on February 08, 2011
Today's New York Times carries a front-page article on the government of India's complicated  relations with Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the third ranking lama of Tibetan Buddhism. Known as the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje arrived in India in 2000 at the age of 14, recounting a daring escape from Tibet...

Indonesian Mob Kills At Least 3 Ahmadiyas In Bid To Stop Their Worship

Posted on February 07, 2011
In Indonesia yesterday, a thousand Muslims surrounded a house in West Java, attempting to prevent the Ahmadiya movement from holding worship services.  According to AFP, police say that three members of the Ahmadiya were killed and four seriously injured...

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Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on February 07, 2011
From SSRN:US Law and Policy:Richard E. Redding, Without a Prayer?: Spirituality and Performance in Law School ? A Reply to Professor Taylor, (California Western Law Review, Vol. 47, 2011).Micah Schwartzman, Conscience, Speech, and Money, (Virginia Law Review, April 2011)...

Canadian Court Refuses To Permit Religious Use of Marijuana

Posted on February 07, 2011
In Canada today, an Ontario trial court judge rejected a constitutional challenge by two members of the Church of the Universe to Canada's marijuana laws.  The Toronto Star reports that two church members who had been charged with trafficking in marijuana and hashish claimed that cannabis is sacred to their religion and that Canada's Controlled Substances Law infringes their freedom of religion as protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms...

Pope Speaks Out On Church-State Relations In Europe

Posted on February 06, 2011
On Thursday, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of church-state relations in Europe in receiving the new Austrian Ambassador to the Vatican. Here are some excerpts from the Pope's remarks (full text):In many European countries, the relationship between the state and religion is facing a particular tension...

Obama Names New Members of Faith Based Advisory Council

Posted on February 06, 2011
Yesterday President Obama announced his intent to appoint twelve individuals to President?s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Apparently this groups replaces 15 members whose one-year terms are expiring. (See prior posting...

Top French Constitutional Court Rejects Challenge To Ban on Same-Sex Marriage

Posted on February 06, 2011
In Mme Corinne C. et autre, (Conseil Const., Jan. 28, 2011) [in French], France's Constitutional Council held that provisions in French law barring same-sex marriage violate neither Constitutional equal protection principles,  nor the protected right to lead a normal family life...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on February 06, 2011
In Ofeldt v. McDaniel, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8661 (D NV, Jan. 19, 2011), a Nevada federal district court rejected an inmate's claim that his 1st Amendment and RLUIPA rights because the prison chapel has no Asatru materials and he is not allowed to order materials from outside...

Adventists Protest Scheduled Saturday Elections In Nigeria

Posted on February 06, 2011
Nigeria's presidential election is scheduled for Saturday, April 9.  However, according to today's Nigerian Compass, the Seventh Day Adventist Church is threatening to sue if the date is not moved to a week day since the Saturday timing will disenfranchise its members...

School Board Changes Prayer Policy-- Uses Disclaimer

Posted on February 05, 2011
Last month, the Freedom from Religion Foundation wrote the Polk County, Florida school board threatening to sue if board members continued to open Board meetings with a prayer.  Today's Winter Haven (FL) News Chief reports that the school board, after consulting its attorney, has responded by moving the prayer to precede the official start of the meeting and adding this disclaimer to its agendas:Voluntary invocation may be offered before the opening of the School Board meeting by a private citizen...

Break-Away Anglican Diocese Not Entitled To Episcopal Diocese Property

Posted on February 04, 2011
The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh that retains affiliation with the Episcopal Church USA has won its claim to property of the Diocese following the 2008 vote by the Diocesan Convention to withdraw from the Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone...

Wilmington, Delaware Diocese Settles In Bankruptcy With Sex Abuse Claimants

Posted on February 04, 2011
A press release on Wednesday announced that the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware has agreed to a settlement in bankruptcy court with 146 child sex abuse victims and other unsecured creditors. (See prior related posting.)  The Diocese will pay $77...

Groups Condemn Congressman's Criticism of Muslim Colleague

Posted on February 04, 2011
Leaders of three national religious groups on Wednesday wrote Florida U.S. House of Representatives member Allen West calling on him to apologize for saying, on a television interview show, that Minnesota U.S. House of Representatives member Kieth Ellison, a Muslim, is the "antithesis of the principles on which this country was established...

Pakistani Student Charged With Blasphemy For Remarks on Exam Paper

Posted on February 04, 2011
Yet another blasphemy arrest in Pakistan is drawing international criticism.  Human Rights Watch this week urged the Pakistani government to drop blasphemy charges and release from detention a 17-year old student who was charged with blasphemy for remarks he included last April on his school exam paper...

Court In India Rejects Religion-State Challenge To State Financing of Shariah Compliant Finance Company

Posted on February 04, 2011
In India, the Kerala High Court has rejected a constitutional challenge to involvement by a state-created agency in setting up a Shariah-compliant non-bank finance company.  Qatar's Peninsula today reports that Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy sued claiming that the state was unconstitutionally promoting religion when the Kerala State Industrial Development Commission purchased 11% of the equity in Al Barakh Financial Services Ltd...

Poll Surveys Americans' Attitudes Toward Influence of Religion In U.S.

Posted on February 04, 2011
Gallup this week released the results of a January poll asking adults in the U.S. about their views on the influence of religion in the nation.  29% believed religion should have more influence and an identical 29% believed it should have less influence...

6th Circuit: Judge's 10 Commandments Poster Violates Establishment Clause

Posted on February 03, 2011
In ACLU of Ohio Foundation, Inc. v. DeWeese, (6th Cir., Feb. 2, 2011), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals held that a Ten Commandments display posted in a courtroom by a state common pleas court judge violates the Establishment Clause.  At issue were two posters hung by Judge James DeWeese-- one setting out the Bill of Rights and the other which compares the "Moral Absolutes" of the Ten Commandments with ten parallel principles of "Moral Relatives: Humanist Principles...

Judgment On Russian Jewish Library Threatens Loans of Paintings To U.S. Museums

Posted on February 03, 2011
As previously reported, last year the D.C. federal district court entered a default judgment against the Russian Federation ordering it to return two collections of valuable religious books and manuscripts to Agudas Chasidei Chabad. Russia refused to participate in the proceedings claiming that U...

Debate In Kyrgyzstan On Prayer Time For Parliament Members and State Employees

Posted on February 03, 2011
Eurasianet yesterday reported on a debate in Kyrgyzstan on the issue of separation of state and religion.  At the end of last year, several members of Parliament suggested that an extended break be provided on Fridays for members of Parliament as well as other state employees to pray...

Faith Healing Parents Get 10 Years Probation For Involuntary Manslaughter

Posted on February 03, 2011
In Philadelphia (PA), according to an AP report yesterday, Herbert and Catherine Schaible who were convicted last year of involuntary manslaughter in the death of their 2-year old son from pneumonia were sentenced to ten years probation. During that time, the parents, who have been described as pillars of their community, must seek routine and emergency medical care for their seven children...

Pakistani Court Imposes Death Sentence For Blasphemy Against Companions of the Prophet Muhammad

Posted on February 03, 2011
One India News reports that in Pakistan's Punjab province yesterday, a court has invoked the country's controversial blasphemy law to impose a death sentence on Muhammad Rafiq for committing blasphemy against the companions of the Prophet Muhammad. Rafiq, who lives in Jalalpur Peerwala, was seen by local residents wearing a wooden slab around his neck on which were written the offending remarks about the Sahaba Ikrams...

Obama Speaks of His Personal Christian Faith At National Prayer Breakfast

Posted on February 03, 2011
President Obama today spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, focusing on his personal Christian beliefs. (Full text of remarks.)  Last August, a national poll indicated that many Americans mistakenly believe that Obama is Muslim. (See prior posting...

Government Representatives, Including Many Muslims, Visit Auschwitz In Bid To Counter Holocaust Denial

Posted on February 02, 2011
In a trip to Poland organized by UNESCO, the Mayor of Paris and the Aladdin Project, 150 representatives of 40 governments yesterday visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp, in a move designed to counter Holocaust denial, educate about the Holocaust and battle anti-Semitism...

Woman Pleads Guilty In Plot To Kill Swedish Cartoonist

Posted on February 02, 2011
In a press release yesterday, the Justice Department announced that Colleen LaRose, also known as "Jihad Jane", has entered a guilty plea in a Pennsylvania federal district court to an indictment charging conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, making false statements and attempted identity theft...

Virginia House OKs Proposed Amendments On Prayer and Funding for Military Chaplains

Posted on February 02, 2011
The Virginia House of Representatives yesterday passed two proposed state constitutional amendments dealing with religion.  HJ 593, which passed the House by a vote of 61-33 (with one abstention), would bar state infringement of "the people's right to pray and to recognize their religious beliefs, heritage, and traditions on public property, including public schools...

Suit Challenges School's Ban On Religious Songs From Talent Show

Posted on February 02, 2011
A lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Los Angeles last week on behalf of a 5th-grade student challenging Superior Street Elementary School's school's policy of barring acts with religious messages from the school's annual talent show sponsored by the PTA...

MRFF and Air Force Academy Faculty Members Sue Over Planned Prayer Luncheon

Posted on February 01, 2011
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation and five US Air Force Academy faculty members yesterday filed suit in federal district court in Colorado seeking to enjoin a National Prayer Luncheon at the Academy scheduled for Feb. 10.  The luncheon is being financed by the Chapel Tithes and Offerings Fund, not taxpayer money, but plaintiffs object to its promotion by the command structure...

Michigan School District Will Allow Kirpans

Posted on February 01, 2011
Yesterday's Detroit Free Press reports that the Plymouth-Canton, Michigan school district has reversed a ban imposed in December and will now allow Sikh students to wear a kirpan in school, so long as the Sikh ceremonial dagger meets certain conditions...

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