Religion & Law

1997 Vatican Letter Questions Irish Church's Policy of Mandatory Reporting of Sex Abuse To Civil Authorities

Posted on January 19, 2011
The New York Times today reports on a 1997 letter (full text) from the Vatican's Apostolic Nuncio in Ireland to Irish clergy questioning  a document issued by the Irish Catholic Bishops' Advisory Committee on handling of clergy sex abuse claims.  The document titled "Child Sexual Abuse: A Framework for a Church Response" called, among other things, for mandatory reporting of priests suspected of abuse of minors to police or civil authorities...

British Court Awards Damages To Gay Couple Denied Double Room By Christian Hotel Owners

Posted on January 18, 2011
The Daily Mail and the Guardian both report today on a decision by a British court awarding damages to a gay couple who were not permitted by a hotel in Cornwall to share a double room.  Hotel owners Peter and Hazel Bull, who are devout Christians, do not allow unmarried couples-- whether heterosexual or gay-- to rent out any of the three double rooms in their seven-room hotel...

EEOC Releases Data On Employment Discrimination Charges Filed in Fiscal 2010

Posted on January 18, 2011
Last week, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released statistics for the numbers of workplace discrimination charges filed with the agency in fiscal 2010 (ending Sept. 30, 2010). The data shows that overall the number of charges was up 7% over fiscal 2009...

More Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on January 18, 2011
In Lee v. Johnson, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3298 (WD VA, Jan. 13, 2011), a Virginia federal district court rejected an inmate's request for an order directing officials to allow him "to conduct Sabbat services each day" and his request for an order barring retaliatory action because of events after his meeting with two fellow inmates of the same religion that was broken up by a corrections officer...

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MLK Day-- King Memorial On National Mall Will Include Quotes From Sermons and Speeches

Posted on January 17, 2011
President Barack Obama has issued a Proclamation declaring today as the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday. The occassion will be marked by a Day of Service.  Meanwhile last week Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar and other officials visited the work site of the King Memorial currently under construction on the National Mall in Washington, D...

Egypt Sentences Killer of 6 Christians and Muslim Guard To Death

Posted on January 17, 2011
According to Canadian Press, an Egyptian court in the city of Qena yesterday convicted Mohammed Ahmed Hassanein of killing six Christians and a Muslim guard last year outside a church in the town of Nag Hamadi. (See prior posting.) Hassanein was sentenced to death on murder and terror related charges...

Men Plead Guilty To Painting Graffiti on California Synagogue

Posted on January 17, 2011
A U.S. Department of Justice press release on Friday announced that two men pled guilty in a California federal district court to conspiring to violate the civil rights of members of a Modesto, California synagogue. Brian Lews and Abel Gonzales admitted to spray painting anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi graffiti on the exterior walls of Congregation Beth Shalom...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on January 17, 2011
From SSRN:  U.S. LawThaddeus Mason Post, Conscientious Objection by Health Care Providers, (Lahey Clinic Medical Ethics Journal, 2011.)Dena S. Davis, Line-Drawing, Embryonic Stem Cell Research, and the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, Cleveland-Marshall Legal Studies Paper No...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on January 16, 2011
In Warren v. Schweitzer, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1066 (D MT, Jan. 6, 2011), a Montana federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendations (2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 138843, Oct. 29, 2010) allowing an inmate to move ahead against one defendant with his claim that denial of his Odinist religious books and medallion violated the free exercise, establishment and equal protection clauses as well as RLUIPA...

Feds Seek To Close Down "Corporation Sole" Scam

Posted on January 16, 2011
AP reported Friday that federal prosecutors have filed suit seeking an injunction to prevent a North Carolina man from selling clients a fraudulent scheme to avoid federal income tax. Promoter Andrew DeDominicis has encouraged individuals to form a religious "corporation sole" to shield their assets from creditors and avoid taxes...

Vermont Settles Vanity Plate Case After 2nd Circuit Loss

Posted on January 16, 2011
Friday's Washington Examiner reports that the state of Vermont will not seek U.S. Supreme Court review of the 2nd Circuit decision last October invalidating its vanity license plate statute's exclusion of plates with religious rreferences. (See prior posting...

President Proclaims Today Religious Freedom Day

Posted on January 16, 2011
President Barack Obama has issued a Proclamation declaring to day to be Religious Freedom Day, celebrated each year on the anniversary of the passage of Virginia's 1786 Statute for Religious Freedom. The Proclamation reads in part:My Administration continues to defend the cause of religious freedom in the United States and around the world...

Federal Court Issues Preliminary Injunction Against "Family Values" Ordinance Limiting City's Health Insurance

Posted on January 15, 2011
Last November, the voters of El Paso, Texas approved an ordinance aimed at barring the city from providing health benefits to domestic partners of city employees. According to KVIA News, on Thursday a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction barring implementation of the ordinance until he makes a final ruling in mid-April...

Justice Department Files Appellate Brief Defending DOMA

Posted on January 15, 2011
On Thursday, the federal government filed its much anticipated appellate brief (full text) in Massachusetts v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a companion case defending the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, even though President Obama supports repeal of the law...

Stampede During Hindu Pilgrimage In India Kills 104

Posted on January 15, 2011
In India, the government of the state of Kerala took quick rescue and relief action after a stampede near a Hindu temple Friday night killed 104 Makar Sankranti pilgrims and injured more than 60 others.  The Times of India reports that the stampede which took place near the Sabarimala Temple caught authorities off guard since it occurred on a forest route in side the Periyar tiger preserve which is less used by pilgrims...

Injunction Against Illinois Moment of Silence Law Formally Lifted

Posted on January 15, 2011
In October, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld upheld Illinois' Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act against Establishment Clause and vagueness challenges. (See prior posting.) The court remanded the case to the district court with instructions to enter judgment for the state board of education...

School Board Seeks To Enjoin Bus Stop Street Preacher

Posted on January 14, 2011
In Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, the Dauphin Central School District is seeking an injunction to prevent street preacher Stephen Garisto from proselytizing middle school and high school students at a school bus stop.  The Harrisburg (PA) Patriot News reports that at a hearing yesterday, a state court judge extended a temporary injunction while she considers the case...

New Motions To Dismiss ACLU Suit Challenging Minnesota Cultural Identity Charter School

Posted on January 14, 2011
In 2009, the ACLU of Minnesota filed a federal lawsuit  against Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA), a publicly-funded cultural identity charter school operating in the Twin Cities area, alleging that school policies promote Islam and that the school has improperly leased land from sectarian organizations-- all in violation of the Establishment Clause as well as various state constitutional and statutory provisions...

Eruv Dispute in The Hamptons Goes To Court

Posted on January 14, 2011
27 East and Hampton Bays Patch both report that a lawsuit was filed in federal district court in New York yesterday by the East End Eruv Association challenging actions by the villages of Westhampton Beach and Quogue and the town of Southampton in preventing agreements with Verizon and the Long Island Power Authority for use of utility poles to create an eruv-- a symbolic boundary that allows Orthodox Jews within it to carry items on the Sabbath...

Suit Challenges County's Refusal To Display Church-State Separation Posters

Posted on January 14, 2011
Yesterday Americans United announced that it has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a resident of Johnson County, Tennessee who sought to have the county display two posters on the separation of church and state in the lobby of the county court house...

Court Says AIG Bailout Did Not Violate Establishment Clause Despite Offering of Shariah-Compliant Products

Posted on January 14, 2011
In Murray v. Geithner, (ED MI, Jan. 14, 2011), a Michigan federal district court rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to the bailout of AIG insurance by the federal government under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.  Plaintiff claimed that because AIG is a leader in offering Shariah-compliant insurance products, the government is using appropriated funds to finance Islamic religious activities in violation of the Establishment Clause...

Burmese Political Party Creates Group To Discourage Religious Conversions

Posted on January 14, 2011
Irrawaddy reported yesterday that in Burma (Myanmar), the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party has formed a new organization to discourage residents from converting from Buddhism to other religions.The organization, Sasana Nugaha, was formed by businessman Khin Shwe, a USDP member of the upper house of Parliament...

Legislation Introduced To Permit Religious Symbols In U.S. Military Memorials

Posted on January 14, 2011
A press release issued Tuesday by Congressman Duncan Hunter announced that he and two other California members of Congress have introduced the War Memorial Protection Act (HR 290). The bill comes in the wake of a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling holding that the Mt...

Utah Sheriff's Letter To Employees Questioned on Church-State Grounds

Posted on January 14, 2011
Weber County, Utah sheriff Terry Thompson has removed a letter he sent to his employees from the Sheriff Department's Facebook page after a church-state objection by an employee was sent to him by a Salt Lake City attorney. According to yesterday's Deseret News, the letter told employees: "Always know that God, in whatever form you picture Him, recognizes our sacrifice and service, understands our imperfections and blesses us...

Appeals Court Rejects Anti-SLAPP Motion In Suit Growing Out of Sikh Temple Elections

Posted on January 13, 2011
In Grewal v. Jammu, (CA App., Jan. 11, 2011), a California appellate court rejected defendants' motion to strike plaintiff's defamation claims under California's anti-SLAPP statute.  The claims grew out of a series of articles published in the Punjab Times relating to contentious elections of members of the Supreme Council of the San Francisco Bay Area Sikh Temple...

Church is Employer of Parish School Custodian for Workers' Comp Purposes

Posted on January 13, 2011
In Bravo v. Church of the Annunciation at Manhattanville, (S. Ct. NY, Jan. 10, 2011), a New York state trial court held that a Catholic Church exercised complete domination and control over a parish school so that the Church will be seen as the employer of  a custodian at the Annunciation School...

Westboro Agrees Not To Picket Tucson Funerals In Exchange For Radio Appearances

Posted on January 13, 2011
The Topeka (KA) Capital-Journal reports that the Westboro Baptist Church has agreed to call off its planned picketing of the funerals of victims of the Tucson shooting massacre (see prior posting) in exchange for appearances by church spokesperson Shirley Phelps-Roper on several radio talk shows...

Sarah Palin's Use of Term "Blood Libel" Draws Jewish Criticism

Posted on January 13, 2011
The Washington Post reports on the controversy that has been stirred up by Sarah Palin in her release of a video criticizing those who are blaming the Tucson shooting tragedy on political rhetoric such as hers. Her statement included the following:Journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn...

Vanderbilt's Nurse Residency Application Challenged As Violating Church Amendment

Posted on January 12, 2011
Alliance Defense Fund announced yesterday that it had filed a complaint (full text) with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights challenging Vanderbilt University's nurse residency application requirements. A federal statute, 42 USC 300a-7 (known as the "Church Amendment"), prohibits any entity reveiving grants under various federal programs from discriminating against applicants for training or study "because of the applicant's reluctance, or willingness, to counsel, suggest, recommend, assist, or in any way participate in the performance of abortions or sterilizations contrary to or consistent with the applicant's religious beliefs or moral convictions...

Sunrise Rock Cross Litigation Becomes Even More Complicated

Posted on January 12, 2011
The complex procedural history of the Establishment Clause challenge to the Sunrise Rock Cross in the Mojave Preserve veterans' memorial has just become more complicated. Liberty Institute announced yesterday that it has filed a new lawsuit on behalf of the VFW seeking to enforce the statute passed by Congress in 2003 (Defense Appropriations Act 2004, Sec...

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