Religion & Law

DC Mayor's Inauguration Prayer Service Rejects Request for Participation By Humanist Practitioner

Posted on December 29, 2010
The schedule for the January 2 inauguration of Washington D.C.'s mayor-elect Vince Gray begins with an interfaith prayer service. According to a press release yesterday from the Secular Coalition for America (SCA), their request that a Humanist Celebrant be included as part of the service has been turned down on the ground that the prayer service is already set...

Britain's House of Commons Will Create Multi-Faith Chaplaincy

Posted on December 29, 2010
The Speaker of Britain's House of Commons is backing a proposal by the current Chaplain of the House of Commons to create a team of non-salaried multi-faith chaplains for Parliament's lower house.  Sunday's London Telegraph reported that the new chaplains will represent the Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Janist, Bah'ai and Zoroastrian faiths...

Pakistan's Islamic Parties Call For New Year's Eve General Strike To Protest Blasphemy Repeal Efforts

Posted on December 28, 2010
Pakistan's Express Tribune today reports that a group of Islamic political parties in Pakistan have called for a general strike on December 31 to protest proposals to repeal the country's blasphemy laws.  The political parties also plan a mass demonstration in Karachi on January 9.

Religious Discrimination Suit On Behalf of Fired Santeria Employee Settled

Posted on December 28, 2010
According to today's Fayetteville (NC) Observer, the manufacturer GKN Dirveline North America has settled a religious discrimination lawsuit filed against it by the EEOC just a week before the suit was to go to trial. The company had been charged with failing to accommodate the religious beliefs of a Santeria employee who refused to submit a saliva sample for drug testing, but offered to undergo an alternative form of testing...

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Senate Confirms 4 EEOC Recess Appointees

Posted on December 28, 2010
The U.S. Senate last week (Dec. 22) confirmed four of President Obama's long-pending nominations to positions at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. An EEOC press release announces the confirmation of Jacqueline A. Berrien to be EEOC Chair; Chai R...

En Banc Rehearing Granted In Suit Over Student Distribution of Religious Themed Materials

Posted on December 27, 2010
Earlier this month, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order granting an en banc rehearing in Morgan v. Swanson.  A 3-judge panel in the case refused to grant qualified immunity to two Plano, Texas elementary school principals who were sued for refusing to allow elementary school students to hand out religious-themed items during school parties and at other non-curricular times...

Top Ten 2010 Religious Liberty/ Church-State Developments

Posted on December 27, 2010
Here are my nominations for the 2010 Top Ten Church-State and Religious Liberty Developments. The choices are based on the long-range implications of the developments on legal doctrines and on relations between government and religion. Most of these top ten were reflected in a number of Religion Clause postings over the year...

Australian Anti-Discrimination Law Exempts Religious Foster Care Agency

Posted on December 27, 2010
In OW and OV v Members of the Board of the Wesley Mission Council, (NSWADT, Dec. 10, 2010), the Administrative Decisions Tribunal of the Australian state of New South Wales held that the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Act does not require a religiously-sponsored social service organization to approve same-sex couples as foster care providers...

UN Approves US-Led Campaign To Restore Reference To Sexual Orientation In Resolution Against Arbitrary Executions

Posted on December 22, 2010
Yesterday by a vote of 93 to 55 with 27 abstentions, the United Nations General Assembly approved a United States sponsored move to restore a reference to sexual orientation in a resolution that condemns extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions...

Lawsuit Claims Transportation Utility Fee Is Illegal Disguised Property Tax On Churches

Posted on December 22, 2010
On Monday, a lawsuit was filed in state court in Kansas on behalf of a Baptist and a Catholic church challenging a new tax provision adopted by the city of Mission, Kansas.  The complaint (full text) in First Baptist Church of Mission v. City of Mission, (Johnson Co...

Split 10th Circuit Denies En Banc Review In Utah Highway Patrol Cross Case

Posted on December 22, 2010
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals this week by a 5-4 vote denied an en banc rehearing in American Atheists, Inc. v. Davenport, (10th Cir., Dec. 20, 2010). The 4 dissenting judges filed two opinions detailing their concerns about the 3-judge panel's ruling handed down in August...

Human Rights Watch Publishes Its Stance On Europe's Ban on Muslim Veils

Posted on December 22, 2010
In response to the growing trend in European countries to ban religious dress in public places-- particularly face coverings worn by Muslim women-- Human Rights Watch yesterday published Questions and Answers on Restrictions on Religious Dress and Symbols in Europe...

6th Circuit Majority Holds Zoning Challenge By Religious Order Is Not Ripe

Posted on December 22, 2010
In Miles Christi Religious Order v. Township of Northville, (6th Cir., Dec. 21, 2010), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision held that First Amendment and RLUIPA challenges to the zoning ordinances of Northville, Michigan should be dismissed for lack of ripeness...

6th Circuit: Collateral Estoppel Bars Relitigation of State Secrets Dismissal of Civil Rights Claim

Posted on December 21, 2010
In Tenenbaum v. U.S. Department of Defense, (6th Cir., Dec. 20, 2010), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals held that the doctrine of collateral estoppel prevents plaintiffs from relitigating the application of the "state secrets" doctrine to their claim against the federal government...

Italian Court Refuses To Release Vatican Funds Held In Money Laundering Probe

Posted on December 21, 2010
For a second time, a court in Italy has refused to release $30.2 million in funds belonging to the Vatican Bank (the Institute for the Works of Religion) seized in September by Italian authorities in a money laundering investigation. (See prior posting...

11th Amendment Protects Against Official Capacity, But Not Individual Capacity, Suit Against Judge

Posted on December 21, 2010
In Pucci v. Nineteenth District Court, (6th Cir., Dec.16, 2010), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals held that a state court and its judge in his official capacity have 11th Amendment immunity in a suit by the former deputy court administrator who claims she was dismissed in retaliation for her complaints to state officials about the judge's use of religious language from the bench...

Virginia Legislator Plans To Propose Barring Gays From National Guard Service

Posted on December 21, 2010
Conservative Virginia state legislator Bob Marshall is raising a new kind of constitutional issue by his plans to introduce legislation in the Virginia legislature's House of Delegates that would ban gays from serving in the Virginia National Guard.  WTOP News reported yesterday that the move comes in response to Congress' recent passage of a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell...

Turkey Will Include Alevis In New Textbooks

Posted on December 21, 2010
In Turkey, Faruk Celik, Minister of Work and Social Security, announced that new textbooks which incorporate information about the 6 to 12 million Alevis in the country will be available for the 2011-12 school year.  According to Today's Zaman, the new textbooks grow out of a government initiative directed at dealing with complaints by Alevis that their children in public schools are required to attend religious classes that focus on Sunni Islam...

Pope Sees Clergy Sex Abuse As Product of Moral Relativism

Posted on December 21, 2010
Pope Benedict XVI yesterday delivered an address (full text) during his traditional pre-Christmas meeting with the cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and members of the Roman Curia and of the Governorate of Vatican City State.  A significant portion of his remarks were an analysis of the clergy sex abuse scandal...

Holidays At The White House Web Page

Posted on December 20, 2010
The White House Website currently features a page captioned Holidays at the White House. It carries videos of various holiday activities by the First Family, announces this year's White House holiday theme as "Simple Gifts," and furnishes holiday recipes and an online White House tour.

Court Says Father Can Talk With Children About His Belief In Plural Marriage

Posted on December 20, 2010
The Salt Lake Tribune reported Saturday that a Utah state trial court judge has changed the terms of a custody order to eliminate the restriction formerly placed on Joseph Compton that barred him from talking to his eight children about his belief in plural marriage and barred him from taking them to the 800-member community where Compton lives which is comprise mostly of members of the Apostolic United Brethren (the Allred Group)...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on December 20, 2010
From SSRN:Robert C. Blitt, Russia?s "Orthodox" Foreign Policy: The Growing Influence of the Russian Orthodox Church in Shaping Russia?s Policies Abroad, (December 14, 2010).Alan E. Brownstein, Gays, Jews, and Other Strangers in a Strange Land: The Case for Reciprocal Accommodation of Religious Liberty and the Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry, (University of San Francisco Law Review, No...

Temporary Injunction Bans Christian Prayers At Municipal Council Meetings

Posted on December 19, 2010
The ACLU of New Jersey announced Friday that a state trial court has issued a temporary injunction barring the borough of Point Pleasant Beach (NJ) from opening municipal council meetings with prayers that reflect the personal religious belief of the council member offering the invocation...

Federal Reserve Board Backs Off Policy of Barring Religious Displays In Bank

Posted on December 19, 2010
The Federal Reserve Board's Regulation B (12 CFR Part 202) implementing the Equal Credit Opportunity Act prohibit banks from making statements in their advertising or otherwise that would discourage an applicant for credit from applying because of the applicant's race, religion,gender marital status or age...

Senate Passes DADT Repeal for Obama's Signature; Opponents Vow To Fight On

Posted on December 19, 2010
AP reports that the U.S. Senate today voted 65-31 to approve and send to the President for his signature the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010. An identical bill was passed by the House earlier this week. (See prior posting.) The bill provides for ending of DADT 60 days after the President, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify that implementation is consistent with military effectiveness and readiness, unit cohesion and recruiting and retention...

Sudan's President Promises Islamic Constitution, Defends Sharia Punishments

Posted on December 19, 2010
Reuters today reports that Sudan's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, at a rally today told supporters that if Southern Sudan votes to secede in January's referendum, the rest of Sudan will adopt an Islamic constitution.  An interim constitution adopted in 2005 limited shariah law to the north and recognized "the cultural and social diversity of the Sudanese people...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on December 19, 2010
In Tapp v. Proto, (3d Cir., Dec. 13, 2010), the 3rd Circuit held that a two-week delay in providing plaintiff kosher meals and plaintiff's complaint that the meals lacked variety and were often cold did not amount to a violation of plaintiff's free exercise rights...

County Commission Says Denial of Increased Occupancy To Chabad House Does Not Violate RLUIPA

Posted on December 19, 2010
The Ventura County,California Planning Commission ruled Thursday that the county's Board of Supervisors did not violate the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act when it refused an application from Chabad of Oak Park to raise the occupancy limits for Jewish Sabbath and religious services at a converted house used by the group as a synagogue...

Ontario High Court Upholds "Motive" Clause In Canada's Anti-Terrorism Law

Posted on December 19, 2010
In Regina v. Khawaja, (Ct App. ON, Dec. 17, 2010), the Court of Appeal for Ontario reversed the holding of a trial court below and upheld the constitutionality of the "motive clause" in the definition of "terrorist activity" in Canada's anti-terrorism law...

European Court Finds Problem With Ireland's Abortion Law Implementation

Posted on December 17, 2010
Yesterday in Case of A, B and C v. Ireland, (ECHR, Dec. 16, 2010), the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights dealt with challenges by three Irish women to Ireland's ban on abortions. The country's Constitution bans abortion. It however allows women to travel abroad for an abortion and allows abortions in Ireland where the mother's life (but not merely her health) is threatened...

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