Religion & Law

White House Enlists Clergy To Back DREAM Act

Posted on December 17, 2010
Religion Dispatches reports that the White House yesterday hosted a call for reporters with four members of the clergy who are supporting passage of the DREAM Act.  The Act offers citizenship to young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children who pursue higher education or join the military...

New Swiss Policy Will Bar U.S. Missionaries

Posted on December 17, 2010
The Rexburg, Idaho Standard Journal yesterday reports that Switzerland will effectively bar all missionaries from non-European countries from serving in Switzerland beginning in 2012.  In 2002, a bilateral accord between Switzerland and the European Union provided that European nationals can enter Switzerland to work, but work permits for people from other countries were severely restricted...

Indiana County Will Not Remove Creche

Posted on December 17, 2010
Today's Richmond, Indiana Palladium-Item reports that Franklin County, Indiana Commissioners say that unless ordered to do so by a court, they will not remove a nativity scene owned by the town of Brookville and placed on the court house lawn around the flag pole each year by fire fighters...

Two New Hampshire Churches File RLUIPA Challenges To Zoning Denials

Posted on December 17, 2010
Today's Nashua (NH) Telegraph reports on two separate RLUIPA zoning lawsuits filed in federal district court in New Hampshire. In Merrimack Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses v. Town of Merrimack, (D NH, filed 12/16/2010) (full text of complaint), plaintiffs allege violations of RLUIPA and the state and federal equal protection clauses...

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DADT Repeal Passes House, Goes To Senate

Posted on December 16, 2010
Yesterday, by a vote of 250- 175, with 9 members not voting, the U.S. House of Representatives passed, and sent to the Senate, HR6520-- the Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010.  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...

Indonesian Court Sentences American For Pulling Plug On Mosque Loud Speakers

Posted on December 16, 2010
AFP yesterday reported that a court in Indonesia has sentenced Gregory Luke, a 64-year old American who runs a guest house for tourists on Lombok Island, to five months in jail for blasphemy, carrying out an act of violence and hampering people in Kute village from performing their religious activities...

Federal Court Issues TRO To Prevent Sale and Subdivision of FLDS Property

Posted on December 16, 2010
According to KCSG TV, a Utah federal district court on Tuesday issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting a state-court appointed trustee from selling certain land belonging the the FLDS United Effort Plan Trust. Refusing to grant the broad injunction against all trust management activity requested by FLDS (see prior posting), Judge Dee Benson instead barred sale of Berry Knoll Farm, a site that FLDS members have set aside for a future temple, and barred subdividing land in Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona...

Judge Accepts Claim That Festivus Requires Kosher Meals Until Hoax Is Discovered

Posted on December 16, 2010
The New York Post yesterday carried a report on a fabricated free exercise claim in Orange County, California's jail several months ago.  The story has been making the rounds online for several days, but the Post's coverage is the first that seems to create an coherent chronology...

Bishop Threatens To Withdraw Catholic Designation From Hospital Over Abortion Controversy

Posted on December 16, 2010
USA Today reports that Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, Catholic Bishop of Phoenix, Arizona, is threatening to remove the Catholic affiliation of Phoenix's St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center this Friday in a dispute over the hospital's actions to save the life of a pregnant woman earlier this year...

DC Circuit Upholds FTC Jurisdiction Over Purported Religious Organization

Posted on December 16, 2010
In Daniel Chapter One v. FTC, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 25496 (DC Cir., Dec. 10 2010), the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held that an organization's formal legal status as a religious corporation sole does not prevent the Federal Trade Commission from regulating its advertisements for dietary supplements...

Jail Booking Photo Without Hijab Approved Reluctantly

Posted on December 15, 2010
In a Boulder County, Colorado court, a judge has denied a request by a Muslim University of Colorado student to have her jail booking photo taken wearing a headscarf. The Boulder (CO) Daily Camera reported yesterday that Maria Hardman was sentenced to two days on a work crew for driving her scooter while under the influence of alcohol...

Russian Regional Law Turns Confiscated Catholic and Lutheran Properties Over To Orthodox Church

Posted on December 15, 2010
Forum 18 reported yesterday on two laws enacted by the Duma in Russia's Kaliningrad Region at the end of October.  They provided for turning over to the Russian Orthodox Church various properties that had been confiscated years ago by Soviet authorities from the Lutheran and Catholic Churches...

Suit Charges Watch Wholesaler With Religious Discrimination Against Employee

Posted on December 15, 2010
The New York Daily News yesterday reported on the filing of a religious discrimination lawsuit in state court by the former vice-president for sales of Concepts in Time, a wholesale clock and picture frame store in Manhattan. The suit seems to be connected to a broader dispute between former employee Jamie Errico, a Catholic, and the wholesale company, owned by Saul Jemal, an Orthodox Jew...

Muslim Woman Sues Over Ban on Wearing Hijab In Court House

Posted on December 15, 2010
The ACLU of Georgia announced yesterday that it has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Douglasville, Georgia and various city officials on behalf of a Muslim woman who who was told she could not enter a municipal courtroom where her nephew faced a traffic hearing unless she removed her hijab (religious headscarf)...

Report Focuses on Discrimination Against Christians In Europe

Posted on December 14, 2010
Last week, coinciding with an OSCE meeting in Vienna on Freedom of Religion, the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe released a 39-page report (full text) covering a five year period and focusing on "instances in which Christians and Christianity are marginalized or discriminated against throughout Europe...

Battle Over Atheist Ads On Ft. Worth Buses

Posted on December 14, 2010
The New York Times reported yesterday on the battle over advertising signs on public buses in Ft. Worth, Texas. After an atheist group bought space on the outside of four city buses for signs reading "Millions of People are Good Without God," some businessmen arranged for a van that began following the buses around carrying signs that read "2...

Dismissal Recommended In Challenge To Illinois Funding of Bald Knob Cross Renovation

Posted on December 14, 2010
In Sherman v. State of Illinois, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 131080 (Dec. 10, 2010), an Illinois federal magistrate judge concluded that activist Robert Sherman lacks standing to bring an Establishment Clause challenge to a $20,000 renovation grant for Bald Knob Cross...

Polls Show Most Favor Religious Symbols on Public Property, Holidays in Schools

Posted on December 14, 2010
A Rasmussen poll released yesterday shows that 74% of adults surveyed believe that religious symbols such as nativity scenes, menorahs and Muslim crescents should be permitted on public property.  17% disagree.  80% of those surveyed favored celebrating religious holidays in public schools, while 14% do not...

Cert. Filed In Case On University Funding of Student Religious Groups

Posted on December 14, 2010
According to University of Wisconsin-Madison News yesterday, on November 30 the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents filed a petition for certiorari seeking U.S. Supreme Court review in Badger Catholic, Inc. v. Walsh.  In the case, the 7th Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, invalidated a University of Wisconsin policy that withheld student activity fee funding for worship, proselytizing or religious instruction by recognized student groups...

DOJ Sues School District Over Its Refusal To Grant Unpaid Leave for Teacher's Hajj

Posted on December 14, 2010
The Justice Department announced yesterday that it has filed a Title VII religious discrimination lawsuit against the Berkeley, Illinois School District on behalf of a Muslim middle school teacher who was denied an unpaid leave that she requested so she could perform the Hajj...

Iraqi Christians Fleeing To North or Abroad

Posted on December 13, 2010
Today's New York Times reports that in Iraq a new wave of Christians are fleeing Baghdad and Mosul for protection in the Kurdish-controlled north, or abroad. The latest out-migration follows an October 31 attack on a Baghdad church that killed 51 worshipers and 2 priests, followed by bombings and assassinations targeting Christians...

Controversy Continues Over National Portrait Gallery's Removal of Offending Video

Posted on December 13, 2010
Controversy continues (New York Times Op Ed 12/11) over the action two weeks ago by the National Portrait Gallery which removed a four minute video by the late artist David Wojnarowicz from an exhibit on sexual difference in American portraiture. The Dec...

Amish Victims of Investment Fraud Want To Administer Remaining Assets Instead of Bankruptcy Court

Posted on December 13, 2010
Yesterday's Columbus (OH) Dispatch reports that a member of central Ohio's Amish community, Monroe Beachy, has lost over half of the $33 million that 2,700 members of the Amish and Mennonite Church have given him to invest over the last 25 years, apparently in a fraudulent investment scheme...

Religious Talk Show Host's Comments on Gays Violated Canadian Broadcasting Standards

Posted on December 13, 2010
Last week the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council released the decision of its Ontario regional panel handed down in June relating to  the religious talk show Word TV (broadcast on CITS-TV, the Crossroads Television System in Ontario)...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on December 13, 2010
From SSRN:Omar Salah, Structuring Sukuk Al-Ijarah in the Netherlands, (TISCO Working Paper Series on Banking, Finance, and Services 08/2010, Nov. 26, 2010).Stephen Copp, A Theology of Incorporation with Limited Liability, (October 20, 2010).Christian J...

Poland Experiencing Rise In Secularism

Posted on December 12, 2010
The New York Times reported yesterday on growing secularization in Poland. 95% of Poles identify as Catholic, but only 41% attend Mass regularly. In the large cities of Warsaw and Krakow, that number drops to 20%, as Catholicism becomes more a cultural identity...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on December 12, 2010
In Michael v. Frederick County Commissioners, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 127776 (D MD, Dec. 3, 2010), a Maryland federal district court rejected a complaint by a pre-trial detainee that his free exercise rights were violated when a cross he wore as a necklace was confiscated as a security risk...

Court Rejects Establishment Clause Claim Alleging Connection of State Officials With Catholic Organizations

Posted on December 12, 2010
Wallace v. Bank of America, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129804 (D NH, Nov. 5, 2010), is a pro se case growing out of foreclosures on plaintiff's homes.  A New Hampshire federal district court rejected an Establishment Clause claim added by plaintiff which, according to the court, was "based on the governor's appearance at a fundraiser for a community food bank run by New Hampshire Catholic Charities, and the Roman Catholic Church membership or affiliation of Robert Ducharme, Chairman of the New Hampshire Board of Nursing, and others who [plaintiff] believes have harassed or defamed her...

En Banc 9th Circuit Refuses To Create Test for Who Is Covered By the Ministerial Exception

Posted on December 11, 2010
In an en banc opinion in Alcazar v. Rosas, (9th Cir., Dec. 10, 2010), the full 9th Circuit vacated the portion of the 3-judge panel's decision that adopted a new definition for who is a minister for purposes of the "ministerial exception" doctrine...

Pastor As Chicago Mayoral Candidate Must Deal With IRS Rules

Posted on December 11, 2010
Today's Chicago Tribune reports on the Internal Revenue Code tightrope being walked by Rev. James T. Meeks who is pastor of Salem Baptist Church and preaches every Sunday at the 10,000 seat House of Hope arena.  Meeks is now also a candidate for mayor of Chicago...

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