Religion Clause: Religion & Law

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Religion & Law Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Religion & Law

Religion Clause

Current legal, political and scholarly developments relating to free exercise of religion and separation of church and state.
By Howard M. Friedman

Post Frequency: 19.9/day

Last Entry: November 05, 2020 at 07:00:00

Students' Rights To Wear Religious Attire Debated In Mauritius

Posted on February 20, 2008
The right of students to wear religious attire has now become an issue in the African island nation of Mauritius. L'express today reports on the case of a 15-year old Muslim student who was expelled several weeks ago from Eastern College in Flacq for wearing her "tious" (traditional trousers) under her school uniform...

Saudi Religious Police Defend Arrest of Businesswoman

Posted on February 20, 2008
In Saudi Arabia, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has posted an unusal statement on the Internet defending the arrest of a U.S. businesswoman living with her husband in Saudi Arabia. Today's London Times reports that the woman, identified only as Yara, is a managing partner in a finance company in Riyadh...

Oklahoma City Settles Suit Over Christmas Decorations Policy

Posted on February 20, 2008
City Council in Oklahoma City voted yesterday to approve a settlement in a lawsuit that was filed last year by two city employees who challenged the city's policy on religious Christmas decorations in work areas and its policy on use of the employee break room for reading the Bible...

Belarus Decree Imposes New Limits On Foreign Religious Workers

Posted on February 20, 2008
Forum 18 today reports that in Belarus, the Council of Ministers last month issued a new decree (full text in Russian) giving the Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs complete discretion to refuse-- without giving reasons-- a visa for the travel of invited foreign religious workers to the country...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

As Castro Resigns, His Relationship With Catholic Church Is Profiled

Posted on February 19, 2008
As Cuban leader Fidel Castro last night announced that he is retiring, Catholic News Service reviews his "often stormy relationship" with Cuba's Catholic Church. Catholics initially supported the Jesuit-educated Castro's revolution. However in the 1960's, Castro nationalized 350 Catholic schools and expelled 136 priests...

Battle Over Charitable Choice Language Looming In Senate

Posted on February 19, 2008
Today's Washington Times reports that a behind-the-scenes battle is shaping up over the charitable choice provisions in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Act. Groups that are part of the Coalition Against Religious Discrimination want language removed that allows religious groups receiving funds under the Act to limit their hiring to members of their own faith...

Hudsonville, MI Resident Wants God Removed From City's Website

Posted on February 19, 2008
Hudsonville, Michigan's official website sets out the following as part of city government's Mission Statement: "The City Commission and Administration of the City of Hudsonville strive to serve God through the strengthening of family and community life and are committed to excellence in providing quality municipal services...

Honolulu Drops Land Use Charges Against Church

Posted on February 19, 2008
In Honolulu, Hawaii, The Ark Christian Center has reached an agreement with the city and county that will result in dismissal of a citation against the church. A press release by the Alliance Defense Fund explained that officials threatened to enforce a zoning rule against the church without citing other nonreligious groups that were also in violation...

Church of England Faces New Pressures Toward Disestablishment

Posted on February 19, 2008
The influential British magazine, The Economist, last week called for disestablishing the Church of England. In an editorial titled Sever Them, it says in part:England has an established church whose authority has been intertwined with the state's for five centuries...

Israel's Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Will Return To Supreme Rabbinical Court

Posted on February 18, 2008
In the complicated religious politics in Israel, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger next month will end his voluntary suspension and return as a member of the country's Supreme Rabbinical Court and as a member of the committee that appoints religious court judges...

As Governor Huckabee Rejected Use of Term "Act of God"

Posted on February 18, 2008
CNS News today, focusing on charges that former Akansas Governor Mike Huckabee injects his religious views excessively into politics, reports on an illustrative incident that occurred in 1997 while Huckabee was governor. He refused to sign a bill passed by the Arkansas legislature to protect homeowners from having their insurance cancelled because the bill referred to natural disasters using the common legal term "act of God"...

President's Remarks In Africa Reflect His Religious Faith

Posted on February 18, 2008
The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that during his current tour of Africa, President Bush often invokes religious allusions in his speeches and statements. The article points out the appeal of this approach to religious voters who, in recent years, have focused increasingly on issues of poverty and disease around the world.

Chief Justice Roberts Speaks To Rabbinical Group

Posted on February 18, 2008
U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts spoke before the Rabbinical Assembly, the organization of Conservative rabbis, as he received its Truth and Justice award last week in Washington. Saturday's Jerusalem Post reports that Roberts spoke of connections between Jewish tradition and the American legal structure...

Recent Scholarly Articles of Interest

Posted on February 18, 2008
From SSRN:Daniel Augenstein, A European Culture of Religious Tolerance, (EUI LAW Working Paper No. 2008/4, Jan. 2008).Katherine B. Darmer & Robert M. Baird, Introduction to Morality, Justice and the Law, (MORALITY, JUSTICE AND THE LAW: THE CONTINUING DEBATE, Prometheus Books, 2007)...

Pope Benedict XVI Will Visit White House In April

Posted on February 18, 2008
Last Friday, the White House announced that Pope Benedict XVI will visit the White House on April 16 as part of his trip to the United States. Discussions between President Bush and the Pope are expected to cover issues of peace in the Middle East, inter-faith understanding, and religious liberty around the world.

Suit Challenges Church Zoning Rules of Illinois Village

Posted on February 17, 2008
The Alliance Defense fund has announced that it filed suit last Thursday against the Village of Hazel Crest, Illinois on behalf of the River of Life Kingdom Ministries challenging the village's zoning rules. The village requires churches to obtain special use permits to locate in residential districts, and requires a variation or text amendment for churches to locate in business districts...

Washington Court Keeps Injunction Against Pharmacy Board Rules

Posted on February 17, 2008
Last November, a Washington federal district court granted a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of Washington state pharmacy rules requiring pharmacists to fill requests for Plan B emergency contraceptives even if doing so violates the pharmacists' religious beliefs...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Litigation

Posted on February 17, 2008
In Figel v. Overton, (6th Cir., Feb. 6, 2008), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court that prison officials could not claim qualified immunity in a case arising after RLUIPA was enacted. Even though the Supreme Court had not yet ruled on its constitutionality, RLUIPA became clearly established law when it was signed...

Catholic College Faces Legal Challenges To Its Health Insurance Limits

Posted on February 17, 2008
Catholic Online yesterday reported on the legal battle being waged against Charlotte, North Carolina's Belmont Abbey College after it got its health insurance carrier to drop coverage for voluntary sterilization, abortion, and contraception. The Catholic college explained to faculty and staff that the coverage runs contrary to Catholic teaching...

Times Focuses On Movement of Egypt's Youth Toward Islam

Posted on February 17, 2008
Today's New York Times carries a front-page article titled "Dreams Stifled, Egypt's Young Turn To Islamic Fervor". The first in a series of articles examining the lives of youth in the Muslim world, reporter Michael Slackman says the economic pressures that force young people to put off marriage lead to increasing frustration...

School Delays Student's Religious Valentines

Posted on February 17, 2008
In Wisconsin's Kettle Moraine School District, staff members at Wales Elementary School attracted the attention of local radio talk shows and blogs when they took valentines with religious messages from a student to see if they complied with the school's policy against distributing materials that "seek to market, solicit money, recruit, indoctrinate or convert...

NIU Shooter Researched Paper On Religion In Early US Prisons

Posted on February 16, 2008
The Chicago Tribune reported on Saturday that Steve Kazmierczak, the Northern Illinois University gunman who killed 5 students, wounded 16 others and then shot himself, had been honored with a dean's award for his sociology research. (Also see New York Times)...

Tradtionalist Catholic High School Refuses Female Basketball Referee

Posted on February 16, 2008
The Kansas State High School Activities Association is looking into dropping St. Mary's Academy from the list of schoools that are approved to compete against association members. The AP reported on Wednesday that the move comes after the Academy refused for religious reasons to permit a female referee to officate at a boy's basketball game...

Sarkozy Criticized By Secularists For Revisions In Holocaust Curriculum

Posted on February 16, 2008
According to Saturday's New York Times, French President Nicholas Sarkozy has created a new controversy by revising the way in which French school children will learn about the Holocaust. He wants every French 5th grader to learn and identify with the life story of one of the 11,000 French Jewish children killed by the Nazis...

Obama Campaign Hosts Jewish Fundraiser Last Week In DC

Posted on February 15, 2008
The Forward earlier this week carried a story about a different sort of harnessing of religion by the Barak Obama campaign. Last Saturday, before the Potomac primaries, Jewish backers of Obama hosted a Saturday night fundraiser in a bistro near Washington, DC's DuPont Circle...

Texas Court Rejects Establishment Clause Challenge To Ban On Murder of Fetus

Posted on February 15, 2008
In Flores v. State of Texas, (TX Ct. Crim. App., Feb. 13, 2008), the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to the Texas law that defines the killing of an unborn fetus as capital murder. Judges Cochran and Johnson filed a concurring opinion...

Missouri Constitutional Amendment On Religion Debated

Posted on February 15, 2008
Yesterday, the Missouri House of Representatives debated HJR 55, a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would add 300 words spelling out free exercise and establishment clause rights more explicitly. Prime Buzz yesterday reported on the debate...

Third Circuit Hears Arguments In Suit By Anti-Gay Protesters

Posted on February 15, 2008
On Monday, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Startzell v. City of Philadelphia, a civil rights suit brought by members of Repent America (a Christian evangelical group) against Philly Pride, the organizers of OutFest. OutFest is a festival designed to celebrate participants' homosexuality...

Texas Archbishop Objects To Catholic College's Invite To Clinton

Posted on February 15, 2008
Democratic Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton spoke to several thousand supporters last night at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, (CBS News) despite objections from San Antonio Archbishop Jose Gomez. (AP Feb. 13). Gomez released a statement (full text) on Tuesday saying that he was neither advised nor consulted before the Catholic university scheduled Clinton...

New Jersey Bill Requiring Alternative SAT Testing Dates Advances

Posted on February 15, 2008
Yesterday, the New Jersey Senate Education Committee unanimously approved S. 1023, a bill to require that alternative testing arrangements be made available for students who are unable for religious reasons to take the SAT, LSAT, MCAT and similar college and professional school admissions tests on the regularly scheduled date...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

California's Proposed Student Civil Rights Act Gives Broad Definition to "Religion"
On Tuesday, the California Senate Judiciary Committee approved by ...

Fish on "Religion Without Truth"
Here's a (relatively) recent Stanley Fish Think Again column, call...