Religion & Law

Huckabee Says US Constitution Should Reflect "God's Standards"

Posted on January 16, 2008
Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has drawn sharp criticism from People for the American Way and the National Jewish Democratic Council over remarks he made during a stump speech on Monday in Warren, Michigan. As reported by the Carpetbagger Report and FirstRead, referring to his support for constitutional amendments banning abortion and defining marriage as between a man and a woman, Huckabee said:I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution...

Canadian Courthouse Excludes Sikh Witness Wearing Kirpan

Posted on January 16, 2008
CBC News reports that last Monday in Calgary, Alberta, a Sikh man who had been subpoenaed to testify as a witness to a fatal car accident was barred from entering the courthouse because he was wearing a kirpan. After going through airport-type screening, Tejinder Sidhu was told that he would need to leave his ceremonial dagger at security in order to enter the building...

7th Circuit Denies En Banc Review In Indiana Legislative Prayer Case

Posted on January 16, 2008
Yesterday's Indianapolis Star reports that the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a petition for en banc review in Hinrichs v. Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Indiana General Assembly. (See prior posting.) In October, a 3-judge panel in the case, in a 2-1 decision, dismissed for lack of standing a suit brought by four Indiana taxpayers challenging the opening of sessions of the Indiana House of Representatives with Sectarian prayers.

Trial Focuses On Amish Refusal To Use Lights and Triangle On Buggies

Posted on January 16, 2008
A Graves County, Kentucky District Court on Monday heard testimony in a case in which three Amish men were cited for not having flashing lights and an orange triangular symbol on their slow-moving buggies. The AP reports that Judge Deborah Crooks delayed issuing a decision in order to give attorneys time to submit post-trial legal memos in the case that pits safety laws against religious beliefs...

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Survey Shows Support For Religion In the Public Arena

Posted on January 16, 2008
Last week, Ellison Research released a poll of 1,007 American adults on church-state issues. Here is an excerpt from the release summarizing the results of the poll which asked respondents whether various practices should be legal:90% feel the law should support religious groups renting public property ...

Nevada Caucus Timing May Disenfranchise Observant Jews

Posted on January 15, 2008
Nevada's Republican and Democratic caucuses next Saturday pose a unique religious liberty problem for observant Jews in the state. Unlike primaries and general elections where voters can use absentee ballots, caucuses require voters to show up at set times...

Alberta Commission Begins Hearings On Publication of Muhammad Caricatures

Posted on January 15, 2008
In Canada on Friday, the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission began hearings on the publication of controversial Muhammad cartoons two years ago by the Western Standard. Syed Soharwardy, head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, and the Edmonton Muslim Council filed the complaints...

Right Wing Austrian Politician Makes Scathing Anti-Muslim Remarks

Posted on January 15, 2008
In Graz, Austria, the public prosecutor's office is looking at whether right wing politician Susanne Winter violated laws against promoting racial hatred by making virulent anti-Muslim remarks at a recent meeting of the Freedom Party of Austria. The Weiner Zeitung reported yesterday that Winter, who heads the FPO list for next Sunday's municipal election, would face up to two years in prison if convicted of violating the racial hatred laws.

White House Proclamation On Religious Freedom Day Issued From Saudi Arabia

Posted on January 15, 2008
The White House has again this year issued a Proclamation declaring January 16 as Religious Freedom Day, marking the anniversary Virginia's passage in 1796 of the Statute for Religious Freedom . Interestingly, the Proclamation was disseminated yesterday in a press release from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia where the President is traveling...

Justice Ginsburg Reflects On Role of Her Jewish Heritage

Posted on January 15, 2008
Today's Washington Post reports on remarks by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last week on the role her Jewish heritage plays in her life. Speaking at a D.C. synagogue during a pre-screening of the PBS series on Jewish Americans, Ginsburg said she is not religiously observant, though she was raised in an observant household...

New Dharma Stock Indexes Announced

Posted on January 15, 2008
Dow-Jones announced today that it is launching a new series of stock indexes-- the Dow Jones Dharma Index series. The new indexes are designed to measure the performance of stocks selected according to the values of Dharmic religions, especially Hinduism and Buddhism...

Indigenous Group In Malaysia Sues Over Demolition of Church

Posted on January 15, 2008
The AP reports today that in the Malaysian state of Kelantan, the Temiar community has filed suit in the high court challenging the state's demolition of their church building. The government, controlled by the Pan Islamic Party, claims that the Christian church was built on state-owned land and that villagers ignored notices to stop construction...

Israel's Knesset Skeptical of Cabinet Decision On Religious Affairs Ministry

Posted on January 14, 2008
In Israel, the government is having difficulty mustering enough support in the Knesset to get ratification of the Cabinet's vote last week to reestablish the Religious Affairs Ministry. Yesterday's Jerusalem Post reported that the government cancelled last Tuesday's scheduled Knesset vote when it became apparent it lacked a majority for the proposal...

Another Opinion on Religion In the US Presidential Campaign

Posted on January 14, 2008
Today's Asia Times reprints an interesting piece by University of Colorado professor Ira Chernus on the changing use of religion in the U.S. presidential campaign. He says: [I]n the better years of the previous century, candidates used religion mostly as an adjunct to the real meat of the political process, a tool to whip up support for policies...

USCIRF Says Bush Should Raise Religious Freedom Issues With Saudis

Posted on January 14, 2008
President George W. Bush, on a tour of the Middle East, today heads for Saudi Arabia. (BBC News.) In anticipation of Bush's visit, last week the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a statement urging the President "to raise the critical issue of ongoing Saudi violations of the freedom of religion and other human rights when he meets with Saudi leaders...

Recent Scholarly Articles of Interest

Posted on January 14, 2008
From SSRN:Ashlie C. Warnick, Employment Discrimination by Religious Schools Participating in Voucher Programs, (January 9, 2008).Patricia Salkin & Amy Lavine, The Genesis of RLUIPA and Federalism: Evaluating the Creation of a Federal Statutory Right and its Impact on Local Government, (January 3, 2008).

Huckabee Splitting Evangelical Political Support

Posted on January 13, 2008
David Kirkpatrick writes on the front page of today's New York Times that Mike Huckabee's candidacy is splitting the evangelical movement's political support, as the Michigan and South Carolina primaries approach. "Old guard" evangelical leaders are "wary of his populist approach to economic issues and his criticism of the Bush administration?s foreign policy...

Opposition Surfaces To Protection of Sacred Native American Site

Posted on January 13, 2008
In his State of the State Message (full text) on Jan. 8, South Dakota Governor Michael Rounds called for the legislature to appropriate $250,000 to combine with other federal and private funds to purchase conservation easements on land around Bear Butte, a sacred site for Native Americans...

Florida Chabad Excluded From Shopping Plaza Wins RLUIPA Claim

Posted on January 13, 2008
A Florida federal district court ruled on Friday that Cooper City, Florida violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act by excluding houses of worship from commercial areas. Yesterday's Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that the court ruled in favor of Chabad of Nova, holding that zoning rules permitting vocational schools, day care centers and movie theaters, but not religious congregations, in shopping plazas are discriminatory because they treat religious assemblies on less than equal terms with nonreligious assemblies...

Many Georgia Schools Not Offering Courses In Bible As History and Literature

Posted on January 13, 2008
Today's Macon (GA) Telegraph reports that despite the Georgia State Board of Education's approval last year of courses in the Bible as history and literature (see prior posting), at least ten school systems in central Georgia are not offering the courses in their high schools...

Islamic Charity Officials Convicted of Lying In 501(c)(3) Application

Posted on January 13, 2008
A federal district court jury in Boston on Friday convicted three officers of Care International, a now defunct Islamic charity, on eleven counts of conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiring to conceal material facts from the Internal Revenue Service...

Loud Bible Reading On Bus Violates System's Rules

Posted on January 13, 2008
Yesterday's Ft. Worth (TX) Star-Telegram reports on a Dec. 29 incident on the Ft. Worth bus system. Christine Lutz, a Seventh-day Adventist, was asked to get off the bus after she disrupted passengers by reading the Bible loudly to her children. Lutz ignored the request and rode to her destination...

School Attorney Nixes Biblical Verse On Graduation Announcements

Posted on January 12, 2008
In Finn Rock, Oregon, the school district's attorney has told Mc­Kenzie High School students that they may not adopt a Biblical verse to use on official graduation announcements. Saturday's Eugene (OR) Register-Guard reports that students wanted to use a verse from Isaiah that had been read at a funeral of a classmate last summer...

New Documentary on Faith In Politics Opens Next Week

Posted on January 12, 2008
On Tuesday, a new documentary on the role of faith in politics, produced by Living Biography Media, opens in selected theaters and becomes available on DVD (press release). The move, Article VI, is the result of two years' work by director Bryan Hall who traveled the country talking with people about the topic...

DC Circuit Holds RFRA Inapplicable To Non-Resident Aliens In Gitmo Case

Posted on January 12, 2008
In Rasul v. Myers, (DC Cir., Jan. 11, 2008), two of the three judges ruling on a suit brought by a group of former Guantanamo detainees, held that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act does not protect the religious exercise rights of non-resident aliens...

Court Bars Deportation of Christian Facing Torture In Egypt

Posted on January 11, 2008
In Khouzam v. Hogan, (MD PA, Jan. 10, 2008), a Pennsylvania federal district court barred the government from deporting an Egyptian national who had previously been tortured by Egyptian law enforcement officials because of his Coptic Christian religious beliefs...

Appeal Filed By Muslim Police Officer Seeking To Wear Khimar

Posted on January 11, 2008
An appeal has been filed in Webb v. City of Philadelphia, a case in which a Pennsylvania federal district court rejected a Title VII religious discrimination claim brought by a Muslim police officer who wanted to cover her head for religious reasons with a khimar...

Watchdog Group Asks IRS To Investigate Funding of Texas Restoration Project

Posted on January 11, 2008
The Texas Freedom Nework has written the IRS (full text of letter) asking it to investigate whether the Niemoller Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, engaged in improper partisan political activity in 2005. In a press release yesterday, TFN said that the Foundation spent $1...

European Muslims Sign Charter Pledging Respect For Civil Law

Posted on January 11, 2008
In Brussels yesterday, representatives of 400 Islamic organizations in Europe signed a European Muslims' Charter of Values that had been drafted by the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe. KUNA and AKI report on developments. The 26-point document emphasizes that "Muslims of Europe respect the laws of the land and the authorities that uphold them and as European citizens Muslims of Europe consider it their duty to work for the common good of society...

Commons Passes Criminal Justice Bill; Debates Hate Speech and Blasphemy

Posted on January 11, 2008
On Wednesday in Britain's House of Commons the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill went through its Third Reading after members dealt with two different amendments relating to the expression of religious views. According to Catholic Online today, the government defeated an attempt to amend the ban on incitement to hatred of homosexuals...

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