Religion & Law

Does New Atlanta Public School Official Have Too Religious An Agenda?

Posted on November 21, 2010
Atlanta (GA) Journal Constitution reporter Maureen Downey yesterday questioned the focus the newly selected chief of staff for the Georgia Department of Education will bring to his job.  Her concerns are based on blog postings by the new pick, Joel Thorton...

Religious Leaders Express Doubt About New Governor's Call For Faith-Based Social Services To Fill Budget Gaps

Posted on November 21, 2010
Today's Greenville (SC) News reports that a number of South Carolina religious leaders question whether Gov.-elect Nikki Haley's call for a coalition of faith-based organizations to fill the gaps in social services and educational programs that have been created by state budget shortfalls...

Company Settles With EEOC In Case Charging Religious Harassment of Jewish Employees

Posted on November 21, 2010
The EEOC announced last week that One Communications Corp. has settled a lawsuit filed against it by the EEOC charging religious harassment of three Jewish employees, one of whom resigned as a result.  The EEOC's lawsuit filed in a Pennsylvania federal district court charged that the company's vice president of sales regularly subjected the three account executives to harassment, including anti-Semitic remarks, and that the company failed to take effective remedial action...

Lawsuit Filed Against San Antonio Archdiocese Alleging Cover-Up of Priest Abuse

Posted on November 21, 2010
The San Antonio (TX) Express News reports that on Thursday a lawsuit was filed against the Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio accusing it of covering up the repeated sexual abuse of a 12-year old boy by a priest. The abuse of the victim, an altar boy in the Floresville Parish school, is alleged to have occurred in 1976-77 by priest Louis White who was associate pastor of Sacred Heart Church...

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Maryland County Concedes, Settling RLUIPA Land Use Lawsuit In Mid-Trial

Posted on November 20, 2010
Both The Capital and the Maryland Daily Record report that on Thursday in the midst of a RLUIPA trial, Anne Arundel County, Maryland signed a settlement in the lawsuit brought against it by Riverdale Baptist Church which sought to build a school on 57 acres of land it owns...

Pope Quoted In New Book Suggesting Use of Condoms To Prevent HIV Is Permissible In Some Cases

Posted on November 20, 2010
Associated Press and the Guardian today reports on excerpts from a long interview with Pope Benedict XVI taken from a new book to be released Tuesday.  The excerpts published  yesterday by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano are from the book Light of the World: The Pope, the Church, and the Signs of the Times by German journalist Peter Seewald...

Appeals Court Reverses Decision On Validity of Replacing Episcopal Bishop

Posted on November 20, 2010
In Schofield v. Superior Court of Fresno County, (CA App., Nov. 18, 2010), a California appellate court held that in a lawsuit brought by the Episcopal Church to establish its title to property of the break-away San Joaquin Diocese, the trial court must apply neutral principles of law to determine ownership of the property...

9th Circuit Will Permit Live C-SPAN Broadcast of Arguments In Prop 8 Appeal

Posted on November 19, 2010
According to today's San Francisco Chronicle, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has decided that C-SPAN  will be permitted to broadcast live the appeals court arguments in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the case challenging the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8 that bars same-sex marriage...

South Dakota High Court Rejects Jurisdiction Over Hutterite Colony Dispute; Lower Court Dissolves Colony

Posted on November 19, 2010
In Hutterville Hutterian Brethren, Inc. v. Waldner, (SD Sup. Ct., Nov. 17, 2010), the South Dakota Supreme Court held that it lacks jurisdiction over a dispute between two factions of the Hutterian Church, both claiming control of the non-profit corporation that controls the Hutterville Colony...

EU Official Says Church Schools Cannot Refuse To Hire Gays and Lesbians

Posted on November 19, 2010
In a September, Elzbieta Radziszewska, a senior Polish official who deals with anti-discrimination issues, told a Catholic newspaper that church-owned schools and colleges could refuse to hire homosexuals and could fire those already employed where that is consistent with their church's values and principles...

Parents Object To Planned School Play "Santa Goes Green"

Posted on November 19, 2010
In DuBois, Pennsylvania, some parents have raised a new kind of objection to a planned school Christmas play. The Progress reported yesterday that four residents have asked the DuBois School Board to reconsider the choice of the play "Santa Goes Green" that is to be produced by 4th and 5th graders on Dec...

Israeli Jewish Anti-Missionary Group Sues State-Run Radio Stations Over Ad Refusal

Posted on November 19, 2010
Yad L'Achim is an Israeli non-profit group, one of whose goals is to counter Christian missionary activity aimed at Jews in Israel. Arutz Sheva reported on Wednesday that the organization has filed suit against two Israeli state-operated radio stations which have refused to run Yad L'Achim's ads...

9th Circuit: Christian Legal Society Failed To Preserve Pretext Argument For Review

Posted on November 19, 2010
Last June in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Hastings Law School's policy of only recognizing student groups that are open to all students. The policy was challenged by CLS that required its members and officers to sign a statement of faith...

County Takes Control of Holiday Displays

Posted on November 19, 2010
The Chester County Daily Local reports that yesterday the Chester County, Pennsylvania commissioners voted 2-1 to have the county place its own holiday displays at the Historic Courthouse, eliminating the rivalry of past years between those erecting Christian and Jewish displays and a secular group that has put up a Tree of Knowledge...

State Department Issues 2010 Report On International Religious Freedom

Posted on November 18, 2010
Yesterday the U.S. State Department released its 2010 Report on International Religious Freedom. The annual report to Congress is mandated by Section 102 of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. In releasing the report, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (full text) said:Religious freedom is under threat from authoritarian regimes that abuse their own citizens...

In Battle For Texas House Speaker, Religion Becomes An Issue

Posted on November 18, 2010
In the Texas state legislature, Joe Straus, the current speaker of the House of Representatives, is being challenged by two other Republicans who are more conservative. Yesterday's Dallas Morning News reports that  supporters of challengers Rep. Warren Chisum and Rep...

Russia's Lower House Approves Bill Allowing Orthodox Church To Reclaim Nationalized Property

Posted on November 18, 2010
Reuters reports that yesterday the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's Parliament, adopted a bill authorizing the Russian Orthodox Church to reclaim up to 17,000 building and churches nationalized after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. Under the bill, the Church cannot reclaim museum pieces or public buildings...

Ponzi Scheme Targets Investors In Shariah-Compliant Financial Products

Posted on November 18, 2010
A Department of Justice press release yesterday unveiled an indictment against three owners of a bankrupt Chicago real estate development firm charging that they ran a Ponzi scheme aimed at investors seeking Shariah-compliant investments. The indictment alleges that two of the owners of Sunrise Equities, Inc...

New Survey Identifies Religious Concerns For 2012 Election

Posted on November 18, 2010
The Public Religion Research Institute this week released a report on its  2010 Post-Election American Values Survey. The report titled Old Alignments, Emerging Fault Lines: Religion in the 2010 Election and Beyond,  reports on three findings that may have importance for the 2012 elections:  (1) only 4 in 10 Americans believe that President Obama has religious beliefs similar to their own; (2) 49% of Americans believe that the values of Islam are compatible with American values; and (3) 58% agree that God has granted America a special role in human history...

Court Refuses To Stop Murfreesboro Mosque

Posted on November 18, 2010
According to NPR, a Tennessee Chancery Court judge yesterday refused to issue a temporary restraining order to stop construction of an Islamic Center in Murfreesboro (TN). The formal issue in the trial was whether Rutherford County planning officials violated the state's open meeting law when they approved the site plan for the Center...

Senate Hearing Held On Nomination of Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom

Posted on November 18, 2010
Religion News Service reports that yesterday the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on the nomination of Suzan D. Johnson Cook to be Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom. In her prepared testimony (full text) Cook outlined some of her relevant experience...

Court Rejects Bivens Claim For Religious Discrimination By CIA

Posted on November 17, 2010
Ciralsky v. Central Intelligence Agency, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 120617 (ED VA, Nov. 15, 2010), is a suit originally filed ten years ago by a former CIA employee challenging the revocation of his security clearance and his resulting termination from his position as an attorney with the CIA...

USCIRF Vice-Chair Criticizes Russian Laws on Extremism

Posted on November 17, 2010
Elizabeth Prodromou, vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, spoke Sunday at a conference in Brussels on Religious Freedom in Russia (full text or remarks). She said in part:Russia faces legitimate, serious threats from groups which advocate or perpetrate violence in the name of religion...

British Tribunal Rejects Religious Discrimination Claim By Adoption Panel Member

Posted on November 17, 2010
In Britain, an employment tribunal in Leicester has rejected religious discrimination charges brought by a Christian pediatrician who was dismissed from her position on a Northamptonshire County Council adoption panel when she asked to abstain from voting in cases where same-sex parents were seeking to adopt...

Surprise Bishops' Conference Election Results Shows Move To The Right

Posted on November 17, 2010
New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan yesterday was elected president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  Christian Century reports that Dolan's choice was a surprise.  Usually the sitting vice president-- who was Bishop Gerald Kicanas or Tuscon-- is elected president...

TSA Says Passengers With Religious Objections To Both Body-Scan and Pat-Down Cannot Board

Posted on November 17, 2010
John Pistole, head of the Transportation Security Administration told the Senate Homeland Security Committee yesterday that airline passengers who refuse both a full body scan and a pat down search will not be allowed to board a plane, even if the refusal is for religious reasons...

Illinois Village Sued For Refusal To Accommodate Jehovah's Witness Employee

Posted on November 17, 2010
A former Oak Park, Illinois employee on Friday filed a lawsuit against the village claiming that it wrongfully refused to accommodate her religious beliefs.  The TribLocal and the Pioneer Press report that Jehovah's Witness adherent Shawnya Robinson originally worked in Oak Park's community relations department, but was transferred the clerk's office when her original position was eliminated for budgetary reasons...

Executive Order Adopts New Criteria For Organizations Receiving Faith-Based Grants

Posted on November 17, 2010
President Obama today signed an executive order (full text) making changes in the operations of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.  As reported in a press release from the Baptist Joint Committee, the order implements many of the recommendations made in February by a task force on reform of the faith-based office...

President Sends Eid Greetings And Wishes Hajj Pilgrims Well

Posted on November 16, 2010
In Saudi Arabia, the Hajj is under way as yesterday pilgrims climbed Mount Arafat as part of the five days of rituals that trace the steps of the Prophet Muhammad (AP). Today marks the beginning of Eid al-Adha, the Festival of the Sacrifice that commemorates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son...

Teacher Reprimanded For Objecting To Student's Anti-Gay Statements

Posted on November 16, 2010
In Brighton, Michigan, a high school economics teacher is challenging a one day suspension without pay that was imposed on him for violating the free speech rights of a student. According to a Canadian Press report today, on Oct. 20 teacher Jay McDowell told a student in his class to remove a belt buckle carrying the Confederate flag...

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