Religion & Law

Court Clears Mississippi Personhood Amendment For 2011 Ballot

Posted on October 27, 2010
In Hughes v. Hosemann, (MS Cir. Ct., Oct. 26, 2010), a Mississippi state trial court judge cleared the way for a "personhood" amendment to appear on the November 2011 ballot in the state.  Challengers argued that Initiative Measure Number 26 violates Sec...

Court Dismisses Jewish Student's Discrimination Claim Against Seton Hall

Posted on October 26, 2010
In Vaynberg v. Seton Hall University, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112634 (D NJ, Oct. 21, 2010), a New Jersey federal district court dismissed a religious discrimination claim brought against Seton Hall University by a Jewish student who was dismissed from the school's doctoral program in physical therapy for failing to maintain a 3...

Plaintiffs Can Proceed With Negligent Retention and Supervision Claims Against Catholic Church and School

Posted on October 26, 2010
In Jones v. Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, (Sup. Ct. NY County, Oct. 7, 2010), a New York state trial court dismissed negligent hiring, breach of contract and deceptive business practice claims brought by a female student and her parents against the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York, the Church of St...

Survey Released On Church Involvement In Distributing Candidate Information

Posted on October 26, 2010
A survey released last week by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reports that among voters who attend religious services at once per month, 15% say that information on political parties or candidates has been made available at their places of worship...

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In Tajikistan, Islamic Party's Prayer Room Burns Down

Posted on October 26, 2010
In Tajikistan's capital of Dushanbe on Sunday, a controversial room used for daily prayers in the headquarters of the Islamic Revival Party (IRP) was destroyed by fire. Central Asia Newswire reports that Tajikistan's Committee on Religious Affairs had threatened to close the room because under the country's constitution political parties are not allowed to sponsor religious activities...

Blogger Who Criticized Church Pastor Settles Lawsuit Against Police Officials

Posted on October 26, 2010
ABP last week reported on a settlement in Rich v. City of Jacksonville, a Florida federal court lawsuit by a blogger against against a sheriff's office official and an assistant state attorney charging free speech and Establishment Clause violations...

California Abusive Priest Personnel Records Released Implementing 2007 Settlement

Posted on October 25, 2010
The San Francisco Examiner reports that after three years of litigation, a California judge on Friday issued an order releasing some 10,000 pages of personnel records relating to 48 Catholic priests in the San Diego diocese who were either convicted or credibly accused of sexual abuse or who were named in a civil suit...

Supreme Court Review Sought In Pastor's Defamation Claim Against Church

Posted on October 25, 2010
On Friday, a petition for certiorari (full text) to the U.S. Supreme Court was filed in Cooke v. Tubra.  In the case, an Oregon state appellate court held that jurisdiction over an interim pastor's defamation claim against his former church and two of its officers is not necessarily barred by the First Amendment...

Indian Court Holds Women Heirs of Priests Have Equal Rights To Share In Offerings

Posted on October 25, 2010
In India, a Delhi High Court judge has ruled that women in priestly families of the Kalkaji Temple have an equal right with men to share in the offerings collected during festivals. Today's Hindustan Times  and Express India report on the decision that dismissed a suit by one of the priests seeking an order to prevent his three sisters from claiming a share of the offerings...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on October 25, 2010
From SSRN:Maimon Schwarzschild, How We Judge the Judges, (Conversations, No. 8, p. 83, 2010).Geoffrey P. Miller, Monarchy in the Hebrew Bible, (NYU School of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 10-76, Oct. 19, 2010).Diane Marie Amann, Cecelia Goetz, Woman at Nuremberg, (International Criminal Law Review, Forthcoming)...

Tony Blair's Sister-In-Law Converts To Islam; Says She Hopes It Changes Blair's Views

Posted on October 25, 2010
Yesterday's London Mail reports that Lauren Booth, the sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has converted to Islam after having a holy experience at the shrine of Fatima al-Masumeh in the city of Qom during a visit to Iran six weeks ago...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on October 24, 2010
In Clifton v. Lappin, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111569 (WD LA, Oct. 18, 2010), adopting magistrate's recommendations (2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111473, Oct. 4, 2010), and Plummer v. Lappin, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111502, Oct. 18, 2010), adopting magistrate's recommendations (2010 U...

Complaint Says Roommate Ad On Church Bulletin Board Violates Fair Housing Act

Posted on October 24, 2010
WOOD-TV News and Fox News report on a complaint filed (full text) with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights over an ad that a woman posted on her church's bulletin board seeking a Christian roommate.  The Fair Housing Center of West Michigan filed the complaint against a 31-year old Grand Rapids (MI) woman after someone in the congregation complained about the ad...

Geert Wilders Trial Halted Over Bias of Judicial Panel

Posted on October 24, 2010
The London Guardian reports that on Friday the trial in the Netherlands of far-right political leader Geert Wilders was halted as a separate panel of judges ruled that the panel hearing hate speech charges against Wilders was biased. Wilders is charged with inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims after urging that the Qur'an be banned (see prior posting) and production of a film titled Fitna...

Fired Muslim Truck Driver Sues For Failure To Accommodate Religious Beliefs

Posted on October 24, 2010
Philadelphia Daily News on Friday reported on an employment discrimination lawsuit filed in federal court in Pennsylvania by a Muslim man who was fired from his job as a truck driver because he refused to transport a shipment of Miller Lite beer.  Plaintiff Vasant Reddy claims that when he was hired, Schneider National, Inc...

Catholics' Challenge To Critical San Francisco Resolution Dismissed By En Banc 9th Circuit

Posted on October 23, 2010
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday, en banc, dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Catholic League and two individual Catholics challenging on Establishment Clause grounds a resolution passed by the San Francisco (CA) Board of Supervisors in 2006 "urging Cardinal William Levada ...

Ohio Middle School Science Teacher Drops Suit Over His Firing For Promoting Religion

Posted on October 23, 2010
Today's Mount Vernon (OH) News reports that on Thursday, Ohio middle school science teacher John Freshwater and his wife filed a stipulation along with the Mount Vernon (OH) school board asking an Ohio federal court to dismiss Freshwater's religious discrimination and other claims...

Cert. Petition Filed In "Ministerial Exception" Case

Posted on October 23, 2010
Yesterday a petition for certiorari (full text) was filed in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC.  In the case, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals held that parochial school teachers who teach primarily secular subjects are covered by the Americans With Disabilities Act...

Tax Exempt Status of Prayer Breakfast Sponsor Challenged

Posted on October 23, 2010
According to the Washington Post last week, an Ohio-based clergy group, ClergyVOICE, filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service on Oct. 12 (full text) challenging the tax-exempt status of the Fellowship Foundation, the organization that sponsors the National Prayer Breakfast...

New Survey Says 33% Believe Religious Messages Contribute To Gay Suicides

Posted on October 22, 2010
A survey released yesterday by the Public Religion Research Institute in Partnership with Religion News Service shows that 33% of Americans believe that messages from places of worship are contributing "a lot" to higher rates of suicide among gay and lesbian youths...

Obama Visit To Sikh Temple In India Scrubbed, Apparently Over Head Covering Issue

Posted on October 22, 2010
President Obama will visit India next month. The New York Times reported yesterday that Sikhs in the United States are distressed that tentative plans for him to include a stop at the Golden Temple in Amristar have been cancelled. It is reported that part of the reason for the cancellation is the Sikh tradition that men tie a piece of cloth on their heads before entering the Temple...

Germany's President Urges Turks To Give More Religious Freedom To Christians

Posted on October 22, 2010
According to Today's Zaman, Germany's president, Christian Wulff, on an official trip to Turkey has used two events to urge more freedom of religion for Christians in Turkey.  Both in remarks to the Turkish Parliament in Ankara on Wednesday and at a mass held in the historic St...

Court Rejects Ethics Charge In Suit Challenging Establishment Clause Settlement

Posted on October 22, 2010
Responding rather quickly to a filing with it of a "Notice Suggesting Improper or Unethical Conduct" on the part of defendants (see prior posting), a federal district court in Allen v. School Board for Santa Rosa County Florida, (ND FL, Oct. 21, 2010), yesterday issued an order (full text) concluding that "The notice merits no action by the court...

High School Cancels Football Prayers In Response To Group's Complaint

Posted on October 21, 2010
My Fox Memphis reported yesterday that in response to a  complaint by the Freedom from Religion Foundation (full text of letter), Hamilton County, Tennessee school superintendent Jim Scales has ordered an end to public prayers at a district high school's football games...

Iowa Absentee Voting During Church Services Concerns ACLU

Posted on October 21, 2010
Iowa law provides that county auditors may approve satellite absentee voting stations at which voters can cast an absentee ballot prior to election day. Today's Des Moines Register reports that for the first time, two Ames Iowa churches will host absentee voting during church services...

Filing Suggests Improper Conduct In Santa Rosa School Litigation

Posted on October 21, 2010
Yesterday brought another unusual development in the long-running litigation challenging religious practices in the Santa Rosa, Florida schools.  In March 2009, the Santa Rosa County School Board agreed to settle a lawsuit brought against it by the ACLU challenging various religious practices in the school system...

Father Acquitted of Contempt Over Charges of Taking Daughter To Mass

Posted on October 21, 2010
Last May, in a widely publicized custody case, Joseph Reyes was ordered to stand trial for criminal contempt for violating a court order that he not expose his daughter to any religion other than Judaism. (See prior posting.) The order was issued after Reyes, in the midst of a divorce proceeding, sent his wife, who was raising their daughter in the Jewish faith, photos of his taking their daughter to be baptized...

Maryland High Court Judge Responds To Dissent With Biblical Midrash

Posted on October 21, 2010
Maryland's highest court, the Maryland Court of Appeals, today decided a case on the applicability of the statute of frauds provision of the Maryland Credit Agreement Act.  In Pease v. Wachovia SBA Lending, Inc., (MD Ct. App., Oct. 21, 2010), three judges in a partial dissent argued in part that the majority should have "amplified" its reasoning...

Free Exercise Challenge To Custody Decree Rejected

Posted on October 21, 2010
In Forthner v. Forthner, (MS App., Oct. 19, 2010), a Mississippi court of appeals rejected a father's religious free exercise challenge to a judge's decision giving his wife custody of their children and denying the husband separate maintenance.  The appellate court explained:In this case, Desmond bases his claim of religious discrimination on exchanges within the record where the chancellor provided his opinion that Desmond should reconsider his attitude toward the children and "rethink the idea that children should always be told the truth...

NPR Fires Juan Williams Over Remarks About Muslims Delivered On Fox News

Posted on October 21, 2010
Yesterday evening, NPR terminated its contract with its news analyst, Juan Williams, after Williams made comments on Fox News about his views of Muslims.  The New York Times today reports that Williams, who is also a Fox News political analyst, made the offending comments while appearing on The O'Reilly Factor in response to a question posed to him by Bill O'Reilly...

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