Religion & Law

Anti-SLAPP Law Applied To Dismiss Claims In Suit Growing Out of Condo Mezuzah Dispute

Posted on October 07, 2010
In Shoreline Towers Condominium Association v. Gassman, (IL App., Sept. 30, 2010), an Illinois appellate court agreed with the trial court that portions of a lawsuit by a condominium association against a former resident should be dismissed under Illinois' anti-SLAPP law...

Appeal To 6th Circuit Filed In Recess Bible Reading Case

Posted on October 07, 2010
On Tuesday, a Notice of Appeal (full text) to the 6th Circuit was filed in L.W. v. Knox County Board of Education.  In the case, a federal district court jury in Knoxville, Tennessee found in favor of the Knox County Schools in a lawsuit over the right of elementary school students to read the Bible during recess...

Christian Groups File Consultation Paper With United Nations On Interpretation of ICCPR

Posted on October 07, 2010
Last week, a group of Christian organizations submitted a 35-page consultation paper (full text) to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The paper responds to a call by the High Commissioner for papers addressing the interplay of two section of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights...

City Council Opts To End Exploration of Opening Sessions With Prayer

Posted on October 07, 2010
The Canandaigua, New York City Council's Planning Committee yesterday rejected a proposal by one Council member to explore opening of Council meetings with a prayer.  According to the Canandaigua Messenger Post, Councilwoman Trudy White-Hamilton proposed the idea last month, saying that "prayer would benefit our community...

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Suit Challenges Jail's Policy Allowing Inmates To Receive Bibles But No Other Publications

Posted on October 07, 2010
The ACLU announced yesterday that it has filed a federal lawsuit in South Carolina challenging the policy at the Berkeley County (SC) Detention Center which bars sending of any books, magazines or newspapers to inmates, except for copies of the Bible...

Court Says Confidentiality Agreements Will Not Prevent Discovery In Establishment Clause Suit

Posted on October 06, 2010
Last year a Minnesota federal district court held that the ACLU has taxpayer standing to bring an Establishment Clause challenge to state funding of a charter school-- the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy. The suit claims that the school advances the Muslim religion and fosters entanglement between government and religion...

More Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on October 06, 2010
In Green v. Werholtz, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102867 (D KA, Sept. 28, 2010), a Kansas federal district court  rejected plaintiffs' complaints about the manner in which prison kosher meals were prepared, finding that their preparation was approved by a rabbi...

Irish Court Refuses To Assert Universal Jurisdiction Over Alleged Chinese Persecutor of Falun Gong

Posted on October 06, 2010
Ireland's Central Criminal Court last week held that it lacked jurisdiction to issue an arrest warrant for Li Changchun, a high ranking Chinese Communist Party official who was visiting Ireland for two days on his way to Iran. Yesterday's Epoch Times reported that a criminal complaint was filed in Ireland against Li by several Falun Gong practitioners who charged that Li, as Secretary General of the Party of Guangdong Province and the Politburo Standing Committee Propaganda and Media Officer, played a key role in the persecution of Falun Gong in China...

PBS To Air Series On "God In America"

Posted on October 06, 2010
On Oct. 11-12-13, PBS will air a 6-hour series titled "God In America." Jointly presented by American Experience and Frontline, the series will explore the historical role of religion in American public life. Here is PBS' description of the series:God in America examines the potent and complex interaction between religion and democracy, the origins of the American concept of religious liberty, and the controversial evolution of that ideal in the nation's courts and political arena...

DC Circuit: Federal Employee Need Not Relitigate Religious Discrimination Victory To Appeal Retaliation Holding

Posted on October 06, 2010
In Payne v. Salazar, (DC Cir., Sept. 7, 2010), the D.C. Circuit gave a substantial victory to federal employees asserting Title VII employment discrimination claims.  In the case, Department of Interior employee Cassandra Payne won her religious discrimination clam at the administrative level...

Algerian Court Dismisses Prosecution of Two Christians For Eating During Ramadan

Posted on October 06, 2010
In Algeria yesterday, a court in the town of Ain El-Hammam dismissed a prosecution that had been brought against two Christian construction workers charged with eating during daylight hours during Ramadan. Prosecutors demanded that the two be punished for insulting Islam...

Christian Wrestling Coach Settles Religious Discrimination Claim Against Dearborn, MI School

Posted on October 06, 2010
Dearborn, Michigan's Fordson High School has settled a religious discrimination lawsuit filed against it by its former wrestling coach who claimed he was fired because the school's principal, a Muslim, is weeding out Christian teachers, coaches and staff...

Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments In Funeral Picketing Case

Posted on October 06, 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court this morning heard oral arguments in Snyder v. Phelps. In the case, the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the Westboro Baptist Church and its leaders that a $5 million judgment against them growing out of their picketing of the funeral of Iraq veteran Matthew Snyder and a related Internet posting violated their free speech rights...

Trial of Geert Wilders For Anti-Muslim Incitement Opens In Netherlands

Posted on October 05, 2010
In Amsterdam, Netherlands yesterday, the trial of Geert Wilders, an anti-Muslim right wing member of parliament, opened. Hurriyet Daily News reports that Wilders is charged with giving religious offense to Muslims and inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims...

Husband In Contempt For Teaching Child Christian Faith In Violation of Divorce Settlement

Posted on October 05, 2010
In Greene v. Greene, (GA Ct. App., Oct. 1, 2010), a Georgia appellate court upheld a trial court's finding that a divorced husband was in contempt for violating a Settlement Agreement that gave his former wife final decision-making authority over matters related to their daughter's religious upbringing...

Muslims Get Mixed Messages On Their Integration In Germany

Posted on October 05, 2010
Deutsche Welle reported yesterday that Muslims in Germany are getting mixed messages from top government leaders.  On Sunday, Germany's President Christian Wulff, in a speech marking the 20th anniversary of German reunification, called for the integration of Muslims in Germany...

Cert. Denied In Challenge To School Ban On Religious Music In Holiday Concerts

Posted on October 05, 2010
Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in Stratechuk v. Board of Education, (Docket No. 09-1184) (Order List.) In the case, the 3rd Circuit upheld a New Jersey school district's policy banning celebratory religious holiday music at school-sponsored holiday concerts...

England's Charity Commission Says Druids Are A Religion

Posted on October 05, 2010
The Charity Commission for England and Wales last Saturday, for the first time, recognized Druidry as a religion. The action gives the Druid Network charitable status for tax purposes in Britain.  CNN reports the Commission found that in Druidry: "There is a sufficient belief in a supreme being or entity to constitute a religion for the purposes of charity law...

Court Refuses To Dismiss Justice Department's Title VII Case Against NYC Transit Authority

Posted on October 05, 2010
In United States v. New York City Transit Authority, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102704 (ED NY, Sept. 24, 2010), the Department of Justice sued the New York City Transit Authority claiming that it violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act through polices and practices that discriminate against employees whose religious beliefs require them to wear certain head coverings, such as turbans or khimars, without logos on them...

Prosecutor's Biblical References Not A Basis For Overturning Death Sentences

Posted on October 05, 2010
Jackson v. Epps, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102562 (ND MI, Sept. 28, 2010) is a habeas corpus action by a prisoner challenging his capital murder convictions and the resulting four death sentences imposed on him.  Among other claims, petitioner asserted that the prosecutor's Biblical references during closing arguments at the sentencing phase of his trial violated the Establishment Clause and urged jurors to rely on impermissible factors in reaching their decision...

Recent Articles and Books of Interest

Posted on October 04, 2010
From SSRN:Susanna Mancini & Michel Rosenfeld, Unveiling the Limits of Tolerance: Comparing the Treatment of Majority and Minority Religious Symbols in the Public Sphere, (Cardozo Legal Studies Research Paper No. 309, Sept. 28, 2010).Paul Schiff Berman, Towards a Jurisprudence of Hybridity, (Utah Law Review, No...

Red Mass Marks Beginning of Supreme Court's October Term

Posted on October 04, 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court opens its new term today.  Yesterday, according to CNN, the traditional Red Mass was held at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington to mark the new term.  Among those in attendance was Vice President Joe Biden, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Stephen Breyer...

Lawyer in Mosque Zoning Case Argues Islam Is A Political Movement, Not A Religion

Posted on October 04, 2010
Last week, court hearings began in the Rutherford County (TN) Chancery Court in a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order to halt construction of a controversial Islamic center being build in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. (See prior related posting...

En Banc Rehearing Sought In Christian Student's Challenge To College's Policy

Posted on October 04, 2010
A petition for an en banc rehearing by the 9th Circuit in Lopez v. Candaele was filed last week. (Full text of petition.)  In the case, a panel of the 9th Circuit held that a Christian student at Los Angeles City College lacks standing to challenge the school's sexual harassment policy because there was never any credible threat that the policy would be used to discipline the student despite a speech professor's objections to the student's religious opposition to same-sex marriage...

AU Asks IRS To Investigate Church Project Seeking To Unseat Iowa High Court Justices

Posted on October 03, 2010
Americans United announced on Thursday that it has written the Internal Revenue Service (full text of letter) complaining that Sioux City Iowa's Cornerstone World Outreach is violating the terms of its Section 501(c)(3) status by organizing Project Jeremiah 2010...

Court Issues Letters Rogatory Seeking Aid In Serving Process on Pope, Cardinals

Posted on October 03, 2010
In an unusual move, a Wisconsin federal district court in Doe 16 v. Holy See, (ED WI, Sept. 24, 2010), issued Letters Rogatory to "the appropriate judicial authority of the Holy See," requesting its assistance in serving process on Pope Benedict XVI and two cardinals named as defendants in a civil suit seeking damages and and other relief growing out of sexual abuse plaintiff suffered at the hands of Rev...

California Governor Vetoes Civil Marriage Religious Freedom Act

Posted on October 03, 2010
Equality California reports that on Sept. 30 California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed SB 906, the Civil Marriage Religious Freedom Act. The bill was designed to protect clergy who refuse to solemnize a marriage that is contrary to their faith...

Appeals Court Upholds Release of Psychiatric Files of Clergy In Sex Abuse Settlement

Posted on October 03, 2010
In Doe 1 v. Franciscan Friars of California, Inc., (CA App., Sept. 30, 2010), a California appellate court held that pursuant to a settlement in a clergy sex abuse case, various confidential files of six alleged perpetrators could be released to the public...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on October 03, 2010
In Patterson v. Schriro, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 100187 (D AZ, Sept. 2), an Arizona federal district court refused to issue a preliminary injunction ordering plaintiff receive a kosher diet because plaintiff alleged no threat that his current kosher diet is likely to be discontinued or changed...

USCIRF Puts Religious Freedom Spin on President's New Iran Sanctions

Posted on October 03, 2010
On Sept. 29, President Obama issued an Executive Order (full text) imposing financial sanctions on eight Iranian officials connected with the Revolutionary Guard, armed forces, Iranian intelligence service and national police.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the sanctions were imposed on "officials responsible for serious and sustained human rights abuses since the disputed election of June 2009...

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