Religion & Law

Abercrombie Sued For Second Time Over Clash Between Its "Look Policy" and Wearing Hijab

Posted on September 03, 2010
For the second time in a year, the EEOC has brought a lawsuit against clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch over the conflict between its "Look Policy" for its personnel and the need of Muslim women to wear a headscarf (hijab). The EEOC announced on Wednesday that it had filed suit in a California federal district court on behalf of an 18-year old whose application for a job stocking merchandise at an Abercrombie Kids store in Milpitas, California was rejected...

California Trial Court Affirms Religious Court's Decision On Ownership of Torah Scrolls

Posted on September 03, 2010
The Los Angeles Daily News reports that on Tuesday a Los Angeles trial court confirmed a ruling by a Jewish religious tribunal in a dispute over ownership of four Torah scrolls. The court agreed with the bet din (Jewish religious court) that the scrolls belong to the widow of Rabbi Norman Pauker, and that they were merely on loan to Pauker's former assistant, Rabbi Samuel Ohana...

Court Refuses To Mandamus California Governor and AG To Defend Prop 8

Posted on September 03, 2010
The Recorder reports that the Pacific Justice Institute on Tuesday filed a petition for a writ of mandamus in California's Third District Court of Appeal, seeking to force California's governor and attorney general to defend Proposition 8-- the state's ban on same sex marriage-- in court...

Army Accommodates Third Sikh Recruit

Posted on September 02, 2010
According to a release yesterday by the Sikh Coalition, the U.S. Army, for the third time in less than a year, has agreed that a Sikh recruit may enlist and continue to wear his religiously-mandated turban along with unshorn hear and a beard. Simran Preet Singh Lamba was brought into the army in 2009 through the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) program-- designed to recruit non-citizens who have needed language skills...

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Fraud Claim Against Diocese For Nondisclosure of Priest's Past Sex Abuse Is Dismissed

Posted on September 02, 2010
In Doe v. Diocese of New Ulm, (MN Ct. App., Aug. 31, 2010), the Minnesota Court of Appeals dismissed claims against a Catholic diocese by several women who alleged that they were sexually abused as children by a priest, Father David Rooney. The court held that while plaintiffs' fraud claims were not barred by the statute of limitations, the claims stemmed from the diocese's failure to disclose Father Rooney's history of sexual abuse...

7th Circuit Says University of Wisconsin Must Make Student Activity Fees Available To Religious Worship

Posted on September 02, 2010
In a 2-1 decision yesterday in Badger Catholic, Inc. v. Walsh, (7th Cir., Sept. 1, 2010), the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated a University of Wisconsin policy that withheld student activity fee funding for worship, proselytizing  or religious instruction by recognized student groups...

City Relents On Collecting Tax Assessment That Violates Religious Beliefs of Hindu Woman

Posted on September 02, 2010
The city of Evanston, Illinois has decided that it will no longer press a Hindu woman and her mother for a $635 tax bill reflecting an assessment that the woman says violates her religious beliefs. At issue is the removal of a box elder tree that stands mostly on common property of Padma Rao's condominium...

Court Refuses So Far To Drop Charges Against Preachers At Dearborn's Arab International Festival

Posted on September 01, 2010
A Dearborn, Michigan trial judge Monday, after two hours of oral arguments, refused, at least for now, to dismiss charges beach of peace and failure to obey lawful orders that have been brought against four street preachers for their activities in June at Dearborn's large Arab International Festival...

Wide Ranging Challenge To Health Care Reform Includes Religion Claims

Posted on September 01, 2010
A group of individuals and organizations yesterday filed a lawsuit in a Nevada federal court asserting a wide range of constitutional challenges to the requirement in this year's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that all U.S. citizens and legal residents maintain health care coverage...

Suit Claims IRS Has Special Policy To Scrutinize Non-Profit Applications From Pro-Israel Groups Opposed To Obama Policies

Posted on September 01, 2010
The non-profit pro-Israel, Zionist group, Z Street, filed a lawsuit in a Pennsylvania federal district court last week challenging on free expression grounds a purported policy of the Internal Revenue Service to scrutinize particularly closely applications for Section 501(c)(3) non-profit status from organizations that deal with Israel, and especially if the organization supports policies inconsistent with those of the Obama administration on the Middle East...

National Religious Moot Court Competition Scheduled For February

Posted on September 01, 2010
The 5th annual National Religious Moot Court Competition will be held at George Washington University Law School on Feb. 4-5, 2011. The competition is open to teams from ABA-accredited law schools. This year's problem deals with RLUIPA as it applies to zoning decisions...

En Banc Review Granted In Challenge To Orlando's Park Feeding Ordinance

Posted on September 01, 2010
The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday issued an order (full text) granting an en banc rehearing in First Vagabonds Church of God v. City of Orlando, Florida.  The 3-judge panel in the case, in a 2-1 decision rejected free exercise, free expression and other challenges to Orlando's Large Group Feeding Ordinance that requires a permit to feed more than 25 people in any downtown park, and limits a group to 2 permits per year in any park...

City Rents Space For Satanist Exorcism Ceremony

Posted on September 01, 2010
Oklahoma City's Parks and Recreation Department, saying that it cannot constitutionally discriminate on the basis of viewpoint in renting out its Civic Center auditoriums, has agreed to rent out its smallest room, seating 100, to a Satanist Church for a public exorcism ceremony...

7th Circuit: Rastafarian Failed To Inform Potential Employer That Dreadlocks Were Religious Requirement

Posted on September 01, 2010
In Xodus v. Wackenhut Corp., (7th Cir., Aug. 27, 2010), the 7th Circuit affirmed a trial court's holding that Wackenhut Corp. did not violate Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act when it refused to hire plaintiff, a Rastafarian, as a security guard because plaintiff refused to cut his dreadlocks...

Indonesian Court Orders Closure of Buddha Bar; Awards Damages To Plaintiffs

Posted on September 01, 2010
In Indonesia today, the Central Jakarta District Court ordered the Jakarta branch of the Paris-based Buddha Bar to close.  The court also ordered the company that operates the bar, along with the Jakarta's governor and its tourism agency that allowed the bar to operate,  to pay plaintiffs the equivalent of $111,000...

Law and Religion Scholar Steven Goldberg Dies

Posted on August 31, 2010
Today's Washington Post reports that law and religion scholar Steven P. Goldberg died last week. Goldberg was a professor at Georgetown University's Law Center since 1977 and has written a number of books on the intersection of law, science and religion, including Bleached Faith: The Tragic Cost When Religion is Forced Into the Public Square, (Stanford Univ...

Lincoln Parallels Cited In Confusion About Obama's Religion

Posted on August 31, 2010
In today's San Francisco Chronicle, New York University Professor Jonathan Zimmerman calls attention to an interesting parallel between the persistent rumors that President Barack Obama is a Muslim and rumors faced by Abraham Lincoln. Here is an excerpt:Just as Obama's enemies call him a closet Muslim, Lincoln's opponents hinted that he was ...

Suit Charges Discrimination In Illinois State Police Revoking Appointment of Muslim Chaplain

Posted on August 31, 2010
The Chicago Tribune reported yesterday that the Council on American Islamic Relations has filed a federal civil rights discrimination lawsuit on behalf of a Chicago imam whose appointment as the first Muslim state police chaplain was rescinded after critics complained that he had ties to Hamas...

EEOC Sues Nebraska Meat Packing Plant Over Religious Accommodation of Muslim Employees

Posted on August 31, 2010
According to an AP report, the EEOC yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against JBS Swift & Co. charging that the company failed to make reasonable accommodation for religious observance by some 80 Somali Muslims who were fired from company's Grand Island, Nebraska meat packing plant...

Libya's Gadhafi Irks Italians By Pushing Islam On Italian Women

Posted on August 31, 2010
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi has upset some Italians during his current visit to Italy. On Sunday and Monday, Gadhafi held a series of private meetings with 800 Italian women and a small group of men all recruited online by an agency, Hostessweb...

Suit Charges RLUIPA and FOIA Violations In Church Zoning Dispute

Posted on August 30, 2010
The Power of Praise Worship Center has filed a RLUIPA lawsuit against the village of Dixmoor, Illinois. The suit claims that even though village trustees had approved its use of a building it leased, the village's code enforcement officer ordered it to vacate the building, saying that churches are allowed only in areas zoned residential...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on August 30, 2010
From SSRN:Carl H. Esbeck, Uses and Abuses of Textualism and Originalism in Establishment Clause Interpretation, (Utah Law Review, Vol. 2011, No. 2).Joseph Blocher, Schrödinger?s Cross: The Quantum Mechanics of the Establishment Clause, (Virginia Law Review, Forthcoming)...

Court Rejects Quaker's Challenge To Use Of His Tax Payments For Military

Posted on August 30, 2010
In Moore- Backman v. United States, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88547 (D AZ, Aug. 24, 2010), an Arizona federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendations (2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88548, June 28, 2010) and dismissed a complaint by a Quaker that the use of his federal income tax payments for military spending substantially burdens his religious exercise in violation of the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act...

Utah High Court Says FLDS Challenge To Trust Reformation Barred By Laches and Ripeness Doctrines

Posted on August 30, 2010
The Utah Supreme Court on Friday rejected an attempt by memberss of the FLDS Church to challenge a Utah trial court's long-running efforts (see prior posting) to reform the United Effort Plan Trust that holds property on which FLDS members lived in Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah...

Tensions Grow Between Archbishop and Mayor of Mexico City

Posted on August 29, 2010
BBC News yesterday reported that in Mexico the tension between the Catholic Church and the mayor of Mexico City has gotten rather ugly as the Archbishop of Guadalajara, Juan Sandoval Iniguez, accused the mayor of bribery.  Reacting to a Mexico Supreme Court ruling earlier this month upholding legislation in Mexico City granting various rights, including adoption rights, to same-sex couples (AP), the Archbishop remarked at a recent news conference: "Would any of you want to be adopted by a couple of lesbians or queers...

Court Rejects Free Exercise and Establishment Clause Challenges To Domestic Violence Laws

Posted on August 29, 2010
In Currie v. Michigan, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 85804 (ED MI, Aug. 20, 2010), a Michigan federal district court dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the state's domestic violence laws on free exercise grounds.  In a complaint described by the court as "nearly unintelligible," plaintiff contended that he was "convicted ...

Christian Icon In Gate of Kremlin Is Restored

Posted on August 29, 2010
In a ceremony in Moscow yesterday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill unvieled a restored icon of Jesus that had been a part of the main gates in the Kremlin (the official residence of Russia's President), but had been bricked over by Soviet authorities in the 1930's...

Kentucky High Court Says Christian Medi-Share Program Is Insurance Contract Subject To State Regulation

Posted on August 29, 2010
In Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Reinhold, (KY Sup. Ct., Aug. 26, 2010), the Kentucky Supreme Court held that the Medi-Share Program operated by the American Evangelistic Association and the Christian Share Ministry is subject to regulation by the Kentucky Department of Insurance...

National Archives Gets Nuremberg Laws For Its Collection

Posted on August 29, 2010
In a ceremony last Wednesday, the National Archives received Germany's original 1935 Nuremberg Laws, signed by Adolph Hitler, for its extensive collection of World War II documents. The laws were Germany's blueprint for its anti-Semitic racial policies...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on August 29, 2010
In Palecek v. Zavaras, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 85513 (D CO, Aug. 18, 2010), a Colorado federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendations (2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86027, July 1, 2010), and permitted a Jewish inmate who objected to the manner in which his kosher food was being prepared to proceed with a claim for injunctive relief against defendants in their official capacities...

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