Religion & Law

Personhood Amendment Favored In Georgia Republican Primary Straw Poll

Posted on July 22, 2010
WTVM News and a press release from Georgia Right To Life report that in Tuesday's primary election in Georgia, the Republican primary ballot in 47 counties included a non-binding vote on a "personhood" amendment to the state constitution. The question read: "Do you support an amendment to the Georgia state constitution so as to provide that the paramount right to life is vested in each human being from the earliest biological beginning until natural death?" In Butts county, the Democratic primary ballot also contained the same question...

AJCongress, Leading Church-State Advocate, Suspends Operations After Financial Losses

Posted on July 21, 2010
Today's New York Jewish Week reports that the American Jewish Congress, an advocacy group known for its expertise on church-state issues, has suspended operations due to financial problems. AJCongress lost $21 million of its $24 million endowment in the 2008 Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme...

Nigerian Lawsuit Claims Ban on Child Marriage Restricts Muslims' Religious Freedom

Posted on July 21, 2010
In Nigeria earlier this month, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) forwarded to the Attorney General for possible prosecution its findings that Ahmed Sani Yerima, former governor of Zamfara state and a member of the Nigerian Senate, violated the Nigerian Child Rights Act of 2003 when he married a 13-year old Egyptian girl after paying a very large dowry...

Court Refuses To Enjoin Graduation Ceremonies In Church Building

Posted on July 21, 2010
In Does 1, 7, 8 and 9 v. Elmbrook Joint Common School District No. 21, (ED WI, July 19, 2010), a Wisconsin federal district court refused to permanently enjoin a Wisconsin school district from holding graduation ceremonies in a church. The court rejected the claim of unconstitutional coercion, saying: "plaintiffs unease and offense at having to attend graduation ceremonies at the Church and face religious symbols, while in no way minor, is not enough...

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Spain Rejects Broad Ban on Burqa

Posted on July 21, 2010
AP reports that Spain's Parliament on Tuesday defeated a bill that would have banned women from wearing the burqa in any public place. The lower chamber defeated the bill by a vote of 183 no to 162 yes with 2 abstentions. However the ruling Socialist government, whose legislators opposed the total ban, plans to introduce a narrower bill this fall that would merely ban wearing the burqa in government buildings...

10th Circuit Makes Minor Changes In RLUIPA Zoning Opinion

Posted on July 21, 2010
On Monday, the 10th Circuit largely denied a petition for a limited panel rehearing in a RLUIPA church zoning case. In Rocky Mountain Christian Church v. Board of County Commissioners of Boulder County, Colorado, (10th Cir., July 19, 2010), the court made two modifications in its original opinion, changing language relating to the propriety of jury instructions...

Germany Plans University Level Programs To Train Muslim Religious Leaders

Posted on July 20, 2010
Today's Chronicle of Higher Education reports on efforts launched in Germany to integrate its large, mostly-Turkish, Muslim population. A key part of the plan is to create a generation of German-trained imams. The German Council of Science and Humanities is creating a group of academic institutes at state-financed colleges to critically examine Islamic theology and teach it in a German university setting to future imams, male and female religious teachers, public intellectuals, scholars and faith-based social workers...

Paper Carries Series On Conservative Christian Moves On Education In British Columbia

Posted on July 20, 2010
The Tyee this week is running a 5-part series excerpted from Marci McDonald's The Armegeddon Factor on how the Christian right is building political power in Canada. The articles focus particularly on the central role of British Columbia in the push to move Canada away from a secular public culture...

Indonesians Told To Shift Prayer Direction

Posted on July 20, 2010
Due to a mistake by the Indonesian Ulema Council, Indonesia's highest Islamic authority, Muslims in the country have been facing the wrong direction for prayers for several months. Today's New Zealand Herald reports that in March, the Council ruled that Mecca was due west of Indonesia...

RLUIPA Lawsuit Challenges Delay In Formal Zoning Variance Denial

Posted on July 20, 2010
A RLUIPA lawsuit was filed last week against the Borough of Pemberton, New Jersey by the Apostolic Church of Deliverance that applied for a zoning variance over six months ago. According to a press release yesterday from Mauck & Baker, the law firm which filed the suit, Borough officials have clearly indicated that they will deny the application from the largely African-American church...

Syria Becomes First Muslim Country To Impose A Burqa Ban

Posted on July 20, 2010
Britain's Daily Star today reports that Syria has become the first predominately Muslim country to ban the wearing of the burqa in public. The ban will initially apply only in universities. The government ordered universities to ban niqab-wearing women from registering...

Evangelicals Are Backing Obama's Call For Immigration Reform

Posted on July 19, 2010
Today's New York Times reports that a group of influential Christian evangelical leaders are supporting President Obama's call for comprehensive immigration reform. The umbrella group, the National Association of Evangelicals, is in the lead. While these Christian conservatives are usually on the other side on most of President Obama's policies, here they agree with him and are openly supporting him through sermons, conference calls with other pastors, and Congressional testimony...

New Holy See Permanent Observer To UN Named

Posted on July 19, 2010
Zenit reported yesterday that Pope Benedict XVI has named Indian-born Archbishop Francis Assisi Chullikatt, apostolic nuncio to Iraq and Jordan, as the new permanent observer of the Holy See at the United Nations in New York. He succeeds Archbishop Celestino Migliore.

GI's Who Oppose Homosexuality Beginning To Look At CO Status As DADT To End

Posted on July 19, 2010
The New York Times reported last week that the impending end of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy is creating a new group of putative conscientious objectors. The Center on Conscience & War, which counsels GI's seeking to become conscientious objectors, has begun to receive calls from members of the military who say they consider homosexuality an abomination and want to become a conscientious objector because they cannot serve alongside gay soldiers...

Oklahoma's November Ballot Will Include Constituitonal Amendment To Bar Courts' Use of Sharia Law

Posted on July 19, 2010
Yesterday's Tulsa World reports that Oklahoma's Nov. 2 ballot will include State Question 755 which would amend the state constitution to prohibit state courts from considering or using international law or Sharia law. (Ballot language.) Titled by the legislature the "Save Our State Amendment" (full text of HJR 1056), the proposed amendment reads: The courts provided for in subsection A of this section, when exercising their judicial authority, shall uphold and adhere to the law as provided in the United States Constitution, the Oklahoma Constitution, the United States Code, federal regulations promulgated pursuant thereto, established common law, the Oklahoma Statutes and rules promulgated pursuant thereto, and if necessary the law of another state of the United States provided the law of the other state does not include Sharia law, in making judicial decisions...

Amicus Briefs In Snyder v. Phelps Now Filed With Supreme Court

Posted on July 19, 2010
Last week, the remainder of the amicus briefs in Snyder v. Phelps were filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. (Links to Briefs from SCOTUS Wiki, plus additional amicus brief not linked there.) 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 violated their free speech rights...

Sweden's New Education Law Restricts Confessional Schools and Home Schooling

Posted on July 19, 2010
Yesterday's Washington Times reports that a new education law enacted in Sweden last month will limit both home schooling and religious practices in "Confessional schools." The aim of the new law is to make schools across Sweden more uniform in offering a comprehensive and objective education...

Recent Articles and Books of Interest

Posted on July 19, 2010
From SmartCILP & elsewhere:Michael L. Gompertz, Lawsuit Challenges Income Tax Preferences for Clergy, Tax Notes, July 5, 2010, pp. 81-94.Adam J. MacLeod, A Non-Fatal Collision: Interpreting RLUIPA Where Religious Land Uses and Community Interests Meet, [Abstract], 42 Urban Lawyer 41-93 (2010)...

Ministerial Exception Applied To Dismiss Prof's Racial Discrimination Claims

Posted on July 18, 2010
In Adams v. Indiana Wesleyan University, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71403 (ND Ind., July 15, 2010), an Indiana federal district court applied the ministerial exception to dismiss a Title VII racial discrimination claim filed against a religiously-sponsored university by a former faculty member...

Scholar's Report Outlines To Canadian Court The Harms of Polygamy

Posted on July 18, 2010
As previously reported, in the Canadian provice of British Columbia the attorney general is asking the B.C. Supreme Court to rule on whether the province's anti-polygamy law is consistent with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Today's Vancouver Sun reports that a 45-page research paper by Canadian scholar Joseph Henrich has been filed with the court...

Court Says Mother's Religious Practices Inadmissible In Custody Dispute

Posted on July 18, 2010
Applying the rule that "a parent's religious beliefs and practices may not be considered by the trial court as a basis to deprive [a] parent of custody unless there is a showing of actual harm to the health or welfare of the child," a Kansas appellate court, in a 2-1 decision, has rejected a Muslim father's objections to granting of residential custody to his son's mother because of her practices as a Jehovah's Witness...

Nevada Senate Candidate Sees Her Run As Religious Mission

Posted on July 18, 2010
Today's Las Vegas Sun describes the strong religious element in the U.S. Senate campaign of Republican Sharron Angle, who is seeking to unseat Senate majority leader Harry Reid. Angle has described her efforts as a calling from God. Angle also believes that religion should play a much more expansive role in government...

Anti-Abortion Picketers Rights Violated When Ordrered To Put Down Graphic Signs

Posted on July 18, 2010
In Lefemine v. Davis, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68725 (D SC, July 8, 2010), a South Carolina federal district court enjoined Greenwood County (SC) sheriff officials from imposing content-based restrictions on graphic anti-abortion depictions on signs carried by a Christian anti-abortion group...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on July 18, 2010
In Farrow v. Wrenn, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70813 (D NH, July 14, 2010), a New Hampshre federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendations (2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68507, June 9, 2010), and allowed a Native American inmate to proceed with official capacity claims asserting 1st Amendment and RLUIPA violations...

Sikh Temple Must Be Removed For Violation of Restrictive Covenant

Posted on July 17, 2010
In Bollier v. Austin Gurdwara Sahib, Inc., (TX App., July 9, 2010), a Texas appellate court held that building of a Sikh Temple violated a subdivision's restrictive covenant that limited land use to single family dwellings. The Temple originally operated from a mobile home, but a new $150,000 building was constructed after the trial court rejected a challenge to it...

India Party Leader To Appear On Charges of Depicting Herself As Goddess Durga

Posted on July 17, 2010
The Times of India today reports that a court in the city of Muzaffarpur has ordered India National Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi to appear on charges that she hurt religious sentiments by depicting herself as the goddess Durga on a party poster in 2007...

Bus Driver Sues After Being Fired For Refusing To Take Women To Planned Parenthood

Posted on July 17, 2010
Yesterday's Austin American-Statesman reports that a former bus driver has filed suit in federal court in Austin, Texas against the Capital Area Rural Transportation System claiming religious discrimination in employment. The bus system provides pickup on request for residents in rural areas...

DC Appellate Court Upholds Refusal To Allow Initiative On Defining Marriage

Posted on July 16, 2010
In Jackson v. District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics, (DC Ct. App., July 15, 2010), a D.C. appellate court, in a 5-4 decision, upheld the Board of Elections and Ethics refusal to accept a petition seeking an initiative vote on a proposed amendment to D...

Vatican Issues New Document on "Grave Delicts"

Posted on July 16, 2010
AP reports that the Vatican yesterday issued a new set of guidelines on handling of clergy sexual abuse claims and other "grave delicts." The document (full text) mostly codifies present practice. It extends the statute of limitations to 20 years, and provides for a possible extension beyond that on a case by case basis...

Group Calls For Painting To Be Removed From Show At Sacramento Law Library

Posted on July 16, 2010
The Sacramento (CA) Public Law Library is hosting an art show sponsored by California Lawyers for the Arts. According to today's Sacramento Bee, the 63-piece display, titled "A Creative Merger II: Justice and Peace," has generated complaints from the Pacific Justice Institute which says that a multi-media piece, "Moral Values", is anti-Christian...

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