Religion & Law

Texas Survey Shows Dissatisfaction With State School Board Curriculum Battles

Posted on July 15, 2010
Texas Freedom Network on Tuesday released the results of a state-wide survey conducted in May that showed most Texans want an end to the divisive curriculum battles that have been a part of the operations of the Texas State Board of Education. (See prior posting...

Court Rejects Religious Challenge To Social Security Numbers

Posted on July 15, 2010
In Hill v. Promise Hospital of Phoenix, Inc., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68884 (D AZ, July 7, 2010), an Arizona federal district court rejected plaintiff's complaints about federal laws that require him to provide a potential employer with a social security number...

Church Leader's Conviction For Simulating Legal Process Is Upheld

Posted on July 15, 2010
In Runningwolf v. State of Texas, (TX App., July 12, 2010), a Texas state appellate court upheld the conviction of Michael Runningwolf for "simulating legal process." Runningwolf, who headed a local church, delivered a document styled "Non-Statutory Abatement" to Helen Coleman who had been awarded custody of three children, one of whom was her grandchild and another of whom was a great nephew...

10th Circuit: Ministerial Exception Covers Hostile Work Environment and Equal Pay Act Claims

Posted on July 15, 2010
In Skrzypczak v. Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa, (10th Cir., July 13, 2010), the 10th Circuit applied the "ministerial exception" to dismiss gender and age discrimination claims brought by the director of the Department of Religious Formation of the Tulsa Diocese...

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Spainish Archbishop Says New Abortion Law Should Be Defied

Posted on July 14, 2010
In Spain, Catholic Archbishop Francisco Gil Hellin of Burgos has called for civil disobedience to defy the country's new abortion law that took effect this month. According to CNA yesterday, Hellin said in a letter: Let?s be clear: this law is not a law, although it is presented as such by some politicians and lawmakers...

Justice Department Sues To Enjoin Fraudulent Church Tax Scheme

Posted on July 14, 2010
The U.S. Department of Justice announced yesterday that it has filed suit to enjoin a Utah man from continuing to operate a church-based tax fraud scheme. The civil complaint (full text) in United States v. Hartshorn, (D UT, filed 7/12/2010) was filed against Kevin Hartshorn, head of the Church of Compassionate Service...

Israeli Police Arrest, Release, Women's Rights Leader For Allegedly Reading Torah At Western Wall

Posted on July 14, 2010
Monday's Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli police released Anat Hoffman, the head of the Women of the Wall prayer group, after she was taken into custody on charges of violating a High Court ruling barring women from reading the Torah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem...

French National Assembly Vote To Ban Burqa Anywhere In Public

Posted on July 14, 2010
The lower house of France's parliament, the National Assembly, yesterday passed a bill to outlaw the wearing of garments such as the niqab and burqa anywhere in public. BBC News reports that the ban on the full-face Islamic veil passed by a vote of 335-1 with with 221 members not voting...

Appeal To 9th Circuit Filed In Challenge To Religion At Community College

Posted on July 14, 2010
An appeal was filed with the 9th Circuit yesterday in Westphal v. Wagner, a federal lawsuit against California's South Orange County Community College District challenging the practice at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo of opening various sorts of official events-- some of them mandatory for students-- with prayers...

Prayer Over Co-Worker's Cubicle May Need To Be Accommodated Under Title VII

Posted on July 13, 2010
In Shatkin v. University of Texas at Arlington, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68500 (ND TX, July 9, 2010), a Texas federal district court refused to dismiss a suit by two former development office employees at the University of Texas who were fired for praying over a fellow-employee's cubicle, and rubbing olive oil on the employee's metal doorway, in an after work-hours ceremony...

Obama Statement Read At Srebrenica Genocide Commemoration

Posted on July 13, 2010
Last Sunday, the White House released a statement from President Obama (full text) marking the 15th anniversary of the genocide of 8000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys by Seb troops at Srebrenica. The President called the genocide "a stain on our collective conscience...

Suit Challenges Christian Prayer At Florida City Council Meetings

Posted on July 13, 2010
According to the Lakeland (FL) Ledger, Atheists of Florida yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Lakeland, challenging its practice of opening City Commission meetings with prayer. The complaint (full text) in Atheists of Florida, Inc...

Muslim Woman Sues NJ Hospital For Discrimination

Posted on July 13, 2010
WTVO News yesterday reported on a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by a New Jersey woman against the Somerset Medical Center in Somerville (NJ). Rona Mohammedi, a Muslim, came to the medical center in February with severe chest pains. When she was told she would need an electrocardiogram, for religious modesty requirements she asked for a woman to perform the test...

A Note To Religion Clause Readers

Posted on July 12, 2010
A wonderful thing about the blogosphere is that the physical location of blogger and readers is largely irrelevant. Nevertheless, a writer's geographical location can influence content in subtle ways. So I wanted to let Religion Clause readers know that I am now based in Atlanta, Georgia instead of Toledo, Ohio...

Russian Organizers of Offending Art Show Convicted, Fined

Posted on July 12, 2010
In Russia today, two organizers of the 2007 Forbidden Art exhibit at the Sakharov Museum in Moscow were found guilty "committing acts aimed at inciting national hatred and strife," according to reports by BBC News and the Moscow News. Designed to display works of art that had been banned from major museums in 2006, the exhibit included several paintings of Jesus...

Adjunct Prof of Catholic Thought Fired Over E-Mail On Homosexuality and Natural Law

Posted on July 12, 2010
Fox News reported Friday that the University of Illinois, Champaign, has fired an adjunct professor who taught courses on Introduction to Catholicism and Modern Catholic Thought because of an e-mail he sent to a student explaining the Catholic position on homosexuality...

Recent Articles Of Interest

Posted on July 12, 2010
From SSRN:David Gan-wing Cheng, Wisconsin v. Yoder: Respecting Children?s Rights and Why Yoder Would Soon Be Overturned, (July 7, 2010). Katherine Biber, Bad Holocaust Art, (Law Text, Vol.13, pp. 226-259, 2009).Samuel D. Brunson, Rethinking Public Charities and Political Speech, (Loyola University Chicago School of Law Research Paper No...

Court Rules National Episcopal Church Entitled To Property of Break-Away Georgia Parish

Posted on July 11, 2010
In Rector, Wardens and Vestrymen of Christ Church in Savannah v. Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia, Inc., (GA Ct. App., July 8, 2010), a Georgia appellate court, applying neutral principles of civil law, held that the National Episcopal Church is entitled to the property of a local parish (Savannah's Christ Church) that disaffiliated and joined the more conservative Anglican Church of North America...

Suit Challenges Georgia Ban On Concealed Carry of Guns In Churches

Posted on July 11, 2010
Yesterday's Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that a gun rights group, its president, a Thomsaston (GA) Baptist church and its minister have filed suit in state court challenging Georgia's ban on carrying concealed weapons in churches. The complaint (full text) in Georgiacarry...

Commercial Use of Part of Religious High School Not Protected By RLUIPA

Posted on July 11, 2010
In New Life Worship Center v. Town of Smithfield Zoning Board of Review, 2010 R.I. Super. LEXIS 101 (RI Super. Ct., July 7, 2010), a Rhode Island trial court upheld the decision of a town zoning board to bar use of space in a high school operated by New Life Worship Center, a religious organization, for use as a commercial fitness center and dance studio...

Economic Collusion Leads To Price Spike In Saudi Arabia Before Ramadan

Posted on July 11, 2010
Ramadan begins this year on Aug. 10. Zawya today reports that in Saudi Arabia, where the weeks preceding the holy month are a high shopping season, prices on foodstuffs-- especially imports-- are increasing sharply because or collusion by two companies...

Prayer At South Carolina County Council Meetings Becomes Controversial

Posted on July 11, 2010
Today's Spartanburg, South Carolina Herald Journal reports on the controversy over prayer at Spartanburg County Council meetings. The Council's chaplain-- Jerry Clevenger, a Sheriff's Office employee-- usually closes invocations by invoking Jesus' name...

British Court Says Town Wrong In Suspending Foster Care License After Religious Conversion

Posted on July 11, 2010
In Britain, a High Court has forced the Council in the town of Gateshead to admit that it acted improperly in revoking the foster care license of a Christian woman. According to a release today by the Christian Institute, the Gateshead Council in 2008 deregistered the woman, who had been caring for foster children for ten years, preventing her from continuing to do so after a a 16-year old Muslim girl in her charge converted to Christianity...

Recent Prisoner Free Excercise Cases

Posted on July 11, 2010
In Penwell v. Holtgeerts, (9th Cir., July 7, 2010), the 9th Circuit remanded to the district court a claim that restrictions on an inmate's religious practice burdened his free exercise rights. The 9th Circuit had announced a new standard for determining this issue in another case subsequent to the district court's decision...

5th Circuit: Texas RFRA Supports Long Braids In School For Native American Boy

Posted on July 10, 2010
In A.A. v. Needville Independent School District, (5th Cir., July 9, 2010), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, held that the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act protects the right of a Native American kindergartner to wear his hair in two long braids...

Russian Art Museum Curators On Trial For Inciting Religious Hatred

Posted on July 09, 2010
In Russia, the trial of two curators of the Sakharov Museum is coming to an end, and defendants are facing a sentence of up to three years in prison on charges of inciting religious hatred. AP yesterday reported that the charges stem from a 2007 "Forbidden Art" exhibit designed to display works of art that had been banned from major museums in 2006...

Village May Not Charge For Legal Advice To Zoning Applicant

Posted on July 09, 2010
According to today's Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record, a New York state trial court judge has ruled that the village of South Blooming Grove (NY) may not charge a Hasidic Jewish group for legal advice given to it by the village's special counsel about the group's application for zoning approval for use of former resort property in the village...

29 State AG's File Amicus Brief Supporting National Day of Prayer

Posted on July 09, 2010
Yesterday, 29 state attorneys general joined together in filing an amicus brief (full text) with the 7th Circuit urging it to find that the National Day of Prayer does not violate the Establishment Clause. In a press release, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott who led the effort said that the district court decision striking down the Day of Prayer statute (see prior posting) also threatens Memorial Day because federal law requests the President to issue a proclamation each year calling on people to use the day to pray for peace...

New Louisiana Law Gives Churches Option To Permit Concealed Carry of Handguns

Posted on July 09, 2010
ABP reports that on July 6 Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed into law HB 1272 which repeals the total ban on carrying concealed handguns in churches and other houses of worship. Instead the new law which will take effect next month permits congregations to authorize those who hold valid concealed carry permits to bring their weapons into the church, synagogue or mosque...

Author Argues That Advocacy For Gay Rights Is A Religious Issue

Posted on July 09, 2010
While most of the public discussion of gay rights by religious leaders has come from those who believe the expansion of rights for same-sex couples threaten their religious liberty to oppose homosexual conduct, in the current issue of Tikkun Magazine, Jay Michaelson argues that support of LGBT rights is a religious mandate...

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