Religion & Law

Pakistan Ratifies Convention on Civil and Political Rights

Posted on June 04, 2010
Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari has signed the Instrument of Ratification for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention Against Torture, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan yesterday. The instruments of ratification will now be deposited with the United Nations...

Summum's Establishment Clause Claim Is Rejected

Posted on June 04, 2010
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a freedom of expression claim brought by Summum that was refused permission to put up a Seven Aphorism's monument in a park in Pleasant Grove City, Utah. The park already contained a number of other monuments, including the Ten Commandments...

Challenge To Agreement For Church Tent City Dismissed As Untimely

Posted on June 03, 2010
In Mercer Island Citizens for Fair Process v. Tent City 4, (WA App., June 1, 2010), a Washington state appellate court dismissed as untimely challenges to a decision by the Mercer Island City Council to to enter a Temporary Use Agreement permitting the Mercer Island United Methodist Church to host a temporary encampment for the homeless in 2008...

Russian Taxi Company Caters To Orthodox Christians

Posted on June 03, 2010
In Russia, some are criticizing a new taxi cab company in Moscow that caters to Orthodox Christian believers. Today's Moscow Times reports that Moskovskaya Troika which began on Palm Sunday now operates 50 privately owned taxis driven by devout Russian Orthodox believers...

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House Hearing Explores Impact of Money Laundering Rules On Legitimate Charities

Posted on June 03, 2010
On May 26, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on "Anti-Money Laundering: Blocking Terrorist Financing and Its Impact on Lawful Charities." (Links to prepared testimony and webcast of hearing...

Supreme Court: Miranda Rights Waived In Answers About Religious Belief and Prayer

Posted on June 03, 2010
Earlier this week in Berghuis v. Thompkins, (Sup. Ct., June 1, 2010), the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision made it easier for police to obtain a waiver of Miranda rights by suspects being questioned. The majority opinion, written by Justice Kennedy, held that police can continue questioning a suspect until he clearly invokes his right to remain silent...

Catholic Military Archbishop Issues Statement Opposing Repeal of "Don't Ask/ Don't Tell"

Posted on June 03, 2010
Congress moves closer to enacting a repeal of the military's "Don't Ask/ Don't Tell" policy that precludes service by openly gay and lesbian recruits. (Fox News, 5/28). Catholic Online today reprints a statement from Catholic Archbishop Timothy Broglio, Archbishop for the Military Services in the United States of America, opposing repeal of the current policy...

Presidential Proclamation Declares LGBT Pride Month; Conservative Christians Object

Posted on June 03, 2010
Last week, President Barack Obama issued a Proclamation (full text) declaring June 2010 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. According to Baptist Press yesterday, critics, such as Southern Baptist spokesman Bob Stith, charge that the Proclamation marginalizes the beliefs of conservative Christians...

Preliminary Injunction Sought In Challenge To Santa Rosa County Consent Decree

Posted on June 02, 2010
This past week end, Liberty Counsel filed a motion for a preliminary injunction (full text) in Allen v. School Board for Santa Rosa County, Florida, (ND FL, filed 5/30/2010). The lawsuit, filed last month, seeks to enjoin the Santa Rosa school board and superintendent from enforcing a consent decree they entered last year barring various religious practices in the schools...

Another Lawsuit In Battle Between Neighboring Hasidic Synagogues

Posted on June 02, 2010
The long-running battle between two Hasidic synagogues in the town of Kiryas Joel, New York, has generated yet another lawsuit. Opponents of the village's chief rabbi had for 25 years been using the former living quarters of the chief rabbi (next to the main synagogue) as their own place of worship, operating under the name Bais Yoel Ohel Feige...

Ahmadi Spokesman Says Pakistan Must Repeal Its Blasphemy Laws; USCIRF Agrees

Posted on June 02, 2010
Yesterday's Washington Post carries an op-ed by Nasim Rehmatullah, National Vice President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, USA, decrying the terror campaign in Pakistan against Ahmadis. Last week an extremist attack against two Ahmadi mosques killed at least 80 people...

Court Issues TRO So Boy Can Wear Rosary To School

Posted on June 02, 2010
As it had previously threatened to do (see prior posting), yesterday the American Center for Law & Justice filed suit in a New York federal district court on behalf of a 13-year old middle school student in Schenectady, New York who was suspended for wearing a rosary outside his shirt to school...

Afghanistan Suspends Operations of Two NGO's on Proselytizing Charges

Posted on June 02, 2010
In Afghanistan, the government has ordered two NGO's-- Norwegian Church Aid and Church World Service-- to temporarily suspend their activities while charges that they proselytized Muslims are investigated by the National Security and Interior Ministries...

Massachusetts Towns Taxing Closed Catholic Churches

Posted on June 01, 2010
Yesterday's Boston Globe reported that nine cities and towns around Massachusetts have forced the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to pay property taxes on closed churches, schools, convents, and parish halls. Tax assessors say that church property is exempt only if it is being actively used by the owner for religious purposes...

Australian State's Proposed New Curriculum Includes Creationism In History Course

Posted on June 01, 2010
In the Australian state of Queensland, a draft national curriculum scheduled to be introduced next year includes teaching about the controversy over creationism as part of the ancient history course. The Port Melbourne Herald Sun reported Sunday reports that the curriculum asks students to develop their historical skills in an "investigation of a controversial issue" such as "human origins (eg, Darwin's theory of evolution and its critics)...

Pope Details Apostolic Visitation For Ireland To Focus On Sexual Abuse

Posted on June 01, 2010
Zenit reported yesterday on a Vatican Statement (full text) setting out the details of an Apostolic Visitation of certain dioceses, seminaries and religious congregations in Ireland this Fall. The Visitation is a further Vatican response (see prior posting) to a massive report issued by an Irish Commission last year on child abuse at Catholic institutions in Ireland from 1936 to the present...

Court Enjoins Holding of Public School Commencement At Christian Chuch

Posted on June 01, 2010
In Does 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 v. Enfield Public Schools, (D CT, May 31, 2010), a Connecticut federal district court issued a preliminary injunction barring Enfield Public Schools from holding 2010 graduation ceremonies for two high schools at First Cathedral, a Christian church in Bloomfield, CT...

Group Seeks To Place Christian Conservatives On California Lower Courts

Posted on May 31, 2010
Yesterday's Los Angeles Times reported on an unusual campaign to unseat four San Diego (CA) trial court judges in the June 8 primary. A group calling itself "Better Courts Now" is endorsing four Christian conservative candidates for Superior Court judgeships, saying it is attempting to unify the "moral vote" and make judges accountable...

Presidential Proclamation and Address Mark Memorial Day

Posted on May 31, 2010
As the country marks Memorial Day, the Presidential Proclamation (full text) proclaiming this year's observance reminds Americans of both the legal and religious foundations for the day: This Memorial Day, we express our deepest appreciation to the men and women in uniform who gave their last full measure of devotion so we might live in freedom...

Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court Overrules Coptic Church On Remarriage Rights

Posted on May 31, 2010
Reuters and Al-Masry Al-Youm both report on a decision handed down by Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court on Saturday which undermines the Coptic Church's control over marriages of Christians. In an appeal by Coptic leader Pope Shenouda from a lower court decision, the Supreme Administrative Court ordered the Coptic Church to permit men in two separate cases to remarry after their divorces even though the remarriage was not permitted under Coptic Christian religious law...

Maldivian Shocks Audience By Annnouncing He Is Not Muslim; Some Call For Death Sentence

Posted on May 31, 2010
The Maldives Constitution, Sec. 9, limits citizenship to Muslims. Minivan News reported yesterday that 37-year old Mohamed Nazim shocked an audience during a question and answer period at a lecture Friday on "Misconceptions About Islam" delivered by a visiting Indian scholar...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on May 31, 2010
From SSRN:Michael J. Perry, Michael J., From Religious Freedom to Moral Freedom, (Religion and Human Rights, John Witte Jr. & M. Christian Green, eds., Oxford University Press, Forthcoming).Neil W. Netanel & David Nimmer, Is Copyright Property? The Debate in Jewish Law, (Theoretical Inquiries in Law, Vol...

Rahm Emanuel's Son Has Bar Mitzvah In Israel Amidst Lawsuits

Posted on May 31, 2010
In Israel, court battles surrounded the Bar Mitzvah ceremony of Zach Emanuel, son of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, along with the Bar Mitzvah of Zach's cousin Noah. As previously reported, right-wing activists who oppose President Obama's treatment of Israel threatened to protest the Bar Mitzvah if it was held at the Western Wall...

Quebec Seeks To Close Jewish School For Slighting Secular Curriculum

Posted on May 30, 2010
Yesterday's Montreal Gazette reports on a lawsuit filed last month by the Canadian province of Quebec against a 50-year old Orthodox Jewish school in Montreal seeking to close it down. In the suit filed in Quebec Superior Court, the province's Education Department alleges that Academie Yeshiva Toras Moshe does not spend sufficient time on non-religious subjects to meet the province's requirements...

Court Dismisses Action Against Diocese For Negligent Hiring and Supervision of Priest

Posted on May 30, 2010
In Redwing v. Catholic Bishop for Diocese of Memphis, (TN App., May 27, 2010), the Tennessee Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, dismissed a damage action against the Catholic Diocese of Memphis alleging that it was liable in damages for negligent hiring, retention and supervision of a priest who allegedly sexually abused plaintiff as a child over 30 years ago...

Bangladesh Follows Pakistan In Temporary Ban On Facebook

Posted on May 30, 2010
BBC News reports today that Bangladesh has become the second country to block its residents' access to Facebook because of Facebook pages that carry drawings of the prophet Muhammad. Pakistan blocked access, at least temporarily, last week. (See prior posting...

Saudi Ministry Discourages Burials In Mecca and Medina

Posted on May 30, 2010
Zawya reported yesterday that Saudi Arabia's interior ministry has recently issued a circular discouraging Muslims from shipping bodies to the holy cities of Mecca or Medina for burial. The ministry said that Islamic law instead requires burial without delay where a person dies...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on May 30, 2010
In Nelson v. Hubbard, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50549 (ED CA, April 27, 2010), a California federal magistrate judge dismissed with leave to amend an inmate's claim that he was restricted from practicing his religion, Asatru.In Russell v. City of Philadelphia, 2010 U...

President Hosts White House Reception For Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted on May 29, 2010
On Thursday, President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and First Lady Michelle Obama hosted the first ever White House reception to mark Jewish American Heritage Month. (Video.) In his remarks (full text) the President said in part: As a product of history and faith, Jewish Americans have helped to open our eyes to injustice, to people in need, and to the simple idea that we ought to recognize ourselves in the struggles of our fellow men and women...

Russian Duma Adopts New Christian National Holiday; Other Groups Want Similar Treatment

Posted on May 29, 2010
According to Eurasia Review, on Wednesday the Russian Duma gave final approval to a law that recognizes the Day of the Baptism of Rus (July 28) as a public holiday. The new law amends Art. 1.1 of the law "On Days of Glory and Anniversaries of Russia" and adds the new holiday to eight others...

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