Religion & Law

Bankruptcy Court Awards Damages For Violation of Stay Through Rabbinical Court Proceedings

Posted on April 19, 2010
In In re Pachman, (SDNY Bkrptcy., April 14, 2010), a federal bankruptcy court awarded damages of $15,311, representing the debtor's attorneys' fees and costs, against a creditor who had been found to have violated the Bankruptcy Code's automatic stay on enforcement of claims...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on April 19, 2010
From SSRN: Ruthann Robson, Sexual Justice, Student Scholarship and the So-Called Seven Sins, (Law and Sexuality, Vol. 19, p. 31, 2010).Liav Orgad, Creating New Americans: The Essence of Americanism under the Citizenship Test, (Houston Law Review, Vol...

Supreme Court Hears Arguments In Christian Legal Society's Clash With Hastings' Discrimination Rules -- [Updated With Link To Transcript]

Posted on April 19, 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court this morning heard oral arguments in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. In the case, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the right of University of California's Hastings College of Law to impose its policy against discrimination on the basis of religion and sexual orientation on a student religious group seeking formal recognition...

Free Exercise Objection To Cellular Tower Rejected By Court

Posted on April 18, 2010
In Jaeger v. Connecticut Siting Council, 2010 Conn. Super. LEXIS 611 (CT Superior Ct., March 15, 2010), a Connecticut trial court held that plaintiff lacked standing to intervene to object to the issuance of a certificate of environmental compatibility for the construction of a cellular tower in Canaan, Connecticut...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Article Profiles Lawyer Chosen By Vatican To Defend U.S. Abuse Suits Against It

Posted on April 18, 2010
The Associated Press yesterday reported on its exclusive interview with California lawyer Jeffrey Lena who is being increasingly called upon by the Vatican to be its spokesman and strategist to defend clergy abuse suits filed against the Holy See in U...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on April 18, 2010
In Hassan v. Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35176 (D AZ, March 9, 2010), an Arizona federal district court permitted an inmate to move ahead with his claim that his free exercise rights were infringed when, in response to demonstrations, officials barred the Muslim chaplain from coming to the jail to lead services...

Goldstone Will Not Attend Grandson's Bar Mitzvah In South Africa After Demonstrations Threatened

Posted on April 18, 2010
On Friday, both the New York Times and the South African Jewish Report carried articles on the pressure being placed on South African jurist Richard Goldstone that has led him to decide not to attend his grandson's Bar Mitzvah next month in the Johannesburg suburb of Sandton...

Suit Challenges Exclusion of Sectarian Groups From State Employee Charitable Campaign

Posted on April 17, 2010
Earlier this week, the Montana Family Foundation filed suit in federal district court challenging its exclusion from the Montana State Employees' Charitable Giving Campaign. The complaint (full text) in Montana Family Foundation v. Stoll, (D MT, filed 4/15/2010), alleges that MFF's application to become one of the numerous non-profit groups eligible to receive charitable contributions from state employees was rejected because eligible organizations may not have sectarian activities as their primary focus...

Religion Clause Blog Is 5 Years Old Today

Posted on April 17, 2010
Today is Religion Clause's 5th birthday. Thank you to all the readers who have been on board for many years and to the many new readers who have joined us recently as well. All of you have contributed to the success of Religion Clause. As I look back at postings five years ago, it calls to mind the French proverb: Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose...

Father's Religious Freedom Trumped By State's Interest In Protection of His Children

Posted on April 16, 2010
In Thorne v. Arkansas Department of Human Services, (AR Ct. App., April 14, 2010), an Arkansas appellate court upheld the November 2008 removal of three children from the Tony Alamo Ministry compound in Fouke, Arkansas. The trial court had conditioned the return of the children to their father on his obtaining both housing and employment separate and apart from the Tony Alamo Ministries...

Foster Care Agency Charged With Religious Discrimination

Posted on April 16, 2010
A Muslim woman, with the help of the ACLU of Maryland, has filed a complaint with the Baltimore City Community Relations Commission charging that a state-licensed agency refused her application to house foster children because she will not serve pork products in her home...

Rights Group Charges Exploitation of Beggar Children By Senegal's Quranic Teachers

Posted on April 16, 2010
Human Rights Watch yesterday issued a 114-page report titled Off the Backs of the Children: Forced Begging and Other Abuses against Talibés in Senegal. [Links to full text and summary.] It charges that in the African nation of Senegal, over 50,000 boys, many under the age of 12, are forced to beg on the streets every day by brutal religious teachers, known as marabouts...

NASA Employee Sues For Religious Discrimination After Demotion For Pushing Intelligent Design

Posted on April 16, 2010
According to a release issued yesterday by the Discovery Institute, an employee at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has filed suit in a California state court claiming religious discrimination, harassment and retaliation; wrongful demotion; and infringement of free speech rights...

Presidential Memo Expands Non-Family Members' Visitation and Surrogate Health Care Rights

Posted on April 16, 2010
The President yesterday issued a Memorandum (full text) to the Secretary of Health and Human Services aimed at assuring that hospital patients have the right to designate visitors and surrogate decision-makers other than immediate relatives. While the action is aimed primarily at problems faced by gays and lesbians, the President framed the issue in broader terms:Often, a widow or widower with no children is denied the support and comfort of a good friend...

Court Says Muslim Did Not Prove Employment Discrimination, But Can Proceed on Other Claims

Posted on April 16, 2010
In Awad v. National City Bank, (ND OH, April 15, 2010), an Ohio federal district court dismissed claims of religious, racial and national origin discrimination brought by Muslim, Arabic, Palestinian bank employee who was eventually fired. The court concluded that the bank had non-discriminatory reasons for the actions it took...

National Day of Prayer Declared Unconstitutional

Posted on April 16, 2010
In an important decision yesterday, a Wisconsin federal district court held that the federal statute which designates the first Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer violates the Establishment Clause. In Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. v...

Kyrgyzstan's New Government Seeks To Liberalize 2009 Religion Law

Posted on April 16, 2010
The Washington Post reported today that with the overthrow of Kyrgyzstan's president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, interim leader Roza Otunbayeva says her new government is working on a new constitution that will set up a parliamentary democracy. Religious groups in the country are wondering if this will mean a backing off from the restrictive Religion Law passed last year by the Bakiyev government...

Magazine Explores Hipsters Intrusions Into Insular Hasidic Community

Posted on April 15, 2010
This week's New York Magazine carries an interesting article titled Clash of the Bearded Ones: Hipsters, Hasids and the Williamsburg Street. The lengthy article focuses on Williamsburg's Bedford Avenue bike lane as a symbol of the intrusion of modern hipsters into the insular New York Jewish enclave of Satmar Hasidim...

New "Church Project" Aims At Protecting Churches From Government Intrusion

Posted on April 15, 2010
Alliance Defense Fund yesterday announced its new "Church Project," an effort to "protect churches from excessive and unconstitutional government intrusion prohibited by the First Amendment." Kevin Theriot, who heads the Project, said: "Historically, the Church has been the moral and cultural conscience of the nation...

Suit Challenges School's Refusal To Permit Church Related Flyers

Posted on April 15, 2010
A federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday against the Pulaski County, Arkansas Special School District on behalf of an elementary school student who, along with her mother, was denied permission to distribute flyers inviting other students to a swimming event sponsored by plaintiff's church...

City Voters Approve Continuing Prayers To Open Council Meetings

Posted on April 15, 2010
On Tuesday, voters in Lancaster, California approved by a vote of more than 3-1 Nonbinding Measure I that calls for City Council to continue its present prayer policy. According to yesterday's Merced (CA) Sun-Star, the policy provides for clergy of different faiths to lead a prayer opening council meetings...

Milwaukee Reviewing Good Friday Closures

Posted on April 15, 2010
On Tuesday, the Freedom from Religion Foundation wrote Milwaukee (WI) Mayor Tom Barrett (full text of letter) complaining that the city acted unconstitutionally when it closed numerous city offices in observance of Good Friday. FFRF argued that the closures violate a 1996 federal district court ruling finding that Wisconsin's statute declaring Good Friday a legal holiday violates the Establishment Clause...

Virginia High Court Hears Oral Arguments In Episcopal Church Split

Posted on April 15, 2010
The Washington Times has extensive coverage of the oral arguments presented on Tuesday in the Virginia Supreme Court in In re: Multi-Circuit Episcopal Church Property Litigation. (See prior posting.) Three of the Court's 8 justices had recused themselves...

House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Anti-Semitism

Posted on April 15, 2010
Yesterday the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs held a hearing on Combating Anti-Semitism: Protecting Human Rights. (Witness list.) Here are links to the prepared statements presented at the hearing by Subcommittee Chair Russ Carnahan; Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Hannah Rosenthal; ADL Deputy National Director Kenneth Jacobson; AJ Committee Director of International Jewish Affairs, Rabbi Andrew Baker; Human Rights First CEO Elisa Massimino; and Simon Wiesenthal Center Associate Dean, Rabbi Abraham Cooper.

Court Rejects Establishment Clause Challenge To Housing Financing

Posted on April 14, 2010
In Glassman v. Arlington County, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35745 (ED VA, April 12, 2010), a Virginia federal district court rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to county financing arrangements with the First Baptist Church of Clarendon (FBCC) for construction of an affordable housing complex...

Student Paper Publishes Controversial Interview With Mike Huckabee

Posted on April 14, 2010
The College of New Jersey's student news magazine, The Perspective, last week reported on an interview with former Arkansas Governor and Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. In the interview, Huckabee took strong stands against same-sex civil unions as well as same-sex marriage, and expressed support for an Arkansas law that bars same-sex couples from adopting children or becoming foster parents...

New Source For Vatican Press Releases

Posted on April 14, 2010
A new source for news from the Vatican is now available. Vatican Information Service, the Holy See's Press Office, is making current and past news releases available in a blog format. VIS News is available in English, Spanish, Italian and French. According to Zenit yesterday, the new blog, which also links to the Vatican's Twitter and YouTube pages, not only features current news but has archived some 35,000 past Vatican news releases going back to 1999...

ABC Talks With Russian President About Religious Faith

Posted on April 14, 2010
ABC News yesterday reported on an extensive interview of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev by reporter George Stephanopoulos. Part of the interview focused on Medvedev's religious faith. ABC says: Medvedev is his own man in another significant way. Unlike many of his predecessors, this Russian leader has publicly declared his faith...

Dissolution Decree Lets Father Take Daughter To Church During Visitation Times

Posted on April 14, 2010
In a widely-followed divorce case, a Chicago trial judge yesterday as part of an opinion dissolving the marriage of Robert and Rebecca Reyes ruled that Robert can take their 3-year old daughter Ela to Catholic church services despite the objection of Rebecca...

Obama's Statement Marking Yom Hashoah Is Released

Posted on April 13, 2010
On Sunday, President Obama issued a statement (full text) marking Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah). The observance date corresponds to the anniversary, on the Hebrew calendar, of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. (Background.) This year the observance was held on April 12...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.