Religion & Law

Taxpayers Have Standing To Challenge TVPA Grant To Catholic Bishops

Posted on April 01, 2010
In ACLU of Massachusetts v. Sebelius, (D MA, March 22, 2010), a Massachusetts federal district court held that taxpayers have standing to challenge a grant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. USCCP made grants to subcontractors, and specified in all of them that no referrals could be made for abortion services of contraceptive materials...

Israel's Supreme Court Says Muslim Prisoners Not Entitled To Bread During Passover

Posted on April 01, 2010
According to YNet News, last week a 3-judge panel of Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the government is not obligated to serve Muslim prison inmates fresh bread during Passover. In a 2-1 decision, the court ruled that for both practical and religious reasons, serving of leavened products in prison facilities where both Jewish and Arab prisoners live together is not required during Passover...

10th Circuit: No State RFRA Claim For Objectionable Autopsy

Posted on March 31, 2010
In Ross v. Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico, (10th Cir., March 23, 2010), the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to permit family members to sue under New Mexico?s Religious Freedom Restoration Act challenging an autopsy performed on a San Carlos Apache man that allegedly violate his religious beliefs...

Supreme Court Denies Cert. In Religious Music Case Over Alito Dissent

Posted on March 31, 2010
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in Nurre v. Whitehead, (Docket No. 09-671, March 22, 2010). In the case, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, held that school officials did not violate a student's free speech rights when they barred her from performing an instrumental version of Ave Maria at her Everett, Washington high school's graduation ceremony...

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Obama Announces Recess Appointments To EEOC

Posted on March 31, 2010
Last Saturday, the White House announced it intent to make 15 recess appointments to high level government positions. The nominations are currently stalled in the Senate. Four of the 15 are for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Jacqueline A...

New Head of al-Azhar Appointed In Egypt

Posted on March 21, 2010
Trade Arabia reports that on Friday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak appointed SheikhAhmed El-Tayeb as the head of al-Azhar to succeed Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi who died on March 10. (See prior posting.) Al-Azhar is Egypt's most prestigious institution of Islamic learning, and one of the preeminent centers of Sunni learning in the world...

House Committee Holds Hearing On Outreach To Muslim Communities To Foil Terrorism

Posted on March 21, 2010
On March 17, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security held hearings on Working with Communities to Disrupt Terror Plots. The full text of statements of the Chair and of six witnesses, as well as a video recording of the hearing, is available on the Committee's website...

Appeal Filed By Intervenors Challenging Consent Decree On Religion In Schools

Posted on March 21, 2010
The Pensacola (FL) News-Journal reports that an appeal has been filed with the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Minor Doe I v. School Board for Santa Rosa County, Florida. In the case, a federal district court in February rejected an attempt by the Christian Educators Association International, representing teachers, to intervene to seek a modification of a consent decree under which the Santa Rosa County school board was enjoined from various activities that promoted religion in school classrooms and at school events...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on March 21, 2010
In Clark v. Small, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23731 (SD CA, March 15, 2010), a California federal district court permitted an inmate to proceed with his claim that he was not permitted to celebrate Ramadan, but dismissed his equal protection and due process challenges...

Church Claims It Was Misled Into Not Applying For Tax Exemption

Posted on March 21, 2010
Knox News yesterday reported that a church in Knoxville, Tennessee is making an unusual argument in an attempt to avoid $53,000 in back taxes that it did not realize it owed. Tennessee law gives a church three years to apply for a property tax exemption when it replaces its previously exempt property with new property...

Church Synod Sued After Ordering Changes In College's Board

Posted on March 21, 2010
According to last Thursday's Christian Post, one lawsuit has been dropped, but a second is still pending after the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church removed the board of trustees and installed an interim board at Erskine College in Due West, South Carolina...

China Imposes New Financial Audit Rules On Religious Institutions

Posted on March 21, 2010
According to AsiaNews.it last week, China's State Religious Affairs Administration has issued new rules requiring all religious institutions to file audited annual financial reports. The agency said the rules are designed to help the government supervise finances and prevent embezzlement and misappropriation of funds from the country's 130,000 religious institutions...

Court Upholds Rights of Evangelists To Leaflet At Catholic Parish Festival

Posted on March 21, 2010
Teesdale v. City of Chicago, (ND IL, March 17, 2010), is a suit by Garfield Ridge Baptist Church and five of its members who were prevented by police acting as security guards from handing out religious tracts, and from using a megaphone, at a Festival being held (with a city permit) by a Catholic parish on parish grounds and surrounding streets...

RELIGION CLAUSE WILL BE ON A TEN DAY PUBLICATION BREAK

Posted on March 21, 2010
Dear Readers--Religion Clause will be on a ten day publication break. Please rejoin me beginning April 1. Thanks for your continued readership and I look forward to seeing you when new postings resume.Howard Friedman

Pope Sends Pastoral Letter To Irish Catholics Addressing Clergy Sexual Abuse

Posted on March 20, 2010
Vatican Radio reports that Pope Benedict XVI today sent a Pastor Letter to all Catholics in Ireland apologizing for the sexual abuse of young people by Catholic clergy, and for the way in which the matter was handled by local clergy and religious superiors...

Suit Over School Rules That Banned Pro-Life T-Shirt Is Settled

Posted on March 19, 2010
Alliance Defense Fund on Wednesday announced the settlement of a lawsuit challenging the policies of a Pennsylvania school district under which a middle school student was told to remove a pro-life T-shirt which carried the message: "Abortion is not Healthcare...

Council Considering Policy on Proclamations for Religious Holidays

Posted on March 19, 2010
In North Miami Beach, Florida, city council's multicultural committee submitted recommendations Tuesday for a council policy on issuing proclamations recognizing religious holidays. Yesterday's Miami Herald reports that under the proposal, council would issue an official proclamation for only one holiday for each religion...

Belgian Court Suspends Ban On Islamic Headscarves

Posted on March 19, 2010
Yesterday, Belgium's Council of State suspended a ban on Islamic headscarves that had been imposed on Muslim school girls in the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders. Earth Times reports that the Flanders regional educational council imposed the ban last year after teachers complained that some parents were forcing their daughters to wear the headscarves against their will...

EEOC Gets Consent Decree In Suit Charging Anti-Semitic Harassment

Posted on March 19, 2010
On Wednesday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the filing of a consent decree in a lawsuit against Administaff, a company that provides human resource services for small and medium size businesses. The company will pay $115,000 in damages to settle allegations that two brothers employed by the company were subjected to harsh anti-Semitic harassment by managers and co-workers...

Episcopal Church Wins Title To Property of Break-Away Connectiuct Parish

Posted on March 19, 2010
A Connecticut trial court ruled this week that the real and personal property of Bishop Seabury Episcopal Church in Groton, Connecticut, belongs to the Diocese of Connecticut and the Episcopal Church. Episcopal Life reports on the March 15 decision. In 2007, the congregation's former rector and some parish members broke away from the Episcopal Church and affiliated with the more conservative Convocation of Anglicans in North America.

Quebec Presses Government-Funded Day Cares To Be Secular

Posted on March 19, 2010
Wednesday's Canadian Jewish News reports on the confusion in the province of Quebec over a new ban on teaching of religion at publicly funded day cares for young children. Pressed by Parti Québécois, Quebec Families Minister Tony Tomassi's issued a statement on March 10 requiring day cares to be secular...

Court Rejects Street Preachers' Challenge To Permit Ordinance

Posted on March 19, 2010
In Bethel v. City of Montgomery, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24949 (MD AL, March 2, 2010), two street preachers challenged the requirement imposed by Montgomery, Alabama that they obtain a permit before preaching on public streets. A federal magistrate judge rejected their facial challenge to the ordinance, concluding it is a neutral time, place and manner restriction that is permissible under the First Amendment...

Catholic Bishops, Nuns Split Over Health Care Bill

Posted on March 18, 2010
Groups within the Catholic Church in the United States have taken sharply opposing views on pending health care legislation. Yesterday's Boston Globe called the split between U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and leaders of the major Catholic women's religious orders "a rare public disagreement that will reverberate among the nation's 70 million Catholics...

Britiain Moves To Strengthen Voice of Faith-Based Groups In Government

Posted on March 18, 2010
In Britain, Communities Secretary John Denham yesterday announced a series of steps to help faith groups have their voices heard by government. The Department of Communities and Local Government has set up a £1 million Faith Leadership in Government Fund...

Senate Defeats Attempt To Reauthorize D.C. School Voucher Program

Posted on March 18, 2010
Yesterday, by a vote of 42-55, the U.S. Senate defeated an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration bill that would have reauthorized the District of Columbia's Opportunity Scholarship program. The amendment was proposed by Sen. Joseph Lieberman...

Priest's Salary Claim Dismissed As Requiring Interpretation of Canon Law

Posted on March 18, 2010
In Tarasi v. Jugis, (NC Ct. App., March 16, 2010), a North Carolina appellate court dismissed a claim by a Catholic priest that his Bishop violated the state's Wage and Hour Act by refusing to assign him to a congregation or pay him a salary, despite a direction from the Vatican to do so...

Jewish Groups Want Title VI Interpreted To Cover Anti-Semitic Harassment of Students

Posted on March 18, 2010
Thirteen national Jewish organizations yesterday wrote to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan urging the Department's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) to interpret Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitic harassment...

British Court Orders Commission To Consider Exemption For Catholic Adoption Agency

Posted on March 18, 2010
In Britain, Catholic Care, a Catholic adoption agency operating in South Yorkshire has won an appeal of a Charity Commission's refusal to grant it an exemption from the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007. Yesterday's Yorkshire Post reports that a High Court judge sitting in London has ordered the Charity Commission to review its determination...

9th Circuit Defines Ministerial Exception For Employment Cases

Posted on March 17, 2010
In Alcazar v. Corporation of the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle, (9th Cir., March 16, 2010), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed under the "ministerial exception" doctrine claims by two Catholic seminarians who alleged violations of Washington state's Minimum Wage Law...

Amicus and Party Briefs In Christian Legal Society Case All Now Available Online

Posted on March 17, 2010
All of the amicus briefs, as well as the briefs of the parties, have now been filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in Christian Legal Society Chapter v. Martinez. The full text of all the briefs are available online from the ABA's website: 22 amicus briefs support Petitioner; 12 support Respondent; and one is in support of neither party...

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