Religion & Law

Court Rejects Appeal, Decrying Trial Tactics, In Dispute Over Sikh Temple Board

Posted on March 17, 2010
Brar v. Sedey, (TX App., March 15, 2010), is a lawsuit in which Jasdeep Singh, a member of the board of directors of a non-profit corporation that operates a Sikh Temple, was removed from the board by a vote of fellow board members. Singh sued claiming his removal violated the Temple's bylaws...

Suit Charges Wrongful Prosecution For Use of Annointing Oil In Courtroom

Posted on March 17, 2010
In Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, John C. Ridgeway has filed a lawsuit in state court against local police and prosecutors charging wrongful imprisonment, malicious prosecution, abuse of process and violation of First Amendment speech, free exercise and assembly rights...

Morocco Deports Foreigners Living At Orphanage For Christian Proselytizing

Posted on March 17, 2010
Yesterday's Los Angeles Times reports that 16 foreign nationals who were part of the Village of Hope orphanage in the town of Ain Leuh were deported from Morocco last week for proselytizing. Apparently the charges were filed in part because the children at Village of Hope were reading Bible stories from a children's Bible...

Free Exercise Claims of Muslim Parents Against Police Officials Dismissed

Posted on March 17, 2010
In Syed v. Hamady, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23353 (ND IN, March 12, 2010), and Indiana federal district court dismissed claims by a Muslim couple against a police officer and a sheriff who they claimed violated their rights to free exercise of religion, free expression and freedom of assembly...

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Ireland To Hold Referendum On Blasphemy Provision In Constitution

Posted on March 16, 2010
Ireland's Justice Minister announced Sunday that the country will hold a referendum this fall on removing a blasphemy ban from the Constitution. Yesterday's London Guardian reports that the advocacy group Atheist Ireland particularly welcomed the announcement...

Town Will Change Law To Permit Small Churches To Meet In Residences

Posted on March 16, 2010
Responding to an appeal (full text) filed by the Alliance Defense Fund with the Board of Adjustment, the Gilbert, Arizona Town Council announced yesterday that it will move quickly to change the town's zoning code to permit small church groups to meet in individual homes...

New Briefing Urges End To Bishops In House of Lords

Posted on March 16, 2010
The British Humanist Association yesterday released a new briefing paper titled Religious Representatives in the House of Lords. It argues: The presence of Church of England in the House of Lords entrenches a privileged position for one particular branch of one particular religion that cannot be justified in today?s society, which is not only multi-faith but increasingly nonreligious...

Swiss Muslims To Sue To Obtain Separate Cemeteries

Posted on March 16, 2010
World Radio Switzerland reported yesterday that the Conference of Islamic Organizations of Switzerland is planning to sue to require all Swiss cantons to create separate Muslim cemeteries. The move comes after a suburb of Bern refused to create a separate burial ground as require by Islamic law...

Israel Passes Civil Union Bill For Those With No Recognized Religion

Posted on March 16, 2010
Under Israeli law, marriage is handled by religious authorities of each recognized religious community-- Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Druze. Israel has had no civil marriage, though civil marriages performed in other countries are recognized. (Background...

Two Religious Land Use Disputes In Northern New Jersey

Posted on March 16, 2010
In northern New Jersey, one land use dispute was settled while a lawsuit was filed in another. In Englewood (NJ), two lawsuits between the town and a neighborhood group over expansion of East Hill Synagogue and the synagogue's use of tents for events on its property have been settled...

Boiler Plate AG Endorsement of Church Property Sale Found Insufficient

Posted on March 15, 2010
A New York trial court has rejected the apparently routine method by which the state Attorney General's office gives its statutorily required consent to the sale of real property by non-profit religious corporations. The New York Religious Corporations Law, Sec...

Samoa To Look Into Freedom of Religion

Posted on March 15, 2010
Radio New Zealand reported yesterday that the government of Samoa has approved creating a Commission of Inquiry to review freedom of religion. The Cabinet set up the Commission because of concern that new religions advocating beliefs contrary to Christianity may arrive in the country.

Some Non-Muslims Use Britain's Muslim Arbitration Tribunal

Posted on March 15, 2010
Yesterday's London Times reports that 20 non-Muslims used Britain's Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT) to resolve their legal disputes last year. This is a 15% increase over the prior year. The MAT operates under Britain's Arbitration Act. Meanwhile, the One Law for All Campaign has 22,000 signatures on a petition in opposition to religious tribunals of any sort operating in Britain.

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on March 15, 2010
From SSRN:Alice Ristroph & Melissa E. Murray, Disestablishing the Family, (Yale Law Journal, Forthcoming).Noa Ben-Asher, Legal Holes, (Ubound, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2009).Olatunde C. Johnson, The Story of Bob Jones University v. United States: Race, Religion, and Congress? Extraordinary Acquiescence, (February 12, 2010)...

Anti-Semitic Handbills Attack Jewish Legislators Who Support Gun Control

Posted on March 14, 2010
Today's Baltimore Sun reports on anti-Semitic handbills available on the website of the organization Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO). Three of the 39 handbills available from the website attack Jewish legislators-- state and federal-- for their support of firearms regulation...

EEOC Sues Company On Behalf of Fired Mennonite Baptist Employee

Posted on March 14, 2010
The EEOC announced on Thursday that it has filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against the Pollard Agency, an Alabama-based security company. The company fired Marian Lawson who had been assigned to a client in Monticello, Ga. Pollard refused to accommodate her request that she be permitted to cover her hair with a scarf in accordance with her Mennonite Baptist beliefs.

Religious Group Lacks Standing To Sue For-Profit Board For Breach of Duty

Posted on March 14, 2010
The Eugene, Oregon Register-Guard reported yesterday on a state trial court decision denying standing to the religious non-profit organization Sikh Dharma International in its lawsuit against the head of the for-profit natural foods company, Golden Temple, and three members of the Unto Infinity board...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on March 14, 2010
In Redd v. Wright, (2d Cir., March 9, 2010), the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the granting of qualified immunity to prison officials who placed a "TB hold" (cell lock down) on an inmate after he refused on religious grounds to submit to a TB test...

San Joaquin Episcopal Diocese Sues To Recover Property of Another Parish

Posted on March 14, 2010
The reorganized continuing Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, California, continues to file lawsuits to reclaim property of break-away parishes. Episcopal Life reported on Friday that the diocese has filed suit in state court against St. Columba's Church in Fresno, one of the 40 congregations that broke away to affiliate with the more conservative Province of the Southern Cone...

D.C. Catholic Charities Requires New Hires To Support Church Tenets

Posted on March 14, 2010
Yesterday's Washington Post reports that Washington, D.C.'s Catholic Charities has begun to require newly hired employees to sign a letter promising that they will not "violate the principles or tenets" of the Catholic Church. A spokesman says this is consistent with the organization's past policies...

Oklahoma Senate Passes Bill Rejecting Cooperation With Feds On Intimidation Investigations

Posted on March 13, 2010
The Oklahoma state Senate earlier this week passed by a vote of 39-6 Senate Bill 1965 [Word doc.] which is designed to prevent Oklahoma law enforcement officials from cooperating with federal agencies that attempt to prosecute individuals under 18 USC Sec...

EEOC Says New York City Discriminated Against Arabic Language School Principal

Posted on March 13, 2010
According to today's New York Times, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has concluded that New York City's Department of Education (DOE) discriminated against the founding principal of a controversial Arabic-language public school when it fired her...

Argentine Court Invalidates Marriage of Same-Sex Couple

Posted on March 13, 2010
According to a CNA report this week, a federal judge in Argentina has nullified the same-sex marriage of two men that was performed at Buenos Aires' Civil Registry earlier this month. The court ruled that the marriage was invalid "because of the absence of the institution's structural elements...

Court Says Non-Custodial Parent May Share Religion With Child

Posted on March 13, 2010
In D.R.S. v. L.E.K., (LA App., March 10, 2010), a Louisiana state appellate court held that a parent holding court-awarded custody of a child generally may not shield the child from exposure to the non-custodial parent's religious beliefs. The court said: Though the custodial or domiciliary parent may raise the child in a legitimate religion of his/her own choosing, that parent may not force that religion or religious affiliation upon the noncustodial parent or preclude the noncustodial parent from pursuing his/her own religious affiliation and sharing same with the child provided doing so does not negatively affect the best interests of the child...

Texas State Board Rejects Teaching About Establishment Clause

Posted on March 12, 2010
The Texas State Board of Education is meeting this week to debate the social studies standards for Texas schools. (Dallas Morning News.) In a surprise decision yesterday, the Board defeated by a 10-5 party line vote a proposal by Democratic member Mavis Knight that government classes teach about the Establishment Clause...

Indiana Valedictorian Sues To Stop Graduation Prayer

Posted on March 12, 2010
The valedictorian at Greenwood High School in suburban Indianapolis, Indiana has sued to enjoin a planned prayer at this year's graduation ceremonies. Because of his class rank, plaintiff Eric Workman will likely be speaking at commencement. The complaint (full text) in Workman v...

State Department's 2009 Country Reports on Human Rights Released

Posted on March 12, 2010
The U.S. State Department yesterday released its 2009 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, covering conditions in 194 countries around the world. Among the issues of religious freedom highlighted in the report's Introduction are China's tightening controls on independent Muslim religious leaders, sectarian attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt, religious discrimination in Saudi Arabia, increasing anti-Semitism in Europe and South America, and discrimination against Muslims in some European countries...

Divided 9th Circuit Upholds Pledge Against Establishment Clause Challenge

Posted on March 12, 2010
In a 2-1 decision in Newdow v. Rio Linda Union School District, (9th Cir., March 11, 2010), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday upheld against an Establishment Clause challenge the Pledge of Allegiance, including its reference to God, and the statutorily authorized practice in the Rio Linda (CA) School District of teachers leading students in the pledge each day...

9th Circuit Rejects Challenge To "In God We Trust" On Coins and Currency

Posted on March 12, 2010
In Newdow v. Lefevre, (9th Cir., March 11, 2010), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to the inscription of "In God We Trust" on U.S. coins and currency. It relied on a 1970 decision by the 9th Circuit that held the motto is patriotic or ceremonial, not theological or ritualistic...

Lawsuit Challenges Zoning Refusal For Bible Camp

Posted on March 12, 2010
Three brothers who have been refused zoning approval to build a year-round Bible camp and conference center that would serve youths with medical disabilities in the summers have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the refusal. The complaint (full text) in Eagle Cove Camp & Conference Center, Inc...

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