Religion & Law

Hasidic Charity Can Claim Return of Seized Funds Only In Criminal Case

Posted on March 07, 2010
Friday's New Jersey Law Journal reports that a federal magistrate judge has ruled that a Hasidic Jewish charity cannot rely on 18 USC Sec. 983 to obtain a return of funds seized as part of a high profile public corruption and money laundering case. (See prior posting...

Qualified Immunity Applies To RFRA Claim Growing Out of Drug Search

Posted on March 05, 2010
In Jama v. United States, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18554 (WD WA, March 2, 2010), a Washington federal district court held that the concept of qualified immunity applies in suits under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, just as it applies in suits charging constitutional violations...

Court Issues Preliminary Injunction Barring Noise Prosecutions Against Church Bells

Posted on March 05, 2010
In St. Mark Roman Catholic Parish Phoenix v. City of Phoenix, (D AZ, March 3, 2010), an Arizona federal district court issued a preliminary injunction barring the City of Phoenix from enforcing its Noise Ordinance against sound generated in the course of religious expression...

Religious Questionnaire To City Candidates Draws Criticism

Posted on March 05, 2010
In Farmington, New Mexico's recent municipal elections, the campaign manager for one of the losing City Council candidates secretly designed a scorecard to rank local candidates on their religious and social values. Yesterday's Farmington Daily Times says that candidate Bob Moon did not know that his campaign manager, Drew Degner, had designed the questionnaire that asked closed-end questions about issues such as church attendance, abortion rights and gay marriage...

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4th Circuit Upholds Church's Discrimination and RLUIPA Claims

Posted on March 05, 2010
In Reaching Hearts International, Inc. v. Prince George's County, (4th Cir., March 3, 2010), the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a Maryland federal district court that a Seventh Day Adventist Congregation's rights under the Equal Protection Clause and RLUIPA were infringed when the county refused to grant a change in sewer and water classifications for a portion of property on which it planned to build a church...

State Employees Say Boss Judged Them On the Quality of Their Religious Faith

Posted on March 05, 2010
The director of the Ohio Workers' Compensation Council is being accused of religious discrimination by her three-member staff-- two attorneys and an executive assistant. According to yesterday's Columbus Dispatch, Virginia McInerney, director of the Council that oversees the operations of Ohio's Bureau of Workers' Compensation, fired the staffers after they asked for separation agreements because of insurmountable inter-office tensions...

Anti-Evolutionists Tying Curriculum Efforts To Global Warming Skepticism

Posted on March 04, 2010
Today's New York Times reports that critics of evolution who want alternative theories taught in public schools are beginning to tie that effort together with a similar push to encourage teaching of alternative theories about global warming. The strategy, being pursued in various states, builds on growing numbers of conservatives who have doubts about the science of climate change...

Church Lacks Standing To Sue Over Investigation of Its Loud Music

Posted on March 04, 2010
In Faith Baptist Church v. Waterford Township, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18226 (ED MI, March 2, 2010), a Michigan federal district court held that a church lacks standing to complain about police investigations of complaints about the volume of music coming from the church during rehearsals, services and concerts...

Texas Republicans Support Religious Reference At Public Gatherings and On Government Buildings

Posted on March 04, 2010
Tuesday's Texas Republican primary ballot included five "non-binding resolutions that are the party's way of gauging support for issues, and for informing voters and elected officials where the party's grassroots stand on the issues." One of those, Ballot Prop...

Key Christian Conservative Defeated In Texas Board of Education Primary

Posted on March 04, 2010
The Christian Post and the Baptist Standard report that in Tuesday's Texas Republican Party primary, State Board of Education member Don McLeroy lost to challenger Thomas Ratliff by fewer than 900 votes. The ousted McLeroy was an outspoken Christian conservative who has doubts about the theory of evolution...

Public Housing Authority Says No More On-Site Church Services

Posted on March 04, 2010
According to yesterday's Dallas News, the Dallas (TX) Housing Authority has ordered a halt to Sunday morning worship services in one of the public housing complexes it administers. For the past 14 years, Lake Highlands United Methodist Church has brought Sunday services to elderly residents of Audelia Manor...

Bristish Airport Refuses Boarding To Muslim Women Who Rejected Body Scan

Posted on March 04, 2010
At Britain's Manchester Airport, two Muslim women have become the first passengers to be banned from boarding their flight because they refused to undergo a full body scan using an expensive new X-ray system. According to yesterday's London Express, one of the women objected on religious grounds and the other on medical grounds...

Suit Challenges State Civil Rights Agency Jurisdiction Over Small Religiously-Motivated Group

Posted on March 04, 2010
A press release yesterday from the Thomas More Society announced that it has filed a lawsuit in Indiana state court challenging the authority of the Indiana Civil Rights Commission (ICRC) over the Fishers Adolescent Catholic Enrichment Society (FACES), a group of nine families who home-school their children...

Cert. Denied In Establishment Challenge To Religious Displays In Postal Unit

Posted on March 04, 2010
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in Sincerely Yours, Inc. v. Cooper, (Docket No. 09-608, 3/1/2010). (Order List). In the case, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals held that religious displays by the Full Gospel Interdenominational Church in the Contract Postal Unit it operates along side its ministry and outreach efforts in a store front facility in Manchester, Connecticut violate the Establishment Clause...

Evangelical Group Wins Compromise In Settlement of Suit Over Tax Exemption

Posted on March 04, 2010
Kenneth Copeland Ministries on Monday announced the settlement of a lawsuit it had filed against Tarrant County (TX) Appraisal District challenging the denial of a tax exemption (see prior posting) for a $3.6 million jet owned by the evangelical religious group...

European Court Grand Chamber Will Review Its Decision Banning Crucifixes In Italian Classrooms

Posted on March 03, 2010
The European Court of Human Rights announced yesterday that its 17-judge Grand Chamber will review a controversial decision handed down in November by a 7-judge panel in Lautsi v. Italy. The panel decision held that crucifixes in public school classrooms in Italy violate the European Convention on Human Rights' protections of thought, conscience and religion and the right of parents to educate their children according to their convictions...

High School Teacher Suspended Over Banning Wiccan Altar In Shop Class

Posted on March 03, 2010
A high school industrial arts teacher in Guthrie Center, Iowa has ben placed on paid leave pending the school's consultation with its attorney in an unusual dispute regarding student religious expression in class assignments. Yesterday's Des Moines Register reports that teacher Dale Halferty told a student that he could not build a Wiccan altar in shop class...

D.C. Catholic Charities Ends New Spousal Benefits To Avoid Recognizing Same-Sex Partners

Posted on March 03, 2010
Following up on their pledge to be in compliance with D.C. same-sex marriage law that takes effect today, Catholic Charities of Washington has stopped offering benefits to spouses of new employees. This avoids charges that the organization is illegally discriminating on the basis of marital status were it to refuse to recognize same-sex partners...

Chief Justice Refuses To Stay Effectiveness of D.C. Same-Sex Marriage Law

Posted on March 03, 2010
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has refused to grant a stay to prevent the District of Columbia?s Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act from taking effect today. In an in chambers opinion in Jackson v. District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics, (Sup...

Plaintiffs Have Standing To Challenge Day of Prayer, But Not Prayer Proclamations

Posted on March 03, 2010
In Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. v. Obama, (WD WI, March 2, 2010), a Wisconsin federal district court ruled on the standing of Freedom from Religion Foundation and some of its members in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Day of Prayer statute (36 USC 119) and the issuance of prayer proclamations by the President...

Tennessee School District Settles Suit Challenging Religious Practices In Schools

Posted on March 03, 2010
The Cheatham County (TN) Board of Education voted Monday night to approve a settlement in a lawsuit alleging a pattern of religious activities in the county schools. (See prior posting.) The settlement order (full text) in Doe v. Cheatham County Board of Education, (MD TN, filed 11/16/2009), was announced in a press release by the ACLU of Tennessee that filed the lawsuit...

Teacher Wins Right To Display Classroom Banners With Religious References

Posted on March 02, 2010
In Johnson v. Poway Unified School District, (SD CA, Feb. 25, 2010), a California federal district court held that high school teacher Bradley Johnson's rights were violated when school officials told him to take down two 7-foot wide banners he had placed on his classroom wall...

Settlement Reached In Texas Prayer Garden Challenge

Posted on March 02, 2010
The San Antonio (TX) Express News reported yesterday that a settlement has been reached in a lawsuit attempting to prevent The Coming King Foundation from placing a 77-foot tall cross in their Kerrville, Texas subdivision. The cross is part of a 23-acre prayer garden...

Cert. Denied In Property Dispute Involving Break Away Episcopal Parish

Posted on March 02, 2010
Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in St. Luke's of the Mountains v. Episcopal Church, (Docket No. 09-708, March 1, 2010). (Order List.) In the case below, decided by a California appellate court under the name Huber v. Jackson, the court applied the "neutral principles" of law doctrine, concluding that the Episcopal Church and its Diocese of Los Angeles are the owners of the property of St...

Private Rabbinic Court In Israel Is At Center of a Controversy

Posted on March 02, 2010
Last week Haaretz carried a long article about the little known private rabbinic court in Israel known as Badatz, an acronym for Court of Justice. It is located in Bnei Brak, the section of Jerusalem in which some of the most strictly observant Orthodox Jews (Hareidi) live...

British Sikhs Challenge 2011 Census Form

Posted on March 02, 2010
Britain's Sikh Federation is considering filing a lawsuit against the UK government's Office of National Statistics over the form it plans to use for the 2011 census. According to yesterday's Sikh Times, the government intends to list Sikhs as a choice in the voluntary portion of the form that asks about religious affiliation...

Church Zoning Decision Remanded for Further Findings

Posted on March 02, 2010
In Arnold v. Versailles-Midway-Woodford County Board of Adjustment, (KY Ct. App., Feb. 26, 2010), a Kentucky appellate court in a second appeal in a church zoning case sent back for additional proceedings a county zoning authority's decision to grant Versailles United Methodist Church a conditional use permit for construction of a church building, school building, gymnasium and parking lot...

Indian Court Strikes Down Longer Divorce Waiting Period for Christians

Posted on March 01, 2010
In India last week, Kerala's High Court struck down as unconstitutional a provision that requires Christians to wait at least two years after they are first married to file for divorce. The personal law that governs other religious communities, as well as the Special Marriage Act that governs those with no religion, all allow others to file for divorce after one year...

Obama's New Envoy To OIC Profiled

Posted on March 01, 2010
Today's Washington Post profiles Rashad Hussain, President Obama's recently appointed special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. (See prior related posting.) The 31-year old Hussain who grew up in Plano, Texas, is both a scholar of the Qur'an and an ardent North Carolina Tar Heels basketball fan (his undergraduate alma mater)...

Recent Articles and Books of Interest

Posted on March 01, 2010
From SSRN: Luc B. Tremblay, The Bouchard-Taylor Report on Cultural and Religious Accommodation: Multiculturalism by Any Other Name?,(EUI Working Papers LAW No. 2009/18, Dec. 1, 2009).Juliet P. Stumpf, Juliet P., The Implausible Alien: IQBAL and the Influence of Immigration Law, (Lewis & Clark Law Review, Vol...

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