Religion & Law

Church Classification for Capitol Hill Townhouse Questioned

Posted on February 24, 2010
Both the New York Times and the Washington Post report on a letter (full text) sent yesterday to the Internal Revenue Service by a group of Ohio mainline Protestant clergy. The signers, members of Clergy VOICE, question the tax-exempt status of the C Street Center which owns a town house on Capitol Hill that provides inexpensive lodging and meals for conservative Christian members of Congress...

Court Upholds Application of Noise Ordinance To Church

Posted on February 24, 2010
In Christian Methodist Episcopal Church v. Rizzo, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15246 (D SC, Feb. 18, 2010), a South Carolina federal district court rejected a church's free exercise challenge to the enforcement of a town's noise ordinance against it. Atlantic Beach, South Carolina police ticketed the CME Mission Church for broadcasting its religious services into the surrounding neighborhood by means of a loud speaker system, after complaints by surrounding businesses and residents...

Recycled Church Pews In Courtroom Challenged As Establishment Clause Problem

Posted on February 23, 2010
In Southaven, Mississippi, the city's seven-year old renovation of a former library into its municipal courthouse has led to an unusual Establishment Clause challenge. To save money, the city salvaged the pews from a church building it had purchased to turn into a performing arts center...

AU Charges Liberty University Violated Non-Profit Limits In Virginia Election Campaign

Posted on February 23, 2010
Americans United announced yesterday that it has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether Liberty University has violated its Section 501(c)(3) non-profit status by using the school's student newspaper to support one of the two candidates for a seat in Virginia House of Delegates last November...

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Draft Report on Reform of White House Faith-Based Office Released

Posted on February 23, 2010
The Washington Post reports that on Saturday the task forces created by the President's Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships released their long-awaited report (full text Word doc.) on reform of the faith-based office. The task forces' 12 recommendations--explained at length in the report-- will be voted on later this week by the full Advisory Council before being sent to the President...

Turkish Military Commanders Arrested In Plot Against Islamic Leaning Prime Minister

Posted on February 23, 2010
AP reported yesterday that Turkish police have arrested 52 military commanders for planning a military overthrow of the Islamic oriented government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. In simultaneous operations in eight cities, police detained the military leaders, including 21 generals and admirals...

Study On the Religion Blogosphere Released

Posted on February 23, 2010
The Social Science Research Council has released a study titled "The New Landscape of the Religion Blogosphere." SSRC describes the study: This report surveys nearly 100 of the most influential blogs that contribute to an online discussion about religion in the public sphere and the academy...

Forsyth County Commissioners Will Appeal Prayer Ruling To 4th Circuit

Posted on February 23, 2010
The Winston-Salem Journal reports that Forsyth County, North Carolina's Board of Commissioners voted 4-3 last night to appeal a federal district court decision (see prior posting) holding that, as implemented, its policy of beginning meetings with prayers violates the Establishment Clause...

Court Rejects Free Exercise Challenge To SSN For Drivers License

Posted on February 23, 2010
In State of Montana v. Turk, 2010 Mont. Dist. LEXIS 18 (MT Dist. Ct., Jan. 12, 2010), a Montana state court rejected a claim by defendant Richard Turk that his rights under the U.S. and Montana constitutions were violated by the state's requirement that he present a social security number in order to obtain a drivers' license...

ICANN Review Panel Finds US Religious Right Pressure In Denial of .xxx TLD

Posted on February 23, 2010
ICANN is a non-profit corporation charged with overseeing the protocols and domain names system of the entire Internet. Challenges to any of its actions can be submitted for an advisory arbitration opinion of an Independent Review Panel. In the first ever use of the review panel process, a Panel last week found that ICANN's board acted improperly in 2007 when, under pressure from the U...

Uganda Lawuit Challenges Polygamy; Government Says It Is Protected Religious Practice

Posted on February 22, 2010
In Uganda earlier this month, the women's rights organization Mifumi Uganda Ltd. filed a petition in the country's Constitutional Court seeking to have laws that permit men to practice polygamy, but do not permit women to have more than one husband, declared unconstitutional...

Program Encourages Non-School Sponsored Baccalaureate Services

Posted on February 22, 2010
The Pacific Justice Institute last week announced its second annual campaign to encourage churches and Christian student clubs to host baccalaureate services for high school seniors. PJI is offering free legal advice, practical tips and model formats for programs that respect church-state separation because they are not school-sponsored.

Indian State Seizes Workbooks With Offensive Picture of Jesus

Posted on February 22, 2010
In the Indian state of Meghalaya, the government has seized from schools and bookstores all copies of a primary school cursive writing workbook that contains a picture of Jesus holding a cigarette and a beer can. BBC News reported on Friday that the book was published by Skyline Publications in New Delhi...

Recent Articles and Books of Interest

Posted on February 22, 2010
From SSRN: Josh Goodman, Divine Judgment: Judicial Review of Religious Legal Systems in India and Israel, (Hastings International and Comparative Law Review, Vol. 32, No. 2, p. 379, Summer 2009).Marc O. DeGirolami, No Tears for Creon, (Legal Theory, Forthcoming)...

US Supreme Court Refuses Review In Bible Trademark Infringement Case

Posted on February 22, 2010
Today the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in Phillips v. Mike Murdock Evangelistic Association, (Docket No. 09-7813, 2/22/2010). (Order List.) In the case, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (full opinion LEXIS link) rejected a trademark infringement claim brought by the author of the Wisdom Bible of God against the author of The Wisdom Bible...

DC Court Refuses To Delay Effectiveness of Same-Sex Marriage Law

Posted on February 21, 2010
In Washington, D.C. on Friday, the D.C. Superior Court tentatively rejected an attempt to prevent the city's Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009 from going into effect on March 3. The Act authorizes same-sex marriage in D...

Haitian "Orphans" Actually Had Parents Alive

Posted on February 21, 2010
AP reported yesterday that the 33 Haitian children that Baptist missionaries from the U.S. attempted to take illegally to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic after the recent earthquake (see prior posting) were not orphans. All were all turned over to the missionaries by parents because the parents were promised the children would be kept safely there...

Summum Case Back In District Court On Establishment Clause Issue

Posted on February 21, 2010
When the U.S. Supreme Court last year decided Pleasant Grove City, Utah v. Summum (see prior posting), it held that Summum's free speech rights were not violated by the city's refusal to permit it to erect its Seven Aphorisms monument in a public park...

Illinois Appeals Court Issues TRO To Stop Relocation of Graves In O'Hare Expansion

Posted on February 21, 2010
The Chicago Tribune and NBC Chicago report that an Illinois appellate court on Thursday issued a temporary restraining order barring the city of Chicago from relocating any more graves from the St. Johannes Cemetery. In long-running litigation, the city is attempting to obtain the cemetery land to use for expansion of O'Hare International Airport...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on February 21, 2010
In Vinning El v. Evans, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13294 (SD IL, Feb. 16, 2010), plaintiff claimed his request for a vegan diet as required by his Moorish Science Temple beliefs was denied before he was transferred to his present facility. An Illinois federal district court dismissed his claims under RLUIPA because his claim for injunctive relief was now moot, and damages are not available under RLUIPA...

Christian Teachers Group Denied Standing To Challenge School Consent Decree

Posted on February 20, 2010
In Minor Doe I v. School Board for Santa Rosa County, Florida, (ND FL, Feb. 19, 2010), a Florida federal district court rejected an attempt by the Christian Educators Association International 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...

Head of White House Faith Based Office Outlines Its Goals

Posted on February 20, 2010
On Thursday, Joshua DuBois, Executive Director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships gave a speech (full text) at the Brookings Institute on the broad vision of the Office and its work over its first year. Here is an excerpt: From storefront churches in South Carolina to huge congregations in the Midwest, everyone from religious leaders to civil libertarians had the perception that the faith-based office consisted of a big pot of money in the White House ? dollars everyone knew about, but only a politically-connected few had access to...

DC Archdiocese Ends Foster Care Services Over New Same-Sex Marriage Law

Posted on February 19, 2010
CBN News reported yesterday that in Washington, DC, the Catholic Archdiocese has transferred its entire program of foster care services to the non-profit National Center for Children and Families. The Archdiocese made the move, after 80 years of furnishing services, because DC's new same-sex marriage law that will take effect shortly could require it to allow same sex couples to serve as foster parents, in violation of Church teachings...

Cert. Filed In Arizona Tuition Case, Challenging Standing

Posted on February 19, 2010
A petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court (full text) was filed yesterday in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn. In the case, a 3-judge panel of the 9th Circuit found taxpayer standing and ruled that, as applied, Arizona's tax credit of up to $500 to individuals who contribute funds to nonprofit "school tuition organizations" violates the Establishment Clause...

Virginia Christian Clergy Urge Defunding of Planned Parenthood

Posted on February 19, 2010
Dozens of Virginia's most influential Christian leaders, including Rev. Pat Robertson and Rev. Jonathan Falwell, have signed a petition to the state's governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general asking them to take steps to cut off state funds that go to Planned Parenthood...

ACLU Seeks USAID Documents On Funding of Abstinence Programs Overseas

Posted on February 19, 2010
The ACLU announced yesterday that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking documents from the U.S. Agency for International Development relating to USAID's funding of some abstinence-only-until-marriage programs overseas that reflect a religious perspective...

Obama Meets Dalai Lama At White House

Posted on February 19, 2010
President Obama yesterday met at the White House with the Dalai Lama. A statement (full text) by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs after the meeting said: The President stated his strong support for the preservation of Tibet's unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity and the protection of human rights for Tibetans in the People?s Republic of China...

Saudi Court Sentences Religious Police Official For Having Too Many Wives

Posted on February 19, 2010
Reuters reported Wednesday that a Saudi Arabian court has convicted a man in his 50's who holds an administrative position with the Saudi religious police of having six wives. The man claimed he was not educated enough to know that Islam does not allow him to be married to more than four women at the same time...

Virginia Governor's New Equal Opportunity Order Eliminates Sexual Orientation Protection

Posted on February 19, 2010
Earlier this month, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell signed Executive Order No. 6 on Equal Opportunity in all facets of state government, superseding an Equal Opportunity executive order signed in 2006 by Gov. Tim Kaine. The new order eliminates reference to a ban on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation-- a category that was included in the prior executive order...

Appellate Court Upholds Beth Din Arbitration Award

Posted on February 19, 2010
In Matter of Brisman v. Hebrew Academy of Five Towns & Rockaway, (NY App. Div, Feb. 16, 2010), a New York appellate court upheld an arbitration award by the Beth Din of America (a Jewish religious court) which found that a tenured teacher in a Jewish religious school was wrongfully terminated...

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