Religion & Law

Connecticut School Will Move Graduation Away From Cathedral

Posted on January 01, 2010
The South Windsor, Connecticut, Board of Education has voted to move South Windsor High School's 2010 graduation from the First Cathedral in Bloomfield to the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford. The move came after Americans United and the ACLU threatened to sue the Enfield school system which also uses the Cathedral, and made preliminary inquiries of South Windsor...

Malaysian Court Says Catholic Paper Can Use Term "Allah"

Posted on December 31, 2009
A High Court judge in Malaysia has vindicated the free exercise rights of a Catholic newspaper, The Herald, in an oral opinion handed down today. Bernama and the Wall Street Journal report on the decision that upholds the right of the paper to use the word "Allah" in its Malay-language edition to refer to God...

7th Circuit Decides Two RLUIPA Zoning Cases

Posted on December 31, 2009
In World Outreach Conference Center v. City of Chicago, (7th Cir., Dec. 30, 2009), the 7th Circuit issued an opinion in two consolidated appeals involving claims that zoning decisions violated RLUIPA. After concluding that RLUIPA is constitutional, the court initially focused on the City of Chicago's rezoning of a former YMCA building in a way that prevented World Outreach, a religious organization dedicated to providing living facilities to the homeless, from operating it as a community center...

Remains of 500 Animals From Santeria Rituals Found In Philadelphia House

Posted on December 31, 2009
In Philadelphia on Wednesday, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals enforcement officers, executing a search warrant, found the remains of more than 500 animals in a home whose most recent occupant was last seen five days ago. CNN reports that officials believe the animals were sacrificed as part of Santeria rituals...

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Federal Court Orders New York Kosher Poultry Plant To Shut Down

Posted on December 31, 2009
A New York federal district judge on Tuesday issued a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction prohibiting further slaughtering at New Square Meats in the village of New Square-- home of the Skver Hasidic sect. The court agreed with the U...

Fired Muslim Workers Denied Unemployment Benefits

Posted on December 31, 2009
In Osman v. JFC, Inc., (MN App., Dec. 29, 2009), the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of unemployment benefits to 22 Somali Muslims who were fired from their jobs at a poultry processing plant after they refused to comply with the company's break policy...

Contributions To Arizona Scholarship Organzations Raise Federal Tax Issues

Posted on December 30, 2009
The Arizona Republic this week explored the question of whether Arizonans are violating federal tax law by taking charitable deductions for certain contributions to private school tuition organizations. Arizona law gives up to a $1000 tax credit per couple ($500 per individual) for contributions to these groups that then grant scholarships to private and parochial school students...

H1N1 Precautions Suspended Religious Activities At Montana Jail

Posted on December 30, 2009
In October, in an attempt to prevent the H1N1 flu virus from infecting inmates, Montana's Missoula Detention Center suspended all face-to-face visits with inmates and suspended religious activities, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and other functions that rely on outside visitors for the duration of the flu season...

FLDS Church Asks Utah Supreme Court To Stay Proceedings In Trust Case

Posted on December 30, 2009
The FLDS Church on Monday filed a petition with the Utah Supreme Court asking it to stay all proceedings and orders by the lower court in the long-running case seeking to reform the Untied Effort Plan Trust. The Trust holds communal property in Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona that belonged to FLDS members...

Holocaust Survivors' Suit Against Vatican Bank Dismissed By 9th Circuit

Posted on December 30, 2009
In Alperin v. Vatican Bank, (9th Cir., Dec. 29, 2009), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed on sovereign immunity grounds a lawsuit by Holocaust survivors against the Vatican Bank. As explained in an earlier 9th Circuit decision in the case: A group of twenty-four individuals and four organizations ...

Court OK's Ban of Creche on Roadway Median

Posted on December 29, 2009
In Satawa v. Board of County Road Commissioners of Macomb County, (ED MI, Dec. 28, 2009), a Michigan federal district court refused to issue a temporary injunction against the County Road Commission's decision to ban a private individual's placement of a nativity scene on the median of a busy Warren, Michigan road...

Egypt Questioning Reporter On Blasphemy Charges

Posted on December 29, 2009
In Egypt, Saudi journalist Nadine al-Bdair and the editor-in-chief of Cairo's Al Masry Al Youm newspaper, Magdy al-Galad, will be summoned by authorities for questioning today. Maktoob News and Gulf News report that General Public Prosecutor Abdul Majeed Mahmoud ordered the prosecutor of south Cairo to investigate blasphemy charges after the newspaper published an article by al-Bdair arguing that if Muslim men are allowed four wives, then an edict should be issued permitting women to have four husbands...

Virginia Warden Retires Amid Charges of Denying Prisoners Religious Services

Posted on December 29, 2009
AP reported yesterday that Barbara Wheeler, warden at Virginia's Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, is retiring amid allegations that she segregated masculine-looking lesbians, and that she placed excessive restrictions on inmates' access to religious services...

Concerns About Religious Profiling for Security Arise Again After Flight 253

Posted on December 29, 2009
The foiled Christmas Day bombing attempt aboard a Northwest Airlines flight approaching Detroit has raised the spectre of profiling of Muslim travellers for added airport screening. Today's London Express reports that Prof. Anthony Glees, director of Buckingham University's Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, called that move an "obvious and rational" method to deter Islamic terrorists from striking British targets, while, at the same time, reducing lines at airport security gates for others...

LAPD, Citing Discrimination, Ends Affiliation of Its Youth Program With Scouts

Posted on December 29, 2009
Since 1962, the Los Angeles (CA) Police Department has operated a program to give youth interested in law enforcement an opportunity to assist the LAPD with certain tasks. Now, according to yesterday's Edge, the LAPD is restructuring the program to end its affiliation with the Boy Scouts Learning for Life Explorer Program...

Top 10 Church-State, Religious Liberty Developments In 2009

Posted on December 28, 2009
Here are my nominations for the 2009 Top Ten Developments in Church-State Separation/ Free-Exercise of Religion. The choices are based on the long-range implications of the developments on legal doctrines and on future of relations between government and religion...

Pending Lawsuit Challenges Favoritism To Catholic School In Use of City Athletic Fields

Posted on December 28, 2009
AP yesterday reported on a lawsuit filed in October in federal district court in Rhode Island claiming that the Pawtucket Office of Parks and Recreation is showing favoritism toward religious schools. The complaint (full text) in Rogers v. Mulholland, (D RI, filed 10/14/2009), alleges that giving exclusive after-school use of two particular public athletic fields for practice by Catholic Saint Raphael's Academy, instead of allowing public schools to also use them, violates the Establishment Clause as well as the due process and equal protection clauses of both the U...

Recent Articles and Books of Interest

Posted on December 28, 2009
From SSRN:Todd E. Pettys, Sodom's Shadow: The Uncertain Line between Public and Private Morality, (December 26, 2009).Neil James Foster, Freedom of Religion and Discrimination - Two Important UK Cases, (December 23, 2009).Legal Studies Research Paper Series, University of Wisconsin, No Altars: An Introduction to Islamic Family Law in US Courts, (December 16, 2009)...

Interview With Appellee In Famous Flag Salute Case Is Published

Posted on December 28, 2009
First Amendment Center today publised an account of its recent interview with Marie Snodgrass-- the former Marie Barnett. Marie and her sister were the appellees in the famous 1943 U.S. Supreme Court case of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that invalidated a West Virginia statute requiring students to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance...

U.S. Missionary Crosses Into North Korea, Complicating Diplomacy

Posted on December 27, 2009
Robert Park, a Korean-American missionary from Arizona has likely complicated U.S. negotiations with North Korea by illegally crossing into North Korea carrying a letter addressed to the country's ruler Kim Jong-il. Park is seeking release of the 160,000 political prisoners held are in concentration camps...

Catholic Church Says Historic Designation of Building Infringes Its Rights

Posted on December 27, 2009
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, Massachusetts says that its First Amendment rights are threatened by the city's move to declare Our Lady of Hope Church an historic district. The Springfield Republican reports today that a final vote on the proposal, already approved by the Historical Commission and by a preliminary vote in City Council, is scheduled for Tuesday...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on December 27, 2009
In In re Taylor, (Cal. 1st App., Dec. 21, 2009), a California state appellate court held that RLUIPA claims may be brought in state court, and that a habeas proceeding may be used to raise the claim. On the merits, however, the court rejected an inmate's claim that prison rules limiting him to purchasing no more than 4 ounces of religious oils each three months imposed a substantial burden on his free exercise of religion...

No "Necessity" Defense In Trial of Accused Killer of Abortion Doctor

Posted on December 26, 2009
On Tuesday, a state trial court judge in Wichita, Kansas, held that Scott Roeder, the accused murderer of abortion doctor George Tiller, will not be permitted to assert the defense of "necessity" at his trial that will begin next month. Yesterday's Christian Post reported that the judge said while he might permit Roeder to argue that he believed he was saving the lives of fetuses, he will not permit Roeder to assert the defense that he broke the law to prevent a greater harm.

Court Rejects Free Exercise Defense To Bald Eagle Act Prosecution

Posted on December 26, 2009
In United States v. Bertucci, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119228 (D NE, Dec. 22, 2009), a Nebraska federal district court accepted the recommendations of a federal magistrate (2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119230, Nov. 25, 2009) and denied a motion to dismiss charges under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act that had been brought against defendant...

Catholic Hospitals Group Differs With Bishops On Senate Health Insurance Language

Posted on December 26, 2009
The New York Times reported yesterday that a Dec. 17 statement (full text) by the Catholic Health Association, which represents hundreds of Catholic hospitals across the country, apparently signals a split with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on the abortion language in the U...

Federal Court Enjoins Illinois Hike In Fees For Lobbyists, Partly on Establishment Clause Grounds

Posted on December 25, 2009
In American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois v. White, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119476 (ND IL, Dec. 23, 2009), an Illinois federal district court issued a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against enforcement of Illinois amended Lobbyist Registration Act...

Queen Elizabeth Delivers Christmas Speech

Posted on December 25, 2009
Britain Queen Elizabeth II's 2009 Christmas Speech was broadcast today (full text). In it, she focused on the entire Commonwealth. She said in part: Each year that passes seems to have its own character. Some leave us with a feeling of satisfaction, others are best forgotten...

President Obama and First Lady Send Christmas Greetings

Posted on December 25, 2009
In a joint remarks released yesterday (full text), President Obama was joined by First Lady Michelle Obama to offer Christmas wishes to families across the country. Much of the address (billed as the President's Weekly Address) was directed to the American military and their families, offering thanks and support to them...

Final Defendants Sentenced In Tax Fraud Scheme By Hasidic Rabbi

Posted on December 25, 2009
According to a press release issued Monday by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, a California federal district judge has sentenced Grand Rabbi Naftali Tzi Weisz, the Brooklyn, New York, Grand Rabbi of Spinka, to two years in prison for orchestrating a money-laundering tax evasion scheme...

Appeals Court Affirms Conviction of Street Preacher For Disorderly Conduct

Posted on December 25, 2009
In Commonwealth v. Marcavage, (MA App., Dec. 23, 2009), a Massachusetts Appeals Court upheld the conviction of a street evangelist who was arrested on Halloween night, 2007, in the city of Salem and charged with disorderly conduct under M.G.L., Ch. 272, S...

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