Religion & Law

Texas State Fair Is Not State Actor In Barring Religious Literature Distribution

Posted on October 01, 2009
In Rundus v. City of Dallas, (ND TX, Sept. 16, 2009), a Texas federal district court rejected a claim brought by a Christian evangelist seeking damages for the refusal by the State Fair of Texas to allow him to pass out religious literature on sidewalks inside the fairgrounds...

Israeli Court Says Chinese Pressured University On Falun Gong Exhibit

Posted on October 01, 2009
In Israel, the Tel Aviv District Court ruled yesterday that Tel Aviv University improperly closed down an exhibit of artwork by Falun Gong members last year because of economic and political pressure from the Chinese Embassy. According to Haaretz, the court concluded that the Dean of Students gave into pressure in order to protect campus funding by the Chinese Embassy of scholarships for students who study in China, a campus Confucius Center where students can study Chinese, and conferences on Buddhism and Chinese philosophy...

Court Rejects Tony Alamo's Free Exercise Defense In Suit By Former Followers

Posted on October 01, 2009
A federal district court yesterday rejected a free exercise defense raised by evangelist Tony Alamo in a lawsuit against him by two of his former followers who alleged Alamo withheld food from them for prolonged times, ordered their severe and sometimes public beatings, and verbally abused them during the beatings...

Christian Group Sues Challenging Maine's Interpretation of Its Charitable Licensing Law

Posted on October 01, 2009
In June, the Charitable Solicitations section of Maine's Office of Licensing & Registration imposed a civil penalty of $3000 on the Christian Action Network, finding that it had violated 9 MRS Sec. 5013 by using Governor John Baldacci's name in a letter soliciting contributions without the Governor's consent...

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2nd Circuit: Ministerial Exception Bars Rabbi's Suit Against Her Former Temple

Posted on October 01, 2009
In Friedlander v. Port Jewish Center, (2d Cir., Sept. 30, 2009), the 2nd Circuit agreed that a New York federal district court lacked jurisdiction over a breach of contract claim by a rabbi against her former congregation. (See prior posting.) The Court of Appeals found that the "ministerial exception" doctrine applies...

Prosecutors Seek To Offer Unusual Religious Analysis In Competency Trial

Posted on September 30, 2009
A federal judge in Utah is being asked to permit rather unusual testimony about religious beliefs in the third competency hearing for Brian David Mitchell who has been charged with the 2002 kidnapping in Salt Lake City, Utah of then 14-year old Elizabeth Smart...

Amicus Brief Raises Opposition To UN Convention

Posted on September 30, 2009
Two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court this term, Graham v. Florida and Sulivan v. Florida, appear to have become vehicles for those filing amicus briefs to duel over the U.N.'s Convention on the Rights of the Child which conservative Christian groups fear the U...

High School Cheerleaders Cannot Carry Religious Banners On Field

Posted on September 30, 2009
Yesterday's Chattanooga (TN) Times Free Press reports on a new variation of the dispute over mixing of religion and high school football. In Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, since 2003 Fort Oglethorpe High School cheerleaders have displayed religious banners that the football players crash through at the beginning of games...

Supporters of Sectarian Prayer Threaten Billboards Exposing Council Votes

Posted on September 30, 2009
Around the country, the Freedom from Religion Foundation has been challenging city councils that open their meetings with sectarian prayers, and city councils have been forced to consider whether to change their policies. Few of the debates have been as contentious as that in Lodi, California (see prior posting) where a vote will be taken tonight...

Court Rejects Copyright Suit Claiming Infringement In Use of Judas Iscariot Trial

Posted on September 30, 2009
In Porto v. Guirgis, (SDNY, Sept. 28, 2009), a New York federal district court rejected a claim by author Michael Porto (also known as "Guy Michaels") that Guirgis' play "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" violates the copyrights for Porto's novel "Judas on Appeal...

German Court Says School Must Provide Prayer Space For Muslim Student

Posted on September 30, 2009
In the first ruling of its kind in Germany, the Berlin administrative court has ruled that Diesterweg High School in Berlin-Wedding must allow a Muslim student known in the litigation as Yunus M. to pray 10 minutes each day in a separate classroom. Deutsche Welle reported yesterday that freedom of religion guarantees required this accommodation which the court saw as not disturbing school operations...

New York Appellate Court Voids Church Election of New Pastor and Trustees

Posted on September 29, 2009
Trustees of Gallilee Pentecostal Church, Inc. v. Williams, (NY App. Div., Sept. 22, 2009), is a case in which plaintiffs sought a declaration as to who are the legal trustees and members of the Gallilee Pentecostal Church in Poughkeepsie, New York. In 1983 when the Church was formed, its articles named six trustees...

Court Rejects Interlocutory Appeal In Minnesota Charter School Case

Posted on September 29, 2009
In ACLU of Minnesota v. Tarek Ibn Ziyad Acadamy, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88425 (D MN. Sept. 24, 2009), a Minnesota federal district court denied a motion by the sponsor of a controversial charter school to certify an interlocutory appeal of a decision handed down by the court in July...

British Jewish Schools Implement New Admissions Criteria Ordered By Court

Posted on September 29, 2009
Today's London Guardian reports on changes in admission policy made by Britain's publicly-funded Jewish schools after a Court of Appeal decision in June held that using the traditional Orthodox Jewish definition of who is Jewish amounts to impermissible racial discrimination instead of a permissible religious criterion...

Christian Group Creates "Adopt a Liberal" Initiative

Posted on September 29, 2009
Liberty Counsel (a Christian advocacy group) has begun a "prayer in action" initiative it calls "Adopt a Liberal." It is hoping to change the minds of political leaders it sees as "misguided". The initiative calls on participants to pick one of the eleven liberals on Liberty Counsel's list, or to choose some other liberal leader, and then:Pray earnestly and intensely for them! Pray that the Lord would move upon them and cause them to be the kind of leaders who will encourage others to lead "a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence...

Woman's Caning Sentence Upheld On Appeal In Malaysia

Posted on September 28, 2009
In Malaysia, apparently a controversial sentence of a Muslim woman for drinking alcohol is back on track. Last month Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno became the first woman to be sentenced under the country's Islamic law to caning for drinking alcohol. When she defiantly asked that her punishment be carried out in public, the sentence was delayed because of Ramadan and to allow for a government appeal after objections from activists...

Victoria Government Agrees To Broad Religious Exemptions In Discrimination Law

Posted on September 28, 2009
In the Australian state of Victoria, the attorney general has pre-empted a parliamentary committee and has announced an agreement with religious groups (including churches, schools, hospitals and welfare services) that will modify current law but still grant them broad exemptions from anti-discrimination prohibitions...

2010 National Religious Moot Court Announced

Posted on September 28, 2009
George Washington University Law School has announced the 2010 National Religious Freedom Moot Court to be held February 5-6, 2010 in Washington, DC. This year's problem involves free exercise issues in decisions of a local police department to regulate the activities and the dress of a police officer...

Guardian Ad Litem Has Immunity As To Comments On Mother's Religious Views

Posted on September 27, 2009
In Wood v. Epley, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87490 (SD OH, Sept. 9, 2009), an Ohio federal magistrate judge recommended dismissing as frivolous a lawsuit brought by Kyra Wood seeking $40 million in damages from an attorney who was appointed guardian ad litem by a state juvenile court to represent the interests of her daughter...

Moorish American Corrections Officers Can Move Ahead With Discrimination Allegations

Posted on September 27, 2009
Bey v. City of New York, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87793 (SDNY, Sept. 9, 2009), is a lawsuit brought by a group of former New York City correction officers who were members of the Moorish American faith which teaches that Moors are exempt from taxation. They were terminated from their positions after hearings at which it was found that they had submitted false documents claiming to be tax exempt...

Illinois Supreme Court Says Limitiations Extension Cannot Be Applied Retroactively

Posted on September 27, 2009
In Doe v. Diocese of Dallas, (IL Sup. Ct., Sept. 24, 2009), the Illinois Supreme Court refused to apply retroactively a 2003 amendment to Illinois law extending the statute of limitations in civil actions alleging child sexual abuse. The suit was filed by plaintiff who had been abused by a Catholic priest when he was 14 years old...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on September 27, 2009
In May v. Donneli, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 85495 (ND NY, Aug. 25, 2009), a New York federal magistrate judge held that merely a loss of a few pounds was insufficient physical injury to justify a claim for compensatory damages under the Prison Litigation Reform Act that precludes compensatory damages for emotional injury unaccompanied by physical injury...

Recent Articles and Books of Interest

Posted on September 27, 2009
From SSRN:Jeffrey M. Lipshaw, Can There Be a Religion of Reason? A Response to Leiter's Circular Conception of Religious Belief, (Suffolk University Law School Research Paper Series, Sept. 27, 2009).Mostapha Benhenda, Liberal Democracy and Political Islam: The Search for Common Ground, Politics, Philosophy & Economics, Forthcoming)...

China Issues New Report on Its Ethnic Policy-- Claims Religious Freedom

Posted on September 27, 2009
The Chinese government today issued a White Paper titled China's Ethnic Policy and Common Prosperity and Development of All Ethnic Groups. The Xinhua news agency carries a series of reports on the White Paper. Summarizing the report's findings on religious freedom, Xinhua says: Freedom of religious belief in China means that every citizen has the freedom to believe or not to believe in any religion," said the white paper issued by the Information office of the State Council...

Christian Group Complains About Ganesh Statue At Calgary Zoo

Posted on September 26, 2009
In Canada, the publicly funded Calgary Zoo some two years ago put up a statue of the Hindu deity Ganesh-- a figure with an elephant head-- near the zoo's elephant display. An anonymous donor supplied funds for the statue in memory of her late father who worked and travelled extensively in Asia...

Christian Reformed Church Gets Title To Property Over Breakaway Congregation

Posted on September 26, 2009
In Lamont Community Church v. Lamont Christian Reformed Church, (MI Ct. App., Sept. 22, 2009), a Michigan appellate court held that the Christian Reformed Church in North America is a hierarchical denomination, and therefore that civil courts are required to honor the determinations made by the denomination's parent body in resolving a property dispute between it and a break away congregation...

4th Circuit Says Westboro's "Utterly Distasteful" Picketing Is Protected By 1st Amendment

Posted on September 25, 2009
In Snyder v. Phelps, (4th Cir., Sept. 24, 2009), the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the Westboro Baptist Church and its leaders that a $5 million judgment against them growing out of their picketing of the funeral of Iraq veteran Matthew Snyder violated their free speech rights...

Capitol Visitor Center Hosts Premiere of Film On Religion In America

Posted on September 25, 2009
Last December the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center opened amidst protests from conservatives (including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich) that it failed to appropriately honor America's religious heritage. (See prior posting.) This led to Congressional resolutions directing the Architect of the Capitol to engrave the motto "In God We Trust" on a large pillar in the Visitor Center, and a lawsuit being filed challenging that directive...

This Sunday Is Second "Pulpit Freedom Sunday"

Posted on September 25, 2009
Alliance Defense Fund announced yesterday that its second annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday will be held on September 27. The event is part of ADF's Pulpit Initiative which is designed to challenge the constitutionality of Internal Revenue Code provisions barring partisan electoral activity by Section 501(c)(3) non-profits, including churches...

Court Dismisses Prof's Dismissal Complaint Under Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine

Posted on September 25, 2009
Earlier this week, an Ohio trial court held that under the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine it could not decide a breach of contract claim (full text of complaint) brought by David Hoffeditz, a Professor of Bible and Greek, against Cedarville University, a Baptist college...

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