Religion & Law

Illinois High Court Upholds Bequest To Grandson Who Married Within the Faith

Posted on September 25, 2009
In In re Estate of Max Feinberg, (IL Sup. Ct., Sept. 24, 2009), the Illinois Supreme Court, by narrowly defining the issue before it, upheld the result desired by Max Feinberg who wanted to leave his estate only to those of his grandchildren who married within the Jewish faith...

Hasidic Congregation Gets Reversal of Damage Award, But Loses On Other Issues

Posted on September 25, 2009
This week, a New York appellate court handed down a decision in a dispute between two neighboring Orthodox Jewish congregations in Kiryas Joel (NY), a town populated primarily by members of the Satmar Hasidic community. A bit or reading between the lines is necessary to understand the disputes that were ruled on by the court in Bais Yoel Ohel Feige v...

Religious Groups Active On Several Issues At G-20

Posted on September 25, 2009
Religious groups have been active at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh. Yesterday 30 religious leaders from numerous faiths met with U.S. deputy national security adviser Michael Froman urging action on problems faced by the world's poorest people. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette...

Funeral Director Loses On Most of Her Religious Discrimination Claims

Posted on September 24, 2009
In Prise v. Alderwoods Group, Inc., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86445 (WD PA, Spet. 21, 2009), a Pennsylvania federal district court dismissed religious discrimination claims under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act...

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House Committee Holds Hearings On Employment Non-Discrimination Act

Posted on September 24, 2009
Yesterday, the House Committee on Education and Labor held its first hearing on H.R. 3017, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009. The bill would prohibit employment discrimination, preferential treatment, and retaliation on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by employers with 15 or more employees...

Polish Court Fines Catholic Magazine For Its Attack On Woman Seeking An Abortion

Posted on September 24, 2009
In Poland, a court has ordered the magazine Gosc Niedzielny, which is published by the Catholic Archdiocese of Katowice, to apologize and pay damages of nearly $11,000 (US) to Alicja Tysiac who attempted unsuccessfully to obtain an abortion when her pregnancy threatened her eyesight...

Polygamy Charges Dismissed By British Columbia Supreme Court

Posted on September 24, 2009
An expected constitutional challenge to polygamy laws in the Canadian province of British Columbia (see prior posting) has been short circuited as province's Supreme Court quashed the indictments against two FLDS leaders on other grounds. In Blackmore v...

Spanish Judge Works Out Compromise With Witness Wearing Burka

Posted on September 24, 2009
A Spanish judge yesterday worked out a compromise with a witness in a criminal trial who insisted on wearing her burqa when she testified. Think Spain reports that the woman had been called to testify for the prosecution in the trial of nine Islamists charged with recruiting suicide bombers in order to send them to Iraq...

Here Are Religious Liberty and Church-State Issues From Senate's Health Care Reform Bill

Posted on September 24, 2009
Last week, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Max Baucus, introduced his detailed proposal for comprehensive health care reform, the America's Healthy Future Act of 2009. (Press release.) The committee has posted a 223 page document (the Chairman's Mark) describing the bill and a 348-page document summarizing a large number of proposed amendments from other Finance Committee members...

Litigation Over Church Property Was Costly For Both Sides In Colorado Springs

Posted on September 23, 2009
Yesterday's Colorado Springs Gazette reports on the high cost to both sides of the litigation over ownership of Colorado Springs Grace Church & St. Stephen's $17 million building after members split from the Episcopal Church USA. (See prior posting...

Canadian Appeals Court Permits Religious Groups' Intervention In Prostitution Law Challenge

Posted on September 23, 2009
According to today's Toronto Globe & Mail, the Court of Appeal for Ontario this week reversed a decision of a Canadian trial judge and has permitted two religious groups and a conservative women's group to intervene in a case challenging the constitutionality of several of Ontario's anti-prostitution laws...

Today Is 20th Annual "See You At The Pole"

Posted on September 23, 2009
Today is the 20th annual See You At the Pole event at schools around the country. The event's website describes its purpose: "See You at the Pole? is all about prayer. It's about you coming together and laying aside all of the labels and groups for one day, to simply engage with God in prayer and connect with fellow Christians in unity around the flag pole...

Paper Says Minnesota's Funding of Drug Program Raises Church-State Issues

Posted on September 23, 2009
Yesterday's Minnesota Independent features an investigative article on state funding of Minnesota Teen Challenge's faith-based drug treatment centers. MnTC has received nearly $2.4 million in state funding since 2007, primarily from the Minnesota Department of Human Services' Consolidated Chemical Dependency Treatment Fund...

New Saudi University, Sponsored By King, Moves Away From Strict Islamic Norms

Posted on September 23, 2009
UAE's The National reports that today in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) will be dedicated. Long the dream of King Abdullah, KAUST--a graduate university dedicated to scientific research and innovation-- has been set up with an endowment of over $10 billion...

Uganda's Government Will Propose Creation of Khadi Courts

Posted on September 23, 2009
Uganda's Constitution, Sec. 129, provides for various courts to be established, including "qadhis' courts for marriage, divorce, inheritance of property and guardianship, as may be prescribed by Parliament." New Vision reported yesterday that Uganda's Attorney General, Freddie Ruhindi, told a committee of Parliament that the Government will soon propose a bill to implement this provision...

Jediism Founder Accuses British Supermarket Chain of Religious Discrimination

Posted on September 22, 2009
In Britain, the founder of the Jedi religion (inspired by the Star Wars films) has accused Tesco supermarkets of religious discrimination. The London Guardian reported last Friday that Daniel Jones was ordered by staff at a Tesco store in north Wales to remove his hood while in the store...

Jewish Groups Protest Plans For Saturday Iowa Caucuses In 2010

Posted on September 22, 2009
On Friday, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs released the text of a letter sent to the chairmen of Iowa's Republican and Democratic parties by a coalition of 18 national Jewish groups. The letter protests plans to hold the January 2010 Iowa party caucuses on a Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath), saying: "Saturday caucuses will force members of the Iowa Jewish community to choose between their faith and their civic duties...

Teenager Will Stay In Florida For Now As Clarifications Are Sought

Posted on September 22, 2009
A court in Orlando, Florida yesterday held another hearing in the case of Rifqa Bary, the 17-year old who fled her Muslim parents' home in Ohio and came to Florida claiming that she feared her father would kill her because she had converted to Christianity...

Georgetown's Feldblum Nominated To EEOC

Posted on September 22, 2009
Last week, President Obama nominated Chai Rachel Feldblum to be a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (White House release.) The EEOC enforces employment discrimination laws, including the ban on religious discrimination in employment...

Rockland County Health Officials Again Monitoring Kapparot Ritual Site

Posted on September 22, 2009
The Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur begins Sunday evening. Again this year, the Rockland County (NY) Health Department is giving close attention to the site where Orthodox Jews are carrying out the pre-Yom Kippur ritual of kapparot-- the symbolic passing off of sins by circling a live chicken above one's head three times...

Recent Articles Of Interest

Posted on September 21, 2009
From SSRN:Brian Leiter, Foundations of Religious Liberty: Toleration or Respect?, (September 16, 2009).Brian D. Galle, Foundation or Empire? The Role of Charity in a Federal System, (FSU College of Law, Law, Business & Economics Paper No. 1473107, Sept...

Value Voters Summit Held Last Week End

Posted on September 21, 2009
The Value Voters Summit was held this past weekend in Washington, D.C., bringing together Christian conservatives from around the country. CQ Politics reports on the Summit's straw poll for 2012 Presidential candidate. The winner was former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on September 21, 2009
In Timbuktu v. Malone, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82053 (ED WI, Sept. 9, 2009), a Wisconsin federal district court refused to grant summary judgement to two Muslim inmates who alleged that in a number of instances their prayers were interrupted or stopped, the location of their prayers were changed and that there were infringements on their observance of Ramadan and other religious feasts...

South Carolina High Court Rules For Break-Away Anglican Parish

Posted on September 21, 2009
Last week the South Carolina Supreme Court issued an interesting decision in litigation stemming the 2004 vote by members of All Saints Parish, Waccamaw, to break away from the Episcopal Church USA and instead affiliate with the more conservative Episcopal Church of Rwanda...

FLDS Member Sues For Religious Discrimination

Posted on September 20, 2009
Friday's Salt Lake Tribune , as well as Fox 13 News, report on the first-ever civil rights action by a member of the FLDS Church, filed Friday in Maricopa County (AZ) Superior Court. The complaint (full text) in Barlow v. Goddard, (AZ Super. Ct., filed 9/18/2009) alleges that the decertification of former police officer Preston Barlow by the Arizona Police Officer Standards and Training Board violated various federal and state constitutional and statutory provisions...

Settlement Reached In Lawsuit Challenging FaithGuard Homeowners' Insurance

Posted on September 20, 2009
The U.S. Justice Department announced on Friday that it had reached a settlement with GuideOne Mutual Insurance Company and two of its agents in connection with the company's FaithGuard endorsements on homeowners policies. The endorsement offered special benefits and discounts only to churchgoers and "people of faith," a practice which the Department of Housing and Urban Development claimed violated the Fair Housing Act...

Mississippi Supreme Court Rules In Challenge By Members of Church Damaged By Katrina

Posted on September 20, 2009
In Schmidt v. Catholic Diocese of Biloxi, (MS Sup. Ct., Sept. 17, 2009), members of St. Paul Catholic Church in Pass Christian, Mississippi brought suit after the diocese effectively closed the church that had been damaged by Hurricane Katrina and merged the parish into a newly created one...

White House and State Department Messages Mark Eid-ul-Fitr

Posted on September 20, 2009
Yesterday the White House issued a statement from President Obama and the First Lady extending greetings to Muslims on the ending of Ramadan and the celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr. A posting on the White House blog from D. Paul Monteiro, Deputy Associate Director, White House Office of Public Engagement, indicated that several government agencies have participated this year in events to mark Ramadan...

President Reaches Out Internationally With Rosh Hashanah Greetings

Posted on September 18, 2009
Rosh Hashanah begins this evening. It has become standard practice for the U.S. President to issue holiday greetings to those celebrating the Jewish holy days. This year the White House broke new technological ground in reaching out to Jews around the world...

Jewish Newspaper Interviews Scalia On Religion and State

Posted on September 18, 2009
In an interview this week with the Jewish newspaper Hamodia, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spoke about the Court's Establishment Clause jurisprudence and about the role religion should play in American life. He said: My court has a series of opinions that say that the Constitution requires neutrality on the part of government, not just between denominations ...

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