Religion & Law

New York City Council Wants Muslim Holidays On School Calendar

Posted on July 02, 2009
New York's city council on Tuesday passed a resolution adding two Muslim holidays-- Id al-Fitr and Id al-Adha-- to the school calendar. However, according to the New York Times, under current law Mayor Michael Bloomberg has the final say over which days are school holidays, at least if the legislature extends Bloomberg's expiring control over the schools...

Coleman's Defeat Means No Jewish Republicans In U.S. Senate

Posted on July 02, 2009
With Al Franken's defeat of Norm Coleman in Minnesota, the Republicans are without any Jewish members of the U.S. Senate for the first time since 1957. That was the year Jacob Javits became New York's senator. CBS News points out that there is only one Jewish Republican in the House of Representatives-- minority whip Eric Cantor...

CAIR Will Distribute 100,000 Qurans To U.S. Leaders

Posted on July 02, 2009
At a news conference yesterday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations announced Phase II its "Share the Quran" campaign. According to the New York Times, CAIR plans to distribute 100,000 copies of the Quran to local, state and national leaders, including President Barack Obama who will be given one as a thank-you for his speech to the Muslim world...

Court In India Strikes Down Law Banning Consensual Adult Homsexual Relations

Posted on July 02, 2009
In India, the Delhi High Court today struck down as unconstitutional Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code insofar as it bans homosexual sexual acts in private between consenting adults. (Background.) In a 105-page opinion in Naz Foundation v. Government of NCT of Delhi, (High Ct...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Connecticut AG Says Ethics Agency Should Drop Investigation of Diocese Lobbying

Posted on July 01, 2009
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has advised the Office of State Ethics to drop its investigation of whether activities of the Bridgeport Diocese require it to register as a lobbyist. The state ethics office wrote the Diocese raising questions after the Diocese took part in a rally in March opposing Raised Bill 1098 that would have forced reorganization of financial oversight in Catholic parishes...

Azerbaijan Places New Limits On Choice of Muslim Religious Leaders

Posted on July 01, 2009
Forum 18 reports that Azerbaijan's Parliament (the Milli Mejlis) yesterday adopted two new amendments to the country's Religion Law. The new provisions impact only the Muslim community. An amendment to Article 8 provides that all religious functionaries who lead Islamic places of prayer must be appointed by the Caucasian Muslim Board with approval of the government's executive officials...

Pastor Will Lead Prayer In Pennsylvania Senate After Rejecting House's Rules

Posted on July 01, 2009
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives invites clergy to offer an opening prayer, but requires the prayer to be submitted in advance. When Rev. Gerry Stoltzfoos was invited and submitted his invocation, a staff member in the Speaker's office requested that he remove a reference to Jesus in the closing...

DC Court Agrees With Election Board: No Referendum On Gay Marriages

Posted on July 01, 2009
In Jackson v. District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics, (DC Super. Ct., June 30, 2009), the D.C. Superior Court refused to grant a preliminary injunction to stay the effective date of new legislation in D.C. that would recognize the validity of same-sex marriages performed elsewhere...

Leonard Leo Elected USCIRF Chairman

Posted on July 01, 2009
Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the Federalist Society and a commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has been named chairman of USCIRF for a year-long term beginning July 1, according to a USCIRF press release yesterday...

Activist Wants Illinois Governor To Veto Appropriations To Religious Institutions

Posted on July 01, 2009
Social activist Rob Sherman has written a top aide to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn urging him to exercise his line item veto to eliminate all grants in the state's recently passed appropriations bill (HB 313) that are directed to churches, parochial schools and other religious organizations...

Court Refuses To Dismiss RLUIPA Challenge To "Shabbos House"

Posted on June 30, 2009
In Bikur Cholim v. Suffern, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 54187 (SDNY, June 25, 2009), a New York federal district court refused to dismiss claims under RLUIPA and freedom of association claims challenging the denial of a zoning variance for a Suffern (NY) "Shabbos House...

Appeal Filed With 5th Circuit In Elementary School Hair Style Limits

Posted on June 30, 2009
Fort Bend Now reported yesterday that the Needville, Texas Independent School District has filed an appeal with the U.S. 5th Circuit in A.A. v. Needville Independent School District. In the case, a Texas federal district court granted a permanent injunction preventing an elementary school from enforcing the school district's hair style policy against a 5-year old whose family taught him to wear his hair in two long braids in the tradition of Native American religions...

Paper Complains That Mandated Free Day At Holy Land Experience Too Narrowly Advertised

Posted on June 30, 2009
In 2006, the Florida legislature passed a law assuring a property tax exemption for Holy Land Experience religious theme park-- assuring it a tax savings of about $300,000 per year. In order to keep the exemption, Holy Land was required by the law to offer one free-admission day per year...

Israel's High Court Orders Kashrut Certificate For Bakery Owned By Messianic Jew

Posted on June 30, 2009
Israel's High Court of Justice yesterday ordered the Rabbinate in the city of Ashdod to grant a kashrut certificate (kosher certification) to a bakery owned by a Messianic Jew. Haaretz reports that the Chief Rabbinate Council had required bakery owner Pnina Comporati to have enhanced supervision because her beliefs, they felt, meant she could not be trusted to keep her bakery kosher...

Cert. Denied In High School Bible Club, Missouri Funeral Picketing, Cases

Posted on June 30, 2009
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday denied certiorari in two companion cases, Truth v. Kent School District, (Docket No. 08-1130) and Kent School District v. Truth, (Docket No. 08-1268) (Order List). In the case, the 9th Circuit upheld the application of a Seattle, Washington school's rules against religious discrimination to Truth, a Bible study club...

LAPD Appoints First Muslim Chaplain

Posted on June 30, 2009
The Los Angeles Police Department has appointed its first Muslim chaplain-- Shiek Qazi Asad. Yesterday's Los Angeles Times reports that Asad applied for the volunteer position of reserve chaplain as part of his long-standing efforts to improve relations between Muslims and Los Angeles law enforcement...

Report Says Many Muslim Marriages In Britain Are Unregistered

Posted on June 29, 2009
A report issued today by the British think tank Civitas says that some two-thirds of Muslim marriages in Britain are not being registered as required under the Marriages Act. These marriages are performed in smaller informal sharia courts outside the formal group of Muslim arbitration tribunals operating in four British cities...

Relatives Challenge Will Leaving Woman's Assets to Catholic Order

Posted on June 29, 2009
Yesterday's Hartford Courant reports that relatives of Gabrielle Mee are challenging her will that left all her property to the Connecticut-based to the Legionaries of Christ. Relatives discovered that Mee, who died last year at age 96, already had turned over some $7...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on June 29, 2009
From SSRN:Mohammad Fadel, Political Liberalism, Islamic Family Law and Family Law Pluralism: Lessons from New York on Family Law Arbitration, (in Marriage and Divorce in a Multicultural Context: Reconsidering the Boundaries of Civil Law and Religion, Joel A...

Ave Maria Law School Claims Ministerial Exception

Posted on June 29, 2009
AveWatch earlier this month reported on the unusual defense mounted by Ave Maria University in a lawsuit against it by a law professor Stephen Safranek whose tenure and employment were terminated. In a motion to dismiss (full text) filed June 1, Ave Maria claims that it is a religious institution and that the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine precludes civil court jurisdiction in the case...

Obama Picks Camp David Church As His Home Congregation

Posted on June 29, 2009
After a 5-month search, President Barack Obama has decided to make Evergreen Chapel, the non-denominational church at Camp David, his primary place of worship. Time today reports that the unexpected move was motivated in large part by a desire to worship without being on display, as would be the case if he joined a Washington, DC congregation...

Indian Court Says Church May Not Be Required To Obtain Permit To Hold Worship Services

Posted on June 28, 2009
Zee News yesterday reported on a decision by the Madras High Court in India holding that district officials could not require a church to obtain a permit before conducting prayers inside its own building. The court ordered the Kanyakumari Revenue Divisional Officer not to interfere with prayers inside church premises, but told the church it should seek permission if it planned to take a procession outside of its building.

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on June 28, 2009
In Chavis v. Goord, (2d Cir., June 25, 2009), the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed an inmate's claim that his free exercise rights were infringed when he was required to work on Sundays. The court found both a lack of exhaustion of administrative remedies and failure to allege any specific burden on religious beliefs...

Russia Tells Court It Lacks Jurisdiction Over Chabad's Claim Against It

Posted on June 27, 2009
Last year, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the parent organization for the Orthodox Jewish Chabad movement can pursue its claims against the Russian government to recover two historic collections of Jewish religious books and manuscripts that were seized in violation of international law...

Canadian Supreme Court Says Law Imposing Medical Treatment Over Minor's Objection Is Constitutional

Posted on June 27, 2009
In a 6-1 decision Thursday, Canada?s Supreme Court upheld Manitoba?s law that allows a court to order medical treatment for a child under 16 that it considers to be in the child?s best interest, despite the child?s religious objections. In A.C. v. Director of Child and Family Services, (Can...

State Department Appoints Special Representative To Muslim Communities

Posted on June 27, 2009
The U.S. State Department on Friday announced the appointment of Farah Pandith to head the new Office of the United States Special Representative to Muslim Communities. Pandith, a Muslim, was born in India and immigrated to the U.S. with her parents...

Court Says School Board Invocations Governed By "Legislative Prayer" Standards

Posted on June 26, 2009
In John Doe # 2 v. Tangipahoa Parish School Board, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53189 (ED LA, June 24, 2009), a Louisiana federal district court made important rulings of law in a challenge to a school-board's invocation policy, but denied both sides' motions for summary judgement...

Trial Court Abused Its Discretion In Scope of Relief In Church Dispute

Posted on June 26, 2009
First Assembly of God Christian Center of Pittsburg, California v. Bridgeway, (CA Ct. App., June 24, 2009) involves, in the court's words, "a secular dispute dressed as a schism." At issue is the validity of the election of a board of directors and of Tim Combs as senior pastor of the church, here challenged through a summary proceeding under the non-profit provisions of California Corporations Code Sec...

British Appeals Court Says Jewish School's Admission Criteria Are Racial, Not Religious

Posted on June 26, 2009
In an important decision yesterday, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales held that an Orthodox Jewish school's admissions criterion that favors only children considered Jewish by the Office of the Chief Rabbi amounts to racial, rather than religious, discrimination...

Senate Judiciary Committe Holds Hearing On Hate Crimes Bill

Posted on June 26, 2009
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 (S. 909). The Justice Department has released a transcript of Attorney General Eric Holder's testimony favoring the legislation. Transcripts of statements by committee members and other witnesses are available from the Judicary Committee's website...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.