Religion & Law

Theology Professor Named As US Ambassador To Vatican

Posted on May 28, 2009
Yesterday, the White House announced the names of 12 individuals that President Obama intends to nominate as ambassadors. (Boston Globe.) Included is Miguel H. Díaz as Ambassador to the Holy See. Dr. Díaz is a Professor of Theology at St. John's University and the College of Saint Benedict in Minnesota...

Holy Land Foundation Defendants Sentenced

Posted on May 28, 2009
A Justice Department press release yesterday announced that a Dallas federal district judge has sentenced the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and five of the Muslim charity's leaders who had been found guilty by a federal jury last November on charges of providing material support to Hamas...

Federal Lawsuit Challenges Prop 8; Some Gay-rights Activists Question Strategy

Posted on May 28, 2009
The New York Times reports that at a news conference yesterday, David Boies and Theodore Olson-- attorneys best known as opponents in the Bush v. Gore litigation in 2000-- announced that they are jointly representing two couples who have filed a lawsuit in federal district court in San Francisco challenging California's Proposition 8 on federal constitutional grounds...

Negotiators On FLDS Land Trust Still Have Not Reached Agreement

Posted on May 28, 2009
Negotiations which have been ongoing for some time on reshaping the $114 million trust holding land of the FLDS Church still have not resolved many of the outstanding issues. (See prior posting.) In 2005, after allegations of mismanagement against FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, a Utah state court appointed a special trustee to take control of the United Effort Plan Trust and reform it to provide for secular management of the property owned by the polygamous FLDS sect...

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AU Asks IRS To Review 501(c)(3) Status of Liberty University

Posted on May 28, 2009
Americans United announced yesterday that it has written the Internal Revenue Service (full text of letter) asking it to review the tax-exempt status of Liberty University. The request pointed to the University's recent denial of recognition to a Democratic Party club formed by a group of students, while recognizing a Republican organization on campus...

PUBLICATION SCHEDULE

Posted on May 28, 2009
LOOK FOR NEW POSTINGS ON RELIGION CLAUSE ON SUNDAY MORNING. New comments will not be moderated until then either.

6th Circuit Upholds Inclusion of Churches In Detroit's Renovation Funding

Posted on May 28, 2009
In American Atheists, Inc. v. City of Detroit Downtown Development Authority, (6th Cir., May 28, 2009), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Establishment Clause (as well as the parallel provision in the Michigan Constitution) was not violated by including churches in a program that used city funds to pay part of the cost of refurbishing downtown buildings and parking lots...

Russian Authorities Allow Rescheduling of Matriculation Exams By Jewish Students

Posted on May 28, 2009
The Jewish holiday of Shavuot begins this evening. In Russia, after intervention by President Dmitry Medvedev, the Minister of Education has ruled that Jewish students may postpone their taking of the national matriculation exams which were scheduled for tomorrow in conflict with the holiday...

Hate Crimes Bill Opponents Invoke "Pedophile Protection" In New Campaign

Posted on May 27, 2009
Now that the U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (see prior posting), some conservative religious groups are using new scare tactics to oppose passage in the Senate. World Net Daily reported yesterday on a letter-writing campaign organized by Janet Porter, head of the Faith2Action Christian ministry, that argues the bill would protect pedophiles...

Wrongful Death Case Against Jehovah's Witnesses In Canada Dismissed In Part

Posted on May 27, 2009
Hughes v. Brady, (Alb. Ct. App., May 25, 2009), is a wrongful death action by the father of Bethany Hughes. Bethany died at age 17 of leukemia. In the case, the Alberta [Canada] Court of Appeals held that Bethany's father may not introduce new evidence against the Watchtower Society or its lawyers in his suit for damages...

Religious Protesters of Gun Store Acquitted

Posted on May 27, 2009
In Philadelphia (PA), a municipal court judge has acquitted 12 religious activists on trespass and disorderly conduct charges. AP reported yesterday that the protesters were arrested after they refused to leave Colosimo's Gun Center and blocked the store entrance sidewalk outside...

AU Asks County To Assure Homeless Shelter Does Not Pressure Residents Into Prayer

Posted on May 27, 2009
Yesterday's LaCrosse (WI) Tribune reports that Americans United has written LaCrosse County, Wisconsin, complaining that residents of the Salvation Army homeless shelter, funded by the county, are being pressured into attending religious services. Salvation Army gets $50,000 per year in public funds to offer the emergency housing...

Minnesota Boy's Mother Returns Him For Cancer Treatment

Posted on May 26, 2009
AP reports that 13-year old Daniel Hauser with his mother Colleen returned to Minnesota yesterday, after Daniel's father Anthony urged them to come home. Daniel Hauser, who has Hodgkin's lymphoma, had objected to treatment on religious grounds, and his mother fled with him after a Minnesota court overruled the objections and ordered her and her husband to obtain a new X-ray and select an oncologist for Daniel...

Visiting Sikh Preachers In Austria Shot Over Disagreement With Sermon

Posted on May 26, 2009
In Vienna, Austria on Sunday, a Sikh Temple attended mainly by lower-caste Sikhs who are folowers of the Dera Sach Khand sect was the scene of attacks on two clergymen visiting from India. Sant Niranjan Dass, the Dera head, survived the attack after surgery, but his second in command, Sant Ramanand, died from gunshot wounds...

New York's Hate Crime Provisions Upheld In Recently Released Opinion

Posted on May 26, 2009
In People v. Ivanov, (NY Sup. Ct., Sept. 12, 2008)-- decided several months ago but posted online for the first time last Friday-- a New York trial court upheld New York's hate crime statute. The statute enhances applicable penalties when a crime is motivated by bias...

Scientology and Its Leaders In France Go On Trial For Fraud

Posted on May 26, 2009
In France yesterday, the Church of Scientology and six of its leaders went on trial on charges of organized fraud and of illegally prescribing drugs. The Guardian and the Telegraph yesterday both had accounts of the proceedings that target the Church's AGES-Celebrity Centre, and its Freedom Space bookshop in Paris...

Sotomayor Is High Court Pick; Here Are Her Religion Decisions

Posted on May 26, 2009
President Obama has nominated Second Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the United States Supreme Court. (New York Times). If confirmed by the Senate, Sotomayor will be the first Hispanic to serve on the high court...

California High Court Upholds Proposition 8, But Validates Pre-Prop 8 Marriages

Posted on May 26, 2009
The California Supreme Court today in Strauss v. Horton, (CA Sup. Ct., May 26, 2009), rejected a challenge to voters' approval of Proposition 8, thereby upholding the California constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage. In a 6-1 decision, the court held that Proposition 8 was an "amendment" and not a "revision" of the state constitution, and therefore properly approved in an initiative process...

Memorial Day Proclaimed As Day of Prayer For Veterans and Peace

Posted on May 25, 2009
Today is Memorial Day. 36 USC 116 also calls on the President to issue an annual proclamation: (1) calling on the people of the United States to observe Memorial Day by praying, according to their individual religious faith, for permanent peace;(2) designating a period of time on Memorial Day during which the people may unite in prayer for a permanent peace;(3) calling on the people of the United States to unite in prayer at that time; and(4) calling on the media to join in observing Memorial Day and the period of prayer...

Episcopal Church and Break-Away Diocese Litigate Over Retainer Paid To Counsel

Posted on May 25, 2009
As previously reported, the break-away San Joaquin, California Diocese of the Episcopal Church appears poised to lose in its attempt to keep Diocesan property after its affiliation with the more conservative Province of the Southern Cone. A collateral aspect of the property lawsuit filed against the Diocese in 2008 by the Episcopal Church USA is a dispute over use of Diocese funds to pay attorneys' fees in the litigation...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on May 25, 2009
From SSRN:Zachary R. Calo, The Internationalization of Church-State Issues, (Church and State Issues in America Today, 3 Volumes, Ann W. Duncan & Steven L. Jones, eds., Praeger Publishers, 2008).Eric Segall, Mired in the Marsh: Legislative Prayers, Moments of Silence, and the Establishment Clause, (Forthcoming, University of Miami Law Review, 2009)...

Wisconsin Jury Convicts Mother Who Relied on Faith Healing of Homicide

Posted on May 24, 2009
The Chicago Tribune and the Wausau Daily Herald report that yesterday in Wausau, Wisconsin, a state court jury found Leilani Neumann guilty of second-degree reckless homicide in the death of her 11-year old daughter, Kara, whose diabetes went untreated...

Connecticut High Court Orders Release of Documents In Clergy Abuse Cases

Posted on May 24, 2009
In Rosado v. Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocesan Corp., (Ct. Sup. Ct., May 22, 2009, official release date June 2), the Connecticut Supreme Court, over the dissent of Justice Sullivan, granted the requests of 4 newspapers and released some 12,600 pages of documents filed in 23 cases alleging sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy...

Somalia Moves Toward Sufi vs. Shabab Warfare

Posted on May 24, 2009
A New York Times report this morning from Somalia says that the African country is moving from clan warfare to religious warfare. In the central part of the country, moderate Sufi militias are winning against the conservative extremist Shabab movement, even though the Shabab is increasingly taking over the capital of Mogadishu on the country's coast.

Court Upholds Montana Law School's Refusal To Fund Christian Legal Society

Posted on May 24, 2009
In Christian Legal Society v. Eck, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42980 (D MT, May 19, 2009), a Montana federal district court accepted a magistrate's recommendations and upheld the University of Montana Law School's non-discrimination and open-membership policies for recognized student groups...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on May 24, 2009
In Marsh v. Florida Department of Corrections, (11th Cir., May 18, 2009), the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a free exercise challenge to a policy of the Florida Civil Commitment Center that bars plaintiff from practicing Nisei GoJu-Ryu Karate, a form of martial arts practiced by Zen Buddhists for spiritual enlightenment...

Objections To Religious References At Trial of Juvenile Not Preserved For Appeal

Posted on May 24, 2009
In In re A.D., (TX App., May 15, 2009), a 14-year old Mennonite boy challenged the 10-year sentence imposed on him for driving while intoxicated, thereby causing the death of a passenger in his SUV. The boy claims that repeated references at trial to the nature of the religious community in which he and his family reside violated his equal protection rights...

Defendant Sentenced To 10 Years For Pot Farm; Religious Defense Found Insincere

Posted on May 23, 2009
Last Monday in a northern California federal courtroom, trial onlookers shouted at federal district judge Marilyn Hall Patel and the federal prosecutor after Patel sentenced defendant Charles "Eddy" Lepp to the mandatory ten years in prison on charges of running a vast marijuana farm known as "Eddie's Medicinal Gardens and Ministry of the Rastafari...

In Greece, Young Muslims Violently Protest Ripping of Quran By Policeman

Posted on May 23, 2009
In Athens, Greece, some 1,500 young Muslims marched to the Parliament building yesterday to protest charges that a police officer tore up a copy of the Qur'an while checking an Iraqi immigrant's identity papers. Today's Haaretz reports that as the crowd shrunk to about 300, violent clashes with police broke out and 46 protesters were arrested...

Inspector General Reports on 2004 IRS Exams of Non-Profit Political Activities

Posted on May 23, 2009
The Internal Revenue Service has posted online a May 12 audit report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration titled Statistical Profile of Alleged Political Intervention by Tax-Exempt Organizations in the 2004 Election Season. The audit, undertaken at the request of the Senate Finance Committee, examines the IRS' performance in its 2004 initiative to promote compliance with the prohibition against political campaign intervention by non-profits...

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