Religion & Law

Pope's Middle East Visit Continues To Be Politically Delicate

Posted on May 13, 2009
Arutz Sheva this morning reports on the continuing political delicacy of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the Middle East. On Wednesday he travelled to Bethlehem, on the West Bank, to officiate in a Mass at Manger Square near the Church of the Nativty. Among the politically sensitive moments of his West Bank visit were his welcome by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas who gave the Pope as a gift a piece of cement from the controversial security barrier that Israel has built to stop suicide bombers from West Bank towns...

USCIRF Creates New Fellowship Program

Posted on May 13, 2009
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom announced Monday that it has created the Joseph R. Crapa Fellowship Program in memory of USCIRF's former Executive Director. Each fellowship will be for a period of up to 12 months, and the person selected will spend most of his or her time in residence at USCIRF headquarters in Washington...

EU Official Says Lisbon Treaty Will Ensure Consultation With Religious Groups

Posted on May 13, 2009
Last year, Irish voters rejected the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum, partly out of concern that the European constitutional treaty failed to mention Europe's Christian roots in its Preamble. More broadly Irish voters were concerned about Europe's rejection of religion in the public sphere...

Paper Explores Attempt To Organize A Good News Club

Posted on May 13, 2009
The Santa Barbara Independent last week carried a long investigative article chronicling an attempt to create a Good News Club program at Cold Spring Elementary School in Santa Barbara, California. Written by an elementary school parent, Katherine Stewart, who opposed the initiative to create the after-school Bible group, the article observes:If the legal juggernaut of militant Evangelism makes the prospect of opposing the Good News Club daunting, the personal politics can be even more troubling for concerned parents...

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Mexican State Amends Constitution To Define "Person" As Including Fetus

Posted on May 13, 2009
In the Mexican state of Guanajuato last week, the State Legislature approved an amendment to the state's Constitution to define "persons" under the law as "all human beings from conception to natural death." According to CNA's report on the legislature's action, at least nine other Mexican states have adopted similar constitutional amendments...

President Declares May As Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted on May 13, 2009
President Obama yesterday issued a Proclamation (full text) designating May as Jewish American Heritage Month. The Proclamation declares: "Jewish American history demonstrates how America's diversity enriches and strengthens us all." After "call[ing] upon all Americans to commemorate the proud heritage of Jewish Americans with appropriate ceremonies and activities," the Proclamation ends with the standard-- though here rather out of place-- statement: "IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twelfth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine...

Pope In Israel Finds Himself In Midst of Controversy

Posted on May 12, 2009
During the first day on the Israel leg of his Middle East trip, Pope Benedict XVI finds himself in the midst of political controversy. He delivered an address (full text) during his visit to Yad Vashem, the memorial to victims of the Holocaust. While Zenit described The Pope's remarks as "a moving address" that focused on the importance of remembering the names of Holocaust victims, Haaretz reported on some who were critical of the speech:The chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, Avner Shalev, said he expected the pope, "who is a human being, too," to draw on his personal experience to issue a stronger condemnation of Nazis and Germans, who were not directly mentioned in the speech...

Appeal To DC Circuit Filed In Case Upholding Part of National Park Speech Permit Regs

Posted on May 12, 2009
On Monday, a Notice of Appeal to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia was filed in Boardley v. Department of Interior. In the case, the D.C. federal district court in a March 17, 2009 opinion (full text) held that a portion of national park regulations are invalid...

Oklahoma House Resolution Opposes U.N. Convention on Rights of the Child

Posted on May 12, 2009
Yesterday the Oklahoma House of Representatives passed 61-28 and sent on to the state Senate House Concurrent Resolution 1033 (full text Word doc). The resolution "condemns the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and urges the United States Senate to reject its ratification...

Zoning Challenge Filed By Illinois Jewish Day School

Posted on May 12, 2009
According to today's Evanston (IL) Review, an Orthodox Jewish organization filed suit in state court yesterday challenging the city of Evanston's denial of a special use permit to allow use of a former warehouse building as a Jewish day school. The group, Joan Dachs Bais Yaakov-Tiferes Tzvi, is challenging zoning regulations that allow "religious institutions and religious membership organizations" in the area, but exclude "religious educational institutions...

BBC Appoints Muslim As Head of Religious Programming

Posted on May 12, 2009
Despite the concern that has been expressed by some Christians in Britain, the BBC yesterday appointed Aaqil Ahmed to be head of all the broadcasters' religious programming. Ahmed is an experienced broadcasting executive. The London Mail says that the appointment for the first time places a Muslim in one of the most influential religious roles in the country.

Quebec Court Awards Damages To Raelians For Invasion of Privacy By Press

Posted on May 12, 2009
Yesterday's National Post reports on a decision by the Court of Quebec awarding $9000 in damages to two members of the Raelian movement who say their privacy was infringed by the undercover activities of a Sun Media Corp. reporter who infiltrated the sect...

Indiana Atheist Group Sues Over Rejection of Bus Ad

Posted on May 11, 2009
The Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign (IABC) was organized to eliminate the stigma of atheism. Building on campaigns in Canada and the UK, its goal was to place ads promoting its views on city busses. However the Bloomington (IN) public transit system rejected IABC's ad, which read "You Can Be Good Without God...

Yemen Begins Study of Religious School Curriculum; Plans Mosque Database

Posted on May 11, 2009
Yemen's Ministry of Endowment and Guidance has begun a review of the curriculum at the over 4,500 religious schools in the country. It plans to revise the curriculum where it is not compatible with Islamic teachings and to close schools that promote terrorism...

British Sikhs On Police Force Want Bulletproof Turbans

Posted on May 11, 2009
BBC News reported last Friday that in Britain, the newly-formed British Sikh Police Association is pressing for more research to develop a bullet-proof turban. Currently Sikhs on the police force cannot serve as firearms officers because regulations would require them to wear a helmet which does not fit over a turban...

Malaysia Looks To Expand Its Islamic Finance Industry

Posted on May 11, 2009
Bloomberg reports today that Malaysia is taking several steps to expand the international reach of its Islamic banking industry. It is attempting to attract a large international bank that would provide services that comply with shariah law. Also, last month Malaysia's central bank raised the percentage of foreign ownership permitted in local Islamic banks...

Recent Articles and Books of Interest

Posted on May 11, 2009
From SSRN:Richard W. Garnett, Judicial Enforcement of the Establishment Clause, (Constitutional Commentary, Forthcoming).Abner Greene, Three Theories of Religious Equality...and of Exemptions, (Texas Law Review, Vol. 87, No. 963, 2009).Simon Butt, Polygamy and Mixed Marriage in Indonesia: Islam and the Marriage Law in the Courts, (in Indonesia: Law and Society, T...

Privy Council Holds Trinidad & Tobago's Trinity Cross Unconstitutional

Posted on May 11, 2009
Great Britain's Privy Council Judicial Committee hears appeals of certain cases decided by Trinidad and Tobago's Court of Appeal. (Background.) In Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha of Trinidad and Tobago Inc. v. The Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago, (Privy Council, April 28, 2009) [Word doc), the Privy Council held that Trinidad and Tobago's Trinity Cross of the Order of Trinity, the country's highest award for meritorious service or gallantry, is unconstitutional under Trinidad and Tobago's Constitution as "an infringement of the rights and freedoms of members of the Hindu and Muslim communities in Trinidad and Tobago...

Activists Will File Criminal Complaint Against Pope In Israel

Posted on May 10, 2009
As Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Israel Monday on his trip to the Middle East, two activists plan to file a criminal complaint against him in the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court charging him and others with possessing stolen goods, receiving items considered stolen and receiving goods that were obtained through criminal means...

Pope, In Jordan, Speaks On Manipulation of Religion

Posted on May 10, 2009
On the first leg of his trip to the Middle East, Pope Benedict XVI today was in Jordan. Both Zenit and the New York Times report on his interesting speech regarding ideological manipulation of religion delivered to Muslim religious leaders after his visit to the King Hussein bin Talal Mosque and the adjacent Hashemite Museum...

Obama Compromises On End To D.C. School Vouchers

Posted on May 10, 2009
In the Omnibus Appropriations Act passed by Congress in March and signed by the President, Congress effectively eliminated the controversial D.C. Opportunity Scholarship school voucher program after next year. Over half of the students receiving vouchers attend religious-- mostly Roman Catholic-- schools...

Two Amish Families Held In Contempt Over Sewage Code Compliance

Posted on May 10, 2009
In Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, at a contempt hearing on Friday, a state court judge ordered the homes of two Amish families padlocked, and the occupants evicted, until they complied with court orders to bring the homes into compliance with the county's building and sewage codes...

Paper Questions Governmental Structure of Ave Maria, Florida

Posted on May 10, 2009
Beginning this week end, the Naples (FL) Daily News is running a lengthy 3-part investigative series titled Ave Maria: A Town Without a Vote. According to the article, when legislation creating the new town surrounding Catholic Ave Maria University was enacted, it also contained unusual provisions giving ongoing control to the town's founder, former Domino Pizza owner Tom Monaghan, and and to local landowner Barron Collier Cos...

In Kuwait, Islamists Challenge Women Candidates For Parliament

Posted on May 10, 2009
According to AFP, 19 women are running in Kuwait's May 16 Parliamentary elections-- all hoping to become the first women in Parliament. However at least one Islamic group has issued a fatwa declaring that voting for women candidates violates Islamic law...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on May 10, 2009
In Moriarty v. Rendell, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37043 (MD PA, May 1, 2009), a Pennsylvania federal magistrate judge refused to grant a temporary restraining order against prison officials who insist that plaintiff, as a condition of parole, attend a religious-based 12-step alcohol abuse treatment program...

Obama Will Address Muslim World From Egypt June 4

Posted on May 10, 2009
Yesterday's Haaretz reports that President Obama will deliver an important speech on U.S. relations with the Muslim world in Egypt on June 4. During the presidential campaign, Obama promised that early in his presidency, he would deliver a major address to Muslims from a Muslim capital...

British Muslim Police Chef Objects To Requirement He Cook Pork

Posted on May 10, 2009
Abu Dhabi's The National reported yesterday on a case about to be heard by an employement tribunal in Britain. In London, Hasanali Khoja, a Muslim, is charging the Metropolitan Police Department with religious discrimination. Originally hired as a catering manager, Khoja's duties did not involve actually cooking food...

British Court Upholds Ban On Hindu Funeral Pyres

Posted on May 09, 2009
Yesterday a British High Court rejected a challenge by a 70-year old Hindu man living in Britain to the country's ban on open-air funeral pyres used in traditional Hindu funerals, saying it must respect the political process. India Times and the London Telegraph report that the lawsuit, brought by Davender Ghai, founder of the Anglo-Asian Friendship Society, was a test case for the British Hindu community...

Court Hears Petition To Force Teenaager To Have Chemo Over Religious Objections

Posted on May 09, 2009
Today was the second day of a trial in a Minnesota state court on a petition filed by state child protection workers who want to force 13-year old Daniel Hauser to have chemotherapy and radiation treatments for his Hodgkins lymphoma-- a treatment that results in 95% survival rates...

6th Circuit Defines Test For Religious Accommodation Claim Against Union

Posted on May 08, 2009
Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination by labor unions as well as by employers. In Reed v. International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, (6th Cir., May 7, 2009), the U...

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