Religion & Law

Pres. Obama Sends Passover Greetings

Posted on April 08, 2009
Yesterday President Obama sent out a letter by e-mail conveying holiday wishes to all who are celebrating Passover. (Full text of letter.)

3rd Circuit Says Police Need Not Accommodate Officer's Khimar

Posted on April 08, 2009
In Webb v. City of Philadelphia, (3d Cir., April 7, 2009), the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a Title VII religious discrimination claim brought by a Philadelphia police officer. Agreeing with the district court (see prior posting), the Court of Appeals held that it would impose undue hardship on the Department to require it to allow Kimberlie Webb, a Muslim, to wear a headscarf (khimar) while on duty in uniform...

Student In Israel Displays Novel Protest Over Court's Reading of Hametz Law

Posted on April 08, 2009
Passover begins tonight, and in Israel the dispute continues over how to interpret its Festival of Matzot (Prohibition of Leaven) Law, 5746-1986, (also known as the "Hametz Law"). Last year, a court held that its ban on the public display any leavened product for sale or consumption during Passover did not prevent the sale in a closed place of business of leavened products...

University of Maryland Student Senate Ends Graduation Prayer

Posted on April 08, 2009
University of Maryland's Student Senate voted 32-14 to remove prayer from the University commencement ceremony. WJLA News reported yesterday that the vote on Monday culminated three years of debate on the issue. The invocation was presented each year by one of the University's 14 chaplains, and was designed to be inclusive...

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

Fatih-Based Office Hosts Meeting For Council and Invited Leaders

Posted on April 08, 2009
Today's Washington Post reports: The Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, whose mission is to empower religious and secular groups that provide social services, is hosting more than 60 people it considers key leaders at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building for a meeting that began last night and runs through this evening...

RELIGION CLAUSE IS ON A SHORT PUBLICATION BREAK. LOOK FOR THE NEXT NEW POSTINGS ON SUNDAY MORNING.

Posted on April 08, 2009
Also I will not be moderating comments until then. So comments posted before Sunday will appear on Sunday.

Cert. Denied In Establishment Clause Challenge To Navy Retirement System

Posted on April 07, 2009
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Church v. Department of Navy, (Docket No. 08-1057) (Order List). In the case, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals had dismissed on standing grounds an Establishment Clause challenge by a group of non-liturgical Protestant Navy chaplains to the operation of the Navy's retirement system...

Court Says Ministerial Exception Does Not Apply In Suit Against Archdiocese

Posted on April 07, 2009
In Dayner v. Archdiocese of Hartford, 2009 Conn. Super. LEXIS 606 (CT Super., March 11, 2009), a Connecticut trial court rejected a 1st Amendment free exercise challenge to its jurisdiction in a suit brought by a former principal of a Catholic girl's school against the Archdiocese and a priest...

High School Must Bus Students From Rented Catholic Building For Sex-Ed

Posted on April 07, 2009
Yesterday's Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger reports that some public school officials in Perth Amboy (NJ) apparently did not read a lease closely enough when last year the district rented an empty Catholic school six blocks from Perth Amboy High School to alleviate overcrowded classrooms...

New Jersey Court Issues Injunction Allowing Church To Use Building

Posted on April 07, 2009
A Superior Court judge sitting in Morris County, New Jersey issued an injunction last Friday ordering that Pastor Eric Simons be permitted to use his Randolph Christian Church's former building for services on Sunday pursuant to the terms of a contract the church entered with Bible Church International...

New Yorker Meets Judicial Resistance On Name Change

Posted on April 07, 2009
The Staten Island Advance reported on Sunday on the problems that Kyle Campbell is having in his attempt to get New York courts to allow him to change his name. Campbell is a member of The Nation of Gods and Earths, a religion affiliated with Nation of Islam, whose members commonly take Allah as a name...

Suit Challenges Michigan Funeral Protest Law On Unusual Facts

Posted on April 07, 2009
Last week, the ACLU announced it had filed suit in Michigan federal district court challenging Michigan's funeral protest statute, M.C.L. § 750.167d(1). The complaint (full text) in Lowden v. Claire County, (ED MI, filed 4/1/2009), alleges that Lewis and Jean Lowden were driving in the funeral procession of a close friend who had been killed in Iraq when sheriff's deputies ordered them out of the procession and arrested them because of political protest signs that were taped to their van...

Army Chaplain Urges Day of Prayer and Fasting-- Conflicts With Passover

Posted on April 07, 2009
The head of the Army's chaplain corps, Maj. Gen. Douglas L. Carver, has issued a proclamation urging that Wednesday, April 8, be observed as a day of prayer and fasting for soldiers and their families. The day comes during the Army's 120-day stand down and unit training period to focus on suicide prevention and awareness...

Court Says Pro Se Prisoner Cannot Maintain Class Action

Posted on April 06, 2009
In Blast v. Fischer, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27264 (WD NY, March 30, 2009) , plaintiff, a practitioner of Santeria, brought an action claiming that New York prison policies are being selectively applied to prevent non-mainstream religious practitioners from being able to obtain various religious items...

Mexican Drug War Tactic Angers Santa Muerte Followers

Posted on April 06, 2009
As part of its war on the drug cartels, Mexican law enforcement is apparently destroying shrines to the "Santa Muerte"-- the Death Saint, often portrayed as a robe-covered skeleton resembling the Grim Reaper. San Jose (CA) Mercury News reported yesterday that the Death Saint is often popular with drug traffickers...

UAE Proposal Would Unify Fatwa Procedures Through Federal Law

Posted on April 06, 2009
In the United Arab Emirates, the government is taking steps to bring under control the "fatwa chaos" that has resulted from religious rulings being issued by unqualified sources. The National reports today that the first step towards standardizing national fatwa procedures was taken last year when a dedicated fatwa centre was created to answer questions from the public on religious topics...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on April 06, 2009
From SSRN:Patrick McKinley Brennan, Equality, Conscience, and the Liberty of the Church: Justifying the Controversiale Per Controversialius, (Villanova Law Review, Forthcoming).Calvin R. Massey, Church Schisms, Church Property, and Civil Authority, (March 26, 2009)...

Obama In Turkey Stresses Respectful US-Muslim Relationship

Posted on April 06, 2009
At both a news conference today with Turkish President Abdullah Gul, and in a major address today to Turkey's Parliament, President Barack Obama spoke of US-Muslim relations. In his press conference in Ankara, according to CNN, Obama said: I think that where there's the most promise of building stronger U...

Orthodox Jewish Policy Director Appointed To President's Faith-Based Council-- [UPDATE]: 9 New Members Appointed

Posted on April 06, 2009
According to a press release today by OU, Nathan J. Diament, director of public policy for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, has been named by President Barack Obama to serve on the President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships...

Former Student Challenges University's Requirements for Counseling Practicum

Posted on April 06, 2009
Last week, a former graduate student at Michigan State University filed suit in a Michigan federal district court alleging that she was unconstitutionally dismissed from the University's graduate Counselling Program solely because her religious beliefs and expression regarding homosexual behavior contradicted those of the University's counseling department...

Surprise Nominee For Civil Rights Division Head Likely To Face Some Opposition

Posted on April 05, 2009
Last week, President Obama sent to the Senate the name of Thomas Perez to serve as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of Justice Department. Today's Los Angeles Times says that Perez, who is currently secretary of Maryland's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, will face opposition in his confirmation hearings...

Teacher Has Immunity In Student's Religious Discrimination Claim

Posted on April 05, 2009
In C.H. v. Rankin County School District, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26719 (SD MS, March 30, 2009), parents of a high schooler filed suit alleging, among other things, that their son was discriminated against because of his religion. The instructor and director of an auto body class prohibited the student from returning to class when, after a suspension for alleged harassing behavior, he refused to go to counselling, saying "he only needed God and his father...

Recently Available Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on April 05, 2009
In Harper v. Beard, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25129 (MD PA, March 25, 2009), a Pennsylvania federal district court accepted a magistrate's recommendation to dismiss a prisoner's claim that his 1st Amendment rights were violated when authorities deprived him of a Bible...

Israel's High Court Issues Injunction Pending Decision on Immigration Case

Posted on April 05, 2009
Jerusalem Post reports today that Israel's High Court has issued an injunction allowing an immigrant from Italy to remain in the country while the court considers her appeal of denial of her citizenship application under the Law of Return. The woman was converted to Judaism by an Orthodox Rabbinical Court in Rome and then almost immediately came to Israel...

Flogging Video Undermines Arrangements For Islamic Law In Part of Pakistan

Posted on April 04, 2009
In February, the government of Pakistan entered a tentative agreement with the Taliban that are in effective control of the Swat Valley to set up a new judicial structure in the nearby Malakand region of the North West Frontier Province. The arrangement would permit cases to be adjudicated according to Islamic law...

California Supreme Court Refuses To Answer Certified Questions From 9th Circuit

Posted on April 04, 2009
Last year, in Barnes-Wallace v. Boy Scouts of America, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals certified three questions to the California Supreme Court in a case challenging constitutionality of the City of San Diego's leasing city property, at nominal rents, to the Boy Scouts...

U.S. Senate Defeats Health Care Providers' Conscience Amendment

Posted on April 04, 2009
On Thursday, the U.S. Senate defeated a Budget Bill amendment offered by Sen. Tom Coburn. The amendment, defeated by a vote of 41-56, would have banned discrimination against health care providers who refuse on grounds of conscience to "participate in specific surgical or medical procedures or prescribe certain pharmaceuticals...

Russia Sets Up Experts Council To Guide Courts On Religion Issues

Posted on April 04, 2009
Russia's Justice Ministry has set up an Experts Council to provide guidance on religious matters to Russia's courts and other governmental bodies. It includes representatives of Russia's four "traditional" religions-- Russian Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism...

County Settles Religious Harassment Lawsuit

Posted on April 04, 2009
Today's Craig (CO) Daily Press reports that the Moffat County (CO) Commission agreed last Tuesday to settle for $15,000 a lawsuit filed by a former employee who charges that she was subjected to religious harassment by his supervisor in the Parks and Recreation Department...

Court Bars Illinois Enforcement of Pharmacy Rule Pending Trial

Posted on April 04, 2009
Last December, in Morr-Fitz, Inc. v. Blagojevich, (IL Sup. Ct., Dec. 18, 2008), the Illinois Supreme Court held that two pharmacists and 3 corporations that own pharmacies had stated a justiciable challenge to a State Board of Pharmacy rule (68 Ill. Adm...

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