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Religion & Law

Religion Clause

Current legal, political and scholarly developments relating to free exercise of religion and separation of church and state.
By Howard M. Friedman

Post Frequency: 19.9/day

Last Entry: November 05, 2020 at 07:00:00

British Equality Commission Publishes List of Most Powerful Muslim Women In UK

Posted on March 26, 2009
Britain's Equality and Human Rights Commission this week, in cooperation with The Times and Emel magazine, has published Muslim Women Power List 2009. The list honors Muslim women who are leaders in business, civil service, arts, media or the public sector...

NY Court Says Contract To Sell Church Land Was Valid Without Court Approval

Posted on March 26, 2009
In Hermandad Y Asociados, Inc. v Movimiento Misionero Mundial, Inc., (NY Sup. Ct., March 6, 2009), a New York state trial court interpreted Sec. 12 of the New York Religious Corporations Law. The section requires court approval for the sale, mortgage or long-term lease of church property...

Serbian Parliament Passes Anti-Discrimination Law

Posted on March 26, 2009
AP reports that Serbia's parliament today narrowly passed an anti-discrimination bill, despite objections from the Serbian Orthodox Church and others. The bill bans discrimination based on religion, race, gender, sexual orientation and various other grounds...

Tajikistan's President Signs Controversial New Religion Law

Posted on March 26, 2009
Tajikistan's President Imomali Rakhmon today signed a controversial new religion law, according to a report from Reuters. Last week the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom criticized the law, saying: If signed, the law will legalize harsh policies already adopted by the Tajik government against its majority Muslim population, including the closure of hundreds of mosques and limiting the religious education of children...

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Court Invalidates Rule On Green Card Applications By Foreign Religious Workers [Revised]

Posted on March 25, 2009
In Ruiz-Diaz v. United States, (WD WA, March 23, 2009), a Washington federal district court invalidated a federal regulation (8 CFR 245.2) that makes it more difficult for foreign religious workers to obtain permanent residency status than various other foreign workers...

Court Says Property of Break-Away Parish Remains With Colorado Episcopal Diocese

Posted on March 25, 2009
In Grace Church and St. Stephen's v. Bishop and Diocese of Colorado, (CO Dist. Ct., March 24, 2009), a Colorado state trial court held that all the property of a break-away Colorado Springs parish belongs to the Episcopal Church of the United States and the Diocese of the State of Colorado...

Israel's Chief Rabbinate Charges Wedding Ad By Masorti Movement Is Fraudulent

Posted on March 25, 2009
In Israel, an attorney for the Chief Rabbinate has written the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) complaining about a radio ad it is broadcasting on behalf of the Masorti Movement. Yesterday's YNet News reported on the ad which encourages couples to consider marrying in a wedding ceremony performed by a Conservative rabbi instead of in an Orthodox ceremony performed by the Chief Rabbinate...

9th Circuit Finds Chinese Christian Refugee Has Fear of Political Persecution

Posted on March 25, 2009
In Li v. Holder, (9th Cir., March 23, 2009), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Board of Immigration Appeals wrongly rejected an application for asylum by Xun Li, a former member of a Christian house church in China who had come to the U...

Episcopal Priest Designated Chief Judge of U.S. Court of Federal Claims

Posted on March 25, 2009
On Monday, the White House announced that President Obama has designated U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Emily C. Hewitt to serve as Chief Judge of the court. The promotion took effect on March 11. Episcopal Life reports that Hewitt is an Episcopal priest...

White House Announces This Year's Easter Egg Roll

Posted on March 25, 2009
The White House on Monday announced details of this year's White House Easter Egg Roll. For the first time, tickets will be distributed online instead of in advance so that more families and children from around the country can gain admittance. This year's theme will encourage youth to lead healthy and active lives...

Court Tells FDA To Reconsider "Plan B" Restrictions

Posted on March 24, 2009
In Tummino v. Torti, (ED NY, March 29, 2009), a New York federal district court ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reconsider the restrictions it previously placed on distribution of "Plan B", an emergency contraceptive. Under FDA rules adopted in 2006 (FDA's Q&A), women 18 and over may obtain the drug without a prescription, but only upon showing identification to a pharmacist...

British Court To Hear Challenge to Ban On Hindu Funeral Pyres

Posted on March 24, 2009
In Britain, a high court today begins a 3-day hearing in a challenge by an elderly Hindu man to Newcastle's ban on open-air cremations. Both the Guardian and the Telegraph report on the test case brought by the founder of the Anglo-Asian Friendship Society...

Obama Will Speak At Notre Dame; Some Catholics Protest

Posted on March 24, 2009
On Friday, the White House announced that President Barack Obama will be the commencement speaker at three universities this spring. One of those is Notre Dame. A press release from Notre Dame indicated that the President will also be awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree...

Christian Baptism Center Dedicated In Jordan

Posted on March 24, 2009
In the largely Muslim nation of Jordan last week, Baptist leaders and other dignitaries attended a dedication of a new evangelical Christian baptism center located by the Jordan River near the site it is believed Jesus was baptized. The site, which is operated as a national park, was promised to the Baptist World Alliance by Jordan's King Abdullah II during a 2007 meeting...

On-Campus Released Time Program Enjoined

Posted on March 23, 2009
In H.S. v. Huntington County Community School Corp., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22488 (ND IN, March 19, 2009), an Indiana federal district court accepted a magistrate's recommendation and issued a preliminary injunction barring released-time religious classes on school property during school instructional time...

In Jews for Jesus Challenge, Revised Oyster Bay Permit Rules Held Invalid

Posted on March 23, 2009
In People v. Mendelson, (NY Nassau Co. Dist. Ct., March 19, 2009), a New York state trial court dismissed criminal charges brought against a "Jews for Jesus" missionary for distributing literature at a concert in an Oyster Bay (NY) park without obtaining a permit...

Recent Articles and Books of Interest

Posted on March 23, 2009
From SSRN:Robert Eli Rosen, Samson the Judge: Religion and Violence in Milton's SAMSON AGONISTES, University of Miami Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2009-09, March 6, 2009).From SmartCILP:Celine Abramschmitt, The Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition: Religious Morality, Social Science, and the Establishment Clause, 3 Florida International University Law Review 113-186 (2007)...

Cert. Denied In "Understanding Evolution" Website Case

Posted on March 23, 2009
Today the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in Caldwell v. Caldwell, (Docket No. 08-858). (Order List.) In the case, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed for lack of standing plaintiff's Establishment Clause challenge to certain content on an "Understanding Evolution" website created and maintained by the University of California Museum of Paleontology and funded in part by the National Science Foundation...

Suit Challenges Religious Lyrics Planned For School Assembly

Posted on March 22, 2009
Today's St. Augustine (FL) Record reports on a lawsuit filed last week in federal district court in Florida complaining about an attempt by teachers to include the Diamond Rio band's song "In God We Still Trust" in a public school's third-grade end-of-year assembly...

Religious Divide Growing In Israel's Army

Posted on March 22, 2009
Today's New York Times carries an article titled A Religious War In Israel's Army. It focuses on the growing influence of religious nationalists, many from the settler movement, in an Army that has traditionally been dominated by secular kibbutzniks. Many officers in the elite Golani Brigade are graduates of right-wing military preparatory academies...

Free Exercise Challenge To Marijuana Control Rejected

Posted on March 22, 2009
In Gover v. United States, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22331 (WD AK, March 19, 2009), a pro se plaintiff sued then-President, George W. Bush, as well as the United States, making broad allegations of unjust policies and directives. In particular plaintiff sought to have marijuana removed from coverage under the Controlled Substances Act...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on March 22, 2009
In Grimes v. Tilton, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20183 (SD CA, March 12, 2009), a prisoner alleged that the denial of his religiously-motivated request for vegetarian diet violated his rights under RLUIPA and the equal protection clause. A California federal district court, while dismissing certain of plaintiff's claims, allowed him to move ahead on his claims for damages against various of the defendants...

5th Circuit Upholds Christian School's Exclusion From Public School League

Posted on March 21, 2009
In Cornerstone Christian Schools v. University Interscholasitc League, (5th Cir., March 20, 2009), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit by a high schooler and his parents who claim that their free exercise, equal protection, and due process rights were infringed when UIL denied Cornerstone Christian Schools an opportunity to apply for league membership...

Settlement Terms Disclosed In "Universal Love and Music" RLUIPA Suit

Posted on March 21, 2009
The terms of a previously confidential settlement agreement in a RLUIPA lawsuit have now become public with the filing of the 12-page settlement in a Pennsylvania federal court. The suit also raised 1st Amendment claims. The Church of Universal Love and Music sued Fayette County, Pennsylvania which had denied it zoning permission to continue to use property in an agricultural area for religious concerts...

County Creates Unusual Policy On Opening Prayers

Posted on March 21, 2009
The Accomack County (VA) Board of Supervisors voted 5-4 on Wednesday to change its policy on the type of prayer that would open their meetings. The Salisbury (MD) Times explained the unusual arrangement that the Supervisors agreed upon as a way to hopefully insulate themselves from a costly lawsuit...

Malaysian Bar Group Threatened With Suit Over Use of Word "Allah"

Posted on March 21, 2009
The Malaysian Bar, the organization that represents some 12,000 lawyers in Malaysia, recently posted a poll on its website asking lawyers to vote on whether the use of the word "Allah" is restricted to a particular group in Malaysia and whether non-Muslim religious publications should be allowed to use the term to refer to God...

Texas Bill Would Exempt Creation Institue Among Others From State Licensing

Posted on March 21, 2009
Fox News reported earlier this week that a Texas state legislator has introduced HB 2800 that would exempt private, non-profit educational institutions that do not accept state funding from the authority of the Texas' Higher Education Coordinating Board...

9th Circuit: School May Cut Off Proselytizing Graduation Speech

Posted on March 21, 2009
In McComb v. Crehan, (9th Cir., March 20, 2009), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the action of Clark County, Nevada school officials in cutting off the microphone at high school graduation ceremonies when the class valedictorian departed from her approved speech and began reading from a version that contained religious and Biblical references...

Australian Officials Deny Major Retailers Permission To Open On Easter

Posted on March 21, 2009
In the Australian state of New South Wales, the Shop Trading Act 2008 requires retail stores to be closed on Good Friday, Easter, Christmas, Boxing Day and until 1:00 p.m. on Anzac Day. The Act exempts small shops, shops offering various sorts of food and entertainment as well as hotels...

Court Says AA Meetings Are Not "Exercise of Religion" Under RLUIPA

Posted on March 20, 2009
In Glenside Center, Inc. v. Abington Township Zoning Hearing Board, (PA Commn. Ct., March 17, 2009), a Pennsylvania appellate court held that use of a building for Alcoholics Anonymous meetings (and for meetings by other 12-step groups) is not an "exercise of religion" as that term is used in the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act...

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