Religion & Law

Recent Articles and New Book of Interest

Posted on March 16, 2009
From SSRN:Edward H. Sisson, A Proposal for State Legislatures to Pursue Impartial Audits of the Scientific Basis for Evolution as the State Teaches it in its High Schools, Colleges, and Universities, (March 10, 2009).Enyinna S. Nwauche, Law Religion and Human Rights in Nigeria, (African Human Rights Law Journal, Vol...

Romanian Tribunals Uphold Biometric Passports Over Religious Objections

Posted on March 16, 2009
In Romania, both the Legal Commission of the Senate and the Romania Appeals Court have upheld the Emergency Government Ordinance introducing biometric passports despite protests that the new passports violate religious rights. The face image and fingerprints are digital in the new documents...

DC Circuit Says Religious College Is Exempt From NLRB Jurisdiction

Posted on March 15, 2009
In Carroll College, Inc. v. NLRB, (DC Cir., March 13, 2009), the DC Circuit Court of Appeals held that the National Labor Relations Board lacks jurisdiction over Carroll College under the Supreme Court's Catholic Bishop case because Carroll is a religiously operated school...

Obama Connects With 5 Pastors For Prayer and Discussion

Posted on March 15, 2009
While the Obama family has not yet joined a church in Washington, D.C., today's New York Times reports that President Barack Obama has created connections with five pastors who he telephones for private prayer sessions and with whom he discusses the role of religion in politics...

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British MP Proposes Ban On Demonstrations Against Uniformed Military

Posted on March 15, 2009
A great deal of anger has surfaced in Britain over the protest last week (Guardian 3/11) by a tiny Islamist group against soldiers returning from Iraq. During a parade in the town of Lutton featuring 200 returning soldiers, Ahle Sunnah al Jamah members carried signs such as one reading "Anglian soldiers go to hell...

Saudi Religious Enforcers Battle Sorcery

Posted on March 15, 2009
Today's Saudi Gazette reports on the special efforts of the government's Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in combating sorcery, which is banned by Islam. Apparently there is a special branch of the Commission devoted to the topic...

Lots of New Prisoner Free Exercise Cases Available This Week

Posted on March 15, 2009
In Sanders v. Ennis-Bullock, (9th Cir., Feb. 18, 2009), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the district court that the Arizona prison policy limiting inmates to ten religious audiotapes at a time did not substantially burden plaintiff?s exercise of religion...

Air Force Investigating Commander's Promotion of Religious Website Video

Posted on March 14, 2009
Today's New York Times reports that the Air Force has begun an investigation into whether its policy on religious neutrality was breached when a commander sent an e-mail to thousands of personnel in her 501st Combat Support Wing in Europe urging them to view an inspirational video on Catholic website...

Appellate Court OK's Order To Remove Bible From Counsel's Table At Trial

Posted on March 14, 2009
A Texas state appellate court has upheld a trial court's order that a criminal defendant in a drug trial remove a Bible that he wanted to have on counsel's table in front of him. Defendant was still permitted to have the Bible nearby, but was required to place it in a less prominent location...

Harassment Charges Held Nonjusticiable Under Establishment Clause

Posted on March 14, 2009
In Destfino v. Kennedy, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18138 (ED CA, Jan. 8, 2009), plaintiffs filed a wide-ranging complaint against numerous defendants, including a church, alleging that defendants made fraudulent misrepresentations to induce plaintiffs to enter into home and auto loans in a debt elimination program...

Challenge To Inaugural Oath and Prayers Dismissed On Standing Grounds

Posted on March 13, 2009
Just prior to President Barack Obama's inauguration, the District Court for the District of Columbia refused to issue a preliminary injunction to prevent the Chief Justice from administering the oath of office using the phrase "so help me God" and also refused to preliminarily enjoin clergy delivering an invocation and benediction at the ceremony...

Arizona Appellate Court Upholds Corporate Scholarship Tax Credits

Posted on March 13, 2009
In a 2-1 decision in Green v. Garriott, (AZ Ct. App., March 12, 2009), an Arizona state court of appeals has rejected state and federal constitutional challenges to the state's income tax credit for scholarship contributions from corporations. Contributions are made to non-profit school tuition organizations that use the funds for scholarships to nonpublic schools...

Georgia House Passes Bill Permitting Adoption of Embryo

Posted on March 13, 2009
According to a press release by Georgia Right to Life, yesterday the Georgia state House of Representatives pased by a vote of 96-66 and sent on to the Senate the Option of Adoption Act (HB 388). The Act deals with excess embryos created through in vitro fertilization procedures...

Pope Apologizes For His Outreach To Holocaust Denier

Posted on March 13, 2009
In a letter (full text) to Catholic bishops described by a Vatican spokesman as an "unusual document worthy of great attention" (Zenit), Pope Benedict XVI has essentially apologized for the confusion created by his lifting of the excommunication of Holocaust-denying Lefebvrite Bishop Richard Williamson...

Saudi Academy In Virginia Makes Some Improvements In Textbooks

Posted on March 13, 2009
Since 2007, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has been highly critical of the textbooks used by the Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax, Virginia. The 900-student school with close ties to the Saudi government operates in a former high school building leased from Fairfax County...

Court OK's Most Challenges By Muslim Group To Zoning Denial

Posted on March 13, 2009
In Moxley v. Town of Walkersville, (D MD, March 6, 2009), plaintiffs alleged that their proposed sale of land to the Ahmadiyya Movement of Islam, Inc. was blocked by government officials and private citizens in concerted actions motivated by anti-Muslim hostility...

Archbishop Criticzes HHS Nominee Sebelius For Her Pro-Choice Views

Posted on March 13, 2009
Catholic Action yesterday published an interview with Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann on his actions regarding Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic who has long supported abortion rights. Sebelius is President Obama's nominee to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services...

Supreme Court's Asylum Decision Important For Victims of Religious Persecution

Posted on March 13, 2009
Last week the U.S. Supreme Court decided Negusie v. Holder, (Sup. Ct., March 3, 2009). It held the provision in U.S. immigration law that denies asylum to anyone who assisted in persecution of others does not necessarily apply to those whose assistance was coerced...

EEOC Data Shows Rise In Religious Discrimination Complaints

Posted on March 12, 2009
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission yesterday released its enforcement and litigation statistics for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2008. They show an overall 15% rise in workplace discrimination complaints from the prior year. The number of religious discrimination complaints went up 13...

Religious Groups Oppose Proposed NY Limitations Extension For Absue Cases

Posted on March 12, 2009
Today's New York Times reports that Catholic and Orthodox Jewish groups are lobbying hard against a proposed bill that would extend the statute of limitations for filing of civil child sexual abuse cases. The bill, A2596 and S2568, which now has a good chance of passing, would give a one-time one year window for victims to file no matter how long ago the abuse occurred, and then would extend the limitations period to ten years after the victim turns 18...

Court Asks For Further Briefing On Praying Employees' Free Exercise Claim

Posted on March 12, 2009
In Shatkin v. University of Texas at Arlington, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18018 (ND TX, March 10, 2009), two former employees asserted free speech and free exercise claims after they were fired by the University of Texas for inappropriate conduct. At issue was plaintiffs' praying for a co-employee who they said was "demonically oppressed" by going to that employee's cubicle after work on a day the employee was not there to pray and dab olive oil on the cubicle doorway...

Minnesota Will Offer First State-Run Shariah-Compliant Home Sales

Posted on March 12, 2009
An editorial in Investor's Business Daily yesterday says that the state of Minnesota is about to become the first to offer a state-run Shariah-compliant home lending program. The Minnesota Housing Finance Agency will buy homes with tax funds and then resell them to Muslim buyers in installment sales at a higher price (in lieu of charging interest)...

Turkish Magazine Forced To Scrap Cover Story On Darwin

Posted on March 12, 2009
The deputy head of Turkey's Scientific and Technological Research Council (TUBITAK) apparently pressured the editor of the organization's popular magazine, Science and Technology, to remove this month's planned cover story honoring Charles Darwin on his 200th birthday...

Federal Appellate Courts Hear Oral Arguments In Two Cases of Interest

Posted on March 12, 2009
Two cases of interest were argued in federal appeals courts yesterday. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in Corder v. Lewis Palmer School District No. 38. In the case, a Colorado federal district court below upheld the actions of a high school principal who, in 2006, forced a student graduation speaker to apologize for including unauthorized religious material in her 30-second portion of a joint graduation speech...

Afghanistan Supreme Court Upholds 20-Year Blasphemy Sentence

Posted on March 12, 2009
Today's International Herald Tribune reports that Afghanistan's Supreme Court last month upheld a 20-year prison sentence for blasphemy imposed on an Afghan university student for distributing an article about the role of women in Islam. Originally 24-year old Parwiz Kambakhsh was sentenced to death, but after international protests (see prior posting) an appeals court imposed the reduced sentence that has now been confirmed by the Supreme Court.

Iran's Attorney General Reaffirms Ban On Baha'is

Posted on March 12, 2009
Iran Press Watch yesterday posted an English translation of a recently-published letter from Iran's Attorney General, Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi, to the country's Minister of Intelligence, Muhseni-Azheh'i. The lengthy undated letter lays out the basis for the banning of the Baha'i faith in Iran...

DC School Voucher Program Is Effectively Ended By Congress

Posted on March 11, 2009
It appears that Congress has effectively ended the school voucher program in the District of Columbia that has been popular with many parents. More than half of the students receiving vouchers attend religious-- mostly Roman Catholic-- schools. (See prior posting...

Kazakhstan Court Reduces Sentence of Unification Church Missionary

Posted on March 11, 2009
In a case that has drawn the attention of international human rights groups, an appeals court in Kazakhstan has reduced the sentence of Unification Church missionary Liza Drenicheva from two years in prison to the two months she has already served. She must also pay a fine of $200 (US) and court costs of $800 (US)...

Dutch Supreme Court Protects Criticism of a Religion From Group Insult Prosecution

Posted on March 11, 2009
In an important free speech decision Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Netherlands overturned the conviction of a man who had been charged under Article 137c of the Dutch criminal code with making offensive statements about Muslims. In 2004, after the murder by an Islamic extremist of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, defendant hung a poster in his window reading: "Stop the tumour that is Islam...

Cert Filed In Case Challenging Non-Recognition of Christian Student Group

Posted on March 11, 2009
A petition for certiorari (full text) was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday in Truth v. Kent School District. 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...

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