Religion & Law

Richard John Neuhaus, Leading Catholic Thinker, Dies

Posted on January 09, 2009
New York Catholic priest, Richard John Neuhaus, died yesterday at the age of 72. The National Catholic Reporter says that Neuhaus was known as an intellectual spokesman for the "religious right." Originally ordained as a Lutheran minister, Neuhaus converted to Catholicism in 1990...

Mississippi Bill Would Require Disclaimer Stickers In Biology Textbooks

Posted on January 09, 2009
As state legislatures reconvene, anti-evolution bills again begin to be introduced. On Tuesday, Mississippi state representative Gary Chism introduced into Mississippi's legislature HB 25 (full text), a bill that would require the State Board of Education to place stickers with disclaimers in every textbook that includes material on evolution...

Kerala India Commission To Propose Several Religious Reforms

Posted on January 09, 2009
In India, the Law Reforms Commission of the state of Kerala is scheduled to issue a controversial report to the government on January 24. India Today and IANS this week preview recommendations that will impact Muslims, Catholics and Hindus. The Commission, headed by former Supreme Court Judge V...

Settlement Bars Louisiana From Making Unrestricted Grants To Churches

Posted on January 09, 2009
AP reported yesterday that the state of Louisiana has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought against it by the ACLU challenging appropriations in the 2007 state budget bill for two churches, with no restrictions on the churches' use of the funds. (Similar appropriations to six other churches had also been approved...

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Christian Groups Seek To Ban Imposition of Fairness Doctrine On Broadcasters

Posted on January 09, 2009
The Christian Coalition of America has begun an online petition campaign to prevent the FCC under Democratic leadership from again imposing the "Fairness Doctrine" on radio broadcasters. (Press release(Jan. 8)). The group argues that a return of the requirement that equal time be given on the air to opposing views on controversial issues would have the effect of ending conservative talk radio shows such as those of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly...

New Bangladesh Prime Minister Wants Return To Secularism

Posted on January 09, 2009
Bangladesh's new Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, says that she will move to restore the country's first constitution, framed in 1972, in order to return the country to the principle of secularism. LiveMint.com reported yesterday that since a 1975 coup, Bangladesh has experienced a rise in religious militancy as religion-based parties entered politics...

State AG's File Amicus Brief Opposing Newdow's Challenge To Inauguration Ceremony

Posted on January 09, 2009
Led by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot (press release), the attorneys general of all 50 states and the Virgin Islands have filed an amicus brief (full text) in support of prayer and the use of "so help me God" in the oath at Barack Obama's upcoming inauguration...

Title VII Claim Against Orthodox Jewish Organization Dismissed

Posted on January 08, 2009
In Wechsler v. Orthodox Union, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105780 (SD NY, Jan. 5, 2009), a New York federal district court dismissed a Title VII religious discrimination and retaliation complaint brought against the Orthodox Union. The court held that Section 702 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (42 USC Sec...

AU Protests School's Fellowship of Christian Athletes Room

Posted on January 08, 2009
Americans United yesterday sent a letter (full text) to Hot Springs, Arkansas school officials protesting the recent construction of a special meeting room for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes as an addition to Fountain Lake High School's football complex...

Protest Against Court Decision on License Plates Includes State Officials

Posted on January 08, 2009
In Greer, South Carolina on Tuesday, the state's attorney general and lieutenant governor joined some 400 others at People's Baptist Church to protest a decision handed down by a federal district court last month preliminarily enjoining production of the state's proposed "I Believe" license plates...

1st Amendment Suit Against Ohio Library Settled For Attorneys' Fees

Posted on January 08, 2009
Yesterday's Cincinnati Enquirer reports that a lawsuit against the Clermont County (OH) Public Library, challenging its rules on use of its meeting rooms, has been settled. Under previous library rules, rooms could be used by non-profit community groups, but not for political, religious or social events...

Lawyers In RLUIPA Case Spar Over "Daily Show" Clip As Evidence

Posted on January 08, 2009
As previously reported, a lawsuit under RLUIPA against Fayette County, Pennsylvania, brought by the Church of Universal Love and Music, is pending in federal district court. The church is seeking rezoning or a special exception so it can continue to use property in an agricultural area for religious concerts...

Canadian Arrests Are Likely Challenge To Canada's Polygamy Laws

Posted on January 08, 2009
Yesterday Canadian authorities arrested two religious leaders in Bountiful, British Columbia on charges of polygamy. AP and the Salt Lake Tribune report on the arrest of Jim Oler, bishop of the town's FLDS community and Winston Blackmore, bishop of a competing polygamous group in the town...

New Orleans Police Evict Protesters From Closed Catholic Churches

Posted on January 07, 2009
The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports on yesterday's police eviction of protesters from two New Orleans Catholic churches that had been closed by the Archdiocese. Police were accompanied by lawyers from the city attorney's office and by members of the Archdiocese property management office who supervised changing of locks on the churches...

Vietnam Issues New Directive On Land For Religious Uses

Posted on January 07, 2009
Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has issued a new Directive to assure uniform land management approaches to allocation of land for religious uses. Vietnam News Agency reports today that Directive 1940/CT-TTg calls for government units to speed up the granting of land use certificates to religious organizations that meet legal requirements...

Federal Lawsuit By Amish Challenges Building Code Enforcement

Posted on January 07, 2009
The Becket Fund announced yesterday that it had filed suit in a New York federal district court on behalf of eleven Amish families challenging enforcement of Morristown, NY's building code provisions that infringe plaintiffs' religious beliefs. The complaint (full text) in Yoder v...

First 2009 Foray At Evolution Teaching Introduced In Oklahoma

Posted on January 07, 2009
The National Center for Science Education reports that the first anti-evolution bill to be introduced in a legislature in 2009 is Oklahoma's proposed Scientific Education and Academic Freedom Act (SB 320). The NCSE posting also sets out the full text of the bill which provides in part: educational authorities in this state shall ...

School Board Sued Over Religious Harassment of School Library Employee

Posted on January 07, 2009
Last week, a former media aid assistant at Blacksburg (VA) Middle School filed a suit under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act charging religious harassment and discrimination in the workplace. The complaint (full text) in Scott v. Montgomery County School Board, (WD VA, filed 12/30/2008), alleged that Judith Scott's supervisor insisted on praying for her; tried to get her to attend a Christian conference along with two other teachers; gave Scott religious books, CD's and audiotapes; left scripture verses for Scott to see in the Media Center Planner book; and told Scott that she had anointed the library...

Suit By Former IRS Agent Says Bar On Kirpan Was Religious Discrimination

Posted on January 07, 2009
Yesterday a lawsuit was filed in a Texas federal district court by a former Sikh employee of the Internal Revenue Service. The lawsuit is described in a press release distributed by e-mail by the Becket Fund:Kawaljeet Tagore, a Sikh American, ... claims that the IRS discriminated against her by prohibiting her from wearing a kirpan, a mandatory article of faith, on her job as a revenue agent at the Mickey Leland Federal Building in downtown Houston...

Petitions For Cert. Filed In Two 9th Circuit Cases

Posted on January 07, 2009
Petitions for certiorari were filed in two church-state cases yesterday. The Pacific Justice Institute announced that a petition for certiorari was filed in Caldwell v. Caldwell. In the case, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed for lack of standing an Establishment Clause challenge to 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...

School Board Says Clergy Cannot Minister To Students At Lunch

Posted on January 07, 2009
In Fort Scott, Kansas, local clergy are complaining to USD 234 School Board about its recently adopted policy that prevents clergy from visiting elementary school lunchrooms to eat lunch with children from their churches. Yesterday's Fort Scott Tribune reports that school board president Matt Ida informed Community Christian Church Children's Pastor Paul Martin that allowing a pastor to minister to children while they are at school violates U...

California Church Loses Challenge To Rezoning Denial

Posted on January 06, 2009
In International Church of the Foursquare Gospel v. City of San Leandro, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105525 (ND CA, Dec. 22, 2008), a California federal district court rejected RLUIPA, First Amendment, due process and equal protection challenges to San Leandro, California's refusal to rezone industrial property a church had agreed to buy to "assembly" use...

Hearing Set For January 15 In Challenges To Inauguration Ceremony

Posted on January 06, 2009
Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia set a date for a hearing on a preliminary injunction in Newdow v. Roberts. The suit challenges the practice of clergy delivering prayers at the upcoming presidential inauguration and challenges the use of "so help me God" by the Chief Justice in administering the oath of office...

Labor Department Issues Guidance On RFRA Exemption For Grantees

Posted on January 06, 2009
Yesterday the Department of Labor issued a release explaining how recipients of federal grants under the Workforce Reinvestment Act (WRA) can obtain an exemption from statutory provisions barring hiring by grantees on the basis of religion (full text of Guidance document...

In Nepal, Clergy Challenge Government's Power To Appoint Hindu Priests

Posted on January 06, 2009
Last May, Nepal abolished its monarchy and moved to a parliamentary form of government. The Hindu reported yesterday on a new religious clash created by the change. Historically the King appointed Nepal's top Hindu priests. The Prime Minister, as the new head of state, last week named two priests to lead the Pashupatinath Temple in Katmandu...

Cert. Petition Filed In Case Challenging Jurors' Use of Bible

Posted on January 06, 2009
Yesterday, a petition for certiorari (full text) was filed in Oliver v. Quarterman. In the case, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals held that a jury's use of the Bible during the sentencing phase in a murder case was improper, but was not shown to have influenced the jury's decision...

Repressive Religion Law Signed By President of Nagorno-Karabakh

Posted on January 06, 2009
Yesterday Forum 18 reported that on December 24, President Bako Sahakyan of the unrecognised Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus (between Armenia and Azerbaijan) signed a "repressive" new Religion Law. The statute, many of whose provisions were taken from Armenia's Religion Law, will go into effect ten days after its official publication later this month...

California Supreme Court Says Episcopal Church Owns Property of Break-Away Parish

Posted on January 05, 2009
Today in Episcopal Church Cases, (CA Sup. Ct., Jan. 5, 2009), the California Supreme Court held that building and property of the St. James Parish in Los Angeles belongs to the Episcopal Church, not the parish, once the parish broke away and affiliated with the more conservative Anglican Church of Uganda...

Victoria AG Temporarily Refused Communion on Christmas Eve

Posted on January 05, 2009
In Australia, Melbourne's Herald-Sun and Sydney's Morning Herald reported last week that Victoria's Attorney-General Robert Hulls was refused communion on Christmas eve by a minister assisting the parish priest at St. Monica's Church in Moonee Ponds. Apparently the refusal was motivated by Hulls' role in referring the state's recently enacted abortion law to the Law Reform Commission, even though Hulls voted against the bill in Victoria's Parliament...

Court Says Israel's Religion Ministry Discriminated Against Reform Synagogues

Posted on January 05, 2009
Yesterday's Y Net News reports on the efforts of three Reform Jewish synagogues in Israel to get the Ministry of Religious Affairs to list them on its website of Israeli synagogues. The Ministry, however, objects to listing non-Orthodox congregations...

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