Religion & Law

Texas County Puts Donated 10 Commandments Monument On Courthouse Square

Posted on January 24, 2011
The Oldham County Texas commission last year approved residents placing a Ten Commandments monument on Courthouse Square, so long as county funds were not spent on it. The Amarillo Globe-News yesterday reported that a 4-ton granite monument is now in place, positioned so it is surrounded by three historical markers-- honoring the senator for whom the county is named, the county's first physician and Old Tascosa...

British Government Spends Large Amounts Studying Anti-Discrimination Complaince

Posted on January 24, 2011
Last year, the British Parliament passed the Equality Act 2010, replacing nine separate anti-discrimination laws that previously existed. The London Mail yesterday reported that government departments and other public bodies have spent large amounts on studies to promote and assure compliance with the new law...

U.S. Catholic Bishops Support Amendment, Not Repeal, of Health Care Law; Release Other Policy Priorities

Posted on January 24, 2011
In a press release last week, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced that it will not support total repeal of last year's health care reform bill. Instead, according to a letter it sent to members of the House of Representatives, it will seek action by Congress to amend the law to ensure access to quality, affordable, life-giving health care for all; to retain requirements that effectively protect conscience rights and that prohibit use of federal funds for elective abortion or for insurance plans that include them...

Episcopal Church Awarded Fort Worth Diocese Property

Posted on January 24, 2011
The Episcopal Church (TEC) has successfully asserted a claim to the property of a Texas diocese that broke away to affiliate with the more conservative Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.  In The Episcopal Church v. Salazar, (TX Dist. Ct...

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Shi'ite Congregation Sues Georgia Town Over Zoning Refusal

Posted on January 24, 2011
Yesterday's Atlanta Journal Constitution reports on a lawsuit filed by the Dar-E-Abbas Shi'ite Muslim congregation against the city of Lilburn, Georgia in a zoning dispute.  Plaintiffs want the city to rezone four acres adjacent to its current site so it can build a 20,000 square foot mosque and a 200-car parking lot...

San Antonio Archdiocese Settles Sexual Assault Claim

Posted on January 24, 2011
The Archdiocese of San Antonio (TX) announced on Friday that it has settled a lawsuit involving charges of sexual assault by a priest, Father John M. Fiala.  The case was settled for $946,000, paid by the Archdiocese's insurers. According to a report on the settlement by the San Antonio Express-News, Fiala was indicted on six counts of sexually assaulting the teen at gun point, and subsequently arrested on a charge of attempting to hire a hit man to kill him...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on January 24, 2011
From SSRN:Christopher McCrudden, Religion and Education in Northern Ireland, (Oxford Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2/2011, Jan. 16, 2011).Jayeel Cornelio, Being Catholic as Reflexive Spirituality: The Case of Religiously Involved Filipino Students, (Asia Research Institute Working Paper No...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on January 23, 2011
In Mauwee v. Donat, (9th Cir., Dec. 22, 2010), the 9th Circuit held that monetary damages are not available under RLUIPA against the Nevada Department of Corrections or officials acting in their official capacity. It also held that an inmate's free exercise claims are moot...

Court Rejects Establishment Clause Challenge To Forest Service's Access Plan

Posted on January 23, 2011
Fortune v. Thompson, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5343 (D MT, Jan. 20, 2011), involves a challenge to the U.S. Forest Service's adoption of a plan that limits motorized access on a portion of the Lewis and Clark National Forest. In upholding the plan, a Montana federal district court rejected an Establishment Clause claim by opponents of the plan who argued that the purpose of the plan was to favor Native American religion...

Church Loses Challenge To County Zoning Ordinances

Posted on January 23, 2011
In McGuire v. Clackamas County Counsel, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5521 (D OR, Jan. 19, 2011), an Oregon federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendations (2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140026, Nov. 10, 2010), and dismissed a free exercise challenge to the zoning laws of Clackamas County, Oregon...

Plan For School District To Absorb Religious Special Education School Is Controversial

Posted on January 22, 2011
In Rockland County, New York, controversy surrounds a proposal for the East Ramapo Central School District to take over the now private religious Rockland Institute for Special Education ("RISE") that educates 70 bi-lingual Yiddish or Hebrew speaking special education students...

Virginia County's Schools Restore 10 Commandments Displays

Posted on January 22, 2011
In Giles County, Virginia, the Giles County School Board voted unanimously on Thursday to re-hang 4-foot tall copies of the Ten Commandments in the district's 5 schools and its technology center. AP reports that last December the Ten Commandments, which had hung in the schools next to a copy of the Constitution for at least ten years, were replaced by a copy of the Declaration of Independence...

Oregon Works To Acculturate Immigrant Groups In Light of Their Religious Beliefs

Posted on January 22, 2011
Today's Wall Street Journal reports at length on the efforts of Oregon authorities to deal with the religious beliefs of some 150,000 evangelical Christians from the former Soviet Union who live in the state. In 2009, Slavic Christians Oleksandr and Lyudmila Kozlov were arrested, and their seven children placed in foster care, after the oldest children called 911 to complain about physical beatings from their parents...

Georgia School Board Votes To Keep Graduation At Church

Posted on January 22, 2011
Despite objections from Americans United for Separation of Church and State (see prior posting), a metropolitan Atlanta school board has voted unanimously to continue to hold graduation ceremonies in a local mega-church. The church charges only $2000 for use of its facilites, while secular venues would cost up to $40,000 to rent...

Challenge To DOMA's Impact on Tax Treatment of Long Term Care Policies Moves Ahead

Posted on January 21, 2011
In Dragovich v. U.S. Department of Treasury, (ND CA, Jan 18, 2011), a California federal district court allowed three California public employees and their same-sex spouses to proceed with a lawsuit challenging Sec. 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and Sec...

9th Circuit: Ignorance of Religious Doctrine Does Not Support Adverse Credibility Finding In Asylum Application

Posted on January 21, 2011
In Li v. Holder, (9th Cir., Jan. 19, 2011), the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed an immigration judge's denial of an asylum application by Lei Li, a citizen of China who claimed he is a Christian and that he had been persecuted and had a well-founded fear of future persecution if he returned to China...

Groups Protest Air Force Academy's Scheduled Prayer Luncheon Speaker

Posted on January 21, 2011
Yesterday the Military Religious Freedom Foundation released a letter (full text) it has sent to the Superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy objecting to the Academy's scheduling of former Marine Lt. Clebe McClary as the speaker for the Academy's National Prayer Luncheon next month...

Court In India Hears Challenge To Hindu Ceremony Starting Courthouse Construction

Posted on January 21, 2011
In India yesterday, a two-judge panel of the Gujarat High Court heard arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of a Hindu ceremony in which the Gujarat governor, the chief justice of the High Court and other judges had all taken part last year...

Utility Companies Sue Hamptons Villages Over Eruv

Posted on January 21, 2011
Following on a suit filed last week by the East End Eruv Association (EEEA) challenging as religious discrimination decisions by three municipalities in The Hamptons (NY) to prevent use of utility poles to create an eruv (see prior posting), this week two utility companies filed a federal lawsuit challenging the towns' interference with the utilities' agreement to permit EEEA to install the eruv...

California High Court Denies Review In Release of Clergy Abuse Files

Posted on January 20, 2011
According to the Washington Post, yesterday the California Supreme Court denied review in Doe 1 v. Franciscan Friars of California, Inc. In the case, a California appellate court held that pursuant to a settlement in a clergy sex abuse case, various confidential files of nine alleged perpetrators, six of whom are still alive, can be released to the public...

Britain's Home Office Bans Visit By Controversial Florida Pastor

Posted on January 20, 2011
Britain's Home Office has barred controversial Florida pastor Terry Jones from entering the United Kingdom.  BBC News reports that the pastor, who provoked international protests last year when his Dove World Outreach Center scheduled a "Burn a Koran Day" (see prior posting), had been invited to Britain by the group England Is Ours...

Islamic Scholars In Mauritania Ban Female Genital Mutilation

Posted on January 20, 2011
Magharebia reports that last week in the north African country of Mauritania, 34 Islamic religious scholars and national figures signed a fatwa banning female genital mutilation.  The document was issued at a seminar organized by the Forum of Islamic Thought, and attended by government and religious leaders...

Human Rights In China Is Part of Obama's Discussions With President Hu

Posted on January 20, 2011
Chinese President Hu Jintao is on a state visit to the United States.  At a joint press conference at the White House (full text), President Obama summarized his meeting with Hu, indicating that among the topics discussed was human rights, including religious freedom...

Court Holds Exhaustion Not Required In RLUIPA Zoning Cases

Posted on January 20, 2011
In United States v. City of Walnut, California, (CD CA, Jan. 13, 2011), a California federal district court held that RLUIPA does not require plaintiffs in land use cases to exhaust administrative remedies before filing suit to challenge a zoning decision...

Quebec Refuses To Accommodate Kirpans At Hearing On Religious Accommodation

Posted on January 19, 2011
In Canada yesterday morning, a committee of Quebec's National Assembly held hearings on Bill 94, a proposed law to provide for reasonable accommodation of the religious and cultural practices of minorities.  However, as reported by CBC News, four members of the World Sikh Organization who were scheduled to testify were denied entry to the National Assembly building because they refused to remove their kirpans-- small religious ceremonial daggers worn against the skin under clothing...

New Alabama Governor's Christian Remarks Draw Criticism

Posted on January 19, 2011
Yesterday's Huntsville (AL) Times reports on the negative reaction to a statement made by Alabama's new governor, Robert Bentley, at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemoration on Monday. TPM covered the Governor's remarks delivered at Montgomery, Alabama's Dexter Avenue Baptist Church...

Why The Disproportionate Religious Make-Up of Congress?

Posted on January 19, 2011
In a follow-up to a Pew Forum report earlier this month on the religious composition of members of the 112th Congress (see prior posting), yesterday's Dallas Morning News published an interesting set of responses from nine members of the clergy on why some faith groups have a greater presence in Congress than in the overall U...

U.S. State Department Official Will Discuss Blasphemy Law During Visit To Pakistan

Posted on January 19, 2011
Dawn yesterday reported that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy and Human Rights Michael H. Posner is visiting Pakistan this week.  One topic he plans to raise with the government, opposition leaders and civil society groups is U.S. concern over discriminatory or abusive use of Pakistan's blasphemy law...

Settlement In Religious Discrimination Suit By Astronomer Against University of Kentucky

Posted on January 19, 2011
The Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal reported yesterday that the University of Kentucky has settled a lawsuit brought against it by Martin Gaskell, an astronomer who was was not selected for the position of founding director of a new observatory at the University...

Supreme Court Denies Cert In D.C. Gay Marriage Referendum Case

Posted on January 19, 2011
Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court denied review in Jackson v. D.C. Board of Elections, (Docket No. 10-511, certiorari denied 1/18/2011). (Order List.) In the case, D.C.'s highest appellate court, in a 5-4 decision, upheld election officials' refusal to accept a petition seeking an initiative vote to bar D...

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