Religion & Law

Jewish Charities Are Victims of Madoff Wall Street Fraud

Posted on December 13, 2008
A number of Jewish charities find themselves among the victims of the massive Ponzi scheme carried out by Wall Street legend Bernie Madoff. Thursday's New York Times reports on the arrest of Madoff in a fraud scheme whose losses could reach $50 billion...

9th Circuit Rejects Tax Deduction for Religious Day School Tuition

Posted on December 13, 2008
In Sklar v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, (9th Cir., Dec. 12, 2008), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has once again rejected a claim by parents that they should be able to deduct for income tax purposes a portion of the tuition and fees paid to their children's Orthodox Jewish day schools...

Student's Op-Ed On Evolution Rejected For Class Magazine

Posted on December 13, 2008
In Franklin County, Virginia, the Gereau Center for Applied Technology and Career Exploration is a high school alternative that allows students to explore various careers. One of the courses it offers is Introduction to Media. The class produces a news magazine titled "In the Groove...

Moratorium Placed On More Displays In Washington State Capitol

Posted on December 13, 2008
As previously reported, the Washington state Capitol's open forum policy for holiday displays has led to a flurry of applications after a Humanist group put up a controversial sign calling religion a "myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds...

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

Costa Rican Court Rejects Religious Objection To Blood Test For Driver's License

Posted on December 13, 2008
Costa Rica requires each applicant for a drivers license to have a blood test so the individual's blood type can be noted on the license. Costa Rica Pages reported yesterday that a Costa Rican appellate court has rejected an attempt by a Jehovah's Witness to claim a religious exemption to the requirement...

First Sikh Inaugural Ball Will Be Held

Posted on December 12, 2008
The Sikh Community Center announced this week that the first ever Sikh Inaugural Ball will be held in Washington, D.C. on January 20. The Sikh Inaugural Ball Inaugural Committee will hold the event a few blocks from the White House, at Ascot, I-The Indian Experience Restaurant...

3 Faith-Based Leaders Among 24 Recipients of Presidential Citizens Medal

Posted on December 12, 2008
On Wednesday, President Bush awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal to 24 individuals (including one posthumously). Three of the recipients, as described by a White House news release, were honored for their faith-based activities: Charles W. Colson: For more than three decades, Chuck Colson has dedicated his life to sharing the message of God?s boundless love and mercy with prisoners, former prisoners, and their families...

Federal Court Preliminarily Enjoins South Carolina "I Believe" Plates

Posted on December 12, 2008
A South Carolina federal district court has issued a preliminary injunction barring the state of South Carolina from further advertising, distribution or production of its controversial "I Believe" license plate. In Summers v. Adams, (D SC, Dec. 11, 2008), the court found that plaintiffs have standing and had made a strong showing of the likelihood of success on their Establishment Clause challenge to the special plates...

Australia High Court Gives Expansive Definition of Tax-Exempt Charity

Posted on December 12, 2008
In Commissioner of Taxation of the Commonwealth of Australia v Word Investments Limited, [2008] HCA 55 (Dec. 3, 2008), Australia's High Court held that "a company that conducted commercial businesses to raise funds for a missionary organisation was entitled to the status of a tax-exempt charity...

Court Dismisses Rabbi's Breach of Contract Claim On 1st Amendment Grounds

Posted on December 12, 2008
In Friedlander v. Port Jewish Center, (ED NY, Dec. 8, 2008), a New York federal district court dismissed a breach of contract claim brought by a rabbi against her congregation. Rabbi Ariel Friedlander was fired by her congregation after members complained about a number of things, most relating to the manner in which she conducted religious services and life cycle events...

Suit Challenging Iowa State Employee Charity Rules Is Settled

Posted on December 12, 2008
An Alliance Defense Fund release reported Wednesday that a settlement has been reached in Association of Faith-Based Organizations v. Anderson, a lawsuit challenging the exclusion of religious charities from the Iowa One Gift program under which state employees can designate participating charities to receive their contributions withheld by payroll deduction...

Evangelical Lobbyist Resigns After Statement Supporting Gay Civil Unions

Posted on December 12, 2008
Richard Cizik has resigned as vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). Already under criticism from some of the evangelical community for his strong stance on global warming, Wednesday night's resignation came after Cizik told Terry Gross on on National Public Radio's Fresh Air that he now believes in civil unions for same-sex couples...

8th Circuit Hears Arguments In Gideon Bible Case

Posted on December 12, 2008
Yesterday the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Roark v. South Iron R-1 School District, (Docket No. 08-1847). A recording of the full oral argument is available from this page of the 8th Circuit's website. In the case, a Missouri federal district court held that a school district's policy permitting adult members of Gideons International to distribute Bibles to elementary school students on school property during the school day violates the Establishment Clause...

New Jersey Panel Recommends Permitting Same-Sex Marriage

Posted on December 11, 2008
The New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission yesterday submitted its final report titled The Legal, Medical, Economic & Social Consequences of New Jersey's Civil Union Law. The report recommends that the state legislature and Governor "expeditiously" change the law to permit same-sex couples to marry...

Group Criticizes French Report On Religious Sects

Posted on December 11, 2008
The Institute on Religion and Public Policy yesterday wrote to French President Nicolas Sarkozy to express concerns about recommendations in a 2008 Report to the Prime Minister by a government agency known as the Inter-Ministerial Mission to Fight Against Sectarian Deviations, or MIVILUDES...

Senate Resolution Condemns Mumbai Attack, Opposes Religious Extremism

Posted on December 11, 2008
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed S. Res. 724, condemning the recent terrorist attack in Mumbai, India. In addition to calling upon Pakistan to root out extremism and calling on President-elect Obama to bolster counter-terrorism cooperation with India, the resolution:urges bolstered United States efforts to develop and implement policies and projects to combat all forms of religious extremism, including anti-Semitism, in order to deter the type of targeted attacks like that waged against the Chabad Lubavitch center in Mumbai...

Sikh Wins Religious Bias Complaint Against CA Corrections Department

Posted on December 11, 2008
Yesterday's Sacramento Bee reports on a recent California State Personnel Board administrative law judge's decision finding that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDC) discriminated against a Sikh applicant for employment. Trilochan "Obe" Oberoi met most of the requirements for being hired as a prison guard...

11th Circuit Hears Arguments In Christian Fraternity's Bid For Recognition

Posted on December 11, 2008
Yesterday, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Beta Upsilon Chi v. Machen, a case in which BYX, a Christian fraternity, is challenging the University of Florida's refusal to grant it recognition. University rules prohibit religious (and other) discrimination by recognized student organizations...

Court Allows Menorah Again In Downtown Poughkeepsie

Posted on December 11, 2008
Articles last week and this week in the Poughkeepsie Journal report on efforts by a local Chabad rabbi in Poughkeepsie, New York, to again erect a 22-foot tall menorah on downtown city property as he has done each Hanukkah since 1996. In the past, city workers have helped him put it up...

Articles Analyze Background of Nigeria's Muslim-Christian Violence

Posted on December 11, 2008
Nigeria's Daily Sun this week published an extensive two-part article explaining the background of the recent much-publicized Muslim-Christian violence in the city of Jos. (See prior posting.) Part 1 of the article titled Beyond the Black Friday in Jos says that "an incendiary mix of factors including politics, ethnicity, religion and class combine to create ideal circumstances for sectarian violence" which is common in northern Nigeria...

Today Is 60th Anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Posted on December 10, 2008
Today is the 60th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 18 of the document provides:Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance...

Arizona Supreme Court Hears Arguments On School Vouchers

Posted on December 10, 2008
Attorneys yesterday presented oral arguments to the Arizona Supreme Court in Cain v. Horne, a case testing the constitutionality of two Arizona's school voucher programs. An Arizona appellate court had held that while the programs do not violate the Religion Clause of Arizona's constitution, they do violate the separate state constitutional ban on aid to private or sectarian schools...

Sacristan Gets Unemployment Comp Despite Firing For Opposing Parish Policy

Posted on December 10, 2008
In Czajka v. Department of Employment Security, 2008 Ill. App. LEXIS 1205 (IL App., Dec. 5, 2008), an Illinois appellate court overturned the denial of unemployment compensation benefits to Carmen Czajka, a sacristan at the Saint Liborius School responsible for keeping the sacristy clean...

Proposal To Protect Scientology From Picketing Tabled

Posted on December 10, 2008
The Riverside, California Board of Supervisors yesterday decided that the proposed cure was worse than the disease as they voted to defer further consideration of an anti-picketing ordinance that had been introduced in response to repeated protests against the Church of Scientology by the international group "Anonymous" that opposes Scientology...

Oral Arguments Heard In Missouri Baptist Dispute

Posted on December 10, 2008
The Associated Baptist Press yesterday reported on arguments presented on Nov. 25 to a Missouri state appellate court in the latest installment in a dispute between the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) and five institutions that amended their charters to break away from MBC in 2000 and 2001...

Ads Countering Humanists To Appear On D.C. Busses

Posted on December 10, 2008
Washington Post columnist John Kelly yesterday reported on the response being mobilized to ads recently placed on D.C. buses by the American Humanist Association. The Humanists' ad reading "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake" has generated considerable reaction...

Transcript Available Of Today's SCOTUS Arguments In Iqbal Case

Posted on December 10, 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court today heard oral arguments in Ashcroft v. Iqbal (Docket No. 07-1015), an appeal growing out of claims that the U.S. government engaged in religious, racial and national origin discrimination in its arrest and subsequent treatment of more than 700 Muslim or Arab men treated as persons of "high interest" after the 9/11 attacks...

6th Circuit Upholds Michigan's Exclusion of Biblical Quotes From Advocate Directory

Posted on December 09, 2008
In Grosjean v. Bommarito, (6th Cir., Dec. 4, 2008), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected free speech, free exercise, overbreadth and vagueness challenges to the editorial practices of Michigan's Unemployment Insurance Agency in its listing of advocates available to assist claimants...

Denial of Equal Protection To Jews Claimed In Appeal of Bail Denial

Posted on December 09, 2008
A fascinating religious discrimination issue is raised in a motion to reverse an Iowa federal magistrate's denial of bail in the prosecution of Sholom Rubashkin. (Full text of Motion and of the Memorandum in Support of the Motion in US v. Rubashkin, (ND IA, filed 12/8/08...

President Bush Sends Muslims Greetings On Eid al-Adha

Posted on December 09, 2008
In a statement issued yesterday (full text), President Bush sent greetings to Muslims around the world who were celebrating Eid al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice. As reported by AFP, the festival, which was celebrated yesterday as the Hajj concludes, commemorates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son at God's command...

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