Religion Clause: Religion & Law

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Religion & Law Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

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

Texas Judge Allows Defamation Suit Against Pastor and His Church To Proceed

Posted on November 25, 2008
In San Antonio, Texas yesterday, a state trial court judge refused to dismiss a defamation lawsuit against Summit Christian Center and its pastor Rick Godwin. Former church member Larry Nail claims in the suit that the pastor defamed him from the pulpit by accusing him of bribery after Nail attempted to expose the pastor's spending of church funds...

Shoshone Tribe Sues To Stop Development of Nevada Gold Mine

Posted on November 25, 2008
Last Thursday, three Shoshone Indian tribal groups and two environmental organizations filed suit in a Nevada federal district court to stop development of a large open-pit gold mine on Mt. Tenabo. Yesterday's Environment News Service reports that the Bureau of Land Management approved the $500 million Cortez Hills Expansion Project after years of Shoshone opposition...

Spanish Court Says Schools Must Remove Crucifixes

Posted on November 24, 2008
For the first time, a judge in Spain has ordered a public school to remove crucifixes from the walls of its classrooms and public spaces. Today's Edmonton (Vancouver) Journal reports that the ruling came in the city of Valladolid in a case in which a parent and a secular organization claimed that schools were violating the constitutional guarantee of church-state separation...

British Airways Employee Loses Appeal In Religious Jewelry Case

Posted on November 24, 2008
In Eweida v. British Airways PLC [Word doc.], (Empl. App. Trib., Nov. 20, 2008), Britain's Employment Appeals Tribunal held that British Airways had not engaged in "indirect discrimination" in insisting that a cross worn on a necklace by check-in clerk Nadia Eweida be concealed by her uniform...

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

Wisconsin Town Repeals Ordinance Out of Concern For Amish Buggies

Posted on November 24, 2008
Loyal, Wisconsin City Council last week repealed an ordinance that it had passed just a month earlier, out of concern that the law would discourage local Amish residents from visiting the city in their horse-drawn buggies. The ordinance would have required horses within city limits to wear manure-catching devices...

Muslim Prisoners In British Facility Force Conversion on Fellow Inmates

Posted on November 24, 2008
London's Sunday Express reported yesterday that in Cambridgeshire's top security Whitemoor prison, Muslim inmates have launched a "reign of terror", forcing other prisoners to convert to Islam or face beatings or worse. The Prison Officers' Association has been calling for dispersal of the 100 Muslim prisoners in Whitemoor elsewhere in order to break up the gang violence.

Parents Must Move From Alamo Church Compound To Regain Custody of Girls

Posted on November 24, 2008
As previously reported, in September after federal authorities raided the compound of Tony Alamo Ministries, Arkansas officials took six minor girls into temporary custody. According to yesterday's Arkansas Democrat Gazette, a hearing was held last Friday on the status of two of those girls...

Recent Articles and Books of Interest

Posted on November 24, 2008
SSRN:Sylvie Bacquet, School Uniforms, Religious Symbols and The Human Rights Act 1998: The 'Purity Ring' Case, (Education Law Journal, 2008).Ehsan Zar Rokh & M. Rahman Gaeini, Iranian Legal System and Human Rights Protection,(November 20, 2008).Jack Lee Sammons, A Rhetorician's View of Religious Speech in Civic Argument, (Seattle University Law Review, Vol...

African-American Muslims In U.S. Reject al Qaeda Statement

Posted on November 23, 2008
On Friday, according to CNN, leaders of New York's African-American Muslim community issued a statement denouncing recorded comments from al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Zawahiri video tape, released on the Internet last Wednesday (Washington Post), denounced President-elect Barack Obama...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on November 23, 2008
In Tapp v. Stanley, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 93122 (WD NY, Nov. 17, 2008), a New York federal district court rejected an inmate's free exercise and RLUIPA claims arising out of a nearly 4-month delay in furnishing him kosher food while his request for it, and his religious designation form, were being processed...

City Asks For Removal of Billboard With Anti-Religion Message

Posted on November 23, 2008
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday that the city of Rancho Cucamonga, CA, after receiving numerous complaints, asked the General Outdoor advertising company to take down a billboard carrying a message from the Freedom from Religion Foundation...

ADL Covers A Range of Issues at Meeting Marking 95th Year

Posted on November 23, 2008
In a release issued Friday, the Anti-Defamation League summarized the proceedings of its annual meeting held earlier this month in Los Angeles. The ADL marks its 95th birthday this year. In the keynote address, ADL director Abraham Foxman reported that in the wake of the country's financial crisis, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are spreading on the Internet...

Conviction For Interfering With Business Does Not Violate Free Exercise Rights

Posted on November 23, 2008
In Sherman v. Yolo County, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 92800 (ED CA, Nov. 6, 2008), a California federal district court rejected a habeas challenge by a defendant, now in prison, who was convicted of intentionally interfering with a lawful business by obstructing customers (CA Penal Code 602...

In Malaysia, Parties Seeking Federal Court Ruling In Catholic Paper Case

Posted on November 23, 2008
As previously reported, in Malaysia the Catholic newspaper The Herald has filed suit in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur to challenge the Home Ministry's decision banning the paper from using the term "Allah" as a synonym for God in its Malay-language reporting...

A Review of Same-Sex Marriage Developments In Connecticut

Posted on November 22, 2008
In the widespread coverage of the battle over gay marriage in California, less attention has been given to a decision by the Connecticut Supreme Court last month holding that limiting same-sex couples to civil unions, instead of marriage, violates the equal protection guarantees of the Connecticut state Constitution...

Britain's New Pension Authority Will Offer Sharia-Compliant Option

Posted on November 22, 2008
In 2006, Britain enacted legislation to reform its pension system. Among other things, the Pensions Act 2007 created the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority which will create new low cost pension savings vehicles for individuals. (Background.) The London Telegraph reported yesterday that the Authority will offer a Sharia-compliant pension fund as one of the options in order to encourage Muslim participation...

Germany Will Not Attempt To Ban Scientology Now

Posted on November 22, 2008
The AP reports that Germany?s Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, as well as domestic intelligence authorities from Germany's 16 states, agreed Friday that they had insufficient evidence to open formal proceedings to ban the Church of Scientology. To open proceedings, authorities need evidence of unconstitutional activities...

Muslim Group Urges NYPD To Revise Its Assessment of Domestic Terror Threat

Posted on November 22, 2008
At a press conference held on Thursday, the New York Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition released a report titled: Counterterrorism Policy: MACLC's Critique of the NYPD?s Report on Homegrown Radicalism. As reported by The American Muslim, the report calls on the New York Police Department to update its 2007 study, Radicalization in the West: Homegrown Radicalism...

In Nigeria, Children Accused by Churches of Being Witches Are Tortured By Their Families

Posted on November 22, 2008
Saturday's Lagos Guardian reports that in parts of the Nigerian states of Akwa Ibom and Cross River, there has been an alarming increase in the number of children who are suspected by their parents of being "witches" or "wizards." Many of them are abandoned, tortured or killed by their families after prophets from Pentecostal sects declare the children to possess strange powers...

PA School Board Says Teachers Can Be At "Pole" Event With A Disclaimer

Posted on November 21, 2008
Pennsylvania's Carlisle Area School Board, responding to the threat of a lawsuit, voted 8-1 yesterday to allow teachers to attend this year's student-led "See You At the Pole" event. At the annual event, held around the nation, students gather before school at the flag pole to pray for their school, fellow-students, teachers and nation...

Bangladesh Elections Threaten To Disenfranchise Muslims On Hajj

Posted on November 21, 2008
Wednesday's Daily Star reports on an election controversy in Bangladesh. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for December 18. This however is during the Hajj, and over 48,000 Bangladeshis who will be in Saudi Arabia for the religious pilgrimage will be disenfranchised...

Proponents Announce New Strategy On Display of Nativity Scenes

Posted on November 21, 2008
CBN News yesterday reported that two Christian groups have come up with a new holiday display strategy. The National Clergy Council and the Christian Defense Coalition have begun "The Nativity Project." It encourages individuals to display nativity scenes in public places such as city halls, state capitol buildings and other public buildings...

Court Issues Preliminary Injunction Allowing Evangelist To Preach On Public Plaza

Posted on November 21, 2008
In Borden v. City of Modesto, (ED CA, Nov. 19, 2008), a California federal district court issued a preliminary injunction requiring the city of Modesto to give evangelist Kevin Borden equal access to the city's pedestrian Tenth Street Plaza to preach and proselytize...

Indonesian Police Look To Prosecute Blogger Who Posted Muhammad Cartoons

Posted on November 21, 2008
In Jakarta, Indonesia, a government spokesman says that the Indonesian National Police cybercrime unit is attempting to trace the identity of a blogger whose blog contains cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. Jakarta Metro Police Special Crime Investigation Commissioner Raja Erizman says that the server and the blogger are outside of Indonesia, and that the blogger's motive is to upset Indonesia's Muslim community...

Hezbollah In Lebanon Harnessing Religion of Youth For Its Political Agenda

Posted on November 21, 2008
Today's New York Times carries a long investigative article starting on its front page titled Hezbollah Seeks to Marshal the Piety of the Young. It says in part: At a time of religious revival across the Islamic world, intense piety among the young is nothing unusual...

County Council Member Objects To Rezoning Because of Opposition To Church Policy

Posted on November 21, 2008
Catholic News Agency reports today that Beaufort County, South Carolina Councilwoman Laura Von Harten has apologized for controversial remarks she made at a Council committee meeting last Monday. The Beaufort (SC) Gazette reported on Tuesday that the county's Land Management Committee, on which Von Harten does not sit, approved rezoning for expansion of St...

Court Says Church Can Continue Use of Building, But Must Comply With Code

Posted on November 20, 2008
In Guatay Christian Fellowship v. County of San Diego, (SD CA, Nov. 18, 2008), a California federal district court, citing "the overwhelming public interest ... in religious freedoms and activities", issued a preliminary injunction allowing a church to continue to meet in a trailer park recreation center that it rented...

California Supreme Court will Hear Challenges To Proposition 8

Posted on November 20, 2008
The California Supreme Court yesterday agreed to accept original jurisdiction over challenges to voter approval of Proposition 8, the ballot measure that bans same-sex marriage. (Judicial Council press release.) Yesterday's Los Angeles Times reports on the court's action...

Chabad Messianists Again Lose Court Battle Over Crown Heights Building

Posted on November 20, 2008
Earlier this month, a Brooklyn, New York trial court issued another decision in the long-running battle between two factions of the Chabad Lubavitch movement-- those who believe that the late grand Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who died in 1994, may be referred to publicly as the Messiah, and those who reject the messianist faction...

Clergy Led Prayer Is Back In Indiana House

Posted on November 20, 2008
The Indy Star reports that this week, for the first time since January 2006, the Indiana state House of Representatives opened its session with a prayer led by a clergyman. In late 2005, a federal district court enjoined sectarian prayer in the House, but in late 2007 that decision was reversed by the 7th Circuit that held plaintiff lacked standing...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

California's Proposed Student Civil Rights Act Gives Broad Definition to "Religion"
On Tuesday, the California Senate Judiciary Committee approved by ...

Fish on "Religion Without Truth"
Here's a (relatively) recent Stanley Fish Think Again column, call...