Religion & Law

Cert. Filed In Eagle Protection Act Case

Posted on November 06, 2008
Yesterday's Great Falls (MT) Tribune reports on last month's filing of a petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Friday, a case in which the 10th Circuit rejected a challenge under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to the government's enforcement of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act...

Advocacy Groups Have Varied Reactions To Tuesday's Election Results

Posted on November 06, 2008
The reactions to Tuesday's election results from advocacy groups have, not surprisingly, run the gamut. Americans United yesterday issued an election analysis titled "The Religious Right and Election 2008: Down But Not Out." It warned:After eight years of unprecedented access to the White House and (until 2006) in the halls of Congress, Religious Right organizations are about to lose a lot of clout with much of official Washington and could see their influence at the national level diminished...

Evangelist Sues Louisiana School Over Its Speech Permit Policy

Posted on November 06, 2008
Alliance Defense Fund announced yesterday that it had filed a federal lawsuit against Southeastern Louisiana University officials challenging permit requirements that were invoked to prevent a traveling evangelist from evangelizing students on campus...

Student Sent Home From School Because Jesus Costume Was Disruptive

Posted on November 06, 2008
At Paramus, New Jersey's West Brook Middle School, eighth grader Alex Woinski dressed up as Jesus for Halloween. According to Monday's Christian Post, school officials said his costume was disruptive and told him he needed to remove his beard and crown of thorns...

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Michigan Court Upholds Zoning Denial; Defines "Church"

Posted on November 06, 2008
In Great Lakes Society v. Georgetown Charter Township, (MI Ct. App., Oct. 30, 2008), the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld the Georgetown Zoning Board of Appeals' denial of an application for a special use permit and a variance that had been requested for a religious center...

Settlement Reached In EEOC Suit Against University of Phoenix Online

Posted on November 05, 2008
Today's Arizona Republic reports that a proposed settlement has been filed in a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC against Apollo Group Inc. The lawsuit alleges that the company's University of Phoenix Online discriminated against non-Mormon employees...

Protective Appeal Filed In Gren Bay Holiday Display Case

Posted on November 05, 2008
The Green Bay (WI) Press-Gazette today reports that an appeal has been filed with the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Freedom from Religion Foundation, Inc. v. City of Green Bay. Last month, without reaching the merits, a federal district court dismissed an Establishment Clause challenge to a nativity scene displayed last year at city hall because the city had enacted a moratorium on future displays...

Compilation of Obama's Statements on Faith and Church-State Relations

Posted on November 05, 2008
With Barack Obama's victory in yesterday's Presidential elections, I thought it would be useful to compile some of his major statements on the role of religious faith and church-state relationships. Here are five major statements:Barack Obama On Faith (from Obama '08 website)...

Court Rejects Religious Group's Challenges To Chicago's Zoning Permit Requirement

Posted on November 05, 2008
The decision from several months ago in World Outreach Conference Center v. City of Chicago, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88747 (ND IL, May 13, 2008) has recently become available on LEXIS. In the case, an Illinois federal district court rejected a series of challenges to the 2-year delay by the city of Chicago in granting World Outreach Conference Center a single room occupancy (SRO) license for a former YMCA building it purchased...

Ballot Measure Results: Issues on Gay Marriage, Abortion and Stem Cells [UPDATED]

Posted on November 05, 2008
In yesterday's election, six ballot measures were of particular interest to some religious groups. In 3 states, bans on gay marriage were approved. In two states, abortion restrictions were defeated. In Michigan final results show passage of a proposed expansion of permitted stem cell research...

An Essay For Election Day

Posted on November 04, 2008
Today is, of course, an historically important election day in the United States. As we experience the day, this essay from Haaretz last week by Bradley Burston, titled "Voting As a Religious Experience" is worth a read. It is the reflections of the writer as he mails off his absentee ballot to California from a post office in Jerusalem...

California County Will Accommodate Muslim Women On Headscarves In Arrests

Posted on November 04, 2008
AP reported yesterday that San Bernardino County, California has settled a lawsuit brought by a Muslim woman who claimed her religious freedom was violated after her arrest when deputies required her to remove her hijab (headscarf). Under the settlement announced Monday, Muslim women who are arrested must be provided a private area to remove their headscarves and be provided with county-issued ones for use when they are in the presence of men...

Apartment Manager- Tenant Battle Over Statue of Jesus

Posted on November 04, 2008
In Muncie, Indiana, owners of an apartment complex are in a dispute with one of their tenants, Daniel Long. Long has put up a 4-foot tall statue of Jesus outside his apartment patio door, including a spotlight that casts a shadow of the statue on the building...

Iraqi Minority Religions Voted Some Representation On Provincial Councils

Posted on November 04, 2008
Yesterday, Iraq's Parliament cleared the way for Provincial Council elections in January by passing a bill guaranteeing a small number of seats to religious minorities. AFP and the Christian Post report that Christians protested when in September Parliament mandated new elections, but eliminated previously guaranteed seats for minorities...

Army Discharges Trainee Who Assaulted Target of Anti-Semitism

Posted on November 04, 2008
AP reported yesterday that the Army has now disclosed the non-judicial punishment it has imposed on an Army trainee who physically attacked a Jewish soldier who was also in basic training at Ft. Benning, Georgia. The victim, Pvt. Michael Handman, had complained about anti-Semitic harassment by two drill sergeants a few days before the assault on him...

Religious Issues Will Be Important In Upcoming Israeli Elections

Posted on November 04, 2008
Israel will be holding elections in February, and the Jerusalem Post reported last week that religious issues will be important in the election battle. One key issue is civil marriages. Currently only marriages performed by Jewish, Christian or Muslim religious authorities are permitted in Israel...

Morocco Bars French Magazine Issue On Relationship of Christianity and Islam

Posted on November 03, 2008
Moroccan Information Minister Khalid Naciri says the Moroccan government has banned the current issue of the French magazine L'Express International. According to an AP report yesterday, the step was taken under the press code (Code de la Presse, Art...

Ballot Measures In 6 States Watched By Religious Groups

Posted on November 03, 2008
At least six states on Tuesday have ballot measures that are being watched by religious groups. Here they are, along with links to the official ballot language for each proposal:Florida- Proposal 2- Marriage Protection Amendment.California- Proposition 8- Initiative to Eliminate Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry...

New Articles and Book of Interest

Posted on November 03, 2008
From SSRN:Richard J. Ross, Puritan Godly Discipline in Comparative Perspective: Legal Pluralism and the Sources of 'Intensity', (American Historical Review, Vol. 113, pp. 975-1002, 2008).John Witte & Joel A. Nichols, More than a Mere Contract: Marriage as Contract and Covenant in Law and Theology, (University of St...

Muslim Group To Meet In Vatican On Interfaith Relations

Posted on November 03, 2008
Common Word, a group of Muslim leaders and scholars, will meet for three days beginning tomorrow in the Vatican with Catholic officials including the Pope. Reuters today reports that the group wants to develop better interfaith relations, including a joint crisis management plan that could diffuse tensions such as those that arose in 2006 after a Danish newspaper published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad...

Presidential Campaigns Target Church Members Yesterday

Posted on November 03, 2008
Yesterday, according to the AP, volunteers for both the Obama and McCain campaigns attempted to bring their candidates' messages to churches as Tuesday's election approaches. In order to comply with IRS rules, the campaigns did not involve the churches, but instead asked individual supporters who are church members to distribute candidate messages...

India's Tribal Religions Want Separate Census Recognition

Posted on November 03, 2008
Today's Calcutta Telegraph reports that in India, members of nature worshipping tribal religions in the state of Jharkhand are demanding that they be identified separately in census records. Currently they are generally included in census records as Hindus, Muslims or Christians, but they say they have their own set of customs and traditions and should be recognized as a separate minority religion.

Malaysia About To Bar Muslims From Practicing Yoga

Posted on November 02, 2008
According to today's Brunei News, on Friday Malaysia's National Fatwa Council will issue a ruling barring Muslims in the country from practicing or teaching yoga. The country's Department of Islamic Development undertook a 6-month study of the practice after Zakaria Stapa of Universiti Kebangsaan, Malaysia's Islamic Studies Centre, said yoga could lead Muslims to deviate from Islamic teachings...

Canadian Court Concerns Over Kirpan Lead To Testimony Via Teleconference

Posted on November 02, 2008
In Canada, a Calgary, Alberta judge has ruled on a compromise arrangement to obtain trial testimony by a Sikh man who was originally refused entrance into the Court of Queen's Bench because he refused for religious reasons to remove his kirpan (ceremonial sword)...

Children Taken In Anti-Polygamy Raid 50 Years Ago Want Apology

Posted on November 02, 2008
Fifty years ago, Utah officials took Vera Black's seven children and threatened to place them in adoptive homes because Black refused to renounce polygamy. The Salt Lake Tribune reported yesterday that Black's children are now asking the state to apologize to their elderly mother while she is still alive...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on November 02, 2008
In Garrison v. Dutcher, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 85727, (WD MI, Aug. 14, 2008), a Michigan federal magistrate judge recommended dismissal of an inmate's RLUIPA and free exercise challenges to delays in delivering him spiritual herbs mailed to him, and the mail room's rejection of a Bible mailed to him because it was sent by an unauthorized vendor...

Dutch Cabinet Proposes End of Blasphemy Law, Expansion of Hate Speech Ban

Posted on November 01, 2008
In Netherlands, the cabinet on Friday voted to recommend that Parliament repeal the country's blasphemy law and replace it with an expanded hate speech law. Today's Windsor (Ont.) Star reports that the proposed new law will prohibit giving serious offense to any group of people, not just to specified groups now covered...

Ads On Donations From Atheists Continue In North Carolina Senate Race

Posted on November 01, 2008
As previously reported, North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole created substantial controversy by running an ad against Kay Hagan, her opponent in Tuesday's election, alleging that Hagan took a contribution from supporters of the Godless American PAC. Hagan ran a counter-ad and filed a defamation suit...

VA High Court Approves Tax Exemption For Upscale Retirement Community

Posted on November 01, 2008
In Virginia Baptist Homes, Inc. v. Botetourt County, (VA Sup. Ct., Oct. 31, 2008), the Virginia Supreme Court, in a 5-2 decision, held that the upscale retirement community, The Glebe, owned by Virginia Baptist Homes, is entitled to a property tax exemption under legislation that granted VBH an exemption for any of its property used exclusively for non-profit religious or benevolent purposes...

Tax Incentives By Tennessee County For Bible Park Questioned

Posted on November 01, 2008
Last May, Tennessee's Attorney General issued an opinion ruling that state law permits the use of public funds to support the development of Bible Park USA, but left open the question of whether public funding for the theme park would violate the Establishment Clause of the federal constitution...

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