Religion & Law

Converts Not Complying With Indian State's Conversion Law

Posted on October 27, 2008
In the Indian state of Orissa, District Collector Krishan Kumar says that individuals converting to Christianity are not complying with the Orissa's 1989 Freedom of Religion Act that calls for converts to submit a form to a district magistrate. Express Buzz yesterday reported that between 1989 and 2008, only two individuals filed, while the Christian population of the Orissa went up by over 42,000...

Recently Available Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on October 27, 2008
In Lewis v. Ollison, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 54591 (CD CA, July 14, 2008), a California federal district court accepted the recommendation of a magistrate judge (2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82623, June 10 2008), and dismissed a free exercise and RLUIPA complaint by a Muslim prisoner...

Conservative Religious Groups Working In Favor of California's Marriage Amendment

Posted on October 27, 2008
Today's New York Times reported on the personnel and funding that conservative religious groups are investing in the campaign to pass Proposition 8, the ballot measure that would ban gay marriage in the state. Religious leaders are framing the battle in apocalyptic terms...

Report Appears To Clear Three Baha'is Imprisoned In Iran

Posted on October 26, 2008
On Friday, Baha'i World News Service said that a confidential report issued in June by an Iranian investigator clears a group of Baha'is who were arrested in Shiraz, Iran in 2006. The investigation leading to the report was apparently undertaken at the request of Iranian provincial authorities...

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

Preliminary Agreement Reached In Atlanta Church Zoning Case

Posted on October 26, 2008
Alliance Defense Fund on Friday announced an agreement with the city of Atlanta under which the city would allow Kingdom First Ministries to operate out of a building it has leased in Atlanta's Historic West End. The court issued a consent order (full text) in the case, under which the church can begin operating immediately and the parties agree to work toward a full settlement of the case...

Canadian Court Rejects Anti-Abortion Tax Protester's Defense

Posted on October 26, 2008
Friday's Edmonton (AB) Sun-News reports that a Court of Queen?s Bench justice has dismissed the appeal of a Canadian tax protester. Abortion foe David Little was convicted of failing to file tax returns. Little unsuccessfully claimed that his religious freedom under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms is violated if he is forced to pay taxes that are used, in part, to fund abortions.

Tanzanian Christians Say Move To Join OIC Violates Constitution

Posted on October 26, 2008
African Press Agency reported yesterday that in Tanzania, Christian church leaders have called for the resignation of the country's minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The Christian leaders say tat his moves to have Tanzania join the Organization of the Islamic Conference violates Tanzania's constitution...

Georgia Court Says Free Exercise Objection to Evidence Not Preserved For Appeal

Posted on October 25, 2008
In Seibert v. State, 2008 Ga. App. LEXIS 1137 (GA Ct. App., Oct 22, 2008), a Georgia state appellate court rejected a claim by defendant, who had been convicted on stalking charges, that the trial court violated his right to free exercise of religion by admitting into evidence a prayer that he had composed...

Jury Finds No Fraud In Assertion Behind Episcopal Priest's Removal

Posted on October 25, 2008
In Philadelphia (PA), a state trial court jury yesterday found for Episcopal Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. in the lawsuit against him for fraudulently removing Rev. David Moyer, former rector of Good Shepherd Episcopal parish in Rosemont (PA). The jury found for the diocese on an issue that was critical to all other issues in the case-- whether the diocese engaged in fraud when it asserted that Moyer "abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church" in 2002...

Utah AG Candidates Say Voters Want To Know Their Stands On Polygamy

Posted on October 25, 2008
Today's Houston Chronicle reports that the opposing candidates for state Attorney General in Utah say the question they are first asked by voters is their views on enforcing anti-polygamy statutes. Incumbent Republican Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who supported Texas authorities' raids on the FLDS compound earlier this year, says Utah should investigate and prosecute crimes associated with polygamy, such as incest, child sexual abuse and welfare fraud...

Court Dismisses Title VII Claim By Pastor Against Catholic Archdiocese

Posted on October 25, 2008
In Ogugua v. Archdiocese of Omaha, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 85317 (D NE, Oct. 22, 2008), a Nebraska federal district court dismissed a Title VII discrimination claim by an assistant pastor who was suspended from exercising priestly functions by the Omaha Catholic Archdiocese...

IRS Asked To Investigate Anti-Obama Letter From Bishop

Posted on October 25, 2008
Earlier this week, Americans United announced that it has written the Internal Revenue Services (full text of letter) asking it to investigate a letter published by Catholic Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Patterson, New Jersey. The letter, which AU says violates IRS rules on endorsement of candidates by non-profit organizations, is titled "A Politician?s Promise: No Right to Life! No Freedom!...

En Banc Review Denied In Las Cruces Case

Posted on October 24, 2008
The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday rejected a petition seeking an en banc rehearing in Weinbaum v. City of Las Cruces. The Las Cruces (NM) Sun-News reports on the court's action. (See prior related posting.) In the case, a 3-judge panel dismissed an Establishment Clause challenge to the use of three Latin crosses as the symbol of the city of Las Cruces...

Bangladesh Islamist Party Changes Charter To Qualify For Registration

Posted on October 24, 2008
In Bangladesh, the Election Commission has ordered political parties to register, or else they will be disqualified from running candidates in the December 18 election that will bring Parliamentary democracy back to the country. (Registration laws.) For two years the country has been ruled by caretaker regimes...

NY Diocese Gets Property of Break-Away Episcopal Parish

Posted on October 24, 2008
In Episcopal Diocese of Rochester v Harnish, (NY Ct. App., Oct. 23, 2008), New York's high court held that when All Saints parish broke away from the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester, New York, its property remained with the Diocese and the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America...

Dominican Republic High Court Upholds Country's Concordat With Vatican

Posted on October 24, 2008
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of the Dominican Republic rejected a constitutional challenge to the 1954 Concordat and Final Protocol entered between the Vatican and the Dominican State. (Constitution in Spanish.) According to Dominican Today, the court held that although under the Concordat (Art...

Florida Supreme Court Rejects "False Light" Claims In Jews For Jesus Case

Posted on October 24, 2008
In Jews for Jesus, Inc. v. Rapp, (FL Sup. Ct., Oct. 23, 2008) the Florida Supreme Court closed one avenue of relief, but opened another, in the long-running lawsuit by Edith Rapp who claimed that Jews for Jesus published a false report from her missionary stepson that she had joined the organization...

Religious Education Program In Israel's Military Questioned

Posted on October 24, 2008
In Israel, questions are being raised about the expanding role of the Chief Military Rabbinate in offering educational programs for members of the Israeli Defense Forces. Haaretz reported yesterday that the IDF's Education Corps is concerned that the Rabbinate's program harms "the delicate fabric of relations between the nonreligious and religious in the IDF...

Cert. Filed In City Council Sectarian Prayer Case

Posted on October 24, 2008
Last Monday, a Petition for Certiorari (full text) was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in Turner v. City Council of the City of Fredericksburg Virginia, (Docket No. 08-518). In the case, the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals (in a decision written by Sandra Day O'Connor sitting as a Circuit judge) upheld the city council's policy that requires prayers which open its sessions to be nondenominational...

Venezuelan President Meets With Russian Orthodox Official

Posted on October 24, 2008
Itar-Tass reports that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez met in Caracas yesterday with a leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Kirill. Kirill, who was leading a delegation to Venezuela, discussed church-state relations with Chavez...

Suit Against Oral Roberts University Settled

Posted on October 24, 2008
Today's Tulsa (OK) World reports that a lawsuit against Oral Roberts University by two former faculty members was settled this week. The lawsuit against the Christian university had alleged that the plaintiffs were wrongfully dismissed as faculty after they reported the University's use of resources in a candidate's political race for mayor in Tulsa and improper use of university funds by then-president Richard Roberts for home remodeling and for travel and other lifestyle extravagances for his wife and daughter...

Green Bay Opts For Secular Holiday Displays This Year

Posted on October 23, 2008
Last year, Green Bay Wisconsin found itself in the middle of litigation after the then-City Council president put up a nativity scene at City Hall. (See prior posting.) Yesterday, the City Council's Advisory Committee, by a 5-1 vote, passed and sent on to City Council a resolution that would require holiday displays on city-owned property this year to be non-religious in nature...

India Law Commission Urges Changes In Marriage Laws

Posted on October 23, 2008
The Law Commission of India has recently issued a report on Laws of Civil Marriages in India ?A Proposal to Resolve Certain Conflicts. In India, citizens currently have a choice of marriage under their religion-specific marriage laws, or a civil marriage under the Special Marriage Act of 1954...

Turkey High Court's Headscarf Opinions Published

Posted on October 23, 2008
Yesterday, Turkey's Constitutional Court published in the Official Gazette the majority and dissenting opinions in its June ruling striking down constitutional amendments that would have allowed wearing Islamic headscarves on university campuses. (See prior posting...

Jordanian Poet Charged With Insulting Islam and Quran

Posted on October 23, 2008
Today's Jordan Times and Abu Dhabi's The National earlier this week report on the controversial charges filed by Jordan's state-run Press and Publication Department (PPD) against poet Islam Samhan. The poet has been charged with insulting Islam and the Quran...

Pennsylvania School District Sued Over Restrictive Flyer Policy

Posted on October 23, 2008
Yesterday Alliance Defense Fund announced the filing of a lawsuit against the Haverford Township, Pennsylvania school district challenging school policies that preclude the Good News Club from sending flyers home with students promoting their after-school religious meetings...

Complaint To IRS Focuses On Unusual Political Endorsement By Church

Posted on October 22, 2008
Americans United has sent a letter (full text) to the Internal Revenue Service complaining about an unusual type of political endorsement by an Espanola, New Mexico church. As described by its press release: Rock Christian Fellowship ... has posted two large photos on its building...

Westhampton Eruv Supporters File Arguements In Response To Opposition

Posted on October 22, 2008
On Oct. 19, attorneys for the Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach, New York, filed a letter with the Village Board (full text) defending the constitutionality of their proposed eruv (symbolic enclosure of space). The letter comes in response to a memo filed with the Village Board earlier this month by opponents of the eruv...

Cert. Filed In Mojave Desert War Memorial Cross Case

Posted on October 22, 2008
On Oct. 10, the U.S. Solicitor General filed a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court in Kempthorne v. Buono, (Docket No. No. 08-472). In the case, the 9th Circuit found Establishment Clause problems with Congress' transfer of the Sunrise Rock Cross in the Mojave Preserve war memorial to the Veterans of Foreign Wars...

Death Sentence For Journalism Student Reduced to 20 Years By Afghan Court

Posted on October 22, 2008
As previously reported, in January journalism student Sayad Parwez Kambaksh was sentenced to death after a 5-minute trial by an Afghanistan court. He was charged with distributing an online article to which he had added comments, critical of the Quran's view of women...

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