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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

9th Circuit Rejects RFRA Challenge To Hydroelectric Project By Snoqualmie Tribe

Posted on October 08, 2008
In Snoqualmie Indian Tribe v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, (9th Cir., Oct. 7, 2008), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld FERC's granting of a 40-year license renewal to Puget Sound Energy, Inc. to operate the Snoqualmie Falls Hydroelectric Project...

ACLU Brings Another Suit Against Ohio Judge For Religious Courtroom Poster

Posted on October 08, 2008
The ACLU of Ohio yesterday announced the filing a a lawsuit against Richland County Common Pleas Court Judge James DeWeese, challenging a poster hung in his court room that displays "Humanist Principles" next to the Ten Commandments. (Photo of poster...

White House Council Report Supports More Aid For Faith-Based Urban Schools

Posted on October 08, 2008
The White House Domestic Policy Council last week issued a 176-page report titled Preserving a Critical National Asset: America's Disadvantaged Students and the Crisis in Faith-based Urban Schools. The Introduction summarizes the report's recommendations:[B]etween the 1999?2000 and 2005?06 school years, the K?12 faith-based education sector lost nearly 1,200 schools and nearly 425,000 students...

Challenge To Green Bay Creche Dismissed On Standing Grounds

Posted on October 08, 2008
In Freedom from Religion Foundation, Inc. v. City of Green Bay, (ED WI, Oct. 7, 2008), a Wisconsin federal district court dismissed an Establishment Clause challenge to a nativity scene displayed last year on the roof of the entrance to Green Bay's City Hall...

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Shariah Compliant Mutual Funds Benefit From U.S. Financial Crisis

Posted on October 08, 2008
Commodity Online reported yesterday that one unanticipated effect of the current U.S. financial crisis is the growth of assets invested in Shariah mutual funds and other Shariah-compliant investments. Because Islamic law prohibits paying or receiving interest, most of the mutual funds have avoided the now-battered stocks of financial services firms...

6th Circuit Upholds Limits On Leaflet Distribution In School Hallways

Posted on October 08, 2008
In M.A.L. v. Kinsland, (6th Cir., Oct. 7, 2008), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld restrictions imposed by a Monroe, Michigan middle school on a student's handing out anti-abortion leaflets as part of the national "3rd Annual Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity...

"RELIGION CLAUSE" PUBLICATION SCHEDULE--LOOK

Posted on October 08, 2008
"RELIGION CLAUSE" PUBLICATION SCHEDULE--LOOK FOR THE NEXT NEW POSTINGS ON FRIDAY MORNING

Major Law Firm Sued for Religious Discrimination In Firing of Associate

Posted on October 08, 2008
American Lawyer reported Monday on a religious discrimination lawsuit filed in New York state court against the 1000-lawyer Dechert law firm. Former associate Marc Lubin says that one of the reasons he was fired was the fact that he was an Orthodox Jew...

In Malaysia, Council of Ulemas Gains Strength

Posted on October 07, 2008
This morning's New York Times reports on the growing power in Indonesia of the Council of Ulemas. The quasi-governmental council of Muslim scholars was formed in 1975 by then-President Suharto to limit the growth of political Islam. More recently, however, the Council, which represents established Muslim organizations, has become more radical and politically powerful...

FLDS Church Sues To Challenge Reform of UEP Trust

Posted on October 07, 2008
After years of ignoring Utah state court proceedings that have reformed the United Effort Plan Trust of the FLDS Church, the Church on Monday filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the attorneys general of Utah and Colorado, the special fiduciary appointed by the court and Utah state district court Judge Denise Lindberg have violated the Church's First Amendment free exercise rights...

California Brings Back "Bride" and "Groom" On Marriage Licenses

Posted on October 07, 2008
As previously reported, some in California are objecting to the current form of California's marriage licenses. In order to take account of now-recognized same-sex marriages, the forms merely identify the parties to be married as Party A and Party B. In response, the California Department of Public Health last week announced a change...

Cert. Denied In Three Cases of Interest

Posted on October 07, 2008
Yesterday, as the U.S. Supreme Court opened its Fall Term, it denied certiorari in a number of cases. (Order List). Among them were three cases that relate to law and religion issues:In Lucero v. Texas (No. 07-1429), the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that the jurors' verdict was not affected by their reading of a passage fro the Bible during their deliberations...

Atlanta Church Sues To Challenge Use Permit Denial

Posted on October 07, 2008
Last week in Atlanta, (GA), Kingdom First Ministries filed a lawsuit against the city of Atlanta challenging its refusal to grant the Church a special use permit. The Church wants to operate out of a building it has leased in Atlanta's Historic West End...

California Teacher's Religious Discrimination Claim Rejected By Court

Posted on October 07, 2008
In Jalali v. Los Angeles Unified School District, (CA Ct. App., Oct. 2, 2008), a California state appellate court rejected a claim of religious and national origin discrimination in employment brought by an elementary school teacher. Plaintiff is a Muslim of Iranian descent...

Ancient Jewish Custom of "Prozbul" Still Being Used to Assure Debt Collectibility

Posted on October 07, 2008
In Israel last week, Rosh Hashanah marked the end of the Sabbatical Year-- the seventh year, in which, according to Jewish law, farm lands are to lie fallow. (See prior posting.) Also, according to a provision of Jewish law that was designed to assist the poor, most outstanding debts are cancelled at the end of the Sabbatical Year...

Sikh Temple Members In Metro Portland Sue Leaders Over Building Move

Posted on October 06, 2008
In Vancouver, Washington (part of metropolitan Portland, Oregon), a lawsuit has been filed by four members of the Guru Ram Dass Sikh Community of Vancouver and Portland against leaders of the local Sikh temple (Gurdwara). Yesterday's Vancouver Columbian reports that the internal dispute is over whether the temple should move from its current location to a former athletic club building...

Court Allows Native American Kindergartner Into Class With Long Hair

Posted on October 06, 2008
The Houston Chronicle reported on Friday that parents of a Needville, Texas kindergartner have been successful in convincing a federal district judge to issue a preliminary injunction ordering school officials to permit 5-year old Adriel Arocha to return to his regular school classroom with his long hair in plain sight...

Traditional Pre-Yom Kippur Ritual Rasies Some Legal Concerns

Posted on October 06, 2008
The Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur begins Wednesday evening. Legal authorities in some cities are raising questions about a pre-Yom Kippur ceremony observed by some Orthodox Jews. The ritual of Kaparot, in its traditional form, involves swinging a live chicken around one's head, symbolically transferring one's sins to it...

IL Court Applies Abstention Doctrine In Challenge To Hiring of Priest

Posted on October 06, 2008
In Buss v. Przybylo, (IL App. Ct., Sept. 26, 2008), an Illinois appellate court applied the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine to dismiss a complaint by two members of The Shrine of Christ the King challenging a contract entered into by the church to employ Father Chester Przybylo to serve as priest for the congregation...

Recent Articles of Interest

Posted on October 06, 2008
From SSRN:Intisar A. Rabb, 'We the Jurists': Islamic Constitutionalism in Iraq, (Univ. of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, Vol. 10, No. 3, p. 527, March 2008).Bryan Thomas, Secular Law and Inscrutable Faith, (September 2008).Michael Perry, Human Rights as Morality, Human Rights as Law, (Emory Public Law Research Paper No...

Annual Red Mass Held Today In D.C.

Posted on October 05, 2008
Blog of The Legal Times reports that this morning five Supreme Court justices were in attendance at the 55th annual Red Mass in Washington, sponsored by the John Carroll Society. Four of the 5 sitting Catholic Justices (Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy and Thomas), as well as Justice Breyer, who is Jewish, were there...

9th Circuit: Plaintiff Lacks Standing To Challenge Evolution Website

Posted on October 05, 2008
In Caldwell v. Caldwell, (9th Cir., Oct. 3, 2008), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed for lack of standing plaintiff's Establishment Clause challenge to certain content on an "Understanding Evolution" website created and maintained by the University of California Museum of Paleontology and funded in part by the National Science Foundation...

Recent Prisoner and Institutionalized Persons Free Exercise Cases

Posted on October 05, 2008
In Gillard v. Kuykendall, (8th Cir., Oct. 2, 2008), the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals held that prison authorities violated the free exercise rights of an inmate who, as a member of the New Testament House of Prayer, observed the Sabbath on Saturday...

British Court Grants Asylum To Muslim Converts To Christianity

Posted on October 04, 2008
Earlier this week, the Christian Post reported that a British immigration appeals court has granted asylum to a couple that had converted from Islam to evangelical Christianity. For the first time, the court recognized that the couple faced threats, including death threats, if they returned to Syria, the husband's country of origin...

School Ban On Student Speech Claiming Supremacy of Religious View Struck Down

Posted on October 04, 2008
Miller v. Penn Manor School District, (ED PA, Sept. 30, 2008), involved a challenge to a Pennsylvania school district's Student Expression policy. It was brought by a high school student who was told he could not wear to school a T-shirt that promoted homeland security and was imprinted on the back, in part, with the words: "Special Issue-Resident-Lifetime License, United States Terrorist Hunting Permit...

Court Rejects Establishment Clause Challenge To School Program

Posted on October 04, 2008
In Freedom from Religion Foundation, Inc. v. Cherry Creek School District, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76938 (D CO, Sept. 8, 2008), a Colorado federal district court rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to a school district program called "40 Developmental Assets...

Federal Court Removal Denied For Counterclaims In Yeshiva Housing Case

Posted on October 04, 2008
In Village of Chestnut Ridge v. Town of Ramapo, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76881 (SDNY, Sept. 30, 2008), a New York federal district court rejected an attempt by defendant alleging RLUIPA and Fair Housing Act counterclaims to remove a case from New York state courts to federal court...

Subpoena For Megachurch Records Turns On Technicality of IRS Bureaucracy

Posted on October 04, 2008
The Minnesota Independent and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune report that on Thursday a federal magistrate judge in Minneapolis heard arguments on whether the court should enforce an IRS subpoena for financial documents against Living Word Christian Center...

Federal Lawsuit Challenges National Day of Prayer

Posted on October 04, 2008
The Freedom from Religion Foundation filed suit on Friday in a Wisconsin federal district court challenging the federal law that creates a national Day of Prayer. (Press release.) The complaint (full text) seeks a declaratory judgment that Public Law 100-307 and Presidential and Gubernatorial Proclamations calling on citizens to pray violate the Establishment Clause...

Court Finds No Viewpoint Discrimination In Teacher's Actions On Jesus Poster

Posted on October 03, 2008
In Peck v. Baldwinsville Central School District, (ND NY, Sept. 30, 2008), a New York federal district court concluded that a kindergarten teacher and a school principal did not engage in viewpoint discrimination when they displayed a student's poster on environmental issues only after folding a picture of Jesus on the poster under so that it was not visible...

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