Religion & Law

Minister In Battle With Pennsylvania Town Over Use of Church For Homeless

Posted on September 21, 2008
Today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports on the battle in Brookville, Pennsylvania between the First Apostles Doctrine Church and zoning authorities. The church's minister, Rev. Jack L. Wisor, wants to use the church as a homeless shelter, saying providing shelter to "guests" is part of its ministry...

Feds Raid Arkansas Church Headquarters In Child Pornography Investigation

Posted on September 21, 2008
In southwest Arkansas yesterday, federal authorities raided the 15-acre compound housing the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries. The Associated Press reports that the raid was part of a child pornography investigation. Social workers are talking with children who live at the complex located in the town of Fouke...

Recently Available Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on September 21, 2008
In Farnsworth v. Baxter, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69236 (WD TN, Sept. 12, 2008), a Tennessee federal district court rejected claims by a Messianic Jewish prisoner that his rights under RLUIPA were violated when neither the prison chaplain nor a volunteer could conduct Messianic Jewish Sabbath services for him to attend...

Pakistan Church Wants Government To Intervene In Kidnapping Case

Posted on September 21, 2008
Religious Intelligence reports today that the Lahore Diocese of the Church of Pakistan has asked the government to intervene in the case of two Christian girls, aged 10 and 14, who in June were kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam. The older girl was also forced to marry...

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NY Social Service Department Suing To Get Heart Surgery For Amish Child

Posted on September 20, 2008
WWNY TV News reported yesterday on the ongoing trial in St. Lawrence County, New York Family Court of an Amish couple who are refusing on religious and cultural grounds to allow their 17-month old son to have heart surgery. The county Department of Social Services has filed neglect charges, asking the court to remove the child from the custody of his parents, Gideon and Barbara Hershberger, so he can have a hole in his heart surgically repaired...

Indian Police Arrest Hindu Activist After Series of Church Attacks

Posted on September 20, 2008
M&C reports today that in Mangalore in southern India, police have arrested Hindu right-wing activist Mahendra Kumar on charges of conspiracy and of promoting enmity between religious groups. Kumar heads the Karnataka Bajrang Dal which has claimed responsibility for attacks on at least 14 churches and Christian prayer halls since September 14 in Karnataka state...

NY Court Orders Specific Performance of Land Sale By Religious Corporation

Posted on September 20, 2008
In Scher v Yeshivath Makowa Corp., (NY App. Div., Sept. 16, 2008), a New York appellate court rejected an attempt by a religious corporation to back out of a contract for sale of its property. The NY Religious Corporation Law, Sec. 12, provides that a religious corporation must apply for leave of a court to sell property...

House Bill Would Assure Right To Post Mezuzahs On Condo Unit Doors

Posted on September 20, 2008
Earlier this week, U.S. Representative from New York, Jerrold Nadler, introduced H.R. 6932 which would amend the federal Fair Housing Act to guarantee residents of condominiums and co-ops the right to display religious symbols or objects, such as a mezuzah, outside their doors...

Suit Challenges DC Land Swap With Christian Homeless Shelter

Posted on September 19, 2008
A lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Washington, DC yesterday challenging a proposed exchange of land in which the District if Columbia would give Central Union Mission a former school building near the U.S. Capitol worth nearly $9 million, plus $7 million in cash and expenditures for renovation, so the Mission can relocate its homeless shelter there...

Italian Party Seeking To Restrict Building of Mosques

Posted on September 19, 2008
PoliGazette yesterday reported on efforts in Italy by the Lega Nord party to refuse Muslims permission to build mosques in Italian cities. A new law being proposed would prohibit building of a mosque within 1 kilometer of a church and would make it illegal for Imams to speak to their congregations in Arabic...

Chinese House Church Sues County Religious Affairs Bureau

Posted on September 19, 2008
Human Rights in China reported yesterday that for the first time a lawsuit has been filed against a government religious authority in China. Wang Yi filed suit on behalf of a Christian house church in Chengdu city-- the Qiuyu Blessings Church. They are suing the Shuangliu County Bureau of People's Religious Affairs for raiding and later banning a religious gathering held by the church in May at a resort hotel...

"Rabbis for Obama" Group Formed

Posted on September 19, 2008
Yesterday's New Jersey Jewish News reports on the formation last week of a first-of-its-kind organization-- Rabbis for Obama. Some 300 rabbis have signed onto a letter that says Obama "will best support the issues important to us in the Jewish community...

2008 Survey On First Amendment Attitudes Released

Posted on September 19, 2008
On Wednesday, the First Amendment Center released its State of the First Amendment 2008 national survey (detailed results). 62% of respondents thought that Americans have about the right amount of religious freedom. 54% believe that freedom of worship applies to all religious groups regardless of how extreme their beliefs are...

State Department Issues 2008 Report On International Religious Freedom

Posted on September 19, 2008
The U.S. State Department this afternoon issued its 2008 Report on International Religious Freedom. The Report discusses separately the status of religious freedom in almost every country around the world, including the 8 that have been designated as "countries of particular concern": Burma, China, North Korea, Iran, Sudan, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan...

Good News Club Suit In Virginia Settled

Posted on September 19, 2008
Following up on last month's issuance of a preliminary injunction by a Virginia federal district court barring the Williamsburg- James City County School Board from charging user fees to the Good News Club for after-school use of school facilities (see prior posting), the parties have entered into a stipulated Consent Decree settling the case...

President Speaks At White House Iftaar Dinner

Posted on September 18, 2008
Last night, President Bush continued the annual tradition of speaking at an Iftaar dinner-- a dinner to break the Ramadan fast-- held at the White House. In addition to government officials and members of the diplomatic corps, guests included Muslims who have risen to the top of their profession in the United States...

Court Upholds Ban on Defendant Displaying Bible To Jury

Posted on September 18, 2008
In People v. Williams, (App. Div., Sept. 16, 2008), in a brief opinion, a New York appellate court held that a murder defendant's free exercise rights were not violated when the trial judge prohibited him from displaying his Bible in the presence of the jury...

North Carolina School District May Add Creationism To Curriculum

Posted on September 18, 2008
Articles in the Wilmington, North Carolina Star News on Tuesday and Wednesday report that the Brunswick County (NC) School Board is looking for a way to teach creationism in the schools. The issue was raised at Tuesday's board meeting by parent Joel Fanti who told the board that it was unfair for evolution to be taught as a fact...

Texas County Settles Lawsuit With New Screening Policy on Religious Garb

Posted on September 18, 2008
Dallas County, Texas has revised its security screening procedures for individuals wearing religious head coverings in order to settle a lawsuit filed last year by Amardeep Singh, a member of the Sikh faith. (See prior posting.) According to yesterday's Houston Chronicle, in 2006 after refusing to remove his turban, Singh was ordered out or a Justice of the Peace courtroom where he had come to defend a traffic ticket...

California City and Buddhist Temple Settle RLUIPA Challenge

Posted on September 18, 2008
Yesterday in Garden Grove, California, the parties announced a settlement in Vietnamese Buddhism Study Temple in America v. City of Garden Grove, a challenge under the 1st Amendment and RLUIPA to a zoning denial (See prior posting.). The Orange County Register reports that under the settlement, the Quan Am Buddhist temple will submit an application to tear down an office building it purchased and construct a new temple, including living quarters for monks and nuns...

Minnesota School Faces Issue of Accommodating Students' Prayer Times

Posted on September 18, 2008
In Willmar, Minnesota, school officials are at odds with some Somali Muslim parents over how far the schools should go in accommodating students' need for prayer time. Minnesota Public Radio reported Tuesday that under an agreement reached with parents six years ago, Willmar Junior High School students are permitted to pray between classes and at lunch time...

Illinois Church's RLUIPA Lawsuit Settled

Posted on September 18, 2008
For a second time, a settlement seems imminent in a federal lawsuit between Carlinville, Illinois and the Carlinville Southern Baptist Church that wants to use a former Wal-Mart building, zoned for commercial use, as a church. The church argued that its 1st and 14th Amendment rights and its rights under RLUIPA were violated by the city's denial of permission for the property to be used for worship...

McCain Comments On Religion and Governance

Posted on September 17, 2008
Last Friday, according to a Catholic News Agency report, Republican presidential nominee John McCain spoke about religion and political governance in an appearance on the ABC television show, The View. He said: Judeo-Christian values were the foundation of our nation...

UN Draft Document Calls For Tempering Free Speech Over Religious Sensibilities

Posted on September 17, 2008
Today's Canadian Jewish News reports that a draft discussion paper circulating in advance of the April 2009 United Nations Durban II anti-racism conference contains controversial language on avoiding defamation of religion. The Preliminary Document of the African Regional Conference Preparatory to the Durban Review Conference, paragraph 13, "calls upon states to avoid inflexibly clinging to free speech in defiance of the sensitivities existing in a society and with absolute disregard for religious feelings...

Court Orders New Election In California Buddhist Temple

Posted on September 17, 2008
Yesterday's San Jose (CA) Mercury News reports on the impact on the Oakland Buddhist Society Temple of efforts by the Massachusetts-based International Community of Khmer Buddhist Monks Center to form a national organization by taking over local Cambodian Buddhist Temples...

California Couple Refuses To Sign Gender-Neutral Marriage License

Posted on September 17, 2008
After the California Supreme Court earlier this year ruled that same-sex marriage is valid, the courts required the state to provide gender-neutral marriage license forms. So the words "bride" and "groom" are now replaced by "Party A" and "Party B". However, Roseville (CA) Pastor Doug Bird, of the Abundant Life Fellowship, is urging couples not to sign the new marriage forms...

Developments In Two FLDS Legal Proceedings

Posted on September 17, 2008
Today's Deseret News reports on legal developments in two separate proceedings involving the FLDS Church. Texas Child Protective Services has moved to nonsuit four more children in its custody proceedings that originally involved 439 children taken from the group's YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, Texas...

Tourists In Dubai Fined For Eating In Public During Ramadan

Posted on September 17, 2008
Gulf News reported yesterday that in the United Arab Emirates, the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours has convicted two non-Muslim foreign tourists of violating the country's ban on eating and drinking in public during daylight hours in the month of Ramadan...

Google Settles Suit By British Christian Group Over Pro-Life Ads

Posted on September 17, 2008
In Britain, a settlement has been reached in the suit against Google brought by the Christian Institute. Professional Fundraising reports today that under the terms of the confidential settlement Google affiliate AdWords will change its policy that led it to reject pro-life ads that would appear when a user Googled the word "abortion"...

Opponents of Arizona's Marriage Amendment Focus On Mormon Suport For Measure

Posted on September 17, 2008
In November, Arizona voters will decide whether to approve Proposition 102, a state constitutional amendment providing: "Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state." Today's Arizona Star reports that Arizona Together, the main group opposing the measure, is creating a strategy to label the proposal an attempt by the Mormon church to improve its image and appear "mainstream" after a series of polygamy scandals involving groups not formally affiliated with the LDS church...

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