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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

County Approves Facility For Eid-al-Adha Slaughter

Posted on September 11, 2008
The Raleigh (NC) Herald reports that Johnston (NC) County Commissioners last week quietly approved construction of a slaughter house by Eddie and Kenneth Rowe. The facility will be used by Muslims for slaughtering lambs for Eid-al-Adha (the Festival of Sacrifice)...

Experts Discuss Impact of Religion On Jurisprudence of High Court Justices

Posted on September 11, 2008
The cover story of the September/October issue of Moment Magazine is titled Religion & The Supreme Court. Nine experts discuss whether the religion of Supreme Court justices play a role in their jurisprudence? The article features responses to that question from Jeffrey Rosen, Douglas Kmiec, Abner Joseph Mikva, Marci A...

Minnesota Officials Uncertain About Muslim Charter School

Posted on September 11, 2008
Yesterday's Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that tension continues to exist between the Minnesota Department of Education and the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA), a K-8 charter school. The state continues to be concerned that TiZA has stepped over the church-state line...

Conviction of Abortion Protester For Violating Noise Ordinance Upheld

Posted on September 11, 2008
In Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Parente, (PA Commwlth. Ct., Sept., 9, 2008), the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court upheld the conviction of an abortion protester for violating Pittsburgh's noise control ordinance. Joseph Parente had set up loudspeakers to demonstrate in front of an abortion clinic...

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MN Appellate Court Refuses Temporary Injunction To Muslim Cabbies

Posted on September 10, 2008
In Dolal v. Metropolitan Airports Commission, (MN Ct. App., Sept. 9, 2008), a Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a trial court's refusal to issue a temporary injunction sought by Muslim cab drivers against the commission that regulates ground transportation at the Minneapolis- St...

Netherlands Plans To Ban Burkas in Schools

Posted on September 10, 2008
In the Netherlands, Education Minister Ronald Plasterk says legislation will be introduced in Parliament next year to ban the wearing of the burka at all elementary and secondary schools, including private Muslim schools. The London Telegraph reported yesterday that the proposed ban will apply to all teachers and visitors, as well as to parents picking up their children...

3rd Circuit Hears Oral Arguments In Title VII Muslim Police Officer Case

Posted on September 10, 2008
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that yesterday the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Webb v. City of Philadelphia, a case in which a Pennsylvania federal district court rejected a Title VII religious discrimination claim brought by a Muslim police officer who wanted to cover her head for religious reasons with a khimar...

Pittsburgh Episcopal Diocese Makes Financial Arrangements For Split-Off

Posted on September 10, 2008
For several years, the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh has been moving toward separating from Episcopal Church (ECUSA) and affiliating with the more conservative Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. A final vote is expected on October 4. Yesterday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Calvary Episcopal Church has been leading the minority of parishes that object to Bishop Robert Duncan's plans...

Recent Prisoner Free Excercise Cases

Posted on September 10, 2008
In Zapata v. Brandenburg, (10th Cir., Aug. 25, 2008), the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of a prisoner's claim that he was removed from a faith-based program because he refused to convert to a different faith. The lower court found that the removal was related to legitimate penological interests-- he was combative and threatening toward other inmates and staff...

State Court Says RLUIPA Permits Church To Build

Posted on September 10, 2008
Today's Aspen (CO) Daily News reports that a state trial court judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a group known as the Emma Caucus challenging a decision by Pitkin County, Colorado commissioners to permit construction of a large church complex by Grace Church of the Roaring Fork Valley...

Property of Break-Away Presbyterian Church Belongs To Parent Body

Posted on September 10, 2008
The Tulsa World reports that an Oklahoma state trial court yesterday ruled that the multi-million dollar building housing Tulsa's Kirk of the Hills Church belongs to the Presbyterian Church USA and its Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery, and not to the local congregation that broke away from the parent body to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church through the New Wineskins...

Court Upholds Teacher's Classroom Banners With Religious-Patriotic Messages

Posted on September 10, 2008
In an interesting decision issued last week, a California federal district court refused to dismiss claims by high school teacher Bradley Johnson against Poway (CA) Unified School District. Johnson, a Christian, was ordered by his principal to remove two banners from the walls of his Westville High School classroom because they conveyed a Judeo-Christian viewpoint...

Colorado Company Faces Dispute Over Ramadan Accommodation For Workers

Posted on September 09, 2008
In Greeley, Colorado, JBS Swift & Co. finds itself in the middle of protests regarding the appropriate accommodation of religious practices of its many Muslim employees-- mostly African refugees-- who are fasting during Ramadan. Today's Greeley Tribune reports that those working the late shift want their break time moved up to 7:30 pm so they can break their fast at sundown...

8th Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Religious Challenge To Controlled Substances Acts

Posted on September 09, 2008
In Olsen v. Mukasey, (8th Cir., Sept. 8, 2008), the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals held that plaintiff's attempt to enjoin enforcement against him of the federal and Iowa's controlled substances acts should be dismissed. Carl Olsen, a member of the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, uses marijuana for sacramental purposes...

Biden's Remarks On "Life" Trigger Bishops' Response

Posted on September 09, 2008
Catholic bishops around the country have reacted strongly to remarks by Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joseph Biden on last Sunday's "Meet the Press" (full transcript). Asked by interviewer Tom Brokaw what he would tell Sen. Obama if he asked Biden when life begins, Biden replied: I'd say, "Look, I know when it begins for me...

Dutch Court Creates Controversy In Accomodating Beliefs of Muslim Lawyer

Posted on September 09, 2008
Courts in Europe continue to struggle with questions of accommodating Muslim religious practices. NIS News today reports that the Dutch Bar Association, along with politicians from both the ruling and opposition parties, oppose a ruling by a Rotterdam judge that Muslim lawyer Mohammed Enait need not rise when judges enter the courtroom...

City Says RLUIPA Limits Its Response To Distracting Church Sign

Posted on September 09, 2008
A church sign near Interstate 90 in Janesville, Wisconsin is too bright and so is distracting to motorists. However, according to yesterday's Church Solutions, the city will merely request that the church dim the sign. It will not require the church to do so, saying that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act protects the church's right to display the sign.

British Unions Call For Removal of Anti-Gay Equality Commissioner

Posted on September 09, 2008
In Britain, the Trade Unions Conference has unanimously called for the removal of Joel Edwards as one of the 17 commissioners on the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Edwards, who was appointed to the new Commission created by the Equality Act 2006, is director of the Evangelical Alliance and a senior figure in Britain's black community...

Scientology Faces Charges In France; Takes Offensive Against YouTube

Posted on September 09, 2008
Jurist and AFP report that on Monday a French judge ordered the Church of Scientology to appear before a Paris Magistrate's Court to face criminal charges of organized fraud and ordered seven of its members to face charges of illegal practice of pharmacy...

Palin and Jews For Jesus Speaker Both Clarify Their Views

Posted on September 09, 2008
As Sarah Palin's religious views are closely scrutinized by the media, last week remarks of a guest speaker at her Wasilla church were widely circulated. Jews for Jesus executive director, David Brickner spoke there, and his remarks were characterized as suggesting that conflict in the Middle East was a punishment for Israel's not accepting Jesus...

Russian Prosecutors Say "South Park" Incites Religious Hatred

Posted on September 08, 2008
In 2006, Russia passed a law expanding the definition of extremism to include "inciting religious and national hatred." According to Reuters today, prosecutors in Moscow's region of Basmanny have filed a motion in court against the television station 2x2 seeking to ban the U...

French Secularists Attack Judge's Postponement of Trial for Ramadan

Posted on September 08, 2008
BBC News reported yesterday on the strong reaction of those who defend French secularism to a French court's decision to grant a Muslim defendant a trial delay. The trial was scheduled to start Sept. 16, but a lawyer for one of the seven men in Rennes charged with armed robbery told the court that this is in the middle of Ramadan, and his fasting client would not be in a position to defend himself properly...

Recent Articles on Law and Religion

Posted on September 08, 2008
From SSRN:Paul E. Mcgreal, Constitutional Easements: A New Approach to Permanent Monuments in Traditional Public Forums , (Northwestern University Law Review Colloquy, Sept. 5, 2008).Mark S. Scarberry, John Leland and James Madison: Religious Influence on the Ratification of the Constitution and on the Proposal of the Bill of Rights, (September 2, 2008)...

Amish Men's Trial Delayed Over Obtaining Counsel

Posted on September 08, 2008
Yesterday's Watertown (NY) Daily Times reports that Hammond, New York's civil lawsuit against two members of the Swartzentruber Amish sect to enforce compliance with building codes has been delayed because defendants' religious beliefs are preventing them from obtaining attorneys...

Pastor Seeks Church Support For Church-State Separation

Posted on September 07, 2008
Americans United reported Friday on the initiative by an Ohio pastor to coordinate church support for separation of church and state. Rev. Eric Williams, senior pastor of Columbus (OH)North Congregational United Church of Christ, is calling for pastors around the country to preach sermons on the importance of church-state separation on Sept...

China Increases Ramadan Restrictions On Uyghurs

Posted on September 07, 2008
Radio Free Asia reported yesterday that in response to a string of violent attacks in the central-Asian Xinjiang region, China is increasing restrictions on its Muslim Uyghur population during Ramadan. Women are being forced to uncover their faces in public, restrictions on teaching Islam to Uyghur children are being intensified, and Muslim Uyghur restaurants are being required to be open during the daytime throughout Ramadan...

Marijuana Church Founders Plead Guilty; Will Pursue Free Exercise Defense

Posted on September 07, 2008
Arizona's East Valley Tribune yesterday reported that Dan and Mary Quaintance, founders of the Church of Cognizance, last month pleaded guilty in an Arizona federal district court to two marijuana-related charges. They will now pursue an appeal of the court's refusal to dismiss charges against them on free exercise grounds...

Nigerian Court Decides In Favor of Break-Away Church

Posted on September 07, 2008
Lagos, Nigeria's Sunday Vanguard reports today on a decision by the Federal High Court of Nigeria in a suit involving a break-away church-- Incorporated Trustees of United African Methodist Church (Eleja) Organization v. Incorporated Trustees of the United African Methodist Church (Evangelical), (No...

Lawsuit In Argentina Asks Court To Define Anti-Semitism

Posted on September 06, 2008
Iran?s MEHR News Agency reports on a criminal lawsuit filed in Argentina by three members of the Argentine Second Republic Movement against the Delegation of Israeli Associations in Argentina (DAIA). The lawsuit filed in District Court No. 13, Secretariat No...

Some Qatar Companies Ignore Ramadan Reduced Hours Rule

Posted on September 06, 2008
Today?s Gulf Times reports that some employers in Qatar are ignoring rules that limit the work day to 6 hours during Ramadan. The Times says that some companies are continuing their normal 8-hour shifts, particularly for low-paid laborers, but just giving workers longer prayer times during Ramadan...

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