Religion & Law

New IRS Publication on Taxation of Churches and Religious Institutions

Posted on August 22, 2008
The Internal Revenue Service has issued a revised version of its publication, Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations. The 28-page multi-colored publication provides guidance on obtaining and keeping tax exempt status, employment taxes, unrelated business income taxes, employee business expenses, record keeping and filing requirements...

Challenge To Pledge of Allegiance Partially Dismissed By NH Federal Court

Posted on August 22, 2008
Freedom from Religion Foundation v. Congress of the United States, (D NH, Aug. 7, 2008), is an opinion in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance containing the phrase "under God" in New Hampshire schools...

Generals Criticized For Endosring Spiritual Book

Posted on August 21, 2008
Military.com reported yesterday on the controversy surrounding the endorsement by high army officials of a book written by a military chaplain offering spiritual guidance to soldiers. The book is Lt. Col. William McCoy's, Under Orders: A Spiritual Handbook for Military Personnel...

Louisana Governor Will Not Renew Anti-Discrimination Executive Order

Posted on August 21, 2008
The AP reported yesterday that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal will not renew an anti-discrimination Executive Order (E.O. KBB 04-54) when it expires this week. The Order, issued in 2004 by former governor Kathleen Blanco bars state agencies from discriminating on the basis of religion, race, color, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation or disabilities...

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Personnel Changes At Two Federal Religion Agencies

Posted on August 21, 2008
Personnel changes have been announced at two federal agencies dealing with issues of religion. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom announced yesterday that James D. Standish has been appointed its new Executive Director. Previously Standish served for seven years as Director of Legislative Affairs at the Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters...

Democratic Convention Will Be Heavy OnFaith-Based Events

Posted on August 21, 2008
Yesterday's New York Jewish Week carries a long article discussing the extensive appeal to religious voters that will be a part of the Democratic convention in Denver next week. The convention kick-of will be a large interfaith gathering, and that will be followed by a series of "faith caucus" meetings, all designed, according to the article, "to close the [Democrat's] so-called 'God gap' and shed their reputation as the secular party...

City Sued Over Limits On Christian Protesters At Gay Pride Event

Posted on August 21, 2008
Alliance Defense Fund announced yesterday that it has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Elmira, New York seeking an injunction on behalf of Christian protesters who were prevented from handing out literature, carrying signs and wearing a T-shirt with a Christian message at a gay pride event held in a city park in June 2008...

Nepal Supreme Court Rejects Traditional Treatment of Child Goddess

Posted on August 21, 2008
Nepal's Supreme Court has dealt a blow to the traditional practice in Nepal to select a young girl who will be isolated in a palace and worshiped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess of power. Gulf Times and AFP both report on the decision in a case filed by Nepalese lawyers challenging the isolation of the pre-pubescent choice, known as the Kumari...

11th Circuit Hears Arguments In Sectarian Invocations Case

Posted on August 21, 2008
Yesterday the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in BATS v. Cobb County Georgia, a case challenging the opening of Cobb County, Georgia, County Commission meetings with sectarian prayers. The trial court's decision refused to ban sectarian prayers, so long as a wide variety of clergy were invited to deliver invocations...

New Indonesian Law Permits Sharia-Compliant Government Bonds

Posted on August 21, 2008
An article by two Indonesian lawyers published in the August BNA World Securities Law Report [subscription required] discusses Indonesia's new Sovereign Syariah Commercial Paper law enacted in April of this year. The new law permits the Indonesian government to issue Sharia-compliant bonds to raise capital...

Clergy-Penitent Privilege Held Inapplicable When 3rd Party Is Present

Posted on August 21, 2008
In Candice S. v. Superior Court, (CA Ct. App., Aug. 11, 208), a California appellate court held that the clergy-penitent privilege does not apply to communications made to a member of the clergy in the presence of a third person, even if the tenets of the religion treat the communication as confidential...

McCain Urged Not To Use Religious Test For Veep Choice

Posted on August 20, 2008
Former Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson wrote John McCain last Saturday asking him not to rule out vice-presidential picks on the basis of their religion. Monday's St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that Carlson seems particularly concerned about evangelical opposition to Mormon Mitt Romney...

Egyptian Proposal On Organ Donation Seen By Some As Religious Discrimination

Posted on August 20, 2008
In Egypt, a proposed law regulating organ donation has become controversial. Spero News yesterday, and Daily News Egypt on Monday, reported on the proposal that would allow organ donations only to family members (up to the fourth degree). It would also ban organ transplants between individuals of different religions or different nationalities...

New Jersey School Issue Vote Postponed Because of Holy Day Conflict

Posted on August 20, 2008
The Edison, New Jersey, Public School District is seeking voter approval for the issuance of $57.8 million in bonds to construct a new school building and expand three others. New Jersey law provides only four specific dates on which special elections on such issues can be held...

Free Exercise and Vagueness Defenses Raised In Charges Over Death of Child

Posted on August 20, 2008
In Wausau,Wisconsin, according to WISN News, a couple charged with reckless homicide plead not guilty yesterday and are raising constitutional defenses. Dale and Leilani Neumann merely prayed for the recovery of their 11-year old daughter, Kara, after she suffered a diabetic reaction...

Israel's Army Pursues Refunds From Officers Using False Rabbinic Ordinations

Posted on August 20, 2008
YNet News reported Monday that Israel's army is demanding that some 300 career and enlisted IDF officers repay the $560 (US) per month pay increases they have been receiving after claiming to have been ordained as rabbis. It turns out that their ordinations were fraudulent, having either been purchased from rabbinical schools without meeting the ordination requirements, or having been granted by institutions that are not qualified to certify rabbis at all...

Settlement Reached In Christian High School Group's Equal Access Claim

Posted on August 20, 2008
Alliance Defense Fund announced Friday that it had reached a settlement in a federal lawsuit filed earlier this year against the Deer Valley, Arizona Unified School District. (See prior posting.) The settlement will allow a Christian student group, Common Cause, to present video announcements of the group's activities, including a weekly morning prayer gathering, through Mountain Ridge High School's public address system and through distribution of leaflets on campus, on the same basis as non-religious groups are permitted to do so...

U.S. Olympic Coach Proselytizes His Archer-Athletes

Posted on August 20, 2008
Today's New York Times reports that the proselytizing of athletes by Kisk Lee, head coach of the U.S. Olympic archery team, concerns the U.S. Olympic Committee. At least three of the five members of the U.S. archery team in Beijing meet with Lee each morning to sing hymns, read from the Bible and attend services at the chapel in Olympic Village...

Is Religion An Element In the Georgia-Russia Conflict?

Posted on August 19, 2008
A posting on Reuters FaithWorld blog yesterday raises the question of whether religion is an element in the current conflict between Russia and Georgia. The issue was focused after Sen. John McCain, in discussing the conflict, stressed Georgia's long-standing Christian heritage...

New "Blogalogue" Offers Church-State Debate Between Two Opposing Experts

Posted on August 19, 2008
Beliefnet has launched an interesting new resource on church-state issues-- a blog titled Lynn v. Sekulow-- Politics, Religion and the Public Square. The blog is described as "an ongoing debate blog--a blogalogue--about how big (or little) a role faith and religion should play in American politics and government...

Religious Cult Members Charged In Boy's Death

Posted on August 19, 2008
The AP reported yesterday on murder charges that have been brought against five members of a cult known as the "1 Mind Ministries". One-year old Javon Thompson died after being denied food and water for two days because he would not say "Amen" after meals...

Informational Meeting On Hamptons Eruv Turns Contentious

Posted on August 19, 2008
Hamptons Online yesterday reported at length on a contentious public information session held last Wednesday in Westhampton Beach, New York regarding a request by a local synagogue to construct an eruv-- a symbolic boundary that permits Orthodox Jews to carry items on the Sabbath...

Recent Scholarly Articles and Book of Interest

Posted on August 18, 2008
From SSRN:Christopher C. Lund, The Congressional Chaplaincies (August 14, 2008).Benjamin M Leff, Sit Down and Count the Cost: A Framework for Constitutionally Enforcing the 501(C)(3) Campaign Intervention Ban, (August 12, 2008).From SmartCILP:Conversation in Aid of a "Conspiracy" for Truth: A Candid Discussion About Jesuit Law Schools, Justice, and Engaging the Catholic Intellectual Tradition...

Paper Says 1953 Raid Was Precursor To FLDS Operation

Posted on August 18, 2008
Saturday's Arizona Republic carries a lengthy history of the raid 55 years ago on a polygamous community in Short Creek Arizona. The article suggests that the recent Texas raid on the FLDS Yearning for Zion Ranch has many parallels to the 1953 Arizona raid...

Recent Prisoner Free Excercise Cases

Posted on August 18, 2008
In Massi v. Hollenbach, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 60463 (MD PA, Aug. 1, 2008), a Pennsylvania federal district court judge accepted a magistrate's recommendation and rejected a prisoner's challenge to regulations requiring that prisoners obtain religious publications from a publisher, book club, or book store unless it is shown that a publication is no longer available from such a source...

CA High Court: Doctors Cannot Assert Free Exercise In Refusing IUI Treatment For Lesbian

Posted on August 18, 2008
Today in North Coast Women's Care Medical Group, Inc. v. San Diego County Superior Court, (CA Sup. Ct., Aug. 18, 2008), the California Supreme Court held unanimously that a medical clinic's physicians are prohibited by the Unruh Civil Rights Act from discriminating against patients on the basis of sexual orientation...

US Group Refuses To Leave Chinese Airport After Bibles Seized

Posted on August 18, 2008
Chinese law prohibits bringing printed religious material into the country except for personal use. CNN today reports that four members of the Sheridan, Wyoming based Christian group, Vision Beyond Borders, are refusing to leave the Kunming Airport after customs officials seized 300 Bibles that they had in their luggage that were to be distributed through a Kunming shop owner...

County Fair Widens God and Country Day Discount

Posted on August 17, 2008
After complaints by an atheist group (see prior posting) about the "God and Country" day promotion planned by the Wilson County, Tennessee fair, promoters have responded. Instead of giving a $2 admission discount only to individuals who present a church bulletin at the gate, now the discount will be available to anyone presenting a bulletin from any faith's religious services, or anyone presenting a web page printout from any religious or secular group...

Pastor Sues Parent Group and Paper For Defamation

Posted on August 17, 2008
The Dallas Morning News and the Associated Baptist Press report on a defamation lawsuit filed against the Baptist General Convention of Texas, the Baptist Standard and several other defendants by Rev. Otto Arango. The charges grow out of an investigation by the BGCT of Arango's claims that he and two other pastors started 258 new churches...

Scotland Agrees With Catholic Church On Content of Health Leaflets In Schools

Posted on August 17, 2008
Scotland on Sunday reports today that Scottish government officials will shortly begin a program to offer all school girls age 12 and 13 vaccination against cervical cancer caused by certain strains of HPV. However, against the advice of many health experts, the leaflet that will be distributed to those receiving the inoculation will not contain information on the use of condoms to prevent other sexually transmitted diseases...

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