Religion & Law

7th Circuit Invalidates City's Handbilling Restrictions

Posted on August 10, 2008
In Horina v. City of Granite City, Illinois, (7th Cir., Aug. 7, 2008), the U.S. 7th Circuit court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, held that a city ordinance regulating the distribution of handbills is unconstitutional. In a challenge brought by a born-again Christian who regularly placed pro-life literature and Gospel tracts on the windshields of cars parked near a women's clinic that provides abortions, the court held that the city's restrictions had not been justified as legitimate time, place and manner restrictions...

New York's Governor Supports Synagogue's Eruv Proposal

Posted on August 10, 2008
Thursday's Forward reports that New York Governor David Patterson spoke earlier this month during services at a synagogue in Westhampton Beach (NY), supporting the congregation's proposal to build an eruv around their community in the Hamptons. An eruv is a symbolic enclosure of an area, usually by wires or strings on utility poles, that under Jewish law permits observant Jews to carry items and push strollers on the Sabbath...

Maldives Ratifies New Constitution; Some Concerns Over Religious Freedom Remain

Posted on August 10, 2008
Over a month after it was passed by the Constitutional Assembly, Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom ratified the country's new constitution on Thursday. The new constitution which brings in democratic reforms and the country's first bill of rights and freedoms, was four years in the making...

Protesters Force Closure of Malysian Lawyers' Conference

Posted on August 10, 2008
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia yesterday a lawyer's group, the Bar Council, had scheduled a conference on legal issues faced by families in which one of the spouses converts to Islam. Today's Straits Times reports that police forced lawyers to end the conference shortly after it started when 300 demonstrators gathered outside the conference carrying signs accusing the Bar Council of attempting to challenge Islam's position as Malaysia's official religion.

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Canadian Border Guards Keep Out Westboro Baptist Church Picketers

Posted on August 09, 2008
Members of the Westboro Baptist Church, famous for picketing military funerals and other events protesting supposed tolerance of homosexuality, are now attempting to extend their activities to Canada. However, according to last Thursday's National Post, Canadian border officials denied them admission as they were attempting to travel to Winnipeg to picket the Saturday funeral of a young man murdered last week on a Greyhound bus...

Work of Ohio's Faith-Based Office Is Praised

Posted on August 09, 2008
Today's Cleveland Jewish News carries an article praising Ohio's version of the faith based initiative. The Governor's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (GOFBCI) will grant $11 million to religious and community groups in fiscal year 2009, double its spending in 2008...

Volume of Calls To Prayer Becomes Controversial In Morocco

Posted on August 09, 2008
In Morocco, according to a story today from the AP, the rising decibel level of the daily calls to prayer from mosques using improved audio technology "is deepening fault lines between a government drive to modernize and a wave of rigorous political Islam...

9th Circuit En Banc Rejects Tribes' RFRA Challenge To Snowbowl Expansion

Posted on August 09, 2008
In Navajo Nation v. United States Forest Service, (9th Cir., Aug. 8, 2008), in an 8-3 en banc decision, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act does not bar the Forest Service from approving the use of recycled waste water to make artificial snow at Arizona's Snowbowl ski resort, which operates on federal land...

Bush Criticizes China On Human Rights In Two Speeches Abroad

Posted on August 08, 2008
In two speeches on his trip to the Beijing Olympics, resident George W. Bush has criticized China's policies on human rights and religious freedom. In a lengthy speech yesterday (full text) at a stop in Bangkok, Thailand, after talking about US-China cooperation, Bush said:I have spoken clearly and candidly and consistently with China's leaders about our deep concerns over religious freedom and human rights...

Obama's Muslim Outreach Coordinator Resigns Over Past Board Connection

Posted on August 08, 2008
Mazen Asbahi, a corporate lawyer at the Chicago law firm of Schiff Hardin, resigned earlier this week as the volunteer Arab American and Muslim American Outreach Coordinator for the Obama campaign. Wednesday's Wall Street Journal disclosed that Asbahi decided to resign just two weeks after his appointment when an Internet newsletter reported that eight years ago he had for a few weeks served on the board of Allied Assets Advisors Fund...

Court Orders Prisons To Recognize Native American Shamanism

Posted on August 08, 2008
In Iron Thunderhorse v. Pierce, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58842 (ED TX, July 30, 2008), an inmate in a Texas correctional institution argued that the Native American religious program in Texas prisons gives preferential treatment to Christian-oriented Native American religions and disfavors traditionalist Native American shamans...

Atheists Criticize County Fair For "God and Country Day"

Posted on August 08, 2008
According to yesterday's Los Angeles Chronicle, the Wilson County, Tennessee Fair has designated August 17 as "God and Country Day." In addition to a tribute to military personnel, anyone presenting a church bulletin at the gate that day will receive a $2 admission discount...

California Appellate Court OK's Home Schooling, Reversing Earlier Decision

Posted on August 08, 2008
In a widely-followed case, today a California Court of Appeal, on rehearing, reversed its earlier ruling (see prior posting) and held that California law permits parents to home school their children without employing a certified teacher to carry out the instruction...

New York Officials and Amish Continue To Clash Over Sanitary Code Requirements

Posted on August 08, 2008
Tensions between members of the Amish community and upstate New York health officials continue as the Cattaraugus County Board of Health on Wednesday approved a hearing officer's recommendation that two families each being fined $200 and $10 per day until new sewage permit applications are filed and an additional $10 per day until new septic systems are put in...

DC Christian Science Church Sues Over Historic Landmark Designation

Posted on August 08, 2008
Washington D.C.'s Third Church of Christ, Scientist, yesterday filed a federal lawsuit challenging a decision by the city's Historic Preservation Review Board (see prior posting) that prevents the church from tearing down its current building in order to construct a new church structure...

Jewish Police Officer Scores Partial Win On Religious Accommodation Claim

Posted on August 08, 2008
In Riback v. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Deparment, (D NV, Aug. 6, 2008), a Nevada federal district court ruled that Steve Riback, a Las Vegas police officer who is an Orthodox Jew, must be given an exemption from the police department's grooming policy so he can wear a beard for religious reasons...

Alberta Rights Commission Dismisses Complaint About Muhammad Cartoons

Posted on August 08, 2008
In Canada, a July 29, 2008 Investigation Report submitted to the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission recommends dismissing a discrimination complaint filed by the Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities against the magazine Western Standard...

Arizona Court Rejects FLDS Member's Constitutional Challenge To Polygamy Ban

Posted on August 07, 2008
In State of Arizona v. Fischer, (AZ Ct. App., Aug. 5, 2008), an Arizona state appellate court rejected free exercise and substantive due process defenses raised by a member of the FLDS Church who was convicted of engaging in sexual conduct with a minor and conspiracy...

Bahrain Fires American Prof For Lecture Seen As Disrespectful Toward Islam

Posted on August 07, 2008
Bahrain's Higher Education Council (an arm of the Ministry of Education) has pressured a private University in Bahrain to fire an American professor for failing to show respect toward the Islamic religion and "noble Arab values". Yesterday's Media Line reports that the professor, who was lecturing on differences in world civilizations, displayed to her students a photo of a man wearing torn clothes with "Prophet Muhammad" written on them.

McCreary Injunctions Made Permanent, But With Leave To Litigate Further

Posted on August 07, 2008
A Kentucky federal district judge on Tuesday tied up some loose ends in the McCreary County Ten Commandments case that was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005. (See prior posting.) In that case, the Supreme Court upheld a preliminary injunction against two counties prohibiting their courthouse displays of the 10 Commandments as part of a "Foundations of American Law and Government Display...

Azerbaijan Requires Prior Approval For All Religious Literature

Posted on August 07, 2008
Forum18 yesterday reports on censorship of religious materials by Azerbaijan. The State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations maintains a list of banned books, but will not make it public. Government spokesman Aliheidar Zulfikarov rejected the claim that required prior approval for all religious literature is censorship...

Copts In Egypt Split Over US Congress Support For Their Religious Freedom

Posted on August 07, 2008
In June, U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf introduced H. Res 1303, calling on the government of Egypt to respect human rights, and freedom of religion and expression. A portion of the resolution focused on Egypt's discrimination against Coptic Christians. Yesterday the Assyrian International News Agency reported that there is a split among Copts in Egypt on whether the U...

IOC Rules Create Issue For U.S. Athletes On Religious Expression

Posted on August 07, 2008
Yesterday's Washington Post reports that many U.S. athletes competing in the Olympics plan to display their religious faith publicly during their sporting event by a prayer or a gesture toward the sky, despite concerns by both the government of China and the International Olympic Committee...

7th Circuit Dismisses Challenge To VA Chaplain Program On Standing Grounds

Posted on August 06, 2008
In Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. v. Nicholson, (7th Cir., Aug. 5, 2008), the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed for lack of taxpayer standing a challenge to aspects of the Department of Veterans Affairs Chaplain Service. Plaintiffs alleged that the focus of the Chaplain service on clinical care which integrates spirituality and religion into VA treatment programs violates the Establishment Clause...

French Satirist's Firing for Anti-Semitism Raises Free Speech Questions

Posted on August 06, 2008
In France, the firing of a columnist by the satirical weekly paper Charlie Hebdo has created a flood of debate over free speech versus anti-Semitism. AFP reported yesterday that Maurice Sinet, who publishes cartoons and columns under the name Siné, was fired by the newspaper after he refused to apologize for a column about Jean Sarkozy, son of France's President Nicolas Sarkozy...

Bush Will Not Make Dramatic Human Rights Statement During Olympics Visit

Posted on August 06, 2008
Yesterday's New York Times reports that President Bush, on his trip to China for the Olympics, will not make the kind of dramatic gesture to protest lack of religious freedom in China that some are urging. (See prior posting.) The White House considered having Bush attend a worship service at an underground "house church", but Chinese authorities rejected the proposal...

Malaysian Appellate Court Avoids Deciding On Right To Renounce Islam

Posted on August 06, 2008
The Court of Appeal sitting in Putrajaya, the federal administrative center in Malaysia, has used a technicality to reject a plea by a Muslim convert that she be permitted to renounce Islam and return to the practice of her original Christian faith. Malaysia's Star reports today that, in a 2-1 decision, the appellate court held that the lower court had no jurisdiction over the suit brought by Lim Yoke Khoon because no person by that name exists any longer...

Texas Back In Court Over Some FLDS Children

Posted on August 06, 2008
In San Angelo, Texas, state Child Protective Services is back in court in connection with children of FLDS Church members. Yesterday's Dallas News and San Angelo Standard Times report on developments. CPS wants to remove eight children who were among the hundreds returned to FLDS mothers in May after the Texas Supreme Court found that CPS lacked a sufficient basis to place the children in temporary custody of the state...

India's Supreme Court Permits Educational Set-Asides For Muslims

Posted on August 06, 2008
The Times of India reports that on Monday, a panel of India's Supreme Court upheld implementation by the state of Andhra Pradesh of its Reservation in Admissions of Muslims in Educational Institutions Act, 2007. The law sets aside 4% of the seats in various college programs for Muslims...

Court Rejects Equitable Relief In Inmate's Request To Prevent Autopsy

Posted on August 06, 2008
In Arthur v. Allen, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58167 (SD AL, July 31, 2008), an Alabama federal district court refused to grant a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction to a death row inmate seeking to prevent the state from performing an autopsy on his body after his execution...

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