Religion & Law

3rd Circuit Holds Navy Chaplains Lack Standing In Establishment Clause Case

Posted on August 05, 2008
In In re Navy Chaplaincy, (DC Cir., Aug. 1, 2008), the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, dismissed on standing grounds an Establishment Clause challenge by a group of non-liturgical Protestant Navy chaplains to the operation of the Navy's retirement system...

Westboro Baptist Church Fire Called Hate Crime By Church's Leader

Posted on August 05, 2008
On Saturday morning, according to a report by PageOneQ, a fire broke out at Topeka, Kansas Westboro Baptist Church causing from $10,000 to $30,000 damage. Westboro has gained national notoriety by its activities in picketing military funerals and other events with signs condemning America's tolerance for homosexuality...

Florida Court Rejects Challenges To November Ballot Initiatives

Posted on August 05, 2008
In Ford v. Browning, (FL 2nd Cir. Ct., Aug. 4, 2008), a Florida trial court has rejected challenges to two initiatives placed on the November ballot by the state's Taxation and Budget Reform Commission. Initiative 7 proposes repeal of a provision in Florida's Constitution that bans use of public funds to aid any religious or sectarian institution...

Spanish Lawsuit Seeks To Rehabilitate Reputation of Knights Templar

Posted on August 05, 2008
In Spain, a group claiming to be descended from the legendary Knights Templar has filed suit against the Vatican in an attempt to restore the The Templar's reputation. The Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ has sued, asking the Vatican to recognize the seizure of assets worth 100 billion Euros by Pope Clement V...

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Court Says Defendant Did Not Show AA Meetings Were Religious

Posted on August 05, 2008
In State of Ohio v. Turner, (OH Ct. App., Aug. 1, 2008), an Ohio appellate court rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to mandatory attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous. The requirement was part of defendant's sentence for driving while intoxicated...

9th Circuit Hears Church's Challenge To Montana Election Finance Reporting Law

Posted on August 05, 2008
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday heard oral arguments in Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church v. Unsworth, a challenge to Montana's election campaign reporting laws. The Montana Commissioner of Political Practices had ruled that the church should have reported its support of activities in 2004 to get voters to pass a constitutional ban on gay marriage...

Colorado Local Commissions Debate Invocation Policies

Posted on August 05, 2008
Yesterday's Grand Junction (CO) Daily Sentinel reports that Grand Junction, Colorado City Council will consider a resolution at their meeting tomorrow under which the city clerk will randomly select spiritual leaders from local congregations to offer an invocation "according to the dictates of his/her own conscience...

Greek Court Acquits Missionary on Illegal Proselytizing Charges

Posted on August 05, 2008
Greece's Constitution and Greek law prohibit proselytizing, but define the ban narrowly. (Background.) Mission Network News today reports that, following that narrow interpretation, a court in Greece has acquitted a member of AMG International who had been charged with illegal proselytizing for handing out copies of the Gospel of Luke at a youth outreach event in 2004...

Utah-Appointed Trustee For FLDS Is Seeking Control of Canadian School

Posted on August 04, 2008
The Toronto Globe and Mail today reports that Bruce Wisan, the special fiduciary appointed by a Utah state court to oversee the assets of the FLDS Church, is moving to take control of an FLDS school in Canada. Wisan has petitioned the British Columbia Supreme Court for permission to take over the Bountiful Elementary-Secondary School, a private school located outside Creston, B...

South Carolina Legislator Says Lord's Prayer In New Display Law Is "Poison Pill"

Posted on August 04, 2008
Last month the Governor of South Carolina signed a bill permitting schools and local governments to post a Foundation of American Government display comprised of 12 documents, including the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer. (See prior posting.) Yesterday's Augusta (GA) Chronicle carries a column by South Carolina state senator Shane Massey who was one of 12 members of the state Senate to vote against including the Lord's Prayer in the permitted documents...

Recently Scholarly Articles and New Book of Interest

Posted on August 04, 2008
From SSRN:Steven J. Heyman, Hate Speech, Public Discourse, and the First Amendment, (in Extreme Speech and Democracy, Ivan Hare, James Weinstein (eds.), Oxford University Press, Forthcoming).Maleiha Malik, Religious Freedom and Multiculturalism: R (Shabina Begum) V Denbigh High School, (King's Law Journal, Vol...

McCain Catholic Outreach Spokesman Criticized

Posted on August 04, 2008
The Arizona Republic reported last week that at least three religious groups have called on John McCain to remove Deal W. Hudson from McCain's national Catholic outreach group. In 1994, Hudson resigned a tenured position at Fordham University after he was accused of having sex with a freshman student...

Israel's Chief Rabbi Backs Off Appointing More Conversion Court Judges

Posted on August 04, 2008
In Israel, the ongoing battle over conversions to Judaism and the staffing of the government's conversion courts continues. Haaretz reports today that Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar has backed off his agreement to appoint more judges to conversion courts. A year ago, a committee headed by Absorption Ministry Director General Erez Halfon recommended the increase in order to ease the backlog of conversions...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on August 04, 2008
In Hudson v. Dennehy, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56789 (D MA, July 25, 2008), a Massachusetts federal district court awarded a Boston law firm $237,299.25 in attorneys' fees and $13,630.17 in costs in connection with litigation in which the firm successfully vindicated the right of Muslim prisoners in the prison's special management unit to have Halal meals and have access to Friday Ju'mah services through closed circuit television...

Court Upholds Arizona Ban on Marijuana Against Religious Freedom Claim

Posted on August 03, 2008
In State of Arizona v. Hardesty, (AZ Ct. App., July 31, 2008), an Arizona appellate court rejected a criminal defendant's claim that Arizona's laws against marijuana possession violate his Free Exercise rights under the U.S. Constitution and Arizona's Free Exercise of Religion Act...

Turkey's AKP Will Not Push For End To Headscarf Ban

Posted on August 03, 2008
Time reported last week that Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has decided that it will not, at least for now, press for new legislation to end the country's long-standing ban on women wearing Muslim headscarves at universities. The decision was made known by Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek on Thursday, one day after Turkey's Constitutional Court reduced government funding to the AKP-- but did not dissolve the party-- because of its anti-secularist agenda...

Catholic Lay Group Condemns KofC For Not Expelling Politicians For Thier Views

Posted on August 03, 2008
The lay organization, Concerned Roman Catholics of America has issued a press release condemning the Knights of Columbus for failing to expel "pro-abortion and pro-homosexual politicians." The group is particularly concerned about a number of members of the Massachusetts legislature and their votes on issues of gay marriage.

Native American Church Member Wants Seized Peyote Returned

Posted on August 03, 2008
James "Flaming Eagle" Mooney is starting a letter-writing campaign to Congress in his attempt to get back from federal authorities some 15,000 peyote buttons that were seized from his Oklevueha Earthwalks church in Benjamin, Utah. (See prior posting.) In 2004, the Utah Supreme Court threw out a prosecution against Mooney, holding that Utah law permits the use of peyote by adherents of the Native American Church, even if they are not members of a federally recognized Indian tribe...

Israeli Sanhedrin Condemns China's Repression of Falun Gong

Posted on August 03, 2008
In Israel in 2004, a group of rabbis recreated the Sanhedrin-- the traditional court of 71 rabbis that existed in ancient Israel. (See prior posting.) Canada Free Press reported on Saturday on a decision of the Sanhedrin, handed down on July 15, condemning the killing of Falun Gong adherents by China...

EEOC Complaint: Muslim Woman Not Hired Because of Headscarf

Posted on August 02, 2008
On Thursday, the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations announced that it had filed a complaint with the EEOC on behalf of a Muslim woman who was denied employment at Abercrombie & Fitch's Kids store. The complaint alleges that the store's district manager told the woman that she could not be hired because her Islamic headscarf "does not fit the Abercrombie image...

GBLT Anti-Discrimination Ordinance Challenged as Anti-Christian

Posted on August 02, 2008
Earlier this week, the Thomas More Law Center announced that it would represent a group of individuals, businesses and religious organizations who are challenging an anti-discrimination ordinance adopted by Hamtramck, Michigan city council in June. The ordinance prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression...

Florida County Tells Police That Humane Animal Sacrifice Is Protected

Posted on August 02, 2008
In Florida, adherents of Santeria are pleased that Miami-Dade County police officials have included a reminder in their Law Enforcement Handbook that humane killing of animals in religious ceremonies is protected by the U.S. Constitution. McClatchy Newspapers report today that Broward and Palm Beach counties are less tolerant of animal sacrifices by Santeria priests than is Miami-Dade...

Beijing's Jewish Community Works With China's Relgious Regulations

Posted on August 02, 2008
Thursday's Forward reports from China on the 1,500-member Jewish community in Beijing and how it deals with China's regulation of religious activities. In the 1970?s, a small group of liberal North American Jews came to Beijing and founded a progressive congregation called Kehillat Beijing...

Plaintiffs Win In Two Cases Charging Anti-Semitic Harassment In Employment

Posted on August 01, 2008
In Cutler v. Dorn, (NJ Sup. Ct., July 31, 2008), the New Jersey Supreme Court held that under the state's Law Against Discrimination, religious-based harassment that creates a hostile work environment is judged by the same standards as are claims of a sexual or racial harassment...

11th Circuit Orders Recognition of Christian Fraternity By UF Pending Appeal

Posted on August 01, 2008
In May 2008, a Florida federal district court in Beta Upsilon Chi v. Machen, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42653 (ND FL, May 28, 2008), refused to issue a preliminary injunction against the University of Florida in a lawsuit by Beta Upsilon Chi, a Christian fraternity...

Leader of Christian Group Demands Removal of Georgia Guidestones Monument

Posted on August 01, 2008
Mark Dice, leader of a Christian group known as The Resistance, is pressing the town of Elberton, Georgia to remove a 19-foot tall granite monument that sets out "ten guidestones" to an age of reason in eight different languages. The Georgia Guidestones Monument is a tourist attraction...

Was Israeli Law Broken When Obama's Note Was Taken From Western Wall?

Posted on August 01, 2008
An article in yesterday's Slate magazine analyzes whether any laws were broken when a seminary student in Israel took Barack Obama's prayer note from the Western Wall and turned it over to Maariv, an Israeli newspaper. (See prior posting.) The writer concludes that the action violated several aspects of Talmudic law...

Indian Police Arrest Kangaroo Court That Executed Husband In Mixed Marriage

Posted on August 01, 2008
The Howrah News Service out of the Indian state of West Bengal reports that police in the village of Lakshmanpur in Berhampore have arrested three men who acted as a kangaroo court and imposed a death sentence on Sailendra Prasad, a non-Muslim man who married a Muslim woman...

Court Upholds School's Objections To Religious Remarks In Graduation Speech

Posted on August 01, 2008
In Corder v. Lewis Palmer School District No. 38, (D CO, July 30, 2008), a Colorado federal district court upheld the actions of a high school principal who, in 2006, forced a student graduation speaker to apologize for including unauthorized religious material in her 30-second portion of a joint graduation speech by 15 valedictorians...

"Defamation of Religions" Campaign Discussed In Congress, By Magazine

Posted on July 31, 2008
Macleans Magazine last week carried a long article on efforts by the Organization of the Islamic Conference make "defamation of religions" an offense under international law. It says in part: The trend has rights advocates worried.... Defamation laws traditionally protect individual people from being materially harmed by the dissemination of falsehoods...

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