Religion & Law

Posting of Anti-Muslim Audio Clip Protected By Fair Use Doctrine

Posted on July 27, 2008
In Savage v. Council on American-Islamic Relations, (ND CA, July 25, 2008), a California federal district court rejected copyright infringement claims brought by radio talk-show host Michael Savage against CAIR. After Savage engaged in a four-minute anti-Muslim, anti-CAIR tirade on air, CAIR posted on its website an audio file of the relevant portion of the broadcast as well as a critique of the remarks...

Clergyman's Pay Dispute With Church Dismissed on First Amendment Grounds

Posted on July 26, 2008
In Jones v. Crestview Southern Baptist Church, (CO Ct. App., July 24, 2008), a Colorado state Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit by Baptist pastor Raymond Jones against his church for back pay allegedly due to him. The court held that "one of the issues to be resolved is whether Jones properly performed his duties as a pastor...

Court Administrator Gets Partial Win In Claim for Retaliation and Discrimination

Posted on July 26, 2008
In Pucci v. Nineteenth District Court, (ED MI, July 10, 2008), a Michigan federal district judge permitted Julie Pucci, the former deputy administrator of a Michigan state court, to proceed with certain of her claims against the court's chief judge, Mark W...

Obama's Note From Western Wall Published By Israeli Paper

Posted on July 26, 2008
When Barack Obama visited Israel during his recent foreign trip, like most visitors to the country he stopped at the Western Wall. Following a traditional custom, Obama left a note containing a personal prayer in one of the crevices in the Wall. Friday's Los Angeles Times reports, however, that in a breach of tradition, a young Orthodox Jewish student searched the Wall once Obama left and found his note...

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Reporter Charges Kenneth Copeland Ministries With Financial Improprieties

Posted on July 26, 2008
Associated Press religion writer Eric Gorski today published a long article detailing the business ventures connected with the ministry of TV evangelist Kenneth Copeland. Gorski writes: Here in the gentle hills of north Texas, televangelist Kenneth Copeland has built a religious empire teaching that God wants his followers to prosper...

"Desecration of Eucharist" Charged In Incidents At Two Universities

Posted on July 26, 2008
In the history of the Catholic Church, "desecration of the host" is a form of sacrilege and charges of descration were a pretext for massacres of Jews in the Middle Ages. (Background). Over the last month, charges of desecrating the Eucharist-- in circumstances rather different from the historical precedents-- have come to the fore in two related incidents at universities in two states...

Student Activity Fee Policy At Wayne State Challenged

Posted on July 25, 2008
At Wayne State University in Detroit (MI), a registered student group, Students for Life, has filed a federal lawsuit against the university challenging its policy on the spending of student activity fees. According to yesterday's Battle Creek Enquirer, last spring the the Student Council denied the group's request for $4000 to support a week of anti-abortion events because of "spiritual and religious" references, even though the group says it has no specific religious affiliation...

Suit Challenges Exclusion of Religious Literature From Distribution to Students

Posted on July 25, 2008
Alliance Defense Fund yesterday announced that it had filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Arizona on behalf of the First Baptist Church of Maricopa and its pastor, Jim Johnson, challenging Maricopa County school district's policy on distribution of literature by nonprofit groups...

Senate Judiciary Committee Holds Hearings on Polygamous Sects

Posted on July 25, 2008
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has posted the testimony presented by eight witnesses at yesterday's hearings on Crimes Associated with Polygamy: The Need for a Coordinated State and Federal Response. The hearings, which coincided with Utah's Pioneer Day, received wide coverage in the media...

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Affirms Invalidation of Ethnic Intimidation Law

Posted on July 25, 2008
On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a 2-sentence per curiam order affirming last year's decision by a Pennsylvania appellate court striking down amendments to the state's ethnic intimidation law. The law was amended in 2002 to add sexual orientation and several other categories to its previous coverage of crimes committed because of race, religion or national origin...

Suburban Seattle Residents Sue To Prevent Church From Hosting Tent City

Posted on July 25, 2008
The Seattle (WA) Times on Wednesday reported on a lawsuit filed earlier this month seeking to prevent religious leaders on suburban Mercer Island from hosting Tent City 4, an encampment for the homeless. The city of Mercer Island granted a temporary use permit for the encampment to set up at the Mercer Island United Methodist Church from August 5 to November 10...

Los Angeles Sees Rise In Hate Crimes, Including Religiously Motivated Incidents

Posted on July 25, 2008
According to an AP story yesterday, hate crimes rose significantly in Los Angeles County, California last year, even though the overall crime rate dropped. A majority of the hate crimes were racially motivated. However, 105 of the 763 hate crimes reported in 2007 were religiously motivated-- with three-quarters of these directed against Jews...

RLUIPA Challenge To Zoning Denial For Counselling Center Fails

Posted on July 25, 2008
In Calvary Temple Assembly of God v. City of Marinette, Wisconsin, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55500 (ED WI, July 21, 2008), a Wisconsin federal district court rejected a RLUIPA challenge brought by a church that wanted a special exemption to locate a professional counselling center on land next to its church building...

11th Circuit Holds Parental Rights Can Trump Child's 1st Amendment Protections

Posted on July 24, 2008
Yesterday in Frazier v. Winn, (11th Cir., July 23, 2008), the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a decision on the clash between parental rights to control the upbringing of their children and a child's own First Amendment rights. While the case focused on free speech issues, it presumably impacts similar Free Exercise clashes...

AU Seeks Investigation of Church-Sponsored Program At Army Base

Posted on July 24, 2008
In a letter yesterday (full text) to the Department of Defense's Acting Inspector General, Americans United for Separation of Church and State called for an investigation of the "Free Day Away" program at Fort Leonard Wood (MO) Army base. (AU Release)...

10th Circuit: Exclusion of Pervasively Sectarian Schools From Scholarships Is Invalid

Posted on July 24, 2008
In an important decision interpreting the scope of the Supreme Court's 2004 Locke v. Davey decision, yesterday the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals held that Colorado acted unconstitutionally in excluding from its college scholarship program students who attend "pervasively sectarian" institutions...

Belarus Fines Organizer of "Too Small" Bible Discussion Group

Posted on July 24, 2008
The Belorussian Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religion provides that a new religious organization must have at least 20 members over the age of 18 to receive government recognition. BosNewsLife reported yesterday that Valentin Borovik was convicted on July 9 of violating this law by the Grodno Regional Court after he organized an informal Christian Bible discussion group of less than 20 people...

4th Circuit Upholds City Council Mandate For Non-Denominational Invocations

Posted on July 24, 2008
Yesterday in Turner v. City Council of Fredericksburg, (4th Cir., July 23, 2008), the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of appeals upheld the policy of Fredericksburg, Virginia's city council requiring prayers which open its sessions to be nondenominational. In an opinion by former U...

Cult Leader Says Lying Naked With Girls Is Religious Healing Practice

Posted on July 24, 2008
In Ranton, New Mexico last Friday, Wayne Bent was indicted for inappropriately touching three minor girls while "lying naked" with them. Tuesday's Ranton Rage reports that Bent, known to his followers as Michael Travesser, is the leader of The Lord Our Righteousness Church...

Al-Aqsa TV Promotes Extremism Via Children's Show That Reaches In Britain

Posted on July 24, 2008
Yesterday's London Telegraph reports on the children's show, Tomorrow's Pioneers, broadcast on the al-Aqsa television channel, a satellite channel set up by Hamas that broadcasts from the Gaza Strip. (Background on channel.) The channel has a substantial following in the Arab world, and can be received in Britain...

HHS Considers Expanding Doctors Rights of Conscience

Posted on July 24, 2008
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is proposing to expand the rights of doctors who have religious objections to prescribing contraceptives that can cause the expulsion of a fertilized egg. This week's US News & World Report says that HHS is circulating to members of Congress a draft of rules that would prohibit federally funded medical facilities?including teaching hospitals and Planned Parenthood clinics?from refusing to hire doctors who object to dispensing such contraceptives...

Texas Grand Jury Indicts Jeffs and Other FLDS Members

Posted on July 23, 2008
Yesterday in Eldorado, Texas a state grand jury issued indictments against former FLDS leader Warren Jeffs and five others, apparently based on evidence seized during a widely-publicized raid on the religious group's YFZ Ranch in April. AP and the San Angelo (TX) Standard-Times report that Jeffs and four others were charged with sexually assaulting girls under 17, and one of Jeffs' four followers was also charged with bigamy...

DoD Inspector General Finds Religious Discrimination In Tenenbaum Case

Posted on July 23, 2008
The Project on Government Oversight yesterday made available a July 13 Department of Defense Inspector General's Report (full text) on the case of Army employee David Tenenbaum. In a series of events beginning in 1997, Tenenbaum, an Orthodox Jew, lost his access to classified information and had his security clearance revoked on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations that he was spying for the state of Israel...

EEOC Issues New Guidance On Issues of Religious Discrimination

Posted on July 23, 2008
Yesterday the EEOC issued consolidated and updated guidelines for investigating and analyzing charges of religious discrimination. New Section 12 of the EEOC Compliance Manual also contains numerous examples to help employers understand their obligations under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act...

Israeli Court Fines Recalcitrant Husband In Divorce Proceeding

Posted on July 23, 2008
In Israel, Jerusalem's Family Court has ruled that a wife may recover damages for mental anguish when a husband refuses to grant her a religious divorce ("get"). Haaretz today reports on the decision which awarded the damages after a husband refused to follow orders of a Rabbinic Court to grant his wife a divorce...

Pastor's Candidacy For City Council Creates Church-State Concerns

Posted on July 23, 2008
The Arizona Republic reports on issues raised by the candidacy of Kevin Hartke for Chandler, Arizona City Council. Hartke is pastor of Trinity Christian Fellowship. He was originally appointed to Council to fill the seat of a member who was called to active military duty...

Court Says Historic Preservation Laws Invalidate Permit For Church Parking Lot

Posted on July 22, 2008
In Topeka, Kansas yesterday, a Shawnee County district judge ruled that Topeka City Council violated state historic preservation laws when it approved an application by Grace Episcopal Cathedral to build a parking lot on a site listed on the Register of Historic Kansas Places...

Court Invalidates Exclusion of Chaplains From Court Martial Panels

Posted on July 22, 2008
Article 25 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice provides that any commissioned officer on active duty is entitled to serve on a court martial panel. However all branches of the armed forces have a policy of exempting chaplains from serving on courts martial...

Senate Judiciary Committee Will Hold Hearings on Crimes Associated With Polygamy

Posted on July 22, 2008
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing this Thursday on "Crimes Associated with Polygamy: The Need for a Coordinated State and Federal Response." (Official witness list.) Today's Salt Lake Tribune reports that attorney Rod Parker, a spokesman for the polygamous FLDS Church, has complained that FLDS members have not been given equal time to testify...

New Hampshire School District Sued Over Flyer Distribution Policy

Posted on July 22, 2008
In Concord, New Hampshire, Patricia Regan who is assistant director of her local church's Vacation Bible School, yesterday filed suit in federal district court challenging the flyer distribution policy of the Hudson (NH) School District. In her complaint (full text), Regan alleges that the school district allows nonprofit community organizations to distribute flyers to be sent home with students through the Principal's office so long as the flyers contain an appropriate disclaimer...

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