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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

New "Church" Offers Way Around Dutch Cafe Smoking Ban

Posted on July 17, 2008
On July 1, a smoking ban went into effect for cafes, bars and restaurants in the Netherlands (though it did not impact smoking of marijuana in specially licensed coffee shops). (AFP July 1). Now however some bar owners seem to be finding a way around the tobacco ban...

Yemeni Clerics Withdraw Proposal For Religious Police Force

Posted on July 16, 2008
In Yemen, conservative Muslim clerics have withdrawn their call for creation of "religious police" in the country. (See prior posting.) M&C reported yesterday that some 4,000 clerics at a conference in Sana'a, responding to concerns of human rights activists, called instead for an annual meeting to discuss violations against teachings of the Islamic law and public morals...

"Common Law Court" Members Attempt To Disrupt Tax Evasion Trial

Posted on July 16, 2008
Today's St. Paul Pioneer Press reports on the indictment Monday of four people on conspiracy charges in an attempt to disrupt the tax evasion trial of millionaire businessman Robert Beale. Beale and three others who were charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice and conspiracy to impede an officer, purport to operate a "common law court" under the jurisdiction of "Almighty Yaweh"...

Croatia Enacts Sunday Closing Law

Posted on July 16, 2008
Croatia's Parliament has passed a Sunday closing law in response to a long campaign by the Catholic Church for such legislation. Yahoo News today reports that week end shopping in malls around the country has flourished. The new law that takes effect January 1 allows stores to remain open on Sundays during the summer and around the Christmas holidays, but not the rest of the year...

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Fired Science Teacher Has New Website to Highlight His Legal Defense

Posted on July 16, 2008
Former Mt. Vernon, Ohio science teacher John Freshwater who was fired for teaching conservative Christian religious views in his middle school classroom and for using an electrostatic device to put a cross on a student's arm (see prior posting) has now created his own website, Bibleonthedesk...

Board Member Raises Church-State Concerns About Sunday Early Voting

Posted on July 16, 2008
In North Carolina, one stop registration and early voting is available in elections at times and places set by county boards beginning 19 days before election day. Today's Greensboro News-Record reports that, over the objections of one member about church-state conflicts, the Guliford County Board of Elections has agreed to add Sunday afternoon, Oct...

NY Court Upholds Sex offender Residence Limits Over Free Exercise Challenge

Posted on July 15, 2008
In People v. Oberlander, 2008 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 4111 (Sup. Ct. Rockland Co., June 18, 2008), a New York trial court rejected a free exercise challenge by plaintiff to a violation of probation order that had been issued against him. Yoel Oberlander moved to an area that was off imits to convicted sex offenders...

Israeli President Gets Close-By Olympic Hotel To Observe Sabbath

Posted on July 15, 2008
Haaretz reported last week that the government of China has agreed to permit Israeli President Shimon Peres to stay in a hotel within the Olympic complex so he can attend the August 8 opening ceremonies for the games without having to ride on Friday evening after the start of the Jewish Sabbath...

Kentucky Governor Supports "In God We Trust"License Plates At No Added Cost

Posted on July 15, 2008
Kentucky's Governor Steve Beshear says he will press next year for legislation authorizing an "In God We Trust" license plate to be available at the same cost as regular plates. Yesterday's Louisville Courier-Journal reports that the governor's call came after a bill to authorize plates with the national motto on them failed to pass the state Senate this year...

Australian Court Strikes Down Youth Day Protest Limits As Visitors Are Welcomed With Condoms

Posted on July 15, 2008
SX News reports that Australia's Federal Court today struck down a New South Wales law prohibiting annoying participants in World Youth Day events. The court held that the new law unconstitutionally chills speech. The 6-days of events for World Youth Day-- including the visit of Pope Benedict XVI-- begin today...

President Marks 10th Anniversary of International Religious Freedom Act

Posted on July 15, 2008
President Bush yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act with an address at the White House (full text). He spoke of progress in religious freedom made in recent years in Turkmenistan and Vietnam. He devoted more time however to problem countries and the varying prospects for improvement in each-- Iran, North Korea, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and China...

Closed Church Can Challenge Lifting of Property Tax Exemption

Posted on July 14, 2008
In Boston, a Suffolk Superior Court judge refused to dismiss completely a challenge by the Boston Catholic archdiocese in a property tax case. Today's Quincy (MA) Patriot Ledger reports that assessors removed the tax exemption for St. Frances X. Cabrini Church in Scituate in 2005 because it had been closed (and is occupied by protesters trying to reopen it)...

In Wisconsin, Increasing Citations ofAmish For Regulatory Violations

Posted on July 14, 2008
Yesterday's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports on the growing number of citations in Wisconsin of members of the Amish sect for refusal to comply with various regulatory provisions. In the most recent case, three brothers were fined for not wearing bright orange clothing while deer hunting...

Spanish Police Apologize To Sikh For Airport Treatment

Posted on July 14, 2008
Jaswant Singh Judge, a Sikh living in London, has received an apology from Spain's police, the Guardia Civil. Police authorities at Spain's Tenerife airport insisted that Judge remove his turban while going through a security check. Sikh Sangat News reported yesterday that after an investigation into the incident, Chief of Guardia Civil wrote Judge apologizing for the infringement of his religious beliefs...

Recently Scholarly Articles of Interest

Posted on July 14, 2008
From SSRN:Keith N. Hylton, Yulia Rodionova, & Fei Deng, Church and State: An Economic Analysis (July 7, 2008).Manisuli Ssenyonjo, The Islamic Veil and Freedom of Religion, the Rights to Education and Work: A Survey of Recent International and National Cases (Chinese Journal of International Law, Vol...

Ohio Charter School Plans Carefully To Remain Secular

Posted on July 13, 2008
Friday's Toledo Blade reports on interesting arrangements for a new publicly funded charter school in Toldeo, Ohio for 6th, 7th and 8th grade boys. Knight Academy will be affiliated with a local Catholic high school, St. Francis de Sales, and will share some of the Catholic school's facilities and faculty...

More Details On Last Year's New Jersey School Proselytization Case Revealed

Posted on July 13, 2008
Last year, the Kearny, New Jersey, Board of Education settled a threatened lawsuit by the parents of high schooler Matthew LaClair. The LaClairs complained about in-class proselytizing by Matthew's history teacher, David Paszkiewicz. Matthew had recorded his teacher saying that students who do not accept Jesus belong in Hell, that the "Big Bang" theory is unscientific and that dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark...

Court Rejects Free Exercise Claims of 9-11 Families Seeking Move of Sifted Debris

Posted on July 13, 2008
In WTC Families for a Proper Burial, Inc. v. City of New York, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51994 (SDNY, July 7, 2008), a New York federal district court rejected an attempt by families of 1100 unrecovered 9-11 victims to force the city of New York to move finely-sifted World Trade Center debris (in which no remains are identifiable) from the city's Fresh Kills landfill to a new location that would be created as a cemetery...

Tibetan Monastary Still Surrounded By Chinese Troops

Posted on July 13, 2008
London's Times Online today reports that in Tibet, China's army continues to seal off Drepung, the largest Buddhist monastery in the country, four months after widespread anti-Chinese riots. (See prior posting.) Many of Deprung's monks were identified as having taken part in the protests against China's policies in Tibet...

US Policy Generally Precludes Immigration Raids On Churches

Posted on July 13, 2008
AP reported yesterday that the unofficial policy of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is to avoid immigration raids on churches, even though illegal immigrants are using them for sanctuary. The only exception is where immigrants taking sanctuary publicly defy federal authorities in a way that makes enforcement officials look lax in their duties...

California Home School Case May Now Be Moot

Posted on July 12, 2008
In California, the future of a pending reconsideration of a home schooling case is now in doubt. In a controversial March decision, a state court of appeals held that parents could not home school their children without hiring a credentialed tutor. It rejected a claim that the Free Exercise clause gives parents the right to home school...

Ruling on Release of Secret Service Records Found Not Yet Appealable

Posted on July 12, 2008
Yesterday, in a case seeking release of White House visitor records, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held that a district court order issued last December is neither an appealable final order, nor is it an appealable interlocutory order. In Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v...

"Mahr" Held Not A Valid Pre-Nuptial Agreement

Posted on July 12, 2008
In Zawahiri v. Alwattar, (OH Ct. App., July 10, 2008), an Ohio court of appeals affirmed a Columbus, Ohio domestic relations court's refusal, in a divorce action between a Muslim couple, to enforce the "mahr" (dowry). Under Islamic law, the mahr must be part of the marriage contract...

France Denies Muslim Woman Citizenship Because of Her Non-French Values

Posted on July 12, 2008
Last month, France's Council of State issued a decision upholding the denial of French citizenship to a Muslim woman because of her fundamentalist religious practices. The Council, France?s highest administrative tribunal, said that Faiza Maabchour?s lifestyle is "not compatible with the essential values of the French community, notably the principle of gender equality...

Mention of Satanism Held Not Enough To Reverse Priest's Murder Conviction

Posted on July 12, 2008
In State of Ohio v. Robinson, (OH Ct. App., July 11, 2008), an Ohio state appellate court affirmed the conviction of former Catholic priest Gerald Robinson who, in 2006, was convicted of a bizarre 1980 murder of a nun. Sister Margaret Ann Pahl's body was found in the sacristy of a Catholic hospital in Toledo, Ohio, strangled and then stabbed 31 times...

British Registrar Wins Right To Refuse To Perform Civil Partnership Ceremonies

Posted on July 11, 2008
Times Online today reports on a decision by a British employment tribunal vindicating claims by civil marriage registrar Lillian Ladele who was "treated like a pariah" by fellow-emplyees after she refused on religious grounds to perform same-sex civil partnership ceremonies...

Alleged Biased Remarks By Clinic Director Are Part of Lawsuit

Posted on July 11, 2008
In Gordon v. Dalrymple, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51863 (D NV, July 8, 2008), a Nevada federal district court dismissed a free exercise and First Amendment retaliation claim by Allan Gordon, the former director of a state mental health clinic, who alleged he had been fired because of remarks he allegedly made critical of Christians...

7th Circuit Holds Condo Mezuzah Ban Does Not Violate Fair Housing Act

Posted on July 11, 2008
In Bloch v. Frischholz, (7th Cir., July 10, 2008), the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision held that the federal Fair Housing Act does not bar a condominium association from adopting a rule that effectively prevents any Jewish resident from placing a mezuzah on his or her door...

Legal Maneuvers Ahead of Realignment Vote By Pittsburgh Episcopal Diocese

Posted on July 11, 2008
In Pittsburgh (PA), Episcopal Bishop Robert Duncan has moved up the date for the the annual Diocesan Convention to October 4, at which time delegates will vote on three resolutions (full text) that would withdraw the Pittsburgh diocese from the Episcopal Church and affiliate it with the more conservative Anglican Province of the Southern Cone...

Court Rejects Amish Free Exercise Challenge to Buggy Emblem Requirement

Posted on July 11, 2008
WKYX News reports today that in Mayfield, Kentucky, a state circuit court judge upheld the conviction of three Amish men for refusing to display slow-moving vehicle emblems on their horse-drawn buggies. The court, in its decision on Thursday, held that the requirement is a neutral law of general application, not specifically directed at the Amish, so it does not violate the defendants' free exercise rights.

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