Religion & Law

Florida City Decides Not To Require Opening Prayers At Board Meetings

Posted on May 29, 2008
In Fort Walton Beach, Florida on Tuesday, City Council by a vote of 3-3 defeated a proposal that would have required every city board to begin all meetings with a prayer. Opening invocations will remain optional. The Destin Log yesterday reported that the proposal to mandate an invocation was introduced by Councilman Jim Hartwell after the city's Community Redevelopment Agency eliminated it opening prayer earlier this month and discussed eliminating the Pledge of Allegiance because it offended one of its members...

AU Wants IRS To Investigate Washington Religious Group

Posted on May 29, 2008
Americans United for Separation of Church and State in a release yesterday urged the Internal Revenue Service to investigate a Tacoma, Washington non-profit religious group, Christian Businessmen?s Connection. Last week the group hosted the Republican candidate for governor of Washington, Dino Rossi...

Texas Supreme Court Says State Lacked Basis For Removing FLDS Children

Posted on May 29, 2008
Today in In re Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, (TX Sup. Ct., May 29, 2008), the Texas Supreme Court agreed with the 3rd District Court of Appeals (see prior posting) that the state lacked a sufficient basis to place into Department of Family and Protective Services custody the children that it removed last month from the FLDS Ranch in Eldorado, Texas...

British Churches and Borough Dispute Over Free Trash Pick-Up

Posted on May 29, 2008
In Britain, the Macclesfield Express reports on the controversy between local churches and the Macclesfield Borough Council over trash collection. The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says that its regulations require boroughs to provide free trash pick-up to places of worship...

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Army Plans To Remove Crosses From Kosovo Base Chapel Grounds

Posted on May 29, 2008
Life Site News yesterday reported on a controversial plan by the U.S. Army to relandscape the grounds of Peacekeeper?s Chapel that serves US soldiers at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo. Three wooden crosses outside the chapel will be replaced by a stone monument engraved with the chapel's name and the US Army Chaplain Corps crest...

Court Hears Arguments In Virginia "Division Statute" Case

Posted on May 29, 2008
Yesterday, a Fairfax County, Virginia trial court heard arguments on the constitutionality of Virginia's 1867 "Division Statute" that allows congregations to vote to separate from their parent body and retain their church property. In an earlier phase of the case, the court ruled that, if the statute is constitutional, it applies to eleven Virginia congregations that broke away from the Episcopal Church...

Quebec Report on Cultural Accommodation Issued

Posted on May 29, 2008
In Canada last week, Quebec's Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences (also known as the Bouchard-Taylor Commission) issued its final report. (Full text of abridged report.) A May 22 press release describes a number of the recommendations relating to state neutrality and accommodation of religion: representatives who must embody to the utmost State neutrality and maintain the appearance of impartiality that is essential to the exercising of their duties [should] be prohibited from wearing religious signs...

Canadian Court Rejects Attempt To Divert Union Dues For Religious Reasons

Posted on May 29, 2008
According to Life Site News, yesterday Canada's Federal Court of Appeals rejected an attempt by an employee of the Treasury Board of Canada to divert her union dues to charity because of her religious objections to the union's support for homosexual marriage...

Cert. Denied In Case Interpreting RLUIPA "Equal Terms" Provision

Posted on May 28, 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court today denied certiorari in Lighthouse Institute for Evangelism v. Long Branch, NJ, (Case No. 07-1111). (Order List.) In the case, the 3rd Circuit below held, in a 2-1 decision, that the "equal terms" provision of Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Person Act (Sec...

California High Court Hears Case On Religious Exception To Civil Rights Law

Posted on May 28, 2008
The California Supreme Court this morning heard oral arguments in Northcoast Women's Care Medical Group v. Superior Court. In the case, a California appellate court held that two doctors being sued by a lesbian woman for refusing to perform intrauterine insemination on her could assert their constitutional right to free exercise of religion in defending against her discrimination charges...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on May 28, 2008
In Adegbuji v. Green, (3d Cir., May 19, 2008), the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the district court that the free exercise rights of an INS detainee were not violated when he was limited to attending only one religious class or service per week while in custody...

Texas Fears Flight If FLDS Children Are Released

Posted on May 28, 2008
In Texas, Child Protective Services lawyers have raised a new argument in their appeal to the Texas Supreme Court seeking to keep custody of children taken during a raid of the FLDS compound in Eldorado. Today's Houston Chronicle reports updated court filings argue that if the children are released to their parents, the families might flee to FLDS settlements in Utah and Arizona, taking the children outside the reach of Texas courts...

Former Library Employee Brings Free Exercise Suit Over Harry Potter Event

Posted on May 28, 2008
In Cape Girardeau, Missouri yesterday, the ACLU filed suit on behalf of library-assistant Deborah Smith who was suspended for ten days without pay after she refused to work at an event that she said violated her religious beliefs. After she returned, her duties were made more labor intensive...

Philadelphia Boy Scouts Sue To Keep Free Space

Posted on May 28, 2008
In Philadelphia, the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts has sued the city in an attempt to remain in their city-owned headquarters without paying market-rate rents. For the last 80 years, the Boy Scouts have leased a building from the city for $1 per year...

Church Challenges Anchorage, Alaska Zoning Rules

Posted on May 27, 2008
In Anchorage, Alaska last week, the Rabbit Creek Community Church filed a federal lawsuit against the city charging that the city's land use code discriminates against religious groups. KTUU News reported yesterday that under the city's zoning laws, only churches are required to obtain additional review and approval before building in or near a residential neighborhood...

Indian Artist Cleared of Charges From Painting of Nude Goddess

Posted on May 27, 2008
In India earlier this month, a 92-year old artist, Maqbool Fida Husain, was cleared of charges that his painting Bharat Mata (Mother India) is obscene and hurts public sentiments. The painting depicts the Hindu goddess as a nude woman. Both the London Times and the Times of India reported on May 9 on quashing of the indictments in three cases...

Catholic School Wins Temporary Injunction Against New Zoning Restrictions

Posted on May 27, 2008
In Notre Dame Academy, Inc. v. City of Suwanee, Georgia, (Super. Ct., Gwinett Co. GA, May 23, 2008), a Georgia state trial court issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the city of Suwanee, Georgia from enforcing its moratorium on accepting building or development permits...

Italian Museum Under Pressure For Display of Kipppenberger's Crucified Frog

Posted on May 27, 2008
In Italy, according to ANSA yesterday, politicians as well as clerics are calling for Museion, a modern art museum in Bolzano, to remove its display of a sculpture by late German artist Martin Kippenberger. The statue, part of Kippenberger's "Fred the Frog" series, is a pop-eyed frog crucified on a cross holding a mug of beer...

Recent Scholarly Articles on Church-State, Law and Religion

Posted on May 27, 2008
From SSRN:Robert C. Blitt, How to Entrench a De Facto State Church in Russia: A Guide in Progress, (2008).Ali Ali Kahn, The Immutability of Divine Texts, (Brigham Young University Law Review, Forthcoming).Samuel Wolfe Calhoun, May the President Appropriately Invoke God? Evaluating the Embryonic Stem-Cell Vetoes, (Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, Forthcoming)...

Israeli Conversion Authority and Religious Courts Are In Disarray

Posted on May 27, 2008
In Israel last week, the Prime Minister's Office announced that at the end of June it would not renew the employment contract of 75-year old Rabbi Haim Druckman, head of the State Conversion Authority. Last Thursday's Jerusalem Post reported that the government said the reason for its action was Druckman's advanced age...

Muslims, Sikhs In Pakistan Feud Over Proximity of Houses of Worship

Posted on May 27, 2008
In Lahore, Pakistan, tension has arisen between Sikhs and Muslims over the location of their respective places of worship. Pakistan's Daily Times today reports that Auqaf Department rules provide that places of religious worship should be at least 200 feet apart to avoid interfaith clashes...

Christian School Loses Non-Profit Status

Posted on May 27, 2008
BNA's Daily Report for Executives [subscription required] reports that the IRS has revoked the non-profit tax eligibility of Heritage Christian Schools for Children, Stone Mountain, Ga. The determination made public in IRS Announcement 2008-49 [BNA subscription required] is scheduled for publication today in Internal Revenue Bulletin 2008-21.

Santeria Priest Seeks Records On Florida Police Raid

Posted on May 26, 2008
In Coral Gables, Florida, a Santeria priest is threatening to file suit if the city continues to refuse his public records request to obtain documents relating to a June 8, 2007 police raid on a ceremony taking place in a private home. The ceremony, being performed by Santeria priest Jesús Suarez, includes the sacrifice of several animals...

Egyptian Film Maker Faces Hurdles In Producing Movie On Muslim View of Jesus

Posted on May 26, 2008
An Egyptian film maker, Mohammad Aziziah, is facing multiple legal hurdles as he plans to produce a film titled The Arab Messiah. Gulfnews today reports that the film will reflect the Quranic view that instead of being crucified, Jesus was raised alive to heaven...

Clinton Speaks At Puerto Rican Church

Posted on May 26, 2008
Presidential candidates continue the practice of speaking from church pulpits on Sunday mornings, despite IRS concerns over implied political endorsements by non-profit organizations. Yesterday, according to the AP, Hillary Clinton "offered a spiritual defense for continuing her presidential campaign" as she spoke to the congregation at the Pabellon de la Victoria evangelical church in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico...

Presidential Proclamation, Radio Address Mark Memorial Day

Posted on May 26, 2008
Last Week, the President issued his "Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day 2008" Proclamation (full text), which reads in part:In respect for their devotion to America, the Congress, by a joint resolution approved on May 11, 1950, as amended (64 Stat. 158), has requested the President to issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe each Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace and designating a period on that day when the people of the United States might unite in prayer...

Amish Refuse To Follow Sewage Disposal Code

Posted on May 26, 2008
In Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, members of the small Swartzentruber Amish community are at odds with county officials over handling of waste from two out houses at the community's school. Sunday's Mansfield (PA) News Journal reports that the Amish group has religious objections to complying with code requirements that the waste be collected in a holding tank and disposed of by a certified sewage hauler...

Beaumont, Texas Noise Ordinance Suit Settled

Posted on May 26, 2008
Alliance Defense fund announced on Friday the settlement of a federal lawsuit against Beaumont, Texas filed after the city's arrest in 2005 of two Christians preaching and carrying signs denouncing homosexuality. The two, preaching on a public sidewalk, were charged with violating the city's noise ordinance after police told them that their activity was upsetting people...

Michigan Appellate Court Holds State Recognizes Ministerial Exception

Posted on May 26, 2008
In Weishuhn v. Diocese of Lansing, (MI Ct. App., May 22, 2008), a Michigan state court of appeals held that the "ministerial exception" exists under Michigan law to bar discrimination claims under the state's Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act. According to the court, the doctrine "precludes subject matter jurisdiction over claims involving the employment relationship between a religious institution and its ministerial employees...

High Schooler Wants To Wear Eagle Feathers On Graduation Robe

Posted on May 25, 2008
In Pembroke, North Carolina, high school senior Corey Bird wants to wear eagle feathers on his graduation gown to honor his grandparents. Friday's Fayetteville (NC) Observer reports that Bird, whose father is Lumbee and Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux, was told by Purnell Swett High School Principal Antonio Wilkins-- himself a Lumbee-- that school policy bans the wearing of messages, signs and the like on caps and gowns...

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