Religion & Law

UK Will Not Prosecute Anti-Scientology Picket

Posted on May 25, 2008
Friday's London Guardian reports that Crown Prosecution Service has decided it will not prosecute a 16-year old boy for carrying a sign outside the headquarters of the Church of Scientology earlier this month accusing it of being a "dangerous cult". City of London police had issued a summons to the boy after he refused to put down the sign...

Federal Court Rejects Removal Of State Zoning Challenge

Posted on May 25, 2008
Friday's Aspen (CO) Times reports on the long battle by Grace Church in Emma, Colorado to build a new building on Highway 82. In 2005, Pitkn County commissioners denied the church's application, but then reversed their decision after the church filed a federal lawsuit under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act...

8th Circuit Finds No Standing In Parochial School Busing Case

Posted on May 25, 2008
In Pucket v. Hot Springs School District, (8th Cir., May 23, 2008), the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals held that plaintiffs lack standing to pursue their 1st and 14th Amendment challenge to a South Dakota school district's temporary termination of busing of students to Bethesda Lutheran School...

Midwife For Pennsylvania Amish Wins Reversal of Charges Against Her

Posted on May 25, 2008
In Goslin v. State Board of Medicine, (PA Commn. Ct., May 23, 2008), a Pennsylvania appellate court has reverse an order issued by the State Board of Medicine that had barred midwife Diane Goslin from continuing to practice as a midwife and had imposed a civil monetary penalty...

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California City Will Vote On Adopting "In God We Trust" As Motto

Posted on May 25, 2008
A California city is moving to adopt "In God We Trust" as its official motto. Friday's Fresno (CA) Bee reports that Porterville, CA has a measure on its June 3 ballot that calls for adopting the motto. The motto is already unofficially on display in city council chambers, but its official adoption will place it on city letterhead as well...

Humanitarian Group Is Religious Organization Under Title VII

Posted on May 25, 2008
In Spencer v. World Vision, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40938 (WD WA, May 21, 2008), a Washington federal district court was called on to determine whether World Vision, Inc. is a "religious association" under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Applying a 9-factor test, the court decided that the nonprofit Christian humanitarian organization at issue meets the requirements for a religious organization and thus, under 42 USC Sec...

Texas Appeals In FLDS Custody Case; 12 Children Released

Posted on May 24, 2008
The Deseret News reports that on Friday the state of Texas filed an appeal with the Texas Supreme Court asking it to stay the order of a state appellate court and keep over 450 FLDS children in foster care pending appeal of the lower court's decision to return the children to their parents...

Some Jewish Supporters Defend Rev. Hagee's Holocaust Remarks

Posted on May 24, 2008
While John McCain has publicly distanced himself from Rev. John Hagee over Hagee?s remarks about the Holocaust (see prior posting), according to today's Washington Times some Jewish supporters of Hagee have come to his defense. Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg, an Orthodox rabbi from San Antonio, said that Hagee "interpreted a biblical verse in a way not very different from several legitimate Jewish authorities?...

Massachusetts Church Sues Over Parking Lot Requirement

Posted on May 24, 2008
An historic church in Lanesville, Massachusetts last Monday filed a federal lawsuit against the city's zoning board which is refusing to allow the church to add a multi-use addition onto its original post-Civil War building. Friday?s Gloucester (MA) Daily Times provides details...

South Carolina Legislature Authorizes "I Believe" License Plates

Posted on May 24, 2008
On Thursday the South Carolina Senate concurred with the House and sent to the governor for his signature S. 1329, a bill authorizing the state to produce specialty license plates that "contain the words 'I Believe' and a cross superimposed on a stained glass window...

McCain Breaks With Hagee Over Controversial Sermon From 1990's

Posted on May 23, 2008
A number of newspapers, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, reported yesterday that Republican presidential candidate John McCain has formally rejected the earlier endorsement he received from controversial televangelist Rev. John C...

British Tribunal Finds Religious Discrimination By Christian Charity Group

Posted on May 23, 2008
In Britain last week, an Employment Tribunal in Abergele (Wales) held in two cases that a Christian charity, Prospects for People With Learning Disabilities, violated Britain's Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003. The British Humanist Association issued a release discussing the facts:Prospects, a Christian charity which receives public money for its work with people with learning disabilities, and which had previously employed a number of non-Christian staff and volunteers ...

South Carolina Legislature Passes Public Invocation Act

Posted on May 23, 2008
A news release from Alliance Defense Fund reports that on Wednesday the South Carolina legislature passed the South Carolina Public Invocation Act, S. 638. The law provides that state or local governing bodies may open their sessions with prayer offered on a rotating basis by members of the body, on a rotating basis from a wide pool of the religious leaders serving established religious congregations in the local community, or by a chaplain elected by the governing body.

House of Lords Bars Suit Against Nuns on Limitations Grounds

Posted on May 23, 2008
Britain's House of Lords this week dismissed claims filed by two women and a man alleging beatings and abuse many years ago by nuns of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth. The alleged abuse took place at a Nazareth House home in Glasgow. The case, a test case for several hundred others as well, was not filed until a newspaper expose of the abuse published in 1997...

Iran Arrests Seven Baha'i Leaders

Posted on May 23, 2008
Canada's Metro News reports that in Iran last week, six Baha'i leaders were arrested and accused of endangering national security. A seventh had been arrested in March. A government spokesman accused them of having "connections with foreigners, especially the Zionists...

Cayman Islands Constitutional Proposal Responds To Concerns of Christians

Posted on May 23, 2008
Cayman Net News today published the latest version of the proposed new Constitution being drafted for the Cayman Islands. Earlier this year, Christians in the country expressed concern over the impact of a Bill of Rights on the country's traditional Christian heritage...

NY Federal Court Say Insufficient Facts To Apply Ministerial Exception Doctrine

Posted on May 22, 2008
In Rojas v. Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40386 (WD NY, May 19, 2008), a New York federal district court held that at this point in the litigation it does not have enough facts to decide whether the "ministerial exception" calls for dismissal of a claim under Title VII and the New York Human Rights Law...

County Employees Will Not Be Forced To Perform Same-Sex Marriage Ceremonies

Posted on May 22, 2008
While the California Supreme Court has legalized same-sex marriage (see prior posting), San Diego county will not force objecting employees to perform same-sex ceremonies. Yesterday's San Diego Union-Tribune reports that County Assessor-Recorder-Clerk Greg Smith has told the 115 employees who are deputized to conduct ceremonies to inform him if they have objections...

UCC Cleared By IRS In Complaint About Obama Speech At Synod

Posted on May 22, 2008
In a determination letter issued May 13 (full text) the Internal Revenue Service cleared the United Church of Christ of charges that it improperly engaged in partican political activity when Barak Obama spoke at the church's June 2007 General Synod. (See prior posting...

High School Principal Resigns Over Equal Access Act Requirement

Posted on May 22, 2008
In Irmo, South Carolina, Irmo High School Principal Eddie Walker says he will resign effective at the end of the 2008-09 school year after the school district told him to allow the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance chapter at the school. WIS-TV reports school district attorneys determined that under the federal Equal Access Act, either the club must be permitted or all non-curricular organizations would need to be banned...

Delaware High Court Refuses Review In Clergy Sex Abuse Case

Posted on May 22, 2008
The Delaware Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to accept an appeal in Whitwell v. Archmere Academy, Inc., a case in which the Superior Court upheld the statute of limitations window created by the state's 2007 Child Victim Act. (See prior posting.) The Superior Court had certified the question of law involved in its decision to the Delaware Supreme Court under Sup...

United Methodists Endorse Teaching of Evolution As Consistent With Theology

Posted on May 22, 2008
At its General Conference that concluded earlier this month, the United Methodist Church adopted three resolutions supporting the teaching of evolution in public schools. The National Center for Science Education reports on the United Methodists' policy statements...

US Warns Maldives About Proposal To Limit Citizenship To Muslims

Posted on May 22, 2008
U.S. Ambassador to the Maldives, Robert Blake, said at a press conference on Tuesday that the United States government has expressed concern over wording in the current draft of the Maldives proposed new constitution. The document provides that : "A non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives...

Texas Appellate Court Says State Lacked Grounds To Take FLDS Children Into Custody

Posted on May 22, 2008
Thirty-eight mothers of FLDS children taken from the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, have succeeded in their challenge to the taking of their children into state custody. A Texas state court of appeals today ruled that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services "failed to meet its burden under section 262...

9th Circuit Oral Arguments Held In Berkeley Evolution Website Case

Posted on May 22, 2008
On May 14, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments (audio recording) in Caldwell v. Caldwell, (Case No. 06-15771). The case involves a claim by a Santa Rosa couple that a University of California, Berkeley, website titled "Understanding Evolution" was used to promote religious beliefs of groups that support evolution...

New Developments In Westboro Baptist Church Litigation

Posted on May 21, 2008
Today's Topeka (KS) Capital-Journal reports on two developments relating to Topeka's anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church and its members who have gained notoriety for picketing funerals of Iraq war veterans. (Background.) On Monday the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to stay collection of the $5 million Maryland federal district court damage award against church leaders growing out of their picketing of the funeral of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew A...

MN Court Rejects Establishment Clause Challenge To Clergy Sexual Conduct Law

Posted on May 21, 2008
Today's Winona (MN) Daily News reports that a Winona County District Court has rejected a facial Establishment Clause challenge to Minnesota's clergy sexual conduct statute. In a decision last year, the Minnesota Supreme Court divided evenly on whether the statute is facially invalid under the Establishment Clause...

Tennessee Legislature Authorizes Courses On Bible and Its Influence

Posted on May 21, 2008
The Tennessee legislature has passed and yesterday sent to Gov. Phil Bredesen for his signature HB 4089 that authorizes "the state board of education to develop and adopt a curriculum for a state funded elective course consisting of a nonsectarian, nonreligious academic study of the Bible and its influence on literature, art, music, culture, and politics...

Wiley Drake's Church Cleared of IRS Campaign Violations

Posted on May 21, 2008
California Southern Baptist pastor Wiley Drake has been cleared by the IRS of charges that his Buena Park First Southern Baptist Church violated tax code restrictions on non-profit organizations by endorsing Mike Huckabee in the Republican presidential primary this year...

Ugandan University Bars Muslim Women From Wearing Head Coverings In Exams

Posted on May 21, 2008
In Uganda, Makerere University has angered Muslims by banning students wearing head coverings from entering examination rooms. The ban primarily affects Muslim women. New Vision yesterday reported that university officials say they are trying to prevent cheating by preventing students from carrying jackets, scarfs, caps and sweaters into exams...

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