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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

Coptic Church Head Also Opposed To Egyptian Court's Ruling On Reconversion

Posted on April 04, 2008
It looks like it is not only Muslims that are unhappy with the ruling by Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court last month that allowed 12 individuals who had converted to Islam and then back to Christianity to get new identity papers. (See prior posting...

Turkish Court Acquits Translator of "God Delusion"

Posted on April 04, 2008
In Istanbul, Turkey, the Sisli 2nd Penal Court on Wednesday acquitted Erol Karaaslan, owner of Kuzey Publications. The publisher had been charged criminally with "inciting the public to hatred and hostility" because of his translation and publication in Turkish of Richard Dawkins' book, "The God Delusion"...

Hilton Head Congregation Sues PCUSA Over Title To Church Property

Posted on April 04, 2008
Providence Presbyterian Church on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina filed suit in state court last Friday against the Presbyterian Church USA's regional presbytery to assure that Providence, rather that PCUSA, owns church property that the congregation plans to develop further...

Malaysia's Islamic Lawyers Want Khalwat Ban Extended To Non-Muslim Partner

Posted on April 04, 2008
Reuters yesterday reported on a controversial proposal by a group of Islamic lawyers that would extend some Islamic law strictures to non-Muslims. Malaysia's Shariah court system has jurisdiction only over Muslims-- mainly in family and personal status matters...

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Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on April 03, 2008
In Kaufman v. Karlen, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 6181 (7th Cir., March 20, 2008), the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of appeals upheld a district court's rejection of claims by an atheist inmate who complained that he was not permitted to wear a silver circle pin which authorities found had nothing to do with religion...

Court Says Religious Statue In Car Is Not Ground For Suspicion of Drug Activity

Posted on April 03, 2008
In United States v. Magana, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24859 (WD TX, March 13, 2008), a Texas federal district court granted a motion to suppress evidence because the grounds for the search involved were impermissible. An officer initiated a traffic stop after observing what he believed to be a defective tire...

Church Bell Exception To Sound Ordinance Does Not Create Content-Based Law

Posted on April 03, 2008
In Service Employees International Union v. City of Houston, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25639 (SD TX, March 31, 2008), the SEIU brought a broad-based constitutional challenge to the permit requirements in the City of Houston Sound Ordinance and in its Parade Ordinance and to its Parks Ordinance...

Polygamous Muslim Marriages In Europe Growing

Posted on April 03, 2008
A report yesterday from AKI says that the number of polygamous marriages among Muslim immigrants is growing in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. It is estimated that there are 15,000 to 20,000 such marriages in Italy, even though they are illegal. Some are immigrants who were legally married to more than one wife before coming to Italy...

4th Circuit Holds for EEOC In Religious Discrimination Case

Posted on April 03, 2008
In EEOC v. Sunbelt Rentals, Inc., (4th Cir., March 31, 2008), the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a trial court's grant of summary judgment and permitted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of Clinton Ingram to go to trial on charges that a Maryland company, Sunbelt Rentals, permitted a religiously hostile work environment in violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act...

Egypt Bans Demonstrations In Places of Worship

Posted on April 03, 2008
According to Reuters, Egypt's Parliament on Wednesday passed a law prohibiting holding of protests in places of worship. Inciting, participating in or organizing such a protest is punishable by a fine and up to one year in jail. Parliament members from the Muslim Brotherhood-- that often uses mosques for protests-- voted against the bill...

Indonesia Threatens To Block YouTube Access Over "Fitna"

Posted on April 03, 2008
Indonesia's Information Minister Mohammad Nuh told a press briefing in Jakarta yesterday that he has sent a letter to YouTube demanding that Dutch Politician Geert Wilder's controversial anti-Islamic video, Fitna, be removed. (See prior posting.) According to CNS News, if YouTube does not comply within two days, Indonesia says it will block access to the popular website...

New Macedonian Religion Law Threatens Serbian Orthodox Church

Posted on April 02, 2008
Forum 18 reported on Monday that Macedonia's new "Law on the Legal Status of a Church, Religious Community and a Religious Group," passed last September and scheduled to come into effect May 1, is designed to prevent the Serbian Orthodox Church from gaining legal status...

Pastor Settles Dispute With Feds Over Unauthorized Travel To Iraq

Posted on April 02, 2008
The AP reported yesterday that New Jersey peace activist, Rev. Frederick Boyle, has reached a settlement agreement with federal authorities. In 2003, Boyle traveled to Iraq in violation of the Iraqi Sanctions Regulations then in effect. He was assessed a fine of $6700 by the Office of Foreign Asset Control...

Woman Indicted For Damage From Anointing UCC Church As Protest

Posted on April 02, 2008
World Net Daily reported yesterday that felony criminal mischief charges have been filed in Elmira, New York, against Holly Somers for damage she caused to a United Church of Christ building by anointing various areas of the building with cooking oil...

Israel Passes Organ Donation Law; Religious Controversy Remains

Posted on April 02, 2008
According to Haaretz, Israel's Knesset last week enacted the country's first law on organ donations. Among other things, it outlaws the brokering of sales of organs. Organ donation has been controversial in Israel because many Orthodox rabbis have insisted that cardiac death, rather than the earlier brain death, defines the end of life under Jewish law...

EEOC Prevails In Religious Discrimination Claim Against Aldi's

Posted on April 02, 2008
In EEOC v. Aldi, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25206 (WD PA, March 28, 2008), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission brought suit in a Pennsylvania federal district court against Aldi, Inc. on behalf of former employee Kimberly Bloom who was fired from her position as a cashier after she refused for religious reasons to work on Sundays...

Developer Counterclaims For $10M Against Missouri Baptist Convention

Posted on April 02, 2008
Associated Baptist Press yesterday reported on the latest installment in a complex lawsuit between the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) and Missouri land developer William Jester. Windmere Baptist Conference Center is one of five institutions that broke away from MBC in 2000 and 2001...

Court Upholds Texas Sports League's Exclusion of Christian School

Posted on April 02, 2008
In Texas, a Christian school has lost its bid to become a member of the state's intescholastic league for public schools. Cornerstone Christian Schools applied for membership in University Interscholastic League (UIL) after the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) refused in 2006 to renew its membership because of violations of the league's recruiting rules...

British Tribunal Considering Muslim Hair Stylist's Discrimination Claim

Posted on April 02, 2008
This Is London today reports on an interesting religious discmination case being heard by the Central London Employment Tribunal. Sarah Desrosiers runs Wedge, a hair salon that specializes in "an alternative form of hairdressing, which is ultra-modern and may be described as urban, edgy and funky...

High Schooler Sues To Challenge Art Project Limits

Posted on April 01, 2008
In Madison, Wisconsin, a Tomah High School senior (identified as A.P.) last Friday filed a federal lawsuit challenging a school policy that prohibits art class projects from depicting "violence, blood, sexual connotations, [or] religious beliefs." In an art class assignment involving drawing of a landscape, A...

German Court Says Muslim Student Must Have In-School Place For Prayer

Posted on April 01, 2008
Yesterday's Deutsche Welle reports that educators in Germany are hotly debating a March 10 decision by a Berlin administrative court which held that Diesterweg Upper School must provide a 14-year-old Muslim student with a place for his daily prayers. Relying on the protection of freedom of religion in Germany's Basic Law (Art...

Death of Children After Prayer Alone Raises Homicide Prosecution Issues

Posted on April 01, 2008
Should parents who elect faith healing rather than traditional medical treatment for a child be criminally responsible if the child dies? That is the question posed in two recent cases. In Clackamas County, Oregon, parents Carl and Raylene Worthington have been indicted by a grand jury in the death of their 15-month old daughter last March...

Facial Challenge By Christian High School To UC's Admissions Policy Rejected

Posted on April 01, 2008
Last week, a California federal district court handed down an initial decision in Association of Christian Schools International v. Stearns, (CD CA, March 28, 2008). In the case, Calvary Chapel Christian School, 5 of its students and an association of Christian schools challenged the admissions policy of the University of California on free speech, free exercise, establishment clause and equal protection grounds...

Court Says No Standing To Challenge State Funds For Faith-Based Agency

Posted on April 01, 2008
In Pedreira v. Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children, Inc., (WD KY, March 31, 2008), a Kentucky federal district court dismissed on standing grounds a lawsuit by Kentucky state taxpayers claiming that the state violated the Establishment Clause by providing funding to Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children (KBHC)...

Most of Church's RLUIPA and Constitutional Claims Will Go To Trial

Posted on April 01, 2008
Rocky Mountain Christian Church v. Board of County Commissioners of Boulder County, Colorado, (D CO, March 31, 2008), involves a challenge to the denial of a church's application for a special use permit so it could expand its facilities. The church claimed that the denial violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act as well as various provisions of the US...

Kentucky Court Permanently Enjoins 10 Commandments Display

Posted on April 01, 2008
In ACLU of Kentucky v. Grayson County, Kentucky, (WD KY, March 28, 2008), a Kentucky federal district court permanently enjoined a display of the Ten Commandments as part of a Foundations of American Law and Government Display in the Grayson County (KY) Courthouse...

Supreme Court Grants Review In "7 Aphorisms" Monument Case

Posted on March 31, 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court today granted certiorari in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, (Case No. 07-665). (Order list.) In the case, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals held that Summum was entitled to erect a "Seven Aphorisms of Summum" monument in a city park that already features a number of other displays, including a 10 Commandments monument donated by the Fraternal Order of Eagles...

Turkey's Constitutional Court Will Hear Case Charging AKP With Anti-Secularism

Posted on March 31, 2008
The AP reports that Turkey's Constitutional Court today voted unanimously to hear a case that has been filed against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) accusing it of undermining the secular principles enshrined in Turkey's Constitution. (See prior posting...

Another Televangelist Responds To Sen. Grassley's Information Request

Posted on March 31, 2008
As previously reported, Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley whose Senate committee has oversight authority over administration of the tax laws, has asked six televangelists who preach the "prosperity gospel" for financial information. Today's Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that another of Grassley's targets, Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia, has agreed to cooperate...

Canadian City Seeks Injunction Against Preacher Who Feeds Homeless In Parks

Posted on March 31, 2008
A trial court in Calgary, Alberta today will hear the city's request for an injunction against Rev. Art Pawlowski whose Street Church Ministry feeds the homeless and preaches to them in local parks. The Calgary Sun reports that the city has previously ticketed Pawlowski 50 times for preaching to up to 500 homeless people in downtown Calgary's Triangle Park...

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