Religion & Law

New Articles and Books of Interest

Posted on March 31, 2008
From SSRN:Raphael Cohen-Almagor, Hate in the Classroom: Free Expression, Holocaust Denial, and Liberal Education, (American Journal of Education, Vol. 114, No. 2, pp. 215-241, February 2008).Russell Powell, Theology in Public Reason and Legal Discourse: A Case for the Preferential Option for the Poor, (March 20, 2008)...

Paper Publishes Interview With Geert Wilders

Posted on March 31, 2008
Der Spiegel today carries an interview with right wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders whose video attacking the Quran has provoked widespread negative reaction. (See prior posting.) He says: "For me, Islam is a vision of a society that defines all forms of interpersonal behavior -- from inheritance to criminal law...

Two Cases Say Muslim Inmates Are Entitled To Halal Meals

Posted on March 30, 2008
Two recent cases have broken new ground by granting Muslim prison inmates the right to receive Halal meals, rather than relegating them to receiving only the prison's vegetarian diet. In Hudson v. Dennehy, (D MA, March 5, 2008), a Massachusetts federal district court held that refusal by the Massachusetts Department of Corrections to provide a daily Halal menu to Muslim inmates violates RLUIPA...

Three Indicted on Misdemeanor Charges For Taking Turban From Head of Sikh Man

Posted on March 30, 2008
In Yoncalla, Oregon last week, a state grand jury indicted three men accused of taking a turban off the head of a Sikh truck driver. The grand jury concluded that the defendants should be charged with third-degree theft and misdemeanor harassment. The AP reports, however, that the grand jury refused to indict defendants on the felony charge of intimidation...

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Court Discusses Free Exercise Rights of Civilly Commited Sex Offender

Posted on March 30, 2008
In a non-precedential decision, Marsh v. Liberty Behavioral Health Care, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24347 (MD FL, March 27, 2008), a Florida federal district court decided several issues relating to the free exercise rights of an offender who was civilly confined under Florida's Involuntary Civil Commitment of Sexually Violent Predators' Treatment and Care Act...

New Jersey Governor To Sign Two Religious Accommodation Bills

Posted on March 30, 2008
Friday's New Jersey Jewish Standard reports that Gov. Jon Corzine will sign two religious protection bills into law next month in a ceremony at a Passaic synagogue. One is S. 1023, finally passed on March 13. It require that alternative testing arrangements be made available for students who are unable for religious reasons to take the SAT, LSAT, MCAT and similar college and professional school admissions tests on the regularly scheduled date...

Maryland County Decides Against Easter Cross After Legal Advice

Posted on March 30, 2008
Friday's Cumberland (MD) Times-News reported that, despite approval by the County Commission, no 7-foot tall cross was put up on the lawn of the Mineral County (MD) Courthouse over Easter weekend. Two days after Commission approval for the display that was to be sponsored by the Keyser Presbyterian Church, Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a complaint on behalf of a county resident...

Moderate Imam Faces Deportation Over Residency Application Omission

Posted on March 30, 2008
The International Herald Tribune reports that a moderate New Jersey Islamic leader is facing deportation because he failed to disclose on his 1999 application for permanent residency an in abstentia conviction by an Israeli military court of which he had no knowledge...

Police Officer Wins Damages In Religious Discrimination Case

Posted on March 30, 2008
A former part-time police officer who claimed he was fired because of his religious beliefs was awarded $100,000 in damages by a federal court jury in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. WTOV9 News today reported that Terryn Risk, who was employed by the Burgettstown (PA) Police Department, says his dismissal came primarily because he insisted on wearing a small cross on his police uniform and because he did not wish to work early Sunday morning hours that conflicted with church services.

Courthouse Holding Facility Found To Be Outside of RLUIPA Coverage

Posted on March 30, 2008
In Khatib v. County of Orange, (CD CA, March 26, 2008), a Muslim woman sued after she was ordered not to wear her hijab (traditional headscarf) in a state courthouse holding facility, and was not permitted to cover her head in the courtroom. In what was apparently a question of first impression, a California federal district court concluded that a courthouse holding facility is not an institution covered by the protections of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act...

British Hindu Monks Threaten To Sue RSPCA Over Cow's Death

Posted on March 30, 2008
In Britain, six monks from Europe's largest Hindu Temple, Bhaktivedanta Manor, threatening to sue have served what is essentially a demand letter on Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. According to yesterday's BBC News, the monks say that last December while they were at prayer, an RSPCA veterinarian euthanized an ailing cow being cared for at the Temple...

National Day of Prayer Task Force Criticized For Lack of Inclusiveness

Posted on March 30, 2008
The National Day of Prayer Task Force is excluding Jews, Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, and even moderate evangelical Christians from taking lead roles in its events, according to a posting Thursday by Jews On First. In a message from Task Force Chair Shirley Dobson, those applying to become coordinators for this year's May 1 activities are asked to fill out an application "to determine your personal and spiritual qualifications for this service"...

Original Web Host Pulls Much-Criticized Anti-Islam Video

Posted on March 30, 2008
Wired reports that on Friday, the video-hosting website LiveLeak took down the controversial anti-Islamic video Fitna from its website, replacing it with a statement reading in part: "Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature.... LiveLeak has been left with no choice but to remove Fitna from our servers...

Christian Converts In Egypt Face New Hurdles To Recognition

Posted on March 28, 2008
As reported last month, Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court held that twelve individuals who had converted to Islam and then back to Christianity were entitled to have their birth certificates and government identity papers reflect that they are Christian...

UN Human Rights Council Calls for End To Religious Defamation

Posted on March 28, 2008
According to yesterday's International Herald Tribune, the United Nations Human Rights Council has passed, by a vote of 21-10, a resolution on Combating Defamation of Religions that was proposed by the Organization of the Islamic Conference [full text, word doc]...

EEOC's Claim of Discrimination Against Muslim Employee Is Settled

Posted on March 28, 2008
The Belleville News-Democrat yesterday reported that a suburban St. Louis company has settled a religious discrimination lawsuit brought against it by the EEOC on behalf of a Muslim woman. Mariam Soultan, former employee of Client Services, Inc., claims she was fired because she refused to remove her religious headscarf...

Indy Star Employees Lose Religious Discrimination Claims

Posted on March 28, 2008
In Patterson v. Indiana Newspapers, Inc., (SD IN, March 27, 2008), an Indiana federal district court rejected religious discrimination claims brought by two editorial employees against the publisher of the Indianapolis Star newspaper. Plaintiffs alleged that the newspaper's president and vice president conspired to force them out of their jobs because the executives disagreed with plaintiffs' religious opposition to homosexuality...

Legal Maneuvers In Russia Undercut Pastor's Suit Against Orthodox Bishop

Posted on March 28, 2008
Forum 18 this week reported on the latest in a series of legal maneuvers against a United Methodist church in the western Russian city of Smolensk. The saga apparently began when the Methodist church put up on its website information about the planned opening in September of a Missionary College...

Anti-Semitic Incidents In U.S. Continue To Drop

Posted on March 28, 2008
The Anti-Defamation League last week released an updated Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents in the United States for 2007. The data shows a 6% decline from 2006, reflecting the continuing drop in incidents over the past three years. The Audit includes both criminal and non-criminal acts of harassment and intimidation, including distribution of hate propaganda, threats and slurs...

Court Rejects Collateral Estoppel In Suit On Portrayal of Hindus In Textbooks

Posted on March 28, 2008
In California Parents for the Equalization of Educational Materials v. California Department of Education, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23687 (ED CA, March 25, 2008), plaintiff (CAPEEM) alleges that the California State Board of Education violated the rights of its members by the process used in 2005-2006 to adopt public school history-social science textbooks...

Florida Senate Committee Approves Bill Allowing Anti-Evolution Theories In Class

Posted on March 27, 2008
The Tampa Tribune reports that opponents of Florida's recently adopted science education standards took their first step in the legislature yesterday to counter the State Board of Education guidelines that specifically call for the teaching of evolution...

9th Circuit Upholds 10 Commandments Display

Posted on March 27, 2008
In Card v. City of Everett, (9th Cir., March 26, 2008), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to a 10 Commandments monument on the grounds of the Everett, Washington city hall. The monument was presented to the city by the Fraternal Order of Eagles in 1959...

Floridians Will Vote On Repeal of Blaine Amendment In November

Posted on March 27, 2008
The AP reports that yesterday Florida's Taxation and Budget Reform Commission voted 17-7 to place before the voters in November a constitutional amendment that would repeal the state's Blaine Amendment. More specifically, the TBRC's resolution (full text) proposes to delete from Article I, Sec...

California Court Grants Rehearing In Home School Case

Posted on March 27, 2008
Yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle reports that California's Second District Court of Appeal has granted a rehearing in In re Rachel L., a case that rejected a claim by parents that they have a First Amendment free exercise right to home school their children...

British Prime Minister Backs Off Proposed Repeal of Act of Settlement

Posted on March 27, 2008
Today's London Telegraph reports that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is having second thoughts about a proposal he intended to make-- repealing the 1701 Act of Settlement. The ancient law requires the monarch to be in communion with the Church of England and prohibits the monarch from embracing Catholicism or marrying a Catholic...

Texas Board of Education Poised To Adopt Bible Course Curriculum Standards

Posted on March 27, 2008
The Austin (TX) American-Statesman reports that the Texas State Board of Education could give preliminary approval as early as this week to new standards for elective high school courses on the Old and New Testaments' Impact on History and Literature of Western Civilization...

Court Says Dissident Church's Property Belongs To Long Island Episcopal Diocese

Posted on March 27, 2008
Episcopal News Service reported yesterday that a Queens County, New York trial court has ruled that the property of the breakaway St. James' Episcopal Church in Elmhurst is held in trust for the Diocese of Long Island. In 2005, a majority of St. James' members voted to affiliate with the more conservative Anglican Church in America...

Court Rejects First Amendment Defense To Title VII and Defamation Claims

Posted on March 27, 2008
In Ogugua v. Archdiocese of Omaha, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23193 (D NE, March 24, 2008), a Nebraska federal district court rejected First Amendment defenses and permitted a Catholic assistant pastor to proceed with a Title VII claim against the Archdiocese of Omaha, and defamation claims against the Archdiocese as well as the pastor and archbishop involved...

Wilders' Anti-Quran Video Is Posted On Video Hosting Website

Posted on March 27, 2008
As reported yesterday by CNN and the Washington Post, right wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders' 16-minute video attacking the Quarn and Islam has found an Internet host. LiveLeak.com has posted the 16 minute film titled "Fitna" in English and Dutch versions...

Court Upholds Reprimand of Pharmacist Who Refused To Fill Prescription

Posted on March 26, 2008
In Noesen v. State of Wisconsin Dept. of Regulation & Licensing, (WI Ct. App., March 25, 2008), a Wisconsin state appellate court upheld the state Pharmacy Examining Board?s decision reprimanding a pharmacist who refused, on religious grounds, to fill or transfer a customer's prescription for oral contraceptives...

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