Religion & Law

Saudi's King Abdullah Wants Interfaith Dialogue

Posted on March 26, 2008
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has for the first time proposed a dialogue between Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Yesterday's London Times reports that the king, following up on his November trip to the Vatican, made his announcement at a forum in Riyadh...

9th Circuit Holds Segregated Inmates Must Still Get Access To Religious Services

Posted on March 26, 2008
In Pierce v. County of Orange, (9th Cir., March 24, 2008), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Orange County (CA) jails are systematically denying inmates in administrative segregation access to religious services in violation of their First Amendment rights...

Dali Lama's Threat Could Separate Religion and State In Tibet

Posted on March 26, 2008
Today's Los Angeles Times explores the church-state implications of the Dali Lama's threat last week to resign over violence in Tibet. (Time 3/18). The threat, according to a top aide of the leader, is to resign only as head of state. This would for the first time break Tibetan Buddhism's centuries-old tradition of uniting in one person the religious and political leader...

Clinton Says Obama Should Have Left His Church Over Pastor's Remarks

Posted on March 26, 2008
Hillary Clinton yesterday said she had a different view than does Barack Obama on how Obama should have reacted to controversial statements by his long-time pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. CNN reported on Clinton's statements. Suggesting that Obama's speech last week was an insufficient response to the controversial clergyman, Clinton in a news conference said: "I think given all we have heard and seen, he would not have been my pastor...

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Algeria Closes Protestant Churches That Lack Permits

Posted on March 26, 2008
The Christian Post reported yesterday that Algeria has apparently begun for the first time to enforce a 2006 law that requires non-Muslim congregations to obtain a permit from their regional prefecture before holding religious services. Thirteen Protestant churches have been closed down since November by government order, though no official reason has been given for the action...

Home Schooling Among Muslim Families Is Growing, But Controversial

Posted on March 26, 2008
In a story from Lodi, California today, the New York Times reports on the trend among Pakistani and other southeast Asian families to home school girls when they reach high school age. Reasons include prejudice encountered in public schools and clashes with religious and cultural traditions...

Muslim NYPD Officer's Discrimination Suit Survives Dismissal Motion

Posted on March 25, 2008
Yesterday's BNA E-Commerce Law Daily reports on last month's decision in John Doe Anti-Terrorism Officer v. City of New York, (SDNY Feb. 6, 2008). In the decision, a New York federal district court denied a motion to dismiss hostile work environment claims brought by a Muslim Arab-American law enforcement officer against Bruce Tefft, a counter terrorism advisor hired by the New York City Police Department...

Saudis, Germany Try New Approaches To Encourage Development of Moderate Islam

Posted on March 25, 2008
Two developments reported yesterday illustrate innovative attempts by governments around the world to press Muslims for ideological change in the direction of moderation. UPI reported that the Saudi Arabian government is beginning a program to retrain 40,000 Islamic clerics in a "culture of dialogue ? centrism and moderation...

British Teachers Union Proposes Single System of Multi-Faith Schools

Posted on March 25, 2008
Britan's National Union of Teachers meeting at its 2008 Annual Conference has proposed a dramatic restructuring of the British school system that would eliminate separate state-supported faith schools and replace them with a single school system that would offer children a choice of religious instruction in any of a number of faiths, or a choice of no religious instruction...

Christians In Cayman Islands Express Concern Over Bill of Rights Proposal

Posted on March 25, 2008
In the Cayman Islands, the Government has proposed a Bill of Rights for the country. Cayman Compass reported yesterday however that there is growing concern over the impact of the proposal on the country's traditional Christian heritage. Human Rights Committee deputy chair, Vaughan Carter, responding to those concerns, said last week that "Human rights principles and the inclusion of rights of religion for all people do not prohibit the recognition of Christmas, the [right for schools to hold] nativity plays or for aspects of Christianity to happen in schools...

Catholic Opposition To Embryo Research Bill In Britain

Posted on March 25, 2008
The London Daily Mail reports today that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is facing a rebellion by 12 Catholic members of Commons, including three cabinet members, over the government's proposed law on embryo research. Catholic Church leaders have particularly criticized provisions that would permit the laboratory combination of animal eggs and human DNA, would allow lesbian couples to register as parents, and would permit the creation of genetically selected "saviour" siblings who could be donors for medical treatment of their brothers or sisters...

New Online Resource-- "Religion Dispatches"

Posted on March 25, 2008
A new online resource on religion, values and public life made its debut last month--it is titled Religion Dispatches. With a half dozen collaborating academic institutions, a distinguished advisory council and a four-person staff, the site features articles, a blog, links to current news articles and other features...

Dutch Politician's Anti-Islam Film Triggers Website Suspension and Lawsuit

Posted on March 24, 2008
AFP reported yesterday that the U.S. web hosting company, Network Solutions, has temporarily shut down the website of right wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders. The site publicized the short movie extremely critical of the Quran that Wilders is currently producing...

Pope's Baptism of Muslim Journalist May Create New Tensions

Posted on March 24, 2008
Today's London Times says that Pope Benedict XVI is risking renewed tension with the Islamic world because of his high profile baptism of Muslim journalist Magdi Allam at the Vatican's Easter midnight Mass. (See prior posting.) Allam has made a rift more likely because of a letter (full text in Italian) he has published in Corriere della Sera, the Italian newspaper of which he is a deputy editor...

Minneapolis Schools Working With Churches To Get Help For Students

Posted on March 24, 2008
Yesterday's Twin Cities Daily Planet reports on the growing faith-based partnerships between churches and Minneapolis public schools. Under the Minneapolis School Board's Strategic Plan adopted last December, the schools reach out to faith-based instituitons seeking to have individual churches partner with a school...

New Articles and Book of Interest

Posted on March 24, 2008
From SSRN:Malcolm Voyce, The Vinaya and the Dharma??stra: Monastic Law and Legal Pluralism in Ancient India, (Macquarie Law Working Paper No. 2008-9, March 2008).Julie Marie Baworowsky, From Public Square to Market Square: Theoretical Foundations of First and Fourteenth Amendment Protection of Corporate Religious Speech, (Notre Dame Law Review, Vol...

State Employee Partially Successful In Title VII Claim

Posted on March 24, 2008
In Atwood v. Oregon Department of Transportation, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22369 (D OR, March 20, 2008), a state employee alleged that his free exercise rights and Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act were violated when one of his supervisors harshly questioned him and threatened to fire him because he refused to work on Sundays for religious reasons...

First Nation Says Canadian Officials Violated Religious Rights By Dousing Fire

Posted on March 24, 2008
In Thunder Bay, Ontario last week, a judge sentenced the Chief and six Council members of one of Canada's First Nations, the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI), to six months in jail for contempt of court. The conviction grew out of their staging a demonstration to block a mining company from access to Big Trout Lake, access which had been granted to the company by a court order...

Repeat Defendant Sentenced To Attend Church

Posted on March 24, 2008
The Quad City Times and Quad Cities Online report that in Davenport, Iowa last Wednesday, Scott County Associate Court Judge Christine Dalton sentenced Pachina Tehran Hill, as part of his probation, to attend the men's counseling program at Third Missionary Baptist Church in Davenport and to attend church services there for eight consecutive weeks...

President Salutes Easter In Message and Radio Address

Posted on March 23, 2008
President Bush's weekly radio address yesterday (full text) focused on today's celebration of Easter. After expressing appreciation to American military troops who are away from home, as well as remembering those who have been killed, he concluded with this thank you:On Easter, we also honor Americans who give of themselves here at home...

Pope's Easter Message Focuses On World Trouble Spots as He Baptizes Muslim Critic

Posted on March 23, 2008
Deutsche Welle reports that Pope Benedict XVI's Easter message today included a call for peaceful solutions in many of the world's trouble spots-- Darfur, Somalia, the Middle East and Tibet. According to CNN, at the Vatican's Saturday night Easter vigil Mass, the Pope baptized seven adults...

India's Supreme Court Interprets Muslim Marriage Law

Posted on March 23, 2008
The Supreme Court of India this month found itself interpreting Muslim religious law in a case awarding a Muslim woman maintenance from her husband. Under Muslim law, a man may not marry his wife's sister during his wife's lifetime. In Patel v. Begum & Anr, (India Sup...

Atheist Activist Supports Easter Service and Cross In Daley Plaza

Posted on March 23, 2008
Yesterday's Chicago Daily Herald reported that atheist activist Rob Sherman has praised the city of Chicago for permitting the Thomas More Society to put up a 19 foot cross in Daley Plaza for its sunrise Easter service today. Sherman says he backs the right of individuals to engage in private religious speech in public...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on March 23, 2008
In Piskanin v. Hammer, (3d Cir., March 18, 2008), the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed as frivolous a prisoner's claim that removal of his religious medal/necklace when he was placed on suicide watch unconstitutionally infringed his free exercise of religion...

Court Dismisses Claims Challenging All-Male Limits On Theology Faculty

Posted on March 22, 2008
In Klouda v. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22157 (ND TX, March 19, 2008), a Texas federal district court dismissed on First Amendment grounds seven state and federal causes of action brought by a Sheri Klouda, a faculty member who was forced to resign from her position on the School of Theology faculty at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary...

Judge Criticized For Organizing Prayer During Court Hearing

Posted on March 22, 2008
The Mobile, Alabama Press-Register reported Friday that the ACLU is investigating a complaint against state Circuit Judge M. Ashley McKathan over his conduct in a recent case. Jo Ann Snowden, a clerk in the Monroe County Circuit Court?s office, had been secretary of Monroeville?s Morning Star Baptist Church until the minister, with the support of several deacons, removed her...

2nd Circuit Adopts Ministerial Exception In Title VII Racial Discrimination Case

Posted on March 22, 2008
In Rweyemamu v. Cote, (2d Cir., March 21, 2008), the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals formally adopted the ministerial exception to claims under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, holding that the doctrine is required by the First Amendment. In the case, the Court dismissed a Title VII racial discrimination lawsuit brought by an African-American Catholic priest against his bishop and the Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut...

Guide To Pope's Upcoming U.S. Visit

Posted on March 22, 2008
In his All Things Catholic column in the National Catholic Reporter this week, John Allen has created a wide-ranging ?one ?stop shopping guide? Pope Benedict XVI?s upcoming trip to the United States. He says that during the April 15-20 visit ?we should get a synthesis of Benedict's thoughts about the world, the role of the United States as the world's ?lead society,? relations with other religions and other Christians, and the internal life of the Catholic church...

Simulcast Will Promote Church-State Separation

Posted on March 22, 2008
On March 26, the Freedom First Foundation (press release) is beaming a simulcast on church-state separation to 37 movie theaters in cities across the nation. (List of locations.) Its goal is to put church-state separation on the 2008 political agenda...

White House Announces New EEOC Nominee

Posted on March 21, 2008
The White House announced yesterday that the President will nominate Alabama attorney Constance S. Barker to serve as a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. If confirmed by the Senate, she will fill out a term that expires in 2011. The EEOC enforces laws prohibiting employment discrimination, including Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that prohibits religious discrimination in hiring, firing, and conditions of employment.

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