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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

Israeli Civil Court Refers Case To Religious Sanhedrin Court

Posted on March 17, 2008
In Israel, a civil court-- the Netanya?s Magistrates Court -- has recognized the authority of the religious Sanhedrin Court for Matters of People and State-- an attempted reincarnation of a court from ancient Israel. (See prior posting.) Arutz Sheva reported on Sunday on the case of Tzviya Sariel who was arrested last December for allegedly pushing an Arab who entered her town to pick olives...

8th Circuit Hears Oral Arguments In School Busing Case

Posted on March 16, 2008
On Friday, the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in Pucket v. Hot Springs School District. In the case, a South Dakota federal district court rejected a claim by students attending Bethesda Lutheran School and their parents that the state's temporary termination of busing of students to the parochial school violated their free exercise, speech and equal protection rights and violated the establishment clause...

Scientology Denied Restraining Order Against Anonymous Protesters

Posted on March 16, 2008
A Clearwater, Florida state trial court on Thursday denied a request by the Church of Scientology for a restraining order against threatened demonstrations by a group of protesters known only as "Anonymous". The St. Petersburg Times reported that Scientology churches around the world have received numerous harassing phone calls, obscene e-mails, bomb threats and death threats...

Craiglist Not Publisher of Discriminatory Classifieds On Its Website

Posted on March 16, 2008
In Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc. v. Craiglist, Inc., (7th Cir. March 14, 2008), the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of appeals held that the online classified ad service, Craiglist, is not responsible under federal housing discrimination laws for discriminatory language in ads posted by third parties...

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Article Suggests Path For Modern Revival of Shariah

Posted on March 16, 2008
In today's New York Times Magazine, Harvard Law Professor Noah Feldman writes on the revived interest in Shariah in the Muslim world. He suggests developments that could lead to revival of Shariah as "a path to just and legitimate government in much of the Muslim world...

Christian Home School Basketball Tournament Fields Serious Teams

Posted on March 16, 2008
Today's New York Times carries a front-page story on the National Christian Homeschool Basketball Championships just held in Oklahoma City. While some 2 million children are home schooled, only 18 states have laws permitting them to participate on public school athletic teams...

Spain's Muslims Face Hurdles In Acquiring Land For Mosques

Posted on March 16, 2008
Muslims in Spain face a shortage of mosques, finding themselves instead praying in apartments, warehouses and garages. Today's New York Times says that while this situation is due in part to lack of resources in the rapidly growing immigrant Muslim community, it is also because several local governments have blocked Muslims from acquiring land on which to build worship sites...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on March 16, 2008
In Alvarez v. Hill, (9th Cir., March 13, 2008), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court's grant of summary judgment to prison officials in a pro se religious freedom case brought by a Native American prisoner. The court rejected appellants' contention that RLUIPA had to be specifically cited in order to bring a RLUIPA complaint, particularly in view of the lenience traditionally granted to pro se pleadings...

Town Trustee's Suit Over Pledge Refusal Recall Is Dismissed

Posted on March 15, 2008
In Habecker v. Town of Estes Park, Colorado, (10th Cir., March 14, 2008), the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court's dismissal on justiciability grounds of a lawsuit brought by a former Trustee of the Town of Estes Park. (See prior posting...

State Department Releases Report On Global Anti-Semitism

Posted on March 14, 2008
Yesterday, the U.S. State Department's Office of the Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism provided Congress with a report titled Contemporary Global Anti-Semitism. It is a follow-up to a similar report issued three years ago. As described by the State Department's release:This report ...

Columnist Says Islam Is Central In Minnesota Charter School

Posted on March 14, 2008
Columnist Katherine Kersten in last Sunday's Minneapolis Star Tribune discusses a cultural identity publicly-funded charter school operating in Minnesota's Twin Cities area. The Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) enrolls around 300 children in grades K-8...

School Sued Over Denial of Space For Students To Meet To Pray and Talk

Posted on March 14, 2008
On Wednesday, the Alliance Defense Fund announced that it has filed suit in federal district court against the East Valley School District in Washington state on behalf of a Christian high school student. The student was refused permission to meet in an unoccupied room at East Valley High School during the lunch hour with a handful of other students to fast, pray and discuss various matters from a religious perspective...

Map Discloses State Free Exercise Tests

Posted on March 14, 2008
Prof. Eugene Volokh has posted on his website his religious accommodation regime map of the United States (from the upcoming new edition of The First Amendment: Law, Cases, Problems, and Policy Arguments ). The useful map focuses on whether each state's law requires strict scrutiny of alleged free exercise infringements...

Violent Demonstrations By Tibetan Monks Seek More Religious Freedom

Posted on March 14, 2008
The London Times reports today on serious violence in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa as monks seeking greater religious freedom attempted to stage a demonstration. Police tried to keep the monks from the ancient Ramoche monastery from entering the streets...

German Schools Will Offer Course In Islam As Alternative

Posted on March 14, 2008
In German schools, students are required to take classes in religion. Currently they have a choice of courses in Roman Catholicism, Protestantism or Judaism, and in many schools an alternative course in ethics. According to yesterday's International Herald Tribune, Interior Minister Wolfgang Sch�uble has decided that schools should also offer a course in Islam as an alternative...

Wisconsin's Governor Signs Bill On Aid To Sexual Assault Victims

Posted on March 14, 2008
Wisconsin's Governor Jim Doyle yesterday signed AB 377 that requires all hospitals to provide emergency contraception to any victim of sexual assault who requests it. Madison's Capital Times reports however that Pro-Life Wisconsin says the new law is unconstitutional, arguing that it violates the "right of conscience" clause of Wisconsin's Constitution and the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment...

European Court Finds Greece Violated Religious Rights of Bar Applicant

Posted on March 13, 2008
Spero News today reports on a freedom of religion decision handed down last month by the European Court of Human Rights-- Alexandridis v. Greece (application number 19516/2006, ECHR, Feb. 21, 2008). The full text is available in French [word doc]. The Court held that Greece violated Art...

Bangladesh Backs Off Equal Property Rigths For Women After Clerics Protest

Posted on March 13, 2008
In Bangladesh last week, the interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed announced a National Women Development Policy that included enactment of laws entitling women to equal property rights. (BBC). The proposal would have eliminated the disparity that now exists under which a daughter inherits only half as much as her brother...

Israel's Supreme Court Finds Kibbutz Exception To Sabbath Closing Law

Posted on March 13, 2008
A three-judge panel of Israel's Supreme Court earlier this month overruled the decision of a regional Labor Court and held that the Hours of Work and Rest Law does not apply to stores owned by a kibbutz and operated by kibbutz members. March 7 Haaretz reported that the decision permits kibbutz businesses to remain open on Saturdays.

Suit Claims NY State Kosher Inspectors Are Exceeding Their Authority

Posted on March 13, 2008
Yesterday's New York Jewish Week reports that a lawsuit has been filed in federal district court in New York by three kosher butchers who are seeking to require state inspectors to comply with a 2005 law that changed the way in which the state attempts to make sure that consumers are not misled when purchasing kosher meat...

Second Muslim Elected To Congress

Posted on March 13, 2008
In Indiana on Tuesday, voters elected Andre Carson to Congress, making him the second Muslim ever to serve. Carson won a special election to fill out the House term of his grandmother. AP yesterday reported that Carson, a Democrat, had received 54% of the vote...

Senate Committee Seeks Information Again From Prosperity Gospel Ministries

Posted on March 13, 2008
In developments being closely followed by Melissa Rogers blog, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, joined by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, has written four major prosperity gospel ministries for a second time seeking information about their financial affairs...

California Home School Decision Provokes Strong Reaction

Posted on March 13, 2008
Last month's decision by a California appellate court that parents have no constitutional right to home school their children is drawing increasing protest around the state. (See prior posting.) On Monday, Yahoo News reported that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will seek legislative changes if the decision is not reversed...

Court Ordered Church Election Dismisses Pastor

Posted on March 13, 2008
In Beaumont, Texas last Friday, a federal district judge announced the results of a court-ordered church election. Yesterday's Beaumont Enterprise reports on the case that began last year when members of the Sunlight Missionary Baptist Church delivered a letter of dismissal to their pastor, Curtis Jean Johnson...

State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Released

Posted on March 12, 2008
Yesterday the U.S. State Department released the Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2007. The report broadly surveys the human rights situation separately for each county in the world, including each country's respect for freedom of religion...

Univeristy Secular Society Revises Constitution In Hopes of Student Funding

Posted on March 12, 2008
The University of South Dakota's Student Government Association's Fiscal Guidelines exclude organizations "affiliated with or dedicated to a particular religion or religious point of view" from eligibility for funding from student activity fees. Volante Online today reports that, applying this provision, the University's Student Senate rejected general funding for the Student Secular Association-- though it can still request funds for speakers...

Township Officials Sued For Raiding Church and Threatening Prosecution of Rock Band

Posted on March 12, 2008
On Monday, the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) filed a federal lawsuit against the Waterford (Michigan) Township supervisor, prosecutor and two Waterford police officials. The suit charges that defendants infringed the freedom of speech, association and free exercise of religion of Faith Baptist Church and of a Christian rock band playing there...

Texas Education Commissioner Seeks AG's Opinion On Bible Courses

Posted on March 12, 2008
Yesterday's El Paso (TX) Times reports that Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott has asked the state's attorney general for an interpretation of a new law that provides for elective high school courses on the Bible's impact on history and literature...

Glendon Says Pope Is Intrigued With US Church-State Arrangements

Posted on March 12, 2008
Time Magazine yesterday reported on its interview with former Harvard Law Professor Mary Ann Glendon, the new U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. Her immediate concern is coordinating the Pope's itinerary for his visit to the U.S. that begins April 15. Glendon said the Pope is "intrigued" by the way church-state issues are handled in the United States.

Suit Against Teacher For Anti-Christian Remarks Survives Motion To Dismiss

Posted on March 12, 2008
Yesterday's Orange County Register reports that a California federal court judge has refused to dismiss a suit against a Mission Viejo high school history teacher who allegedly made in-class remarks hostile toward religion and toward traditional Christian views on sexuality...

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