Religion & Law

"In God We Trust" License Plates Proposed In 4 States

Posted on February 15, 2008
Bills authorizing specialty license plates carrying the motto "In God We Trust" have advanced recently in four state legislatures. Earier this week, the Kentucky House Transportation Committee (Lexington Herald Leader), an Illinois House committee (The Southern), and an Oklahoma state Senate committee (AP) approved bills calling for the plates...

Suits Seek To Validate Pennsylvania Marriages By Clergy Without Churches

Posted on February 15, 2008
The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania announced yesterday that it has filed separate lawsuits on behalf of three couples challenging a recent ruling by a York County judge who held invalid marriages performed in Pennsylvania by clergy who do not have a regularly established church or congregation...

Canadian Sikh Argues For Religious Exemption From Cycle Helmet Law

Posted on February 15, 2008
In a Brampton, Ontario courtroom this week, Baljinder Badesha, a Sikh, contended that he should be granted a religious exemption from the province of Ontario's motorcycle helmet law. (Highway Traffic Act, Sec. 104). Badesha's religious beliefs require that he wear a turban outside his home...

Danish Police Arrest 3 For Plotting To Kill Cartoonist; Drawing Reprinted By Papers

Posted on February 14, 2008
On Tuesday, police in Denmark arrrested three people who allegedly were plotting to kill Kurt Westergaard, one of the cartoonists whose caricature of the Prophet Mohammed was published by a Danish paper in 2005, setting off world-wide reaction. (AFP)...

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Indiana Democrat May Become Second Muslim Member of Congress

Posted on February 14, 2008
In a special election on March 11, Indiana Democrat Andre Carson may become the second Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress. The AP yesterday reported that Carson is running in Indiana's 7th District to fill out the House term of his grandmother who died last December...

Canada's Human Rights Commission Investigating Catholic Magazine

Posted on February 14, 2008
According to a release by Zenit on Tuesday, the Canadian Human Rights Commission is investigating the Canadian magazine, Catholic Insight, for publishing articles seen as offensive to gays and lesbians. A complaint filed by Rob Wells, a member of the Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered Pride Center of Edmonton, accuses the magazine of promoting "extreme hatred and contempt" against homosexuals...

Rights Group Wants Saudis To Commute Death Sentence of Convicted "Witch"

Posted on February 14, 2008
Today's International Herald Tribune reports that Human Rights Watch is calling on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to stop the execution of Fawza Falih who has been convicted of witchcraft and of performing supernatrual occurrences. (HRW letter.) After the religious police arrested Faliah, she was convicted in April 2006 by a court in the town of Quraiyat on the basis of her coerced confession and statements of witnesses who said she had "bewitched" them...

IRS Launches Investigation of Pastor's Huckabee Endorsement

Posted on February 14, 2008
The Internal Revenue Service has begun an investigation of Baptist minister, Rev. Wiley Drake, to determine whether he violated tax code limitations on non-profit organizations when he used the letterhead of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park (CA) to announce his personal endorsement of Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee...

Florida Attorney General Will Create Advisory Group on Muslims

Posted on February 14, 2008
In a press release issued Tuesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations announced that Florida's attorney general, Bill McCollum, will create a Muslim community advisory group. The move follows complaints about McCollum's showing of the controversial film "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" to staff throughout the state...

Ontario Premier Urges Alternatives To Lord's Prayer At Legislative Openings

Posted on February 14, 2008
In Canada, Ontario's Premier Dalton McGuinty has proposed that the provincial legislature end the practice of opening each session withthe Lord's Prayer. Today's Petersborough Examiner reports that McGuinty wants an all-party committee to look at other alternatives that would allow prayer or meditation in other faith traditions to be used as well.

District Court Issues Wide-Ranging Prisoner RLUIPA Opinion

Posted on February 13, 2008
Last week, a federal district court in South Dakota handed down a wide-ranging decision in a prisoner RLUIPA case. (The case raised various other claims as well.) The lawsuit-- in which the Department of Justice had intervened on behalf of the plaintiff prisoner-- raised a broad range of issues, some of which had not beeen decided yet in the Eighth Circuit...

German Administrative Court Permits Surviellance of Scientology Groups to Continue

Posted on February 13, 2008
In Germany, the North Rhine-Westphalia Higher Administrative Court has upheld a lower court ruling permitting German intelligence agencies to monitor activities of two Church of Scientology organizations. The Canadian Press reported on yesterdays decision...

Court Refuses To Reconsider Decision Upholding Anti-Gay T-Shirt Ban

Posted on February 13, 2008
In a decision handed down yesterday, a California federal district court denied a motion to reconsider its earlier decision permitting a school to ban a student's T-shirt which carried anti-gay slogans. This is the latest chapter in the procedurally complex case...

Controversy Over British Mosque's Proposed Broadcast of Call To Prayer

Posted on February 13, 2008
Reuters reported yesterday that the Church of England has now been drawn into the controversy brewing in Oxford over a proposal by the Central Oxford Mosque to broadcast the call to prayer (Adhan) over loudspeakers in the mosque's minaret. City council approval is needed before any broadcast can begin...

William & Mary President Resigns After Contract Non-Renewal

Posted on February 13, 2008
Yesterday, Gene R. Nichol , President of the College of William & Mary, announced his immedate resignation after he was informed by the Rector of the Board of Visitors that his contract would not be renewed when it expires in July. In his statement, Nichol attributed the Board of Visitor's action to four controversial sets of decisions he made as president...

Colorado Marriage Amendment Challenged On Establishment Clause Grounds

Posted on February 13, 2008
Suit has been filed in a Colorado state court challenging the provision in Colorado's state contitution defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman. Yesterday's Daily Camera reports that Kate Burns and Sheila Schroeder filed suit on Monday...

Custody Cases Increasingly Involve Religious Issues

Posted on February 13, 2008
Today's New York Times reports on the increasing number of custody cases in which religion has become an issue. Judges are reluctant to base decisions on parents' religious preferences. Many states are trying mediation as a way of resolving custody disputes...

4th Circuit Finds Employer Adequately Accommodated Religious Observances

Posted on February 13, 2008
In Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Firestone Fibers & Textiles Co., (4th Cir., Feb. 11, 2008), the U.S. 4th Circuit court of Appeals, this week held that Title VII of the 1964 civil Rights Act only requires reasonable accommodation of an employee's religious practices, and not total elimination of the conflict between the religious practice and the work requirement...

Archbishop of Canterbury Explains His Views On Sharia and British Law

Posted on February 12, 2008
After British Prime Minister Gordon Brown asked Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to clarify a lecture he gave last week about the relation of Islamic law to British civil law, Williams attempted to explain his remarks in a speech (full text) to the General Synod of the Church of England...

Today Is Darwin Day

Posted on February 12, 2008
Today-- Charles Darwin's 199th birthday-- is "Darwin Day," sponsored by the Institute for Humanist Studies. In a press release, IHS says that the day promotes understanding of evolution and the scientific method. Massimo Pigliucci, professor of evolutionary biology at the State University of New York-Stony Brook, uses Darwin Day to teach about science "so people aren't just hearing about science from their local preacher...

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait Look To Restrict Valentine's Day Celebrations

Posted on February 12, 2008
Saudi Arabia's religious police often clamp down before Valentine's Day-- seeing it as a day that encourages men and women to have relationships outside of wedlock. This year, according to Reuters, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has ordered Riyadh florists and gift shop owners to remove red roses and any other items colored scarlet...

New Website Suggests Jesus For 2008 White House Bid

Posted on February 12, 2008
In the latest intrusion of religion into the 2008 presidential contest, former newspaper reporter Stephen Heffner has created the web site "Jesus in 2008". As reported in Sunday's District Chronicles, visitors to the site may register as delegates. This entitles them to suggest practical Platform planks that Jesus might favor today, as well as to suggest appropriate vice presidential nominees to run on the ticket with Jesus.

Putin's Role In Reviving Orthodox Church Is Examined

Posted on February 12, 2008
Today's Moscow Times carries a long article on Russian President Vladimir Putin's role in the revival of the Russian Orthodox Church. The article is part of a series on Putin's legacy as his presidential term draws to a close. Here is an excerpt:Under Putin, government officials have become more pious --at least outwardly --and have deepened their contacts with the church hierarchy, according to both supporters and critics of the church...

Damages, Staff Training, Imposed in Church in England Discrimination Case

Posted on February 12, 2008
In Britain last July, an Employment Tribunal in Cardiff found the Bishop of Hereford violated Britain's Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations when he blocked the appointment of John Reaney as a Church youth official. (See prior posting...

Florida Board Will Vote On Requirement To Teach Evolution

Posted on February 11, 2008
Today's Orlando Sentinel reports that Florida's State Board of Education will vote on new science standards on Feb. 19. For the first time, they will explicitly require the teaching of evolution in Florida's public schools. This is part of a broader reform to improve the deficient science curriculum in the state's schools...

President Speaks At National Prayer Breakfast

Posted on February 11, 2008
Last Thursday, President Bush attended the 56th annual National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton Hotel. In his remarks (full text) he said:Every President since Dwight Eisenhower has attended the National Prayer Breakfast -- and I am really proud to carry on that tradition...

Pope Strains Interfaith Relations In Revised Tridentine Rite Prayer For Jews

Posted on February 11, 2008
Increasingly good Catholic-Jewish relations were strained a bit last week as the Vatican released a reformulated version of a Good Friday prayer for the conversion of Jews for the 1962 Roman Missal (the Tridentine rite). The Roman Missal-- a Latin version of the Mass-- is used only by a small number of Catholics world-wide...

Recent Articles and Books of Interest

Posted on February 11, 2008
From SSRN:Benjamin L. Berger, Moral Judgment, Criminal Law and the Constitutional Protection of Religion, (Supreme Court Law Review, Vol. 41, No. 2, 2008).Ira C. Lupu & Robert W. Tuttle, The Cross at College: Accommodation and Acknowledgment of Religion at Public Universities , (William & Mary Bill of Rights, Vol...

Rep. Tom Lantos, Human Rights Advocate, Dies

Posted on February 11, 2008
California Rep. Tom Lantos, a strong human rights proponent and the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to Congress, died today at the age of 80 after a brief struggle with esophageal cancer. The Washington Post profiles his 14 terms in the House of Representatives...

In Lithuania, Pre-Lent Carnival Has Anti-Jewish Overtones

Posted on February 10, 2008
Last week, the Forward reported on pre-Lenten "Carnival" in Vilnius, Lithuania. Known as "Uzgavenes" in Lithuanian, participants in the annual festivities masquarade "eiti zydukais", i.e. they "go as Jews". This often means masks with grotesque features, beards and visible ear locks, accompanied by stereotypical peddling and speech patterns...

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