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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

Proposed Iran Penal Law Mandates Death For Apostasy

Posted on February 05, 2008
The Institute on Religion & Public Policy reported yesterday on the draft Islamic penal code that is being considered by Iran's Parliament (Majlis). Among its provisions is one that mandates the death penalty for anyone who converts from Islam to another religion...

California Episcopal Diocese Sues Breakaway Church

Posted on February 05, 2008
Yesterday the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California filed suit against the breakaway St. John's Anglican Church in Sonoma County (CA) Superior Court seeking a declaration that the building and property of the congregation are held in trust for the Diocese and that purported amendments to the corporate articles and bylaws of St...

University of Wisconsin Catholic Group Can Try Again For Funding

Posted on February 05, 2008
Even though a federal district court last month rejected a complaint by the Roman Catholic Foundation at the University of Wisconsin Madison protesting its denial of student activity fee funding for 2008-10, the school's Student Judiciary has now ruled that a new presentation can be made by the group...

Court Upholds Pastor's Firing Over Challenge To Procedures

Posted on February 05, 2008
The decision in Doles v. Rodgers, 2007 Va. Cir. LEXIS 210 (Portsmouth VA Cir. Ct, May 3, 2007), while handed down some months ago, has just become available through LEXIS. The decision rejected a challenge to a meeting of the congregation of New First Baptist Church in Taylorsville, Virginia...

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Military Court Upholds Conviction of Muslim Soldier For Iraq Refusal

Posted on February 04, 2008
In United States v. Webster, (Army Ct. Cr. App., Jan. 30, 2008), the Army Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the court martial conviction and eleven-month sentence of an Army sergeant who refused to deploy to Iraq. Abdullah Webster, a convert to Islam, claimed that his understanding of Muslim teachings prelcuded him from killing a fellow-Muslim in the circumstances presented by the war...

President's New Limits On Earmarks May Affect Religious Groups

Posted on February 04, 2008
Last week, President Bush signed an Executive Order titled Protecting American Taxpayers From Government Spending on Wasteful Earmarks (full text). It provides that future earmaks contained in committee reports, and not in statutory language, will be ignored unless the federal agency involved decides under merit-based standards that the earmarked project is the best expenditure of taxpayer dollars...

Presidential Hopefuls Reach Out to Latino Evangelicals

Posted on February 04, 2008
Yesterday's Kansas City Star reports on the outreach by Presidential candidates-- both Republican and Democratic-- to Latino evangelicals. Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, is described as "the go-to pastor" for candidates seeking their votes...

Recent Law Review Articles of Interest

Posted on February 04, 2008
From SSRN:Tarum Jain, General Principles of Intestate Succession Under Hindu Law, (2008). Timothy Sandefur, Reason and Common Ground: A Response to the Creationists' "Neutrality" Argument, (Chapman Law Review, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2008). Dr. Dipa Dube, Some Reflections on Interplay of Law and Morality in Contemporary India, (January 29, 2008)...

NH Federal Court Holds Prison Anti-Violence Program Is Secular

Posted on February 03, 2008
In Bader v. Wren, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6952 (D NH, Jan. 30, 2008), a New Hampshire federal magistrate judge rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to the "Alternatives to Violence Program" offered to inmates at the New Hampshire State Prison. He concluded that the program is not religious, even though it is rooted in Quaker philosophy...

Malaysian and South African Muslims Warned Not to Use Botox

Posted on February 03, 2008
In both Malaysia and South Africa, influential Muslim legal bodies have banned the use of botox for cosmetic purposes. They have ruled it can be used only in emergency situations or situations of great necessity. In Malaysia, according to a report today by Religious Intelligence, the ban was issued by the National Fatwa Council, made up of Islamic scholars chosen by Malaysia's Sultans, the constitutional monarchs of nine Malay states...

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

Posted on February 03, 2008
In Rainer v. Calderon, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5591 (ED CA, Jan. 25, 2008), a California federal magistrate judge recommended dismissal of an inmate's claim that "he was denied services to study and follow the life of his Prophet (Muhammad)?" The court said plaintiff failed to link the alleged denial to the conduct of any of the named defendants...

SMU Siting of Bush Institute Sparks United Methodist Church Procedural Wrangle

Posted on February 02, 2008
After George W. Bush leaves office next January, his Presidential Library will be built on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Now, according to a Friday report from Ekklesia, the George W. Bush Foundation would also like to build a partisan institute devoted to "promoting the views of George W...

Romney's Attendance At Mormon Leader's Funeral Analyzed

Posted on February 02, 2008
Today, funeral services were held in Utah for Mormon Church President Gordon B. Hinckley. The AP carries an interesting political analysis of Mitt Romney's attendance at the funeral:The death of Mormon church President Gordon B. Hinckley renews attention on Mitt Romney's little-known religion ? yet rather than being reluctant to discuss it, he's making a public embrace that shows some shifting political attitudes...

India Arrests Two Sikh Separatist Leaders

Posted on February 02, 2008
The blog Unique Pakistan reports on the arrest in India earlier this month of two Sikh separatist leaders, Sardar Kanwarpal Singh Dhami and Dr. Jagjit Singh Chohan. In 1987, Khalistan (an area comprising pre-1966 Punjab) declared its independence from India in a so-far unsuccessful attempt to become an independent Sikh homeland...

Russian Authorities Ban Moderate Islamic Text As Extremist

Posted on February 01, 2008
Forum 18 reports today that Russian authorities have banned as "extremist" a moderate Islamic theological text that gives Koran-based advice on family and social relationships. Russia's 2002 Extremism Law prohibits mass distribution, or preparation or storage with the aim of mass distribution, of books found to be extremist...

British Lawsuit Claims Definition of Who Is A Jew Amounts To Racial Discrimination

Posted on February 01, 2008
A lawsuit has been filed against Britain's largest government-funded Jewish school challenging its admission standards as violating prohibitions against racial discrimination. Today's Jewish Chronicle reports that the action brought in the High Court challenges the policy of JFS to give preference only to Jewish students who are recongized as such under Orthodox Jewish law...

1st Circuit Rejects Parents' Objections To Books Depicting Gay Couples

Posted on February 01, 2008
In Parker v. Hurley, (1st Cir., Jan. 31, 2008), the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a claim by two sets of parents that their free exercise and parental privacy-due process rights were violated when they were not given an opportunity to exempt their elementary school children from exposure to books that offended their religious beliefs...

Large Church Super Bowl Parties Violate Copyright Law

Posted on February 01, 2008
Again this year, the NFL is objecting to large churches hosting Super Bowl Parties this Sunday if the game is screened on a TV screen larger than 55 inches. According to World Net Daily and the Christian Post, the copyright law (17 USC 110(5)(A)) grants only limited exceptions for the showing of copyrighted broadcasts, such as the Super Bowl...

School District Sued For Refusing Student Group's Announcement of Prayer Meeting

Posted on February 01, 2008
Alliance Defense Fund announced yesterday the filing earlier this week of a lawsuit against the Deer Valley (AZ) Unified School District. The suit, brought on behalf of a high school student challenges the refusal by officials of Mountain Ridge High School to accept written and video annoucements by a student group, Common Cause, of one of its upcoming activities...

British Groups Challenge Mention of "God" In Scout Oath

Posted on February 01, 2008
In Britain, according to a report in today's London Telegraph, the National Secular Society and the British Humanist Association have filed a complaint with Britain's Equality and Human Rights Commission over the oath that the Boy Scouts require of all members...

Penn State Settles Suit: Will Permit Biblical Reference On Alumni Brick

Posted on February 01, 2008
The Alliance Defense Fund announced yesterday that it had reached a settlement in a lawsuit it had filed against Penn State University challenging its refusal to place a Biblical reference on personalized brick purchased by an alumnus. Last year, to raise funds the University offered alumni bricks and stone pavers that would be placed on the university?s new Alumni Walk...

New York Court Finds Synagogue With Clergy Residence Is Tax Exempt

Posted on February 01, 2008
In Sephardic Congregation of South Monsey v. Town of Ramapo, (NY App. Div., Jan. 29, 2008), a New York appellate court held that a building housing both a synagogue and a rabbi's residence qualifies for a full property tax exemption. The 3-story building is in Monsey, NY...

White House Marks 7th Anniversary of Faith-Based Initiative

Posted on January 31, 2008
Yesterday President George W. Bush marked the seventh anniversary of the Faith-Based and Community Initiative by visiting an orgaization in Baltimore (MD) sponsored by the Episcopal Church. The Jericho Project helps released non-violent prisoners-- many fighting alcohol abuse-- to develop skills that permit them to find jobs and successfully re-enter society...

California College Trustee Attack Islam In Her Opposition To Course Proposal

Posted on January 31, 2008
A trustee of California's College of the Siskiyous has created a furor by a statement she made at a January 15 Board meeting expressing her opposition to a proposed new course in Beginning Arabic and the History of the Middle East. Yesterday's Mt. Shasta News, reports that Dorris Wood, a trustee of the public community college, said in a prepared statement: "We know all we need to know about Arabs and Islam...

Massachusetts Church Seeks Tax Funds for Roof Repairs

Posted on January 31, 2008
The Northampton, Massachusetts, First Churches has received support from the town's Historical Commission in its bid to obtain $250,000 from the Community Preservation Committee toward roof and ceiling repairs. The Community Preservation Committee distributes funds collected under a local real estate tax surcharge and matching state monies...

Turkey's Headscarf Proposal Faces Fierce Opposition

Posted on January 31, 2008
As previously reported, the major political parties in Turkey are taking steps to reverse the country's traditional ban on university women wearing the Muslim headscarf. Today's Toronto Globe and Mail carries an article on the passionate opposition to the proposal among secularists and the military:[T]he head scarf has become an issue that is threatening to split Turkey in two...

Connecticut Supreme Court Rejects Buddhist Temple's RLUIPA Appeal

Posted on January 31, 2008
Yesterday, the Connecticut Supreme Court in Cambodian Buddhist Society of Connecticut, Inc. v. Planning and Zoning Commission of the Town of Newtown, (CT Sup. Ct., official release date Feb. 12, 2008), upheld the denial of a building permit to a Buddhist Temple...

Brooklyn Anglican Church Settles Lawsuit; Keeps Building For Below-Market Price

Posted on January 31, 2008
Virtue Online reported yesterday that St. Joseph's Anglican Church (formerly Trinity Church of East New York) has settled the lawsuit brought against it by the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island. St. Joseph's broke away from the Diocese in 1977, and is now affiliated with the Anglican Church in America...

First Lady Marks Catholic Schools Week

Posted on January 31, 2008
The First Lady, Laura Bush, spoke yesterday at Washington, DC's Holy Redeemer Catholic School to mark Catholic Schools Week. She used the occassion (full text of remarks) to praise Washington, DC's Opportunity Scholarship program and to focus attention on President Bush's State of the Union speech that called for a Pell Grants for Kids Program and a White House Summit on Inner-City Children and Faith-Based Schools...

Tennessee Supreme Court Will Hear Case of Cult Leader Charged With Child Neglect

Posted on January 30, 2008
According to today's Knoxville News, the Tennessee Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal in the criminal case of State v. Sherman, (TN Ct. Crim. App., July 12, 2007). At issue is whether a religious cult leader can be convicted of child neglect for the death of a teenage girl after the girl's mother followed the advice of leader, Ariel Ben Sherman, to rely on spiritual treatment for the girl's cancer...

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