8th Circuit Upholds Religious Discrimination In Employment Verdict

Yesterday, the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the award of nominal damages ($1) and of attorneys fees and costs to Doyle Ollis, Jr., a member of the Assemblies of God Church, who sued his employer, HearthStone Homes, Inc. for religious discrimination and retaliation. In Ollis v. HearthStone Homes, Inc., (8th Cir., July 27, 2007), the court found that there was sufficient evidence for the jury to find that the company’s firing of Ollis for asking a co-employee inappropriate sexual questions was pretextual, and that the real reason for his firing was religious discrimination.

HearthStone's owner, John Smith, believed in "Mind Body Energy". The court found that "HearthStone used Mind Body Energy (MBE) sessions to 'cleanse [the] negative energy' from its employees in order to enhance their work performance. [It] … paid for its employees to attend an MBE course in California which required participants to read The Tibetan Book of Life, discussing Buddhist and Hindu teachings." Smith also used a technique called "muscle testing" when questioning employees or making business decisions. These were inconsistent with Ollis' religious beliefs.

The court's description of both Smith’s business practices and Ollis’ interaction with a female employee – who was later herself discharged for “doing cart-wheels naked on a golf course”-- suggest that the entire atmosphere of this Nebraska home sales company was somewhat unconventional. [Thanks to Alliance Alert for the lead.]

Baptist Joint Committee Moving Toward New Offices On Capitol Hill

The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty—a group that strongly promotes separation of church and state a a way to preserve religious freedom—has passed the half-way mark in its $5 million capital campaign to acquire and renovate a building on Capitol Hill that will become the organization's offices. The Associated Baptist Press reported that a $500,000 challenge grant from the family of the late John Baugh (founder of the Sysco Corporation), as well as an anonymous $200,000 gift, were keys in its success so far.

San Diego Elementary School Changes Accommodations for Muslim Students

According to yesterday's San Diego Union-Tribune, a California elementary school has backed off to some extent from accommodations it had made for a group of 100 Somali Muslim students who had enrolled last year after their charter school closed. San Diego's Carver Elementary School created single-gender classes and gave students a daily 15-minute break for voluntary prayers. (See prior posting.) News of the accommodations, however, generated national, and even international, controversy. (See Wall of Separation blog.) For this fall, the school has eliminated its single-gender classes (even though they are permissible under federal law) and has reconfigured its lunch periods so that the regular lunch period for older students will fall at the time of required Muslim prayers. That way, older students—the ones required under Muslim law to pray regularly—can use their regular lunch period for prayer, as can students of any other religion as well.

Defense Fund Created To Cover Outlays In Defense of Courthouse Jesus Picture

Thursday’s New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that in Slidell, Louisiana, a local pastor has already raised $10,000 in a legal defense fund to help the Slidell City Court fight a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of its displaying a picture of Jesus in the courtroom lobby. The ACLU is challenging the picture—an Eastern Orthodox religious icon. Alliance Defense Fund is representing the Slidell City Court free of charge, but funds are needed to cover any award of attorneys’ fees to the ACLU in case the plaintiff wins the lawsuit. (See prior related posting.) [Thanks to Alliance Alert for the lead.]

Moldovan Parliament Amends Religion Law To Get President's Approval

Responding to objections raised by Moldova's President Vladimir Voronin when he refused to sign a new law on religious faiths passed by Parliament in May, Moldova’s Parliament has enacted amendments to the Religion Law. The new version of the law provides: "the state recognizes special significance and primary role of the Orthodox Christian religion and the Orthodox Church in life, history and culture of the people of Moldova." Reporting on the amendments, Interfax yesterday said that they also are designed to restrict "sectarian cults". (See prior related postings 1, 2.)

Charges Against Gideons Dismisssed By Florida Court

World Net Daily reports today that in Key Largo, Florida, a judge has dismissed charges brought against two members of Gideons International who were handing out Bibles last January on a sidewalk near a Key Largo school. (See prior posting.) After having initial trespass charges dismissed, the two were re-charged under a statute that prohibits being within 500 feet of school property during school hours without having legitimate business or other authorization. Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman, who was defending the Gideons said that the statute, read literally, would have covered people merely driving by the school. If those people are exempt and the Gideons are not, then the statute creates a content-based restriction on speech, he argued.

Pharmacists' Suit Challenges Washington State's Mandate To Fill "Plan B" Orders

In Washington state on Wednesday, two pharmacists and the owner of a supermarket that contains a pharmacy, sued to challenge the state's new rule that requires pharmacies to fill orders for emergency contraceptives. (See prior posting.) The so-called Plan B morning-after pill is now available over-the-counter to adults. Individual pharmacists with religious or moral objections can refuse to supply a customer with the contraceptives only if they can find a co-worker at the same pharmacy to fill the order. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Seattle claims that the new rules violate pharmacists' constitutional rights by requiring them to choose between "their livelihoods and their deeply held religious and moral beliefs." The Associated Press reports on the case. [Thanks to Melissa Rogers for the lead.]

UPDATE: Here is a copy of the complaint and the motion for a preliminary injunction. The case is Storman's v. Selecky. More on the case is at Constitutionally Correct and in this release from the Alliance Defense Fund which is representing the plaintiffs.

Florida School Board Again Debates Hebrew Charter School

Today's Florida Jewish News carries a long account of a Broward County School Board meeting held last Tuesday to deal with two changes in plans for the Ben Gamla school, a Charter School that will teach Hebrew. The controversial school has already been approved by the Board, despite concerns about church-state issues. (See prior posting.) Tuesday's meeting approved a change in the Hebrew curriculum that will be taught. The school agreed to switch to one that had already been approved for Hebrew language courses in public schools, in order to alleviate concerns that its Hebrew course would have too much religious content in it. The Board also approved a change in location of the school-- out of a synagogue and into a larger building because of the high demand for enrollment in the fall. (Official report, Item I-13).

Responding to church-state concerns, Susan Onori, Broward County coordinator for charter schools, said that a monitoring team would check to make sure that the school did not teach the Jewish religion as part of its Hebrew language, history, and culture offerings. Among those expressing concern about the new school were Eric Stillman, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Broward County, whose Community Relations Committee strongly supports church-state separation. Also raising issues were representatives of two existing Jewish day school, whose enrollments will presumably be threatened by the tuition-free charter school. One of them argued that it is impossible to teach Hebrew and Jewish culture without teaching religion. Supporting the charter school were representatives of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty

Congress Members Want HHS Investigation of Bias Against Chaplains

Today's Washington Post reports that 14 members of Congress have written Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt urging him to have HHS's Inspector General investigate claims by HHS chaplains of anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish bias. The charges come from chaplains in the spiritual ministry department of NIH's clinical center in Bethesda, Maryland. HHS is already conducting an investigation through a panel of outside experts, but the House of Representative members want assurances that NIH will investigate Rev. O. Ray Fitzgerald, former head of the spiritual ministry department who was demoted after the EEOC upheld a claim of anti-Catholic bias filed against him. (See prior posting.) Rep. Steven R. Rothman (R-N.J.), has placed language in the Department of Labor-HHS appropriations bill authorizing an investigation by HHS's inspector general.

Massachusetts Judge Upholds Synagogue Board Election

Last week, a Suffolk (MA) Superior Court judge decided a challenge to the election of board members and officers of Temple B'nai Moshe in Brighton, Massachusetts. Irwin Frankel, the Temple's president before the election, (along with another former board member) claimed that the April 29 synagogue election was invalid. However the court rejected his challenge to the propriety of the notice of the meeting that was given. Underlying the lawsuit was an attempt by a group of Orthodox Jews, supported by Frankel, to take control of the Temple that is currently affiliated with the Conservative movement. Frankel had not held a board election during his 7-year tenure as president. Yesterday's Jewish Advocate reports that Temple members, who finally forced an election to be held, saw the challenge to the election as an attempted "hostile takeover" of the synagogue by an Orthodox group who had been permitted to hold their separate services in the Temple's chapel. That group, Beis Binah, has now been asked to vacate the premises as the Temple looks forward to remaining a Conservative synagogue.

Romney Contemplates Speech On His Religious Faith

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told the Associated Press on Thursday that enough questions have been raised about his Mormon religious faith that he will probably deliver a major speech in which he will focus on the role that his faith plays. In 1960, then-presidential candidate John F. Kennedy made a similar speech as the first major Catholic candidate for president. Romney especially faces questions from evangelical Protestants whose votes he is seeking in the Republican primaries.

French Shut Down Islamic Summer Camp

In France, police authorities have shut down an Islamic summer camp that was accused of subjecting children to a grueling routine of religious observance. The camp, which was organized by the Turkish-Islam Culture Center in the city of Nancy, failed to obtain required approval from the French Sports Directorate to operate. Yesterday's Turkish Daily News said that the the 96 children at the camp were subjected to excessively rigorous discipline, such as being required to wake up at night to pray. The camp lacked other educational or leisure activities for the children.

ACLU and ADF In Unusual Agreement Before 6th Circuit In Diversity Training Case

Oral arguments were held yesterday before the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Morrison v. Board of Education of Boyd County. (ADF Fact Sheet). Initially the ACLU sued Ashland, Kentucky's Boyd High School to vindicate the right of students to form a gay-straight alliance club at the school. As explained in a 2005 ACLU release, the case was settled under an agreement that required the school to treat all student clubs equally and which also required the school to conduct anti-harassment training for all students and staff. Subsequently the Alliance Defense Fund sued the school, claiming that the anti-harassment training violated the rights of students opposed on religious grounds to homosexual conduct. However, in February 2006, a Kentucky federal district court upheld the school's policies. (See prior posting.)

The ACLU intervened in the ADF's lawsuit. In its brief to the 6th Circuit on appeal, the ACLU explained its position as follows: "Intervenors joined this litigation to ensure that the Board complied with its obligations under the Consent Decree by, among other things, conducting mandatory anti-harassment trainings. After careful review of the Board’s 2004-2005 anti-harassment policies, however, Intervenors came to agree with Plaintiffs that the policies were broader than the Constitution permits. Accordingly, Intervenors both joined the Board in moving for summary judgment with respect to the claims seeking a constitutional right to opt out of the anti-harassment trainings, and joined Plaintiffs in moving for summary judgment with respect to the claims involving the anti-harassment policies."

After yesterday's oral arguments, ACLU attorney Sharon McGowan said: "We've always believed that it’s entirely possible for schools to enact policies that keep gay and lesbian students safe while still respecting the First Amendment rights of students who hold anti-gay beliefs." (ACLU Release). Links to all the legal documents in the case are available online.

School Board Now Charges Rent To Scouts After Church Wanted Equal Treatment

A report in today's Elgin (IL) Daily Herald illustrates that there is more than one way for school officials to respond to charges by religious groups that they are being treated unequally. After Larkin High School officials refused to recognize a student-led group, the Cross Roads Church for Teens, as a noncurricular student organization, the Alliance Defense Fund complained. The school quickly agreed to include the group in the year book and the homecoming parade. But then another church group-- an adult group called Crossroads-- complained that outside groups like the Scouts were given rent-free use of the schools, while churches were not. In response, instead of giving church groups more access, Elgin Area School District U-46 decided to reclassify the Scouts as a nonprofit community group. This means that now scout groups will be required to pay rent to use school facilities, instead of using them free of charge as in the past.

5th Circuit, En Banc, Finds No Standing In School Board Prayer Case

By a vote of 8-7, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday, sitting en banc, held that plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge Tangipahoa Parish School Board's practice of opening its meetings with a prayer. In Doe v. Tangipahoa Parish School Board, (5th Cir., July 25, 2007), the majority, in an opinion by Chief Judge Edith Jones, said that there was no evidence in the record that plaintiffs ever attended a school board meeting where a prayer like those challenged was recited.

In a "special concurrence", Judge Moss was unusually critical of the Supreme Court. He wrote:

The Supreme Court cannot continue to speak out of both sides of its mouth if it intends to provide real guidance to federal courts.... [I]t cannot continue to hold expressly that the injury in fact requirement is no different for Establishment Clause cases, while it implicitly assumes standing in cases where the alleged injury, in a non-Establishment Clause case, would not get the plaintiff into the courthouse. This double standard must be corrected because ... it opens the courts' doors to a group of plaintiffs who have no complaint other than they dislike any government reference to God.

Dissenters, in two separate opinions, argued that the trial court's pre-trial order makes clear that plaintiffs' attendance at board meetings was not a contested issue and that defendants impliedly admitted those facts. 2theadvocate reports on the decision. The splintered 3-judge panel decision in the case was discussed in a previous posting. [Thanks to Alliance Alert for the lead.]

Malaysia's High Court Limits Sharia Court Jurisdiction; Urges Legislative Help

Reuters today reports that Malaysia's Federal Court has ruled that Sharia tribunals cannot decide cases involving non-Muslims as one of the parties. The country's high court held that family law and religious disputes between a Muslim and a non-Muslim must be determined by the civil courts since non-Muslims cannot be present to defend themselves in Sharia courts. Meanwhile, the AP reports that Federal Court Judge Abdul Hamid Mohamad, in an opinion released Wednesday, urged the legislature to deal with the jurisdictional issue. In his written opinion (joined by two other judges) he wrote: "These are not matters that the courts can solve, as the courts owe their jurisdiction to statutes."

Monks In Wales Insist Authorities Get Warrant To Take Sacred Bull For Slaughter

Now that a British Court of Appeals has upheld an order to slaughter a sacred bull that is infected with tuberculosis, Welsh authorities have attempted to take the bull from the Skanda Vale temple in Llanpumsaint where Hindu monks have taken it for protection. Health authorities, however, were kept from entering the Skanda Vale grounds by a locked gate, a parked car and supporters of the sacred bull who were chanting and praying. The monks have insisted that authorities obtain a warrant before entering the temple grounds. Veterinary officials and police are now moving to do so, and a spokesman for the monks said that then they will not offer physical resistance. IOL and This Is London (with extensive photos) report on these developments today.

UPDATE: By Thursday evening (London time), Shambo the bull had been taken away for slaughter by lethal injection. Initially police returned with a warrant, but only posted it instead of confronting 100 demonstrators. Thursday evening, though, 20 police cut a chain securing the temple gates, dragged away some of the demonstrators, led the sacred bull to a trailer and took him away. (AP and Inthenews).

OSCE Concerned About Kazakhstan's Dispute With Hare Krishna

In a long article published yesterday, the Washington Post reports that a property dispute between Kazakhstan authorities and members of a Hare Krishna community threatens Kazakhstan's bid to chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2009. The government has destroyed 12 homes in the village of Seleksia, claiming that the homes were purchased by Hare Krishna followers from people who did not hold proper title to the land. Kazakh courts have held that the property belongs to the local administration. However the OSCE Advisory Council on Freedom of Religion or Belief, in a statement issued last year, said that the state's action suggests that members of the Hare Krishna community "have been targeted on the basis of their religious affiliation." The disputed land is in an area that is becoming increasingly attractive to Almaty residents seeking country homes.

Justice Department Supports Muslim Group In Its RLUIPA Lawsuit

In Wayne, New Jersey, the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a brief supporting an Albanian Muslim group that is suing under RLUIPA to stop the township from taking for use as open space property on which the group was seeking to build a mosque. The township claims that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act does not apply to takings by eminent domain. The Justice Department argued, however, that the township's deliberate prolonging of the application process for a permit amounted to the kind of discrimination prohibited by RLUIPA. Reporting on developments in the federal lawsuit, the Passaic County Record yesterday said the 11 acres of land at issue has steep slopes and rock outcroppings that, according to township officials, makes it a prime candidate for preservation instead of development. (See prior related posting.)

Church Leader Raises RFRA Defense To Marijuana Charges

In Los Angeles, the trial of Rev. Craig X Rubin, leader of the 420 Temple, for possessing and distributing marijuana was scheduled to begin with jury selection yesterday. On Monday, at a hearing preceding the trial, Rubin-- representing himself-- argued that his possession of marijuana was protected by the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. He says the federal law applies because federal agents joined state police in the raid on his congregation last November. Rubin-- who was ordained by the Universal Life Church-- says he believes that marijuana is the "tree of life" mentioned in the Bible, so he incorporates marijuana in his church ceremonies. The Associated Press says that Rubin faces up to seven years in prison if convicted for burning marijuana during services and distributing it to members who are asked to make a donation for marijuana they receive. (See prior related posting.)

UPDATE: The AP reports that on Tuesday Superior Court Judge Mary H. Strobel ruled Rubin could not rely on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act as a defense because he is facing only state charges.