President Sets May 3 As "National Day of Prayer"

On Friday, President George W. Bush issued a Proclamation setting May 3, 2007 as a National Day of Prayer. The Proclamation asks "the citizens of our Nation to give thanks, each according to his or her own faith, for the freedoms and blessings we have received and for God's continued guidance, comfort, and protection." The annual Proclamation is required by federal statute, 36 USC Sec. 119.

The National Day of Prayer Task Force, headed by Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family founder and chairman James Dobson, calls its website the "official" website for the National Day of Prayer. It includes a history of the Day. Florida Baptist Witness reported last week that author and pastor Charles Swindoll is this year's Honorary Chairman and main speaker for scheduled ceremonies at the Cannon House Office Building. It says that this year's theme is "America, Unite in Prayer," which is based on 2 Chronicles 7:14.

Texas Legislature Has Faith-Based Agenda

Today's Dallas Morning News carries a lengthy article on initiatives in this year's Texas legislature to enact laws making the expression of faith more prominent in schools and government. Religion Clause has reported on a number of these previously. The bills introduced include ones on Bible classes, prayer in public schools, marriages that are harder to dissolve, abstinence education and public religious declarations (such as adding "under God" to the Texas flag pledge). Church-state separationists say that the bill on Bible classes has been improved as it makes its way through committee. Last week the Houston Chronicle reported that as amended, the classes will be optional for school districts, and teacher training and curriculum standards have been added. [Thanks to Blog from the Capital for the lead.]

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Decisions

In Sanders v. Ryan, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29070 (D AZ, March 19, 2007), an Arizona federal district court rejected First Amendment and RLUIPA claims by a Baptist prisoner that his rights were violated when prison officials limited him to possessing 10 audiotapes at a time, insisting that he send back his old tapes before adding new ones.

In Hawk v. Alameida, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28740 (ED CA, April 17, 2007), a federal Magistrate Judge recommended dismissal of a Native American prisoner's objections to enforcement of prison grooming regulations against him. Plaintiff alleged first amendment and Equal Protection violations. Dismissal of his retaliation claim was recommended for failure to exhaust administrative remedies.

In Roddy v. West Virginia, (4th Cir., April 16, 2007), the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the district court's dismissal of a prisoner's free exercise claim in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's January 2007 decision in Jones v. Bock that liberalized exhaustion requirements under the Prison Litigation Reform Act.

In Muhammad/Smith v. Freyder, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27717 (ED AK, April 12, 2007), a federal Magistrate Judge dismissed a prisoner's claim that his rights under RLUIPA were violated when he was not served the same meal as other Muslim inmates were served to celebrate the end of the Ramadan fast. The court found that prison authorities had a compelling interest in not serving meals catered from outside (here from Popeye's restaurant) to inmates confined to administrative segregation for violation of prison rules.

In King v. Bennett, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27702 (WD NY, March 30, 2007), a federal Magistrate Judge rejected a claim by a Sh'ia Muslim prisoner that he was denied the right to free exercise of religion by virtue of the New York Department of Corrections' policy of holding joint Friday prayer services for both Shi'a and Sunni Muslims. Prison officials said that granting plaintiff's request would pressure them to provide separate services for numerous Protestant and Jewish subgroups. That in turn would increase fiscal and administrative burdens and encourage rivalries by promoting power struggles and competition for new members and converts.

NJ Rastafarian Employee Can Proceed With Discrimination Claim

Last week, a New Jersey federal district court permitted a Camden County, NJ government employee to proceed with his religious discrimination claims under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, but dismissed his federal and state free exercise claims. Sistrunk v. Camden County Workforce Investment Board, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28854 (D NJ, April 18, 2007), involved a claim by a practicing Rastafarian that he was dismissed as a Youth Coordinator because he wears his hair in dreadlocks. The court found that issues of fact, requiring a trial, exist on whether notice had been given to the employer about plaintiff's religious beliefs and whether his termination was because of those beliefs. The free exercise claims were dismissed because the Board's dress code was found to be a neutral rule of general application.

Minneapolis College's Foot Bath Proposal Stirs Accommodation Controversy

Minnesota's Twin Cities, already the site of conflict over accommodating Muslim cab drivers and supermarket cashiers, is facing another controversy. Minneapolis Community and Technical College, concerned over the safety of Muslim students using high sinks in its bathrooms to wash their feet before prayer, proposed installing foot baths for their use. The College saw this as a non-controversial accommodation to prevent the kind of injury that occurred last year when a student slipped and hit her head. However the American Family Association sent out an "action alert" urging its members to contact their legislators to insure that the College does not use tax money "to promote Islam while censoring Christians".

Now, the board of Minnesota's State Colleges and Universities says it will discuss creating uniform guidelines for cultural and religious accommodations at its next meeting. Also, state Rep. Jim Abeler plans to introduce an amendment to the House Higher Education bill to assure that college employees can display religious symbols at their desks. It will also provide for sending a legislative letter reminding college officials that accommodation should be equally available for all religious groups. Details appear in Wednesday's Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Westboro Baptist Bargains Away Virginia Tech Funeral Picketing For Radio Time

Plans (previously reported here) by virulently anti-gay members of the Topeka, Kansas Westboro Baptist Church to picket funerals of the Virginia Tech victims have now been called off in a deal with a radio talk show host. The blog Straight, Not Narrow reported yesterday that church spokesperson Shirley Phelps-Roper will get 3 hours on the air with conservative radio host Mike Gallagher in exchange for calling off the funeral demonstrations. While a posting on Gallagher’s website is somewhat apologetic about the deal, Westboro describes the deal in contractual terms on its website. The church's earlier posting announcing the picketing of the first of the student funerals had said that the Virginia Tech killings were explainable as God "punishing America for her sodomite sins and for persecuting Westboro Baptist Church for warning America of her doom". Another of its postings says "The 33 Massacred at Virginia Tech died for America's sins against WBC."

Louisville Sues Over Church's Right To Land; Issue Is Rule Against Perpetuities

Over 80 years ago, the family of S. Thruston Ballard donated two parcels of land (about 2 acres) to the city of Louisville, Kentucky for use as a park, playground or for recreation. The conveyance provided that if the land ceased to be used for these purposes, it would revert to the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky. Now the city has agreed to convey the land-- located along the Ohio River-- to developers who are building a $200 million residential and office project. The Diocese says that this agreement means that the land now belongs to the Diocese. After negotiations between the city and the Diocese broke down, the city filed a quiet title action, asking the court to declare that it has clear title to the land. The city claims that the Diocese's revisionary rights lapse long ago, and that the law does not permit the rights to continue indefinitely. Attorneys for the Diocese disagree. Apparently the dispute is over the interpretation of Kentucky's Rule Against Perpetuities. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported on the case on Thursday.

Records Subpoenaed From Congressmen In Mt. Soledad Cross Challenge

The San Diego Union-Tribune today reports that plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of Congress' transfer of the Mt. Soledad cross to the federal government have issued subpoenas to three members of Congress. The subpoenas ask for records relating to communications with the executive branch, with any city government and with outside groups such as the Thomas More Law Center. Plaintiffs are seeking to prove that the purpose of Congress' taking of the memorial site from the city was to endorse religion. Reps. Duncan Hunter, Darrell Issa and Brian Bilbray have asked lawyers for the House of Representatives to review the subpoenas. Congressman Issa called the subpoena an attack on freedom of religion. Earlier this month, a federal court rejected the same plaintiffs' request to take depositions from Congressman Hunter and San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. It said that subjective motivations were irrelevant and that the request of Rep. Hunter violated the Constitution's speech and debate clause.

Nashville May Not Be Able To Avoid Holiday Conflict With Election After All

It turns out that it may be illegal for Davidson County Tennessee's Election Commission to reschedule Nashville's runoff primary election in September to avoid a conflict with the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. While the Election Commission voted for the change in response to a lawsuit challenging the conflict (see prior posting), now Metro Nashville & Davidson County's law department says that the change violates the city charter. Its lawyers say that the rescheduling can occur legally only if the state legislature acts to authorize it, according to an article in yesterday's Tennessean.

Supreme Court's Abortion Decision and Catholic Justices Discussed

Rick Garnett has an interesting posting this morning on PrawfsBlawg responding to an editorial cartoon in the Philadelphia Enquirer. The cartoon's subject is Wednesday's U.S. Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. Carhart, the "partial-birth abortion" case. The cartoon shows the 5 Supreme Court justices in the majority, all of whom happen to be Catholic, sitting on the court's bench wearing mitres emblazoned with a cross. He criticizes the implication that the Justices in the majority voted as they did because of their religious affiliation instead of as "intelligent and engaged lawyers".

Was School Nurse's New Assignment Accommodation or Retaliation?

A lawsuit filed yesterday in Sandusky, Ohio poses the interesting question of the line between religious accommodation and retaliation against an employee because of her religious beliefs. Today's Lorain (OH) Morning Journal reports that public school nurse Maria T. Sulewski filed suit against the Erie County General Health District claiming that her change in job assignments was retaliation for her religious objections to participating in a presentation "supporting birth control, safe sex or related matters". Erie County Health Commissioner Peter Schade said that Sulewski's job reassignment was an accommodation so she would not have to deal with making sex-education presentations. Sulewski's attorney says that the presentations were a very small part of her former assignment, so that she could have been accommodated by merely having someone else fill in for her on those assignments.

Russian Orthodox Church Increasingly Identified With Russian Government

This morning's Washington Post reports on the growing influence of the Orthodox Church in Russia. Followers of other religions, especially Muslims, are concerned about the increasingly close relationship between the Orthodox church and government. Some public entities are adopting Orthodox symbols, and the teaching of Orthodox culture has been mandated in some schools this year. (See prior posting.) Critics say this is turning Orthodoxy into a state religion. The Church is increasingly being identified with a patriotism that favors a strong centralized state, and the military is using Orthodoxy to build esprit de corps. The Church has canonized Fyodor Ushakov, an 18th-century naval commander, and the Navy has adopted him as a patron saint.

Proponents Say Proposed Hate Crimes Law Protects Free Speech

Proponents of H.R. 1592, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007, say fears by Christians that the bill will restrict religious expression opposing homosexuality are misplaced. (See prior posting.) This was the thrust of House Judiciary Committee testimony on Tuesday by George Washington University Law Professor Frederick Lawrence, who said that the Act "is aimed at criminal acts, not expression or thoughts." To assure this, drafters have included a new provision in 18 USC Sec. 249(d):

In a prosecution for an offense under this section, evidence of expression or associations of the defendant may not be introduced as substantive evidence at trial, unless the evidence specifically relates to that offense. However, nothing in this section affects the rules of evidence governing impeachment of a witness.

The inclusion of this provision led to endorsement of the bill by the ACLU. Additional information on H.R. 1592 is collected at the website Civilrights.org. [Thanks to Michael Lieberman for the lead.]

2d Circuit Hears Oral Arguments In Muslim Border-Search Case

Yesterday, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Tabbaa v. Chertoff, a case challenging the lengthy detention and search by border agents of a large group of Muslim Americans returning from the 2004 Reviving the Islamic Spirit Conference in Canada. The trial court dismissed plaintiffs' complaint. (See prior posting.) Yesterday's International Herald Tribune, reporting on the oral arguments, said that the panel of judges seemed unsympathetic to arguments by appellant's New York Civil Liberties Union lawyer that the travelers were unconstitutionally singled out because they were Muslim. Department of Justice attorney Lewis Yelin said that the government has now changed its procedures for mass inspections at the border so that a senior supervisor must be involved where a person is detained for more than two hours.

Developments in Portland and Spokane Catholic Church Bankruptcy Cases

On April 17, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris formally approved the bankruptcy reorganization plan of the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon. (See prior related posting.) In a surprise development, all remaining claims against the Archdiocese were settled as part of the reorganization plan, according to a Catholic News Service report yesterday. Checks will go out to priest sex-abuse victims next month, financed in part by a $40 million loan from Allied Irish Bank. No parish or school properties will be sold off to finance the $75 million total settlement. In mid-May the Archdiocese will open personnel files of accused clergy.

Also on April 17, parties in the bankruptcy reorganization proceeding of the Diocese of Spokane, Washington filed papers agreeing to a $48 million settlement of clergy sex abuse claims. It is expected that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams will approve the settlement at an April 24 hearing.

Utah Court Dismisses Most Claims Against LDS Church Over Ordination Of Sons

In the Mormon Church, children at age 12 are generally receive priesthood ordinances. Michael Gulbraa, who had legal custody of his two sons-- improperly taken to Japan by his former wife-- asked the LDS Church not to proceed with the ceremony for his sons without his permission. The Church ignored his request and proceeded with the ceremony "for the children's benefit". The father sued for damages and injunctive relief.

In Gulbraa v. Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christof Latter-day Saints, (UT Ct. App., April 19, 2007), a Utah Court of Appeals dismissed the father's claims for breach of contract, fraud, and negligent misrepresentation, and his request for injunctive relief. It said that adjudicating the claims would excessively entangle the court in the Church's religious operations, the interpretation of its teachings, the performance of its ceremonies, or the governance of its affairs. An award of damages would require the court to place a monetary value on participation in religious experiences. However, the court permitted the father to proceed with his claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Today's Salt Lake Tribune reports on the decision. (See prior related posting.)

British Employment Discrimination Amendment About To Become Effective

An amendment to the definition of "religion or belief" in Britain's Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 takes effect April 30, according to Workplace Law. The amendment changes "any religion, religious belief or similar philosophical belief" to "any religion, or religious or philosophical belief". The removal of the word "similar" raises the question of whether discrimination on the basis of political belief now falls under the anti-discrimination prohibitions.

Westboro Baptist Church Picketers Target Virginia Tech Funerals

The Topeka, Kansas based Westoboro Baptist Church, known for anti-gay protests at funerals of military personnel, posted a press release on its website Tuesday indicating that its members plan to picket memorial services for the 32 individuals killed at Virginia Tech on Monday. The release said in part: "WBC to picket memorial services for 32 students massacred at Virginia Tech—in religious protest and warning: God is punishing America for going the way of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah…." The only Virginia Tech victim currently on its website’s listing of upcoming picketing is the April 21 funeral of student Ryan Clark, which is scheduled to take place in Evans, Georgia. A number of states (overview), including Georgia (O.C.G.A. § 16-11-34.2), have enacted laws to restrict picketing at or near funerals. [Thanks to Towleroad blog for the lead.]

Officials Accommodate Religious Burial Needs Of Virginia Tech Victim

The blog Yeshiva World on Tuesday carried an interesting account of the accommodations made by Virginia state officials so that Professor Liviu Librescu, one of the victims of the Virginia Tech mass shooting, could be buried in accordance with Jewish law. Librescu was the Romanian-born Holocaust survivor who was shot while barring his classroom door to permit his students to escape. Rabbis in the United States, contacted by Librescu's family in Israel, told the Virginia medical examiner's office that autopsies were inconsistent with Jewish law. The medical examiner agreed to merely use x-rays and a minimally invasive procedure to remove bullets. Also Jewish funerals are generally conducted promptly after death. Bad weather prevented immediate flight of the body to New York for ritual handling before burial, so state police all along the route from New York to Virginia provided a police escort for the vehicle that drove to pick up the body. On Wednesday, President Bush specifically mentioned Librescu's courage during a presidential speech at the U.S. Holocaust Museum. [Thanks to Gerald Katzman for the lead.]

Some Amish Farmers Protest Wisconsin's New Cattle ID Requirements

Today's LaCrosse (WI) Tribune reports that some Amish farmers object on religious grounds to the state's new livestock premises identification requirements that are set to take effect on May 1. The objectors say that the Bible prohibits them from buying and selling animals that are numbered. They consider the IDs the "mark of the beast." The U.S. Department of Agriculture is promoting voluntary premises registration, but Wisconsin is the first state to mandate it. The state's Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection board will meet Wednesday to discuss the problem. (See prior related posting.)