Suit Challenges Virginia County's Sexual Orientation Protections

Yesterday Liberty Counsel announced that it had filed suit in an Arlington County, Virginia court to challenge an April 2006 determination by the Arlington County Human Rights Commission that a video company engaged in illegal discrimination under the county's Human Rights Code when the company refused to duplicate two videos promoting gay and lesbian rights for a customer. Tim Bono, owner of Bono Film and Video, Inc., had responded to an e-mail request from Lilli M. Vincenz that Bono Film does not duplicate material that is obscene, embarrassing to employees, damaging to the company’s reputation or that runs counter to the company’s Core Values and Christian and ethical values. The suit asserts that local anti-discrimination codes that include sexual orientation violate a judicial doctrine applied by Virginia courts known as Dillon's Rule. The suit claims that the doctrine should be read to prohibit enforcement of local anti-discrimination laws that go beyond statewide rules.

Michigan Capitol Display Will Include 10 Commandments

The Associated Press reports that Michigan's Capitol Committee, made up of four senators, four representatives and four members of Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration, voted 11-1 yesterday to include the Ten Commandments in a display of historical documents inside the Michigan Capitol. Last week the House adopted H Res 268 encouraging the display. The "History of Our Laws and System of Government Display" is modeled after a display in a Kentucky courthouse that was upheld by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. However, leaders of the Capitol Committee may shorten the text of the display's historical documents that now run to 41 pages and include the Mayflower Compact, Orders of Connecticut, Iroquois League, Bill of Rights and 1819 Treaty of Saginaw. The final display will also be reviewed by the state attorney general's office for constitutional or legal problems. (See prior related postings 1, 2.)

LA Priest Abuse Records Sealed Pending Trial

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Haley J. Fromholtz yesterday ordered that personal records remain sealed in sexual abuse lawsuits pending against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Today's Washington Post reports that lawyers were ordered not to disclose general background information and medical and financial records of individual plaintiffs and defendants in the cases.

Greece Changes Approval Policy For Building Of Minority Houses Of Worship

In Greece, the head of the Jewish community praised Parliament's passage of a law that eliminates control by the Greek Orthodox Church over building of synagogues and houses of worship by other non-Orthodox groups, according to yesterday's European Jewish Press. Religious bodies must now submit applications to the Education and Religious Affairs Ministry. The head of Greece's Jewish community supported further amendments to Greek law: "Our next goal is to have the rabbis paid by the government like the clergy of the Christians and Muslims, for the sake of equality which is outlined in the Greek constitution." (See prior posting.)

Roy Moore Loses In Alabama Primary

In Alabama's primary yesterday, former state Chief Justice Roy Moore lost his bid to become the Republican nominee for governor, according to the Associated Press. Moore, famous for his attempts to keep a large Ten Commandments monument in the state's judicial building, lost to Republican Governor Bob Riley. Conceding defeat in the primary, Moore said "God's will has been done." Moore had been removed from his judicial position in 2003 when he refused to follow a federal court order to remove his 5,300 pound Decalogue monument from the building housing the state's supreme court.

Israel's Justice Minister Cracks Down On Rabbinic Judges

In Israel, Justice Minister Haim Ramon does not think that judges on the country's rabbinic courts are working hard enough. Yesterday's Jerusalem Post reports that he has sent a letter to all 85 serving Jewish religious court judges telling them that their illegally short working hours will no longer be permitted. He also told 15 judges who do not live in the cities in which their courts sit that by September they must move to the cities in which they serve. All of this is part of a campaign to improve the professionalism of the rabbinic courts that deal with family law matters, primarily divorces.

Louisiana House Panel Edits Ten Commandments

Louisiana's House Governmental Affairs Committee yesterday decided to edit the Ten Commandments, according to a report by The (Baton Rouge) Advocate. Senate Bill 476 permits the display in public buildings of the Ten Commandments along with other specified historical documents containing religious references. (See prior posting.) The Senate bill sets out the exact wording permitted, and the House Committee found itself debating whether the Catholic, Protestant or Jewish versions of the Decalogue should be used. In the end it compromised with a bit of tinkering. While it primarily used the Protestant King James version, it changed "Thou shall not kill" to "Thou shall not murder", which is the way Jewish translations generally render the commandment. It changed the King James spelling of "honour" to "honor" in reference to honoring one's father and mother. The panel then also debated whether to include"thou shalt not make unto the any graven idol", a phrase that does not appear in the Catholic version of the Commandments. The Committee sent its syncretistic version on to the full House.

Trinidad Follows Court Order, Replacing Trinity Cross

In response to a decision by its High Court last month, Trinidad and Tobago has decided to replace the Trinity Cross with another symbol as the country's top honor, according to yesterday's Antigua Sun. The Court found that the Trinity Cross was a Christian symbol that amounted to religious discrimination. The country's population is 22.5% Hindu and 5.8% Muslim. [corrected]

Funeral Picketers Sued By Family; Threaten Counter-Suit

Yesterday's Baltimore Sun reports that the members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church who have been picketing military funerals claiming that military deaths are God's retribution for sinful behavior are finally being sued by a family that has been the subject of the picketing. In Greenbelt, Maryland, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, who died in a vehicle accident in Iraq, is suing Westboro Baptist Church in federal court, hoping that the suit will deter the group from further similar conduct. Three adults and four children marched on city property outside Cpl. Snyder's funeral in March with signs reading "Thank God for dead soldiers." The group also posted comments about Snyder and his family on its Web site, such as, "Albert and Julie ... taught Matthew to defy his creator, to divorce, and to commit adultery. They taught him how to support the largest pedophile machine in the history of the entire world, the Roman Catholic monstrosity." Attorney Shirley Phelps-Roper, whose father Fred Phelps helped establish Westboro Baptist, said that the church would countersue for conspiracy to violate and violation of the church's freedoms of speech and religion. (See prior related postings 1, 2, 3.)

New State Department Monitor for World Anti-Semitism

Eighteen months after Congress passed the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act , the State Department has finally appointed someone as Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism around the world. Today's Cleveland Jewish News profiles the new appointee, Gregg Rickman. Here are Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's remarks at Rickman's May 22 swearing-in.

Islamists May Bring Somalia Order Under Islamic Courts

In Somalia, an Islamist militia has taken control of the capital city of Mogadishu after months of fighting with an alliance of warlords. Now the city's eleven Sharia courts are attempting to restore order under Islamic law after 15 years of anarchy in the country. The Union of Islamic Courts was originally created by businessmen attempting to end the arbitrary rule of warlords. Some residents though are now concerned that the country and its schools could fall into the hands of religious fundamentalists. The militia may now head for Baidoa, 140 miles from Mogadishu, where there is an internationally recognized transitional government. Reports on the situation have been published by the AP, Gulf Times, and BBC News.

UPDATE: On June 7, the AP reported that the successful Islamic militia installed a new Islamic court in the town of Balad, about 20 miles from Mogadishu.

Pharmacist Loses Claim Against Wal-Mart

A Wisconsin federal district court ruled last week that there are limits to required accommodation of pharmacists' religious beliefs, according to LifeNews yesterday. Pharmacist Neil Noesen had sued Wal-Mart and a staffing agency that had placed him there for religious discrimination, alleging that he was fired last summer for refusing to fill prescriptions for drugs that he says can cause an abortion. However, Judge John Shabaz dismissed the suit, finding that Noesen had gone further, placing telephone callers seeking the drugs on hold indefinitely. He also refused to help customers coming into Wal-Mart seeking the drug find other pharmacists or pharmacies to fill their prescriptions. Noesen had previously been fired from K-Mart for refusing to fill similar prescriptions. Noesen's pharmacy license expired on Wednesday. The state board had ordered him to attend state ethics classes and pay back almost $21,000 in costs the state incurred to investigate him, as a condition for getting his license back. Noesen has not met these requirements.

Connecticut To Pay Fee For Church Convention In State

The United Church of Christ had been planning to hold its national convention in Connecticut at the new Convention Center in Hartford. However, according to yesterday's Hartford Courant, when a labor dispute at the Center led the union involved to call for a boycott, the Church withdrew. Now Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell has salvaged the convention for her state by agreeing to have the state pay a $100,000 fee for an alternative site-- the older Hartford Civic Center. Recently elsewhere when tax funds have been used to subsidize church conventions, critics have raised church-state separation questions. (See prior posting.) [Thanks to Donald C. Clark, Jr. via Religionlaw for the lead.]

Arkansas Governor Defends His Version of Prison InnerChange Program

According to the Associated Press yesterday, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee says that his state prison's InnerChange program is constitutional. He says that the Bible-based program in the Arkansas prison system is sufficiently different from Iowa's that the recent federal court decision striking down Iowa's faith-based program should not affect Arkansas. Huckabee says that the Arkansas program is totally funded by private contributions, is totally voluntary and does not require Christian conversion or belief to participate. It is designed to give inmates the skills they need to succeed in society. The only state funding involved is used to house and feed the participating inmates.

Recent Prisoner Decisions

In Wilson v. Tillman, (3d Cir., June 2, 2006), the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a free exercise and equal protection claim by a prisoner in a group home pre-release program. Pennsylvania state prisoner John Wilson is a descendant of Ethiopian Jews. Adappt House insisted that he go on a required outing to a park with other residents on a Saturday instead of attending religious services. The court upheld the requirement as having a legitimate penological interest, and found that Wilson took advantage of an alternative-- praying alone before the trip began.

In Perez v. Frank, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34990 (WD Wis., May 25, 2006), a Wisconsin federal district court permitted a Muslim prisoner to proceed with RLUIPA and free exercise clause claims (and for some complaints, establishment clause claims) growing out of prison authorities denying him adequate quantities of prayer oil, denying him the right to engage in study and group prayer, and denying him various religiously required foods. It refused to permit him to proceed with his claim that the prison denied him access to rest rooms for Wudu (ablutions) when the unit's day room was closed.

More On The Marriage Protection Amendment Debate

As the Senate today debates the Marriage Protection Amendment (see prior posting), with a vote possible tomorrow, proponents warn that without it religious organizations may end up being forced to provide benefits to same-sex couples even if doing so violates the organizations' religious beliefs. Others say that this fear is exaggerated. (Chicago Tribune story.) Meanwhile some others note that the date set for a Senate vote, June 6, 2006, has the ominous abbreviation "6 6 06". (The Conservative Voice.)

Marriage Protection Amendment Going To Senate; Any Establishment Clause Problem?

The U.S. Senate is set this week to begin consideration of S.J.Res. 1, the proposed Marriage Protection Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It provides: "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman." President Bush's Saturday Radio Address focused on his support for the Amendment. The Los Angeles Times says that no one expects the amendment to get the 67 votes it needs to pass the Senate.

For watchers of church-state issues, however, the mobilization of religious coalitions on both sides of the issue is interesting. The Chicago Tribune reports that the Religious Coalition for Marriage (Catholics, Evangelicals, Southern Baptists, and Orthodox Jews) favors the amendment while Clergy for Fairness (Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, Reform Jews) is campaigning against it. This is not the only issue involving rights of gays and lesbians that has forced church groups to take competing political stands. In Washington state, the debate over forcing a referendum on the state's new civil rights act that protects gays and lesbians has also generated competing religious coalitions. (Tacoma News Tribune, June 4.)

In 1971 in Lemon v. Kurtzman, Chief Justice Burger wrote: "Ordinarily political debate and division, however vigorous or even partisan, are normal and healthy manifestations of our democratic system of government, but political division along religious lines was one of the principal evils against which the First Amendment was intended to protect." Does that mean that there is a special Establishment Clause problem with the current debates over gay rights?

Gideons Hand Out Bibles In Colorado Schools

Yesterday's Vail (Colorado) Daily reports that for the second year in Summit County, Colorado, the Gideons were permitted to distribute Bibles inside school buildings. Superintendent Millie Hamner said attorneys advised that if the Gideons were excluded, other outside groups such as Rotarians who hand out dictionaries and college recruiters who distribute college information would need to be excluded as well. Before this, Gideons had been restricted to the streets outside the schools.

Alabama Democratic Court Candidate Looks For Religious Voters

The Columbus (Georgia) Ledger-Enquirer today reports that Al Johnson, the Democratic candidate for the Alabama Supreme Court, is trying to capture conservative religious votes from the Republicans. Johnson's supporters display bumper stickers reading: "I am a Christian; I own a gun; I am a Democrat; Johnson for Justice." And when asked about his views, Johnson says, "I am as conservative as the Holy Scriptures; and I am as liberal as the love of Jesus. The problem in Alabama right now is most of our elected officials live by the first part of that and forget the second part."

Israeli Court Blocks Rabbi's Ruling On Cursing Parrot

In Israel this week, according to YNet News, a civil court in Tel Aviv has issued an order temporarily preventing the owner of a parrot from carrying out a rabbi's ruling that the bird, which screeches curses and unbecoming phrases, be put to death or at least have its tongue cut out. The court issued the restraining order at the request of the Let Animals Live Foundation. Later this week the court will make a final determination on the bird's fate.