Objective coverage of church-state and religious liberty developments, with extensive links to primary sources.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Blasphemy Defendant In Pakistan Murdered Outside Court House
Meanwhile, Gopang's younger brother has also been arrested for hurling a brick at Maulana Abdul Rasheed, the complainant in the blasphemy case, and Rasheed has been taken into protective custody.
South Carolina Released Time Credit Act Becomes Law
The State reports that now released time groups are quickly moving to get more high schools to approve their programs.Whereas, the South Carolina General Assembly finds that: ...The free exercise of religion is important to the intellectual, moral, civic, and ethical development of students in South Carolina, and that any such exercise must be conducted in a constitutionally appropriate manner.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina: Section 59-39-112. (A) A school district board of trustees may award high school students no more than two elective Carnegie units for the completion of released time classes in religious instruction ... if:
(1) ... the released time classes ... are evaluated on the basis of purely secular criteria that are substantially the same criteria used to evaluate similar classes at established private high schools for the purpose of determining whether a student transferring to a public high school from a private high school will be awarded elective Carnegie units for such classes.... and
(2) the decision to award elective Carnegie units is neutral as to, and does not involve any test for, religious content or denominational affiliation.
(B) For the purpose of subsection (A)(1), secular criteria may include, but are not limited to ... (1) number of hours of classroom instruction time; (2) review of the course syllabus ...; (3) methods of assessment used in the course; and (4) whether the course was taught by a certified teacher.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Funding Of Hunger Program OK'd With Disclaimer
New York Governor Signs Law On Swastikas, Burning Crosses
Las Vegas School Cuts Mike On Valedictorian
Administrators had earlier reviewed Brittany McComb’s speech and cut out six references to God or Christ, two biblical references, and a detailed reference to Christ’s crucifixion. The high school’s policy does not permit the school to censor religious references by speakers who have been chosen "on the basis of genuinely neutral, evenhanded criteria'. However, school district lawyer Bill Hoffman said that while the regulation allows students to talk about religion, they cannot cross over into the realm of preaching or proselytizing. School officials said that permitting McComb to continue would have amounted to school sponsored proselytizing. McComb responded: "People aren't stupid and they know we have freedom of speech and the district wasn't advocating my ideas. Those are my opinions. It's what I believe.'
Preliminary Injunction In Church Challenge To Rec Area Fees
Jewish School Fits Unemployment Tax Exemption
Japanese Lawmakers Urge Secular Shrine For War Dead
Racketeering Claim Filed Against Philadelphia Archdiocese
Friday, June 16, 2006
Former Waqf Leader Breaks With Muslim Views On Historicity Of Jewish Temples
Singapore Police Investigate Jesus Cartoons On Website
Spokane Diocese Wins Appeal In Bankruptcy Case
Arapaho Tribal Courts Ignored On Sun Dance
The Indian Civil Rights Act, enacted by Congress in 1968, requires that Indian tribes exercising their rights of self government abide by most of the provisions of the Constitution's bill of rights. The Act prohibits tribes from making or enforcing any law that prohibits the free exercise of religion. It does not impose establishment clause constraints on tribes.
Suit Filed In Pakistan Over Destruction Of Hindu Temple
EEOC Faces Large Budget Cut
Wisconsin Gets Faith-Based Office
Finland Debates Unsolicited Religious Mailings
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Accommodating Muslim High Schoolers In Seattle
Court Permits Religious Profiling In Immigration Enforcement
However on a broader equal protection issue, the court seemed to hold that it is permissible for the government to engage in religious (as well as racial) profiling in its enforcement of the immigration laws. Relying on language from a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court case, Reno v. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the judge wrote:
This is, of course, an extraordinarily rough and overbroad sort of distinction of which, if applied to citizens, our courts would be highly suspicious. Yet the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the political branches, "[i]n the exercise of [their] broad power over naturalization and immigration ... regularly make[] rules that would be unacceptable if applied to citizens." Mathews v. Diaz, 426 U.S. 67, 79-80 (1976);....Today's New York Times reports on the decision, quoting Georgetown law professor David Cole's take on the decision: "What this decision says is the next time there is a terror attack, the government is free to round up every Muslim immigrant in the U.S. based solely on their ethnic and religious identity, and hold them on immigration pretexts for as long as it desires."[Thanks to How Appealing for the case link.]Similarly, I do not believe the plaintiffs’ claims of selective enforcement on the basis of their race and religion provide any cause to depart from the general rule laid out in AADC. In the investigation into the September 11 attacks, the government learned that the attacks had been carried out at the direction of Osama bin Laden, leader of al Queda, a fundamentalist Islamist group; some of the hijackers were in violation of the terms of their visas at the time of the attacks. In the immediate aftermath of these events, when the government had only the barest of information about the hijackers to aid its efforts to prevent further terrorist attacks, it determined to subject to greater scrutiny aliens who shared characteristics with the hijackers, such as violating their visas and national origin and/or religion. Investigating these aliens’ backgrounds prolonged their detention, delaying the date when they would be removed.
As a tool fashioned by the executive branch to ferret out information to prevent additional terrorist attacks, this approach may have been crude, but it was not so irrational or outrageous as to warrant judicial intrusion into an area in which courts have little experience and less expertise.
Illinois Village And Church Spar Over Building Requirements
The Associated Press report on the controversy earlier this week had a somewhat different slant. It quotes village officials as saying that there has been a long series of attempts by Cornerstone Community Church to get around the village's permit requirements.