9th Circuit Issues New Opinions Denying Asylum To Chinese Christian

In Gu v. Gonzales, (9th Cir., July 21, 2006), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last week, by a 2-1 vote, upheld the findings of an Immigration Judge denying asylum to a Chinese citizen who claimed past persecution, and fear of future persecution, because of his distribution of Christian religious literature and his attending an unofficial "house church". In doing so, the court withdrew opinions issued in December 2005 reaching the same result (429 F.3d 1209), and substituted new opinions. [CORRECTED-- thanks to several readers.]

Italian Case Challenging Existence of Jesus Reportedly To Be Heard By European Court of Human Rights

Religion Clause reported last February that an Italian judge dismissed a suit against a priest in Viterbo, Italy. The suit charged that the priest's assertion that Jesus had lived violated Italian laws against deceit and impersonation. In March, an appeal in the case was filed with the European Court of Human Rights. (Text of Application to Court.) Today, the website of Luigi Cascioli, the plaintiff who brought the charges against the priest, reports that the European Court of Human Rights has agreed to hear the appeal. The case is Cascioli v. Italy, Case No.14910/06.

Public Schools Try To Accommodate Various Religious Holidays

Public schools and colleges around the country are increasingly being asked to accommodate the holiday observances of students from a wide variety of religious faiths. Some have not been responsive to the requests, but others have. From a school-wide holiday, to a ban on scheduling exams on particular days, to merely permitting a student to have an excused absence, at least some schools are seeking the correct balance, according to an Associated Press article last Friday. Earlier this month the New York state Legislature passed SB 7461 a bill that requires the state Department of Education to make a bona fide effort to schedule state mandated exams on days other than religious holidays. The bill was introduced after the decision by the Department of Education last January to begin statewide tests for third, fourth and fifth-graders on the Islamic holiday of Eid-ul-Adha.

Asatru In Prisons Poses Concerns

An AP story yesterday discusses the growing problems within American prisons posed by prisoners' practice of Asatru-- a pagan religion with roots in Viking mythology. Attention has been focused on the religion as Michael Lenz is scheduled to be executed in Virginia later this week. During an Asatru worship ceremony, Lenz thought that another inmate, Brent Parker, had committed blasphemy, and so he killed him to protect the honor of the gods. The religion is sometimes associated with beliefs in White supremacy, though that connection is disputed by most of its leaders. Britt Minshall, a Baltimore pastor who ministers to inmates, says that some white inmates who felt threatened by black prison gangs formed their own gangs and then found Asatru as a belief system to provide additional security.

New Yorker Article Features Role Of Christian Right In Ohio's '06 Elections

This week's New Yorker Magazine profiles the central role of the Christian religious right in this year's Ohio gubernatorial election. Republican candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell, whose political history is chronicled in the New Yorker piece, has strong appeal to conservative Christians. The article titled Holy Toledo: Ohio’s Gubernatorial Race Tests the Power of the Christian Right, also focuses on Pastor Rod Parsley's Reformation Ohio and Rev. Russell Johnson's Ohio Restoration Project.

Recent Law Review Articles

From SmartCILP:

Babek Rod Khadem,The Doctrine of Separation in Classical Islamic Jurisprudence, 4 UCLA Journal of Islamic & Near Eastern Law 95-142 (2004-2005).

Jed Kroncke, Jed, Substantive Irrationalities and Irrational Substantivities: The Flexible Orientalism of Islamic Law, 4 UCLA Journal of Islamic & Near Eastern Law 41-73 (2004-2005).

Caleb E. Mason, Faith, Harm, and Neutrality: Some Complexities of Free Exercise Law, 44 Duquesne University Law Review 225-273 (2006).

Symposium: Law and Religion, 8 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 335-513 (2006):

Howard Lesnick, The Consciousness of Religion and the Consciousness of Law, With Some Implications for Dialogue;

Imad-ad-Dean Adman, American and Muslim Perspectives on Freedom of Religion;

Marie A. Failinger, Against Idols: The Court As a Symbol-Making or Rhetorical Institution;

Stephen M. Feldman, The Theory and Politics of First Amendment Protections: Why Does the Supreme Court Favor Free Expression Over Religious Freedom?

Kent Greenawalt, Common Sense About Original and Subsequent Understanding of the Religion Clauses.

Civil Rights Division Hiring Has Been Changing

An interesting article in this morning's Boston Globe reports that the Bush administration has quietly been changing hiring practices at the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Political appointees at the Justice Department have been given more authority in decisions on hiring of lawyers for the Division. Hiring committees made up of veteran career lawyers have been disbanded. Since this began in 2003, only 42% of new hires have civil rights organization experience. In the 2 years before that, 77% had such experience. Since 2003, new hires were more likely to have been members of the Federalist Society or members of the Republican National Lawyers Association. This has also led to a change in the kind of cases being brought by the Civil Rights Division. Fewer traditional voting rights and employment discrimination cases are being brought, while more reverse discrimination and religious discrimination cases alleging discrimination against Christians are being filed.

The Globe found that the law schools from which new hires graduated has also changed. More Southern and Midwestern law schools are now represented. Previously new hires tended to be from "elite" eastern law schools. The average US News & World Report ranking for the law school attended by successful applicants hired in 2001 and 2002 was 34, while the average law school rank dropped to 44 for those hired after 2003.

Defenders of the new policy say first that it tends to balance the liberal bias of former hires. Second, they say that while many hires now do not have a background with civil rights organizations, they often clerked for federal judges where they obtained substantial constitutional law experience.

Indonesian Editor To Face Trial On Muhammad Cartoons

In Indonesia, the editor of the online newspaper Rakyat Merdeka has been released from prison, but he will still be required to stand trial for posting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad on his newspaper website earlier this year. Friday's Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Indonesian editor, who posted the cartoons while reporting on the controversy over the cartoons' first appearance in Denmark, was charged with two counts of "inciting animosity and hatred" towards Islam. He faces a possible maximum sentence of 5 years in prison. [Thanks to Jurist for the information.]

Washington Pharmacy Board Rethinking Proposed Rule

The Washington State Board of Pharmacy has postponed until August 31 a vote on controversial new proposed rules that would permit pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for personally held moral reasons. Saturday’s Seattle Times says that the Board may be considering changes in its proposal. Gov. Christine Gregoire and women's advocates have criticized the proposal because it could hinder patient access to emergency contraceptives.

Officials' Motives Found Relevant To RLUIPA Claim

In Denver First Church of the Nazarene v. Cherry Hills Village, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49483 (D. Colo., July 19, 2006), a Colorado federal district court denied a motion filed by the city of Cherry Hills to prevent plaintiff, a church, from taking the deposition of various members of City Council, the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Board of Adjustment. Denver First Church of the Nazarene brought suit under RLUIPA challenging the city’s refusal to grant its applications to expand its current church building, and to rezone certain lots so the church could add parking. The court, rejecting various claims of privilege, found that depositions were appropriate because the motives of city officials are relevant to plaintiff’s claims under RLUIPA.

Arizona City Debates New Church Zoning Rules

In Scottsdale, Arizona, the leaders of 50 churches have mobilized to oppose proposals from the Scottsdale Planning Commission to require a conditional use permit for the building of new churches, or major expansion of current ones, in single family residential areas. Yesterday's East Valley Tribune reports the Commission’s proposal, that will be discussed at an August 23 public meeting, would apply not just to houses of worship but also to private schools, colleges, universities, community buildings and private recreational uses. Scottsdale residents are concerned about increasing noise, traffic and parking problems especially from the proliferation of large church campuses. Howard Myers, president of the Desert Foothills Property Owners Association complained that operations of some large churches have extended to longer hours and go on every day of the week as they rent or give use of church premises for many programs and permit installation of cell phone towers on their property.

Funeral Protesters Challenge Missouri Ban

Rev. Fred Phelps and his followers from Kansas City’s Westboro Baptist Church have outraged many by picketing the funerals of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans claiming that U.S. tolerance of homosexuality and other sinful activity is causing the deaths of Americans in those wars. (See prior related posting.) In response, Missouri, a number of other states, and the federal government have all enacted laws prohibiting picketing a location where a funeral is being held. Now, on behalf of Phelps, the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri has filed suit claiming that the anti-picketing law violates the First Amendment free speech and free exercise rights of Phelps and his religious followers. Today’s Washington Post reports on the lawsuit that was filed yesterday in federal court in Jefferson City, Missouri. The plaintiffs argue that Missouri’s statute unconstitutionally regulates speech on the basis of its content.

Rastafarian Prison Employee's Religion Claims Move Ahead

In Booth v. Maryland Department of Public Safety & Correctional Services, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49313 (D. Md., July 7, 2006), a Maryland federal court refused to dismiss state breach of contract and state constitutional claims by a Rastafarian employee of the Maryland prison system who was first demoted and then fired for refusing to remove his dreadlocks. However plaintiff’s federal claim against a prison warden was dismissed on the ground that the warden enjoyed qualified immunity.

NJ Homeowner Seeks Religious Tenants-- May Violate Law

In New Jersey, a homeowner’s religious freedom claim could fail because it falls between the cracks of the state law’s exclusion for renting out part of an owner-occupied home. Yesterday’s Morris County Daily Record reports that homeowner Joe Fabrics requires the four tenants in his New Brunswick, NJ property to sign a lease that informs them that "This is a Christian household" and "If you hate God, don’t move in". The director of New Jersey’s Division of Human Rights says that this could be illegal religious discrimination. Fabrics owns a two-family home. He occupies it as a residence and also rents to four other tenants. New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination, Sec. 10:5-5(n) excludes from coverage "the rental (1) of a single apartment … in a two-family dwelling, the other occupancy unit of which is occupied by the owner as a residence; or (2) of a room or rooms to another person or persons by the owner … of a one-family dwelling occupied by the owner … as a residence at the time of such rental."

Fabrics, who says that his home contains two religious statues that weep holy tears, says that if after he makes his feelings clear, someone who does not believe in God insists on moving in, he will let them do so.

Opinion In Hollywood, FL. Synagogue Case Finding Zoning Regs Vague

Religion Clause has included numerous postings on the litigation involving alleged discrimination against a Hollywood, Florida synagogue stemming from the city’s removal of a special zoning exception that it had previously granted the Orthodox Jewish Chabad group. Negotiations toward a settlement in the case were encouraged by an announcement in June by Judge Joan A. Lenard that she planned to rule that the city’s zoning ordinance was unconstitutionally vague. Her formal decision finding that to be the case has now become available. In Hollywood Community Synagogue, Inc. v. City of Hollywood, Florida, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49491 (SD Fla., June 24, 2006), the court held that the directions given to the Development Review Board by the zoning statute are not sufficiently "precise and objective" and could lend themselves to covert discrimination against houses of worship under the guise of "compatibility" or other intangible considerations.

The court ordered that Hollywood Community Synagogue be granted the special exception that it formerly had, conditioned only on certain specific conditions regarding soundproofing and trash. It ordered that the city promptly enact a new Special Exception ordinance for places of worship with narrow, objective and definite standards to guide city officials. Finally it ordered that the issue of damages be placed before a jury.

This Week's Prisoner Free Exercise Decisions

In Kretchmar v. Beard, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49530 (ED Pa., July 18, 2006), a Pennsylvania federal court rejected the Free Exercise and RLUIPA claims filed by a Reform Jewish prisoner who argued that he should have been provided with a Kosher diet consisting of a rotating menu and two hot meals per day instead of the repetitive and cold Kosher diet that was given to him.

In Buchanan v. Burbury, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48244 (ND Ohio, July 17, 2006), an Ohio federal district court granted a preliminary injunction in a RLUIPA case brought by an inmate who was an adherent of the Yahweh's New Covenant Assembly, a Sacred Name Sabbatarian faith group. The court ordered that plaintiff be provided with a kosher diet, he be excused from work on the Sabbath and his religion’s seven holy days, and that the group be given the opportunity to worship under the same requirements as other groups, which might require that it be removed from the prison’s Protestant catchment and placed into its own separate catchment.

Survey Of Religious Freedom In Africa

The international Catholic charity Aid To The Church In Need has published a report on the state of religious freedom in African countries. Zenit has published the report in three parts— here are the links 1, 2, 3.

Hate Crimes Still In The News

Hate crimes continue to make the news. In California, new data shows that hate crimes were at a new low in 2005, down 4.5% from the year before. (San Francisco Chronicle.) However in Lewiston, Maine, state prosecutors have filed charges of desecrating of a place of worship, a misdemeanor, against Brent Matthews. He is charged with rolling a frozen pig's head into a mosque in Lewiston on July 3 while 26 men prayed. Yesterday, state Attorney General Steven Rowe filed a civil lawsuit against Matthews alleging that he was motivated by bias based on race, color, ancestry, national origin and religion. The suit asks the court to bar Matthews from having contact with the mosque or its members and to order him to comply with the state's anti-discrimination law. Mosque leaders hope that federal hate crime charges will also be brought. (Boston Globe.)

Vodou Practitioner Gets Light Sentence

The Miami, Florida Herald reports that Myrlene Severe was sentenced in federal court today to two years probation and a $1000 fine for illegally storing human remains. The woman, a practitioner of Vodou, brought a skull, with strands of black curly hair, in her luggage on a flight back from Haiti. It was nestled in a cotton rice bag along with a banana leaf, dirt, small stones and a rusty iron nail. Severe believed that the skull would protect her. She did not know she was violating the law when she brought the skull in as a part of her religious beliefs. Originally more serious charges were filed against her, but they were subsequently reduced to a misdemeanor charge. (See prior posting).

New Scholarly Articles Posted Online

From Bepress:
Kathleen A. Brady, Religious Group Autonomy: Further Reflections About What Is At Stake (July 1, 2006).

From SSRN:
Richard W. Garnett IV, The Freedom of the Church , forthcoming in Journal of Catholic Social Thought, Vol. 4 (2007) .

Joel A. Nichols, Dual Lenses: Using Theology and Human Rights to Evaluate China's 2005 Regulations on Religion, forthcoming in Pepperdine Law Review, Vol 34 (2006). [Thanks to Legal Theory blog.]