Objective coverage of church-state and religious liberty developments, with extensive links to primary sources.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Recent Articles On the Constitution, Law and Religion
David B. Kopel, The Catholic Second Amendment, 29 Hamline Law Review 519-565 (2006).
Pat Nolan & Marguerite Telford, Indifferent No More: People of Faith Mobilize to End Prison Rape, 32 Journal of Legislation 129-141 (2006).
From SSRN:
Richard W. Garnett IV & Joshua D. Dunlap, Taking Accommodation Seriously: Religious Freedom and the O Centro Case (2006 Cato Supreme Court Review 257 ).
From Bepress:
Robert J. Delahunty, Varied Carols: Legislative Prayer in a Pluralist Polity (August 24, 2006).
Sunday, September 24, 2006
University Of Wisconsin Refuses To Recognize Catholic Foundation As Student Group
Last May, the University's chancellor reluctantly recommended approval $145,000 for the Foundation even though he believed that use of the funds for an evangelical ministry, prayer groups and Lenten booklets would violate the Establishment Clause. Recently the University applied the rule requiring students to control recognized organizations to deny recognition to the Knights of Columbus as a student group. (See prior posting.)
Religion In Russian Schools
Vermont Supreme Court Rejects Free Exercise Argument In License Suspension
Church Land Use Denial Arises In Claim Against Army
Recalled Trustee's Challenge To Pledge of Allegiance Fails
A report on the case in Saturday's Rocky Mountain News points out that the U.S. Justice Department had entered the case on the side of the town, arguing that the Pledge is merely a patriotic exercise.
Bush Addresses Muslims On Ramadan and In Radio Address
The next day in his weekly radio address, the President said that Muslim nations are bound together with other civilized nations in the struggle between moderation and extremism throughout the Middle East.
Friday, September 22, 2006
NAACP Says Clinic Closing For Jewish Sabbath Is Discriminatory
UPDATE: Here is the full text of the complaint filed with the State Division of Human Rights by the NAACP, courtesy of Eugene Volokh.
President's Greetings As Rosh Hashanah Begins
Detroit Muslims Say Charity Harassed Again This Ramadan
No Establishment Clause Problem With Minnesota Criminal Sexual Conduct Law
Riots After Indonesia Executes Three Catholics
Church Votes To Fight IRS Summons
House Resolution Condemns Repression of Bahais By Iran
Funeral Picketers Become Kansas Election Issue
Thursday, September 21, 2006
9th Circuit OK's Exclusion Of Worship Services From Library Rooms
A dissent by Judge Tallman argued that any attempt by the County to distinguish worship from other kinds of religious speech would create excessive government entanglement with religion, in violation of the Establishment Clause.
However, the most interesting reading was Judge Karlton's concurring opinion. He wrote:
The San Jose Mercury News covers the decision. (Also see prior related posting.)I concur in Judge Paez's well-reasoned opinion, which reflects the sorry state of the law. I write separately to express my dismay at that sorry state.
This should be a simple case it asks whether the county can be forced to subsidize a religious organization's prayer meetings by requiring it to provide the religious organization with a free place to worship. A quick reading of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States should answer the question....
[Prior cases] turn on the High Court's purported inability to distinguish between a sermon and a speech. That distinction, however, is compelled by the First Amendment.... [R]eligious speech is categorically different than secular speech and is subject to analysis under the Establishment and Free Exercise Clause without regard to the jurisprudence of free speech.
Those, like myself, who advocate adherence to the strictures of the Establishment Clause, do so not out of hostility towards religion.... Rather, we are motivated by recognition of the passions that deeply-held religious views engender, and the serious threat of marrying those passions to government power.... That threat is not merely historic. One need only look about the world to see that danger in play.
Study of Black Churches and Faith-Based Initiative
Pope Again Tries To Explain His Remarks About Islam
For the careful reader of my text, it is clear that I did not wish at any time to make my own the negative words uttered by the medieval emperor in this dialogue and that its controversial content does not express my personal conviction.... I wished to invite the Christian faith to dialogue with the modern world and to dialogue with all cultures and religions.He said that he has tried to make clear his
deep respect for the great religions, in particular for Muslims -- who 'adore the one God' and with whom we are engaged in "preserving and promoting together for all mankind social justice, moral values, peace and freedom."
Two Decisions On Jurisdiction Over Religious Employment Disputes
In Vann v. Guildfield Missionary Baptist Church, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66947 (WD VA, Sept. 19, 2006), a Virginia federal district court permitted the minister of a church to proceed with his claim that his dismissal by the deacon of his church violated the church's bylaws. The bylaws provided for the minister's dismissal only by a vote of a majority of the church's members. The court said that since no member vote was ever taken, "the Church itself has never acted. Thus, I have subject matter jurisdiction to consider this case because the decision to fire Vann .... was not the decision of a religious entity or church. As a result, that decision is not constitutionally protected from judicial review."
Maruani v. AER Services, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66789 (D MN, Sept. 18, 2006), involved the dismissal of Leo Maruani , a shochet (kosher butcher), from the employ of AER Services, a commercial business that provides slaughtering services for companies that sell kosher meat products. He was dismissed after the rabbi supervising the plant in which he worked objected to the fact that Maruani was not leading a visibly pious life because he did not live within walking distance of an Orthodox synagogue.
The court dismissed Maruani's claim that he was discriminated against because of his religion in violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act. He alleged that the supervising rabbis placed religious requirements upon him that they did not impose on other shochtim. The court held: "An examination of the gradations in the rules of Kashruth or severity with which the rabbis enforced those rules is precisely the type of religious-based claim the Court is forbidden from entertaining." However the court permitted Maruani to proceed with claims that the rabbis' religious objections were not the real reason for his dismissal, and that the real reasons violated Minnesota's Whistleblower Act and its Workers Compensation Act.