En Banc 5th Circuit Finds TX Bible Monument Case Moot; But Injunction Retained

The dispute over the display of a Bible in a monument on the grounds of the Harris County (TX) court house is now moot. In an en banc decision in Staley v. Harris County, Texas, (5th Cir., April 24, 2007), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decided that it would not reach the merits of the Establishment Clause challenge because, just days before oral argument in the case, the county placed the monument in storage to permit renovation of the court house grounds. However (over the dissent of 2 judges) the court left the district court judgment in place. The district court had found an Establishment Clause violation and had ordered the county to remove the monument. That determination had been upheld by a 3-judge panel of the 5th Circuit. The 5th Circuit's en banc opinion also decided that plaintiff was entitled to an award of attorneys' fees. According to today's Houston Chronicle, fees at the trial level were assessed at $40,000, and plaintiff's appellate fees have reached $200,000.

Three of the 16 judges on the en banc panel dissented arguing that the case should be remanded for fact finding on whether it could reasonably be expected that the county would reinstall the monument in the future.

Americans United, the group that had filed the lawsuit originally, issued a release applauding the court's decision to leave the injunction in place. Reporting on the decision, today's Houston Chronicle says that Harris County will likely appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Postal Unit Violates Establishment Clause By Displaying Religious Material

In Cooper v. United States Postal Service, (D CT, April 18, 2007), a Connecticut federal district court held that a contract postal unit (CPU)-- a private business that has contracted with the U.S. Postal Service to provide postal services to the public-- violates the Establishment Clause when it posts religious displays that proselytize or advance religion. Some 5,200 CPUs operate nationwide in locations such as and colleges, grocery stores, and pharmacies. Several are operated by groups with religious affiliations. The court held that the CPU contract with Sincerely Yours, Inc.-- a non-profit set up by Full Gospel Interdenominational Church-- does not violate the Establishment Clause. However SYI's religious displays in its CPU in Manchester, New Hampshire do. In addition to discussing the Establishment Clause, the court's decision contains an extensive discussion of the "state action" doctrine, concluding that the "SYI CPU is so entwined with the Postal Service that its conduct may be deemed state action." A report in yesterday's Boston Globe discusses the court's decision.

British Agency Issues Guides For Wearing Niqab In Court

Britain's Judicial Studies Board has recently published an update to its Equal Treatment Bench Book including "Guidance On the Wearing of the Full Veil, or Niqab, In Court". Here are excerpts:

[F]or Muslim women who do choose to wear the niqab, it is an important element of their religious and cultural identity. To force a choice between that identity (or cultural acceptability), and the woman’s involvement in the criminal, civil justice, or tribunal system (as a witness, party, member of court staff or legal office-holder) may well have a significant impact on that woman’s sense of dignity and would likely serve to exclude and marginalise further women with limited visibility in courts and tribunals....

The primary question that needs to be asked by any judicial office holder before coming to a decision is: What is the significance of seeing this woman’s face to the judicial task that I have to fulfil?

The guidelines go on to discuss the varying considerations when a woman seeking to wear the niqab is a judge, a juror, a victim or complainant, a witness or defendant, or an advocate. Articles in The Lawyer.com and the Associated Press yesterday discussed the Board's new guidelines.

Pressure Continues In Thailand For Buddhism As State Religion

In Thailand, pressure continues for drafters of the country's new Constitution to include in it a provision making Buddhism the nation's official religion. (See prior posting.) A march today by 500 saffron-robed monks-- along with nine elephants-- and a demonstration by 1400 people outside of Parliament pressed the demand, according to a report by Reuters. Thailand's Council for National Security-- the group that instituted last September's coup-- apparently is willing to accede to these demands, even though the Council's chairman is a Muslim.

Russia's Yeltsin Remembered For Mixed Legacy On Religious Freedom

Boris Yeltsin, first president of post-Soviet Russia, who died Monday left a mixed legacy on freedom of religion according to Christianity Today. Yeltsin initially lifted some restrictions on churches and laid the groundwork for the Orthodox Church to re-emerge as an important institution. (New York Times 1997 article.) However, the same law that aided the Orthodox Church-- the Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations-- has been criticized as discriminatory against newer religious groups. Only religious communities categorized as "religious organizations", instead of "religious groups", can enjoy full rights. (1997 Human Rights News.)

Suit Challenges Pricing Of Indiana's "In God We Trust" Plates

The ACLU has filed suit against the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles challenging the state's practice of selling its "In God We Trust" license plates at the same prices as standard plates instead of charging the $15 administrative fee that must be paid for other specialty plates. (See prior posting.) Yesterday's report from the Associated Press says that plaintiff Mark E. Studler on whose behalf the ACLU brought the suit paid the administrative fee when he purchased specialty environmental plates. ACLU attorney Ken Falk says that waiver of the fee amounts to promotion of the religious-themed plate by the state. However Rep. Woody Burton who sponsored the legislation creating the plate says that no added fee is charged because these plates are stock items that do not generate financial support for any particular group. [Thanks to Joshua Claybourn for the lead.]

UPDATE: April 29th's Indy Star carries an interview with BMV Commissioner Ron Stiver on Inidana's controversial license plates. He says that BMV is not promoting one plate over any of the other 75 available designs.

Preacher Loses Challenge To Miami University's Speech Policy

In Gilles v. Hodge, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29369 (SD OH, April 20, 2007), an Ohio federal district court rejected a free speech and free exercise challenge by a Christian preacher who was not permitted to speak at Miami University's Academic Quad. The state University requires sponsorship by a student organization of any speaker on campus. James Gilles, who regularly preaches at universities, was told by campus security that he could only speak on city sidewalks or streets outside of campus. The court held that the University's speech policy is content-neutral and reasonable in light of the purpose served by the limited public forum that the University has created on campus. The court also rejected claims that the University's speech policy is overbroad and vague, and that plaintiff was discriminated against. (See prior related posting.)

Cert. Denied In Case Interpreting "Ministerial Exception" To Title VII

Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in Petruska v. Gannon University, Case No. 06-985 (Order List). At issue was the 3rd Circuit's holding that the "ministerial exception' to Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act can shield religious institutions not just from suits claiming religious discrimination, but also from those claiming discrimination on a ground other than religious belief. (See prior posting.) The AP yesterday reported on the case. [Thanks to Donald C. Clark, Jr. for the lead.]

Jail Permits On-Site Baptisms After Threat of Suit

A Liberty Counsel press release says that its threat to file a free exercise and RLUIPA suit caused New Mexico's Curry County Detention Center to permit baptism of prisoners at the jail. A Christian ministry is now allowed to use a mobile portable baptismal tank-- furnished by the ministry-- to baptize inmates. The ministry will also pay any additional security costs involved. Liberty Counsel's founder Matthew Staver said: "Rather than throwing up roadblocks to Christian faith and worship, prisons should welcome the positive changes that the Christian conversion brings..." [Thanks to Alliance Alert for the lead.]

Gideons In Court In Florida As Defendants and Plaintiffs

In Key Largo, Florida, both a criminal and a civil proceeding are under way in connection with the attempt of members of the Gideons to hand out Bibles on the sidewalk outside of Key Largo schools. Originally arrested in January, charges against Anthony Mirto and Ernest Simpson were dismissed, but now they are being re-charged under a rarely-invoked statute that prohibits individuals from being within 500 feet of a school without legitimate business. (FL Stats. Sec. 810.0975, School Safety Zones.) One News Now reported last week that defendants have filed motions to dismiss.

Meanwhile, the Alliance Defense Fund has filed a civil suit on behalf of another Key Largo member of the Gideons challenging the constitutionality of applying the school safety zone statute to prevent Bibles from being distributed. (Press release.) The suit (full text of complaint) claims speech, due process, equal protection and free exercise violations, as well as a violation of Florida's Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Another NYPD Police Officer Loses Case Challenging His Placement In AA Program

A previous posting discussed three cases in which a New York federal district court dismissed complaints by New York City police officers that the Establishment Clause was violated when they were forced into an Alcoholics Anonymous program. Now another opinion released on the same day, and reaching the same result, has become available. It holds that plaintiff alleged only that the AA program was "religious based," but did not indicate whether he was forced to pray or acknowledge God, or whether there were any references to God at all in the program. The case, Herlihy v. City of New York, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29231 (EDNY, March 30, 2007), also rejects plaintiff's claim that his speech rights were infringed when city officials retaliated against him for criticizing the NYPD order that he seek substance abuse therapy.

Settlement Says Wiccan Pentacle Can Now Be On Markers In National Cemeteries

Wiccan service personnel who are buried in national cemeteries will now be able to have a symbol of their faith-- the Pentacle-- placed on their grave markers. A settlement agreement was filed today in a Wisconsin federal district court in a suit filed by the widows of two servicemen last November. (See prior posting.) In the settlement in Circle Sanctuary v. Nicholson, the federal government agrees to add the Pentacle to the list of 38 already approved symbols representing many other religious faiths. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, representing the widows in the lawsuit, says in a release hailing the agreement that the lengthy delay in recognizing the Pentacle seems to have been motivated by bias against Wiccans. The AP reports that the government agreed to settle when it became clear that new rules being drafted by the VA would lead to the Wiccan symbol being favorably considered. Under the settlement, the VA will also pay $225,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs.

UPDATE: Here is a link to the full text of the settlement agreement. The Washington Post on Tuesday quotes AU executive director Barry Lynn as suggesting that the VA's resistance on this issue was due in part to its interpretation of remarks made in 1999 by then-Texas Governor George W Bush critical of Wicca. [Thanks to Melissa Rogers for the leads.]

Baltimore Schools Pressed To Close For Muslim Holidays

Today's Baltimore Sun reports on the decade-long attempt by Bash Pharoan, president of the Baltimore chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, to get Baltimore County schools to close for two major Islamic holidays. He argues that if schools are closed on Yom Kippur and Christmas, they also should be closed on Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Attorney Rochelle S. Eisenberg says that state law only allows schools to close for a religious holiday if there are also "secular reasons." So if so many teachers would be absent on a holiday that classes could not be covered, schools could shut down.

Church of England To Crack Down On Bogus Marriages

In order to gain British citizenship, foreign nationals sometimes enter a "marriage of convenience". To prevent this, Britain requires that any non-British, non-EU citizen obtain a certificate of approval to marry. However, marriages performed by the Church of England are exempt from this requirement, and a growing number of immigrants have been seeking marriage by the Church. Now, according to Christian Today, the Church of England is creating new guidelines to prevent its exemption from being used for bogus weddings.

Australia Worries About Rush of Prison Conversions To Islam

In Australia's New South Wales, prison authorities have become suspicious of the large number of conversions to Islam in the high security Goulburn prison. In a World Today interview, New South Wales Minister for Justice John Hatzistergos confirmed that Goulburn authorities have begun isolating the Islamic converts because of concerns that they were being paid to pray, and were using prayer gatherings as a cover to plan a prison escape. Convicted murderer Bassam Hamzy has become a religious leader in the prison and has converted over a dozen high security prisoners. Objecting to the new measures, Brett Collins of Justice Action said that if the conversions had been to Christianity instead, the prisoners would probably be on their way to release.

Recent Articles on Law and Religion

From SSRN:
Stephen A. Newman, Evolution and the Holy Ghost of Scopes: Can Science Lose the Next Round?, (Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, Vol. 8, No. 2, Spring 2007).

David R. Barnhizer, Reverse Colonization: Islam, Honor Cultures and the Confrontation Between Divine and Quasi-Secular Natural Law, (April 16, 2007, Cleveland-Marshall Legal Studies Paper No. 07-142).

From Bepress:
Mark C. Modak-Truran, Secularization, Legal Indeterminacy, and Habermas's Discourse Theory of Law, (2007).

From SmartCILP:
Martha Minow, Religion and the Burden of Proof: Posner's Economics and Pragmatism in Matzl v. Leininger, 120 Harvard Law Review 1175-1186 (2007).

Smita Narula, Book review (Reviewing Gary Jeffrey Jacobsohn, The Wheel of Law: India's Secularism in Comparative Constitutional Context), 4 International Journal of Constitutional Law 741-751 (2006).

Amit Patel, The Orthodoxy Opening Predicament: The Crumbling Wall of Separation Between Church and State, 83 University of Detroit Mercy Law Review 195-228 (2006).

Bishop Heading China's State-Backed Catholic Church Dies

The Washington Post reported Saturday on the death of the chairman of China's state-backed Catholic Church, 76-year old Bishop Fu Tieshan. Fu was known for his confrontations with the Vatican over who could appoint bishops in China. China has insisted on making its own choices instead of deferring to the Pope. (See prior posting.)

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.