Objective coverage of church-state and religious liberty developments, with extensive links to primary sources.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
En Banc 5th Circuit Finds TX Bible Monument Case Moot; But Injunction Retained
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
British Agency Issues Guides For Wearing Niqab In Court
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.[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?
Pressure Continues In Thailand For Buddhism As State Religion
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Russia's Yeltsin Remembered For Mixed Legacy On Religious Freedom
Suit Challenges Pricing Of Indiana's "In God We Trust" Plates
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
Cert. Denied In Case Interpreting "Ministerial Exception" To Title VII
Jail Permits On-Site Baptisms After Threat of Suit
Gideons In Court In Florida As Defendants and Plaintiffs
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
Monday, April 23, 2007
Settlement Says Wiccan Pentacle Can Now Be On Markers In National Cemeteries
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
Church of England To Crack Down On Bogus Marriages
Australia Worries About Rush of Prison Conversions To Islam
Recent Articles on Law and Religion
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
Sunday, April 22, 2007
President Sets May 3 As "National Day of Prayer"
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
Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Decisions
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.