Litigants Agree Elementary Students May Read Bible At Recess

In Knoxville, Tennessee on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press, federal district judge Thomas Phillips scolded attorneys for the schools and the family of fifth-grader Luke Whitson for permitting a misunderstanding to escalate into into a federal lawsuit. Whitson's parents claim Karns Elementary School Principal Cathy Summa told Luke he could not study the Bible with other students during recess. The principal denies that she said this. At a meeting ordered by the judge, both sides agreed that Knox County Schools have not and will not have a policy or practice of banning students from reading religious texts at recess. However, the lawsuit has not been dismissed.

Pakistan Supreme Court Orders Websites With Muhammad Cartoons Blocked

On order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority has blocked access in the country to all websites displaying the controversial cartoons of Muhammad that were first published in a Danish paper. Asia Media reports that in the suit against a number of defendants, including Yahoo USA, attorney Qamar Afzal argued that availability of the cartoons should be declared to be intellectual terrorism. The court asked Attorney General of Pakistan Makhdoom Ali Khan to assist the court in determining how it can exercise broader jurisdiction to prevent availability of blasphemous material on websites all over the world. The court will take up the case again next Monday.

The International Freedom of Expression Exchange reported last week that the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority ordered Internet service providers to block 12 websites carrying the offending cartoons. ISPs, apparently as required by the PTA order, to implement the blackout have blocked all blogs hosted by blogspot.com.

Long Beach Seeking To Take Church Property For Condos

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's Kelo decision, Baptist Press reported yesterday on the beginnings of a controversial attempt by redevelopment officials in Long Beach, California to use eminent domain to acquire the church building of the Filipino Baptist Fellowship. On March 13, the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency Board voted 6-0 to condemn the church in order to build condominiums, despite opposition from many community members. The church's attorney, John Eastman, director of The Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, said proving that the taking is for a public use would be simple for the city because a church is tax-exempt and a housing project would bring in tax revenue.

Dutch Ministers Fail To Agree on Burka Ban

In the Netherlands yesterday, according to Expatica, Immigration and Integration Minister Rita Verdonk was unable to get cabinet agreement on banning the wearing of burkas in education, health care and certain other situations on security grounds. Two government parties have supported a broader ban that would prohibit wearing the burka anywhere in public. Legal experts, however, suggest that even a limited ban on the cloak worn by some Muslim women would violate the country's Constitutional protection of religious freedom.

California Bill Would Require Consideration of Religion In Adoptions

In California last month, Assemblyman Chuck DeVore introduced into the state legislature a bill that would require courts in adoptions and in appointment of guardians after terminating parental rights to consider "the religious, cultural, moral,and ethnic values of the child or of his or her birth parents, if those values are known or ascertainable by the exercise of reasonable care." (AB 2130).

Law Prof Says Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment Would Violate Religion Clauses

Two weeks ago, American University law professor Jamie Raskin testified before the Judicial Proceedings Committee of the Maryland State Senate in opposition to a proposed state constitutional amendment that would bar gay marriage. His testimony (full text) focused directly on free exercise and establishment clause issues posed by the amendment. He said:

[W]hen I hear testimony from my fellow Marylanders about how ending statewide marriage discrimination would collide with their church beliefs, my response is simple and, I hope, reassuring: Your church will never have to perform a marriage ceremony of any gay couple or indeed any couple of any kind that it disapproves of....

But the irony here is that the State today is stopping many churches and temples from marrying gay couples that the churches want to marry. That is, the State today is violating the rights of many churches--including Unitarian, Episcopal, Presybeterian and Jewish congregations, among many others--who seek to perform lawful weddings for their parishioners but may not simply because other groups of citizens think it would be wrong for them to do it.

Because America is for all its citizens regardless of religion and because so many churches have so many different belief systems, we are governed here not by religious law but by secular law. The rules of civil marriage--the license that the State grants you to marry--must be determined with respect to the federal and state Constitutions, not particular religious claims, no matter how fervently held.

Later, in response to a Senator's question about whether "God's law" prohibits gay marriage, Raskin replied:

"Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You didn't place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."

Raskin himself is a candidate for Maryland's State Senate this year. [Thanks to Roy Mersky via Religionlaw for the information.]

Ohio Clergy Group Plans Rally Today For Social Justice Issues

The AP reports that a rally is planned today by We Believe Ohio, a group of over 100 Protestant, Catholic and Jewish clergy in central Ohio that wants to move debate away from divisive issues such as gay marriage , and refocus on social justice issues issues, such as jobs, education and health care. (See prior posting on other religious political activities in Ohio.)

Article Chronicles New Partisan Appeals To Religion

Beliefnet this week carries a long article by Amy Sullivan titled Why Evangelicals Are Bolting the GOP. She says, "There is a growing recognition among mainstream Democrats and the once-quiescent Religious Left that they can reframe issues they care about in terms that appeal to religious voters." The article chronicles some of the attempts by the Republican party to prevent Democrats from succeeding in this strategy. It begins with a particularly interesting description of Republican opposition in the Alabama legislature to a Democratic-sponsored bill to permit a high school elective course on the Bible in history and culture.

Texas Moment of Silence Law Challenged

In Dallas, Texas, parents of an elementary school child filed suit in federal district court last Friday challenging Texas' statute providing for a moment of silence at the beginning of the school day. The Dallas Morning News reports that parents David and Shannon Croft alleged in their complaint that one of their children was told by a teacher to be quiet because the minute is a "time for prayer." Croft commented, "I do not believe there is any secular reason for a moment of silence. This is just a ruse to get prayer in school without calling it prayer in school. Is there any study showing a moment of silence helps education?" The Crofts are atheists, and Mr. Croft has complained to the schools a number of times about religious themed songs, school meetings of the Good News Club, and a poster in the school reading "In God We Trust".

The law, (Educ. Code 25.082) passed in 2003, allows children to "reflect, pray, meditate or engage in any other silent activities" for one minute after the American and Texas pledges at the beginning of each school day. In 1985, in Wallace v. Jaffree, the U.S. Supreme Court found that an Alabama moment of silence law was an unconstitutional promotion of prayer. State Rep. Dan Branch who co-sponsored the 2003 Texas law, said legislators, aware of constitutional issues, carefully worded the statute to create a neutral time. He said teachers have told him the law helps calm children down. Letting children pray in school makes them feel the school is not hostile toward their religion, he said.

Prisoner Claims Punishment For Prayer

In McLeod v. Still, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9702 (DNJ, Feb. 14, 2006), a New Jersey federal district judge let a somewhat unusual prisoner free exercise claim proceed. Prisoner Randolph McLeod claimed that his exercise of religion was infringed when he was interrupted and charged with a disciplinary violation in the prison's law library while he was typing a letter to a judge that contained a prayer. McLeod charged that in a second incident, a different corrections officer made slanderous remarks about the prisoner's religion while he was praying in his cell and threatened and punished him for praying.

Tennessee Paper Opposes Special Christian License Plates

The Jackson, Tennessee Sun today editorializes against a bill that his been introduced into the Tennessee legislature to provide for a new specialty license plate carrying the Christian symbol of a fish. The bill is HB 3072 and its companion SB 3204. The newspaper's editorial argues that the state special license plate program should be limited to secular themes.

Battle In Wisconsin Over Angel Statue In Public Park

A new variation of the battle over placing religious symbols on public property is brewing in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The Associated Press reports that the nonprofit grief-support group, Compassionate Friends, would like to place a "Christmas Box Angel" statue in the city's Menominee Park. The Freedom From Religion Foundation threatens to sue if the city accepts the offer. The angels, which cost about $20,000 each, are based on "The Christmas Box," a book by Richard Paul Evans about a widow and the young family who moves in with her. Christmas Box House International says that the angel statutes, currently located in Salt Lake City and a number of other areas, are places for grieving parents to come to heal.

Purim Humor Aims At U.S. Politics

Tonight begins the Jewish holiday of Purim, which marks the escape of the Persian Jewish community from destruction, as recounted in the biblical Book of Esther. One tradition of Purim is the creation of humorous parodies. This week's Philadelphia Jewish Voice, in that tradition, carries five attempts at Purim humor parodying American politics. The articles-- which make for refreshing, albeit somewhat partisan, reading-- are titled Daylin Leach: Minyan Maker In Harrisburg; Liberals Flip-Flop on Vice-Presidential Hunting Trips ; Halliburton Wins Contract to Reconstruct Cheney's Reputation; U.S. Outsources Homeland Security to North Korea; and Bush: "I Am An Oilaholic".

Religious Freedom Issues In Tajikistan

Forum 18 reports today that Tajikistan's planned new law on religion will require registration of religious organizations, in violation of international human rights norms. It will join four other former Soviet republics in imposing this kind of requirement. Forum 18 also reports that authorities refuse to permit a madrasa, closed because of its members affiliation with the Islamic Revival Party, to reopen. The government says the Islamic school does not have a license from the Muslim Spiritual Administration (MSA). However the MSA no longer functions in the country, so there is no group that can grant the madrasa a license.

New Law & Religion Scholarship Online

A number of new scholarly articles of interest have recently been posted online:

From Bepress:

• Shelley Ross Saxer & Daryl Fisher-Ogden, World Religions and Clean Water Laws.
• Marc L. Roark, All in the Family: The Apocalyptic Legal Tradition as Crit Theory.
• Marc L. Roark, Understanding Jurisprudential Approaches to Islam.
• Mark Osler, Christ, Christians & Capital Punishment.
  

From SSRN

• Robin Charlow, The Elusive Meaning of Religious Equality, to appear in Winter 2006 Washington Univ. Law Review.
• Scott C. Idleman, Religious Premises, Legislative Judgments, and the Establishment Clause (recently posted online, though it appeared in the 2002 issue of the Cornell Journal of Law & Public Policy).
  

New Jersey Church Has Preliminary RLUIPA Win

In Church of the Hills of Bedminster v. Township of Bedminster, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9488 (DNJ, Feb. 24, 2006) a New Jersey federal district court upheld the constitutionality of the land use provisions of RLUIPA over a wide variety of constitutional attacks, and found that plaintiff's complaint adequately stated a claim under RLUIPA and the Equal Protection Clause,. However, it dismissed plaintiff's due process claim. The decision permits Church of the Hills to move forward in its challenge to a denial of zoning variances sought to accommodate the church's planned expansion.

Workplace Chaplaincies Create New Legal Issues

A Knight Ridder article in today's Macon Telegraph focuses on the growing practice of companies providing chaplains to employees in the workplace. The article raises interesting questions of employee rights and chaplains' duties of confidentiality. Presbyterian minister and University of Richmond Professor Douglas Hicks warns of some of the difficult conflicts faced by corporate chaplains. Can companies encourage their chaplains to counsel workers who are laid off to deal with their anger in ways other than suing the company? When may ( or must) chaplains who learn of employee wrongdoing during counseling report to the company that an employee has stolen corporate funds? And what about informing the company of employee drug or alcohol abuse, costly medical conditions or union activity?

Arizona House Moves On 4 Bills To Aid Parochial Schools

The Arizona Daily Star reports that on Thursday, the Arizona House of Representatives gave preliminary approval to three bills providing for school vouchers that can be used in private and parochial schools, even though some members questioned the constitutionality of the measures. The House gave final approval to another bill permitting corporations to direct up to $5 million a year of their state income-tax obligations to organizations that provide scholarships for students to attend private and parochial schools.

Another Israeli Election Ad Banned-- This Time For Religious Promises

After earlier this week banning an anti-religious election ad run by a secular political party, Israel's Central Elections Committee Chairwoman Judge Dorit Beinish has now banned an ad by Shas, one of the religious parties. The ad features the party's spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, explaining that anyone who votes for Shas will end up in heaven. According to today's Ynet News, Shas Chairman Eli Yishai bitterly attacked the decision, and hinted at a comparison between Judge Beinish and Haman, the villain in the story of Purim (a Jewish holiday which begins Monday evening).

Utah Schools Fear Cost of Distributing Notice On Religious Rights

The Utah legislature yesterday passed Senate Joint Resolution 9 which states: "The Legislature of the state of Utah recognizes the right of public school students to voluntarily participate in prayer, and also in the singing of songs and in expressions related to holidays that are religious in nature, in public schools, within known legal limits of religious expression, tolerance, civility, and dignity as contemplated by this nation's founders." The resolution is required to be sent each year to about 510,000 public students, parents, the PTA, Utah Education Association, State Board of Education, Utah League of Cities and Towns and Utah Association of Counties. Utah's Daily Herald says that school districts are concerned that they will be saddled with the $10,000 annual cost of distribution if the PTA or another group does not volunteer to pay for it.