Another Indian State Considering Anti-Conversion Law

In India, the state of Chattisgarh this summer may become the eighth Indian state to adopt an anti-conversion bill, according to AsiaNews today. Introduced in the State Assembly at the request of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the bill would require a person wishing to change religion to inform a district magistrate one month in advance. The bill would also prohibit forcible conversion of others. The penalty for violating the law would be a fine of 50,000 to 100,000 rupees and imprisonment up to five years.

Suit Challenges Church's Attempt To Reform Sinners

Today's Dallas (Texas) Morning News reports on a fascinating suit winding it way through Texas state courts. Two individuals, identified only as John Doe and Jane Roe, told the pastor of Dallas' Watermark Community Church about certain sins they had committed, thinking the conversation was confidential. However church officials began a process of "care and correction" that they say is outlined in the Biblical book of Matthew. The process involves confronting the person one to one, and then increasingly going more public with the person's behavior until the person changes his or her conduct. Here Doe refused the private interventions and resigned from the church, but Watermark's bylaws say a member "may not resign from membership in an attempt to avoid such care and correction." As the church was about to send more than a dozen letters to people inside and outside the church who know "John Doe", Doe filed suit for an injunction to prevent the release of private information. At first the court granted a temporary restraining order, but it was dissolved when the church argued that the TRO violated its free exercise rights. Now the case is on appeal.

Indonesia Drops Plan To Remove Religion From ID Cards

Today's Jakarta Post reports that earlier this month, an official of the Indonesian Home Ministry said that consideration was being given to dropping religious identification from the country's national identity cards. Opposition to the move, however, has caused the plan to be shelved at least temporarily. Indonesia recognizes only six religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Others must choose one of these six faiths if they want a valid ID card. Human rights groups have long criticized this requirement as discriminatory.

Home School Official Fears U.N. Convention

LifeSiteNews yesterday reported on a creative legal spectre newly focused upon by the Home School Legal Defense Association. HSLDA Chairman and General Counsel, Michael Farris, warns that "activist judges" may find that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the U.S. has never ratified, is binding nevertheless on the U.S. as customary international law. If that were to happen, he claims, a court might find that the Convention undercuts a parent's right to control the religious education of his children.

Pointing to a in 1995 determination, apparently by the UN's Committee on the Rights of the Child, in which "the United Kingdom was deemed out of compliance" with the Convention "because it allowed parents to remove their children from public school sex-education classes without consulting the child", Farris says that, "by the same reasoning, parents would be denied the ability to homeschool their children unless the government first talked with their children and the government decided what was best." Farris suggests that Congress should act by defining customary international law, or by amending the Constitution to protect parental rights or clearly provide that international agreements do not supersede the Constitution.

German Chancellor Wants Religious References In EU Constitution

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged that there should be a reference to God and Christianity in the European Union Constitution, according to a report by EUobserver today. Spain, Italy and Poland had previously taken a similar position on the Constitution that is now on hold after it was rejected by France and Netherlands in referenda last year. Merkel's remarks came as she was about to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan today, and as tomorrow European leaders meet in Austria to discuss the next moves that should be taken on the EU Constitution.

Religious Accommodation Claim Against New York Transit Authority Rejected

In Bowles v. New York City Transit Authority, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32914 (SDNY, May 23, 2006), a New York federal district court rejected Title VII, state law, and First Amendment claims by an ordained minister in Fellowship Tabernacle of Christ who was employed as a subway cleaner by the New York Transit system. The court found that plaintiff Warren Bowles had failed to prove the required elements of his claim that NYCTA had failed to accommodate his religious need to abstain from Sunday work. In fact, NYCTA did grant an accommodation after some delay. The court also rejected Bowles' claim that NYCTA had retaliated against him for filing suit to obtain religious accommodation.

Third Circuit Narrows Ministerial Exception In Title VII Cases

Yesterday in Petruska v. Gannon University, (3d Cir., May 24, 2006), the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals expanded the ability of ministerial employees to bring Title VII employment discrimination cases against churches and religious institutions that employ them. In this case, Lynette Petruska, the first female chaplain at Gannon University, a diocesan college, claimed that she was demoted solely because she was a woman. The Court rejected the defendants' claims that the suit should be dismissed under the "ministerial exception" doctrine. It held that the First Amendment exempts religious institutions from Title VII when gender or other illegal discrimination is based on religious belief, religious doctrine or internal church regulations. But if a church discriminates for reasons unrelated to religion, the Constitution does not foreclose a Title VII suit. The court said, "we decline to turn the Free Exercise Clause into a license for the free exercise of discrimination unmoored from religious principle." Judge Smith dissented on this issue.

In holding as it did, the majority disagreed with six other circuits that have found the ministerial exception to be broader. Inside Higher Ed today reports on the case. [Thanks to Eugene Volokh via Religionlaw listserv for the lead.]

South Carolina Bill Will Permit High School Credit For Released Time Courses

The Associated Press reports that yesterday, the South Carolina House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow high school students to receive two elective course credits for taking off-campus released-time religion classes that currently they may take only on a non-credit basis. S0148 passed the House by a vote of 94-15. The bill must now go back to the Senate which passed the bill last month in slightly different form.

Hindus Protest Secularization Of Nepal

Nepal's Parliament last week passed a resolution providing that Nepal would no longer formally be known as a Hindu nation, despite a provision in the country's 1990 Constitution providing that it is a Hindu kingdom. (See prior posting.) The Associated Press today reports on protest strikes over the change staged by Hindus, closing down the city of Birgunj, 100 miles south of Katmandu. Last month, protests forced King Gyanendra to give up the powers he seized last year and reinstate Parliament.

San Diego Votes To File Appeal In Mt. Soledad Cross Case

In San Diego, California on Tuesday, city council voted 5-3 to direct city attorney Mike Aguirre to appeal the decision by a federal judge ordering removal of the Mt. Soledad Cross. (See prior posting.) The city faces a $5,000 per day fine if it does not meet the trial judge's 90-day deadline for the removal. Yesterday's Christian Post reports on this development, and on the city attorney's suggestion that perhaps the city could take down the cross, sell the land to the highest bidder, and let that person decide what to do with the land. The new owner might reinstall the cross.

Shooting Of Turkish Judges May Not Have Had Islamist Motivation

The killing of one, and the wounding of four other, Council of State judges in Turkey last week was originally reported as a crime motivated by Islamic religious fanaticism. However, yesterday EurasiaNet reported that Alparslan Arslan, who is accused of carrying out the shooting, seems instead to be an anti-democratic ultra-right wing nationalist. EurasiaNet also reports that Muzaffer Tekin, the individual suspected of masterminding the plot, has ties to organized crime in Turkey.

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise/ RLUIPA Cases

In Hernandez v. Schriro, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32294 (D. Ariz., May 18, 2006), an Arizona federal district court denied injunctive relief to a Native American prisoner who claimed that prison officials prevented him from engaging in sweat lodge and pipe ceremonies with a Native American spiritual advisor, and denied him the right to have a headband or wear a medicine bag.

In Larry v. Goetz, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32164 (WD Wis., May 18, 2006), a Wisconsin federal district court found that jail officials adequately responded to a former inmate's request fro a copy of the Quran, but permitted him to proceed with a First Amendment and RLUIPA claim that no Jumah services were available for him.

In Thomas v. Saafir, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32178 (ND Cal., May 11, 2006), a California federal district court permitted a prisoner to proceed with a claim that he was wrongfully barred him from participating in Jumah services.

Pastor Says Jesus Endorsed Florida Gubernatorial Candidate

On Monday, Florida's Christian Family Coalition held a pastor appreciation breakfast in Miami. The 4 Florida gubernatorial candidates were invited to speak. Two showed up, but one of the two clearly got a boost, according to the Associated Press. Rev. O'Neal Dozier, introducing candidate Charlie Crist, said that the Lord Jesus had come to him in a dream two years ago and told him that Crist would be Florida's next governor. Dozier is not without political connections. Present Governor Jeb Bush appointed him to a board that nominates judges in south Florida. [Thanks to AlterNet for the lead.]

Graduation Prayer Continues To Be A Contentious Issue

As this year's high school graduations take place, it is clear that a number of schools are just realizing that scheduling of formal prayers as part of the graduation ceremony creates constitutional problems. After receiving an letter from the ACLU of Kentucky, the Shelby County, Kentucky school board decided to cancel the traditional invocation and benediction that students have given at graduation, as well as the traditional practice of formal prayer at a school banquet and awards ceremony. Today's Louisville Courier-Journal reports that Shelby county residents held a prayer vigil outside the closed school board meeting where the decision was made. The Muslim student in Shelby County who asked for ACLU assistance on the matter says that she understands that student graduation speakers might include prayers in their general remarks at commencement, but says that if they do, she hopes it is a respectful prayer for a religiously diverse audience.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, according to today's Memphis Commercial Appeal, Dr. Patricia Kilzer, a non-tenured chemistry teacher who was the faculty advisor for a newly-formed student ACLU chapter at Munford High School, was notified that her contract was not being renewed on the same day that the ACLU faxed a letter to the school asking for cancellation of all prayers at Monday's graduation. It is not clear that there is any connection between the two events.

Prayer has apparently been a contentious issue at Munford High School. Kilzer had previously asked the principal not to use the school's broadcasting system to talk about Jesus and religion. When the ACLU sent its letter about prayer, the principal held off approving the speech of the class valedictorian that included references to Jesus until he consulted attorneys for the American Center for Law and Justice. At Munford's graduation ceremonies, in what may now be turning into a standard protest ritual, most of the 286 graduating seniors recited "The Lord's Prayer" when Principal Darry Marshall asked for a moment of silence. School administrators said they knew nothing about the planned recitation.

Pope To Visit Poland Tomorrow

Tomorrow Pope Benedict XVI begins a five day visit to Poland. Benedict, the first German to become Pope since the 11th century, will include in his trip a visit to Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp. Benedict as a boy belonged to Hitler Youth when membership was obligatory. (Bloomberg News.) Government television stations in Poland have banned advertisements for "inappropriate products" during the Pope's visit. There will be no ads for lingerie, beer or tampons, and no ads with sexual innuendos, on state TV during his visit. (The Observer.) Yesterday's Chicago Tribune carried a long background article on the continuing strength of Catholicism and the Catholic Church in Poland.

Status of Consular Marriages To Be Heard By Israeli High Court

As several prior postings have discussed (1, 2, 3), in Israel the question of whether the government will recognize civil marriage, or leave a monopoly in the hands of religious authorities, continues to be an important issue. Today's Jerusalem Post reports on a new piece of the issue-- the question of whether the government will recognize "consular marriages". International agreements to which Israel is a party allow couples to be married by the consul of a foreign country if at least one member of the couple is a citizen of that country. However, in 1995, Israel's Foreign Ministry issued an internal memorandum to foreign embassies instructing them to stop performing such marriages. Petitions were filed in the High Court of Justice challenging the memo, but successive governments have managed to delay a hearing for years. Now, a hearing is scheduled for later this summer on whether the Interior Ministry must recognize consular marriages. Israel's religious parties oppose recognition, even if the marriage does not include Jewish partners, fearing that this will eventually lead to mixed marriages in Israel for Jews.

Texas School Removes "In God We Trust" From Coin On Yearbook

School officials sometimes take unusual steps to avoid First Amendment Establishment Clause problems. So it was in Keller, Texas this year according to today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Producers of the Liberty Elementary School 2005-06 yearbook decided to put an enlarged picture of a U.S. nickel on the yearbook's cover. The choice had some logic to it. This was Liberty Elementary's first year, and the new U.S. nickel has the word "Liberty" in its design. But then the school's principal and the PTA board concluded that having the nickel's "In God We Trust" motto prominently displayed "might create an issue with people of several religious faiths". But instead of finding another image for the cover, the school produced the yearbooks with a photo of the nickel that does not include the motto. Then, to further complicate matters, the school included with the yearbooks a sticker that families could use to restore "In God We Trust" to the coin on the book's cover.

Not surprisingly, the school has received some 300 e-mails complaining about the removal of the motto in the first place. Frank Manion, senior lawyer with evangelist Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice, commenting on the school's First Amendment concerns said, "I understand completely that there are areas of this that are nebulous. This isn't one of them." However a Dallas ACLU lawyers said he thought the school had made the correct decision.

San Diego Mayor Presses Feds On Mt. Soledad Cross

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders is is Washington this week pushing for the federal government to take over the Mt. Soledad Cross that a court has ordered removed from public property. (See prior posting.) The San Diego Union-Tribune today reported on the mayor's progress. White House officials have indicated that President Bush is "supportive in concept" with the proposal and "appreciates the importance of the monument". However lawyers from the White House counsel's office say there may be significant legal impediments to carrying out the idea.

Maharishi Plans "World Capital of Peace" In Kansas

USA Today reports today on plans by representatives of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to build a "World Capital of Peace"on over 1000 acres of land the group owns just outside Smith Center, Kansas. The Maharishi is the founder of the transcendental meditation movement. The Kansas location was chosen because it is near the center of the United States. The $15 million project will include a retreat center, buildings for training and meditating, and a broadcast center. Eric Michner, a spokesman for the group, said that 300 "meditators" will use the retreat facility to "create waves of coherence that will benefit everybody in society." The site's central location will allow those waves to spread across the USA, he says. Also affiliated with the Maharishi is the Natural Law Party which was founded in 1992. Its leader, John Hagelin, has run for president three times. Hagelin also heads the U.S. Peace Government that will be headquartered in the proposed World Capital of Peace.

Student Center OKd For Residential Area By Pennsylvania Court

In Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown v. Zoning Hearing Board, (Comwlth. Ct. Pa., May 19, 2006), a Pennsylvania appellate court held that a proposed Catholic Student Center at Penn State University should be classified for zoning purposes as a structure that will primarily be used as a place of worship, even though in addition to a chapel it will contain a student lounge, study rooms, a library, a kitchen and dining room, and housing for three monks and their guests. Places of worship may be built in areas zoned as residential, while student centers are not included as permissible uses. News coverage of the decision is in today's (central Pennsylvania) Centre Daily.

Wyoming Grant To Religious Group Questioned

The Wyoming Department of Family Services has awarded an $80,000 grant to Faith Initiatives of Wyoming, according to the Associated Press. The AP article questions whether the state funds are being used unconstitutionally for religious purposes. Wyoming Family Services Director Rodger McDaniel says the payments do not violate Wyoming's constitutional ban on support of religious institutions. Faith Initiatives is to use the state funds to help existing organizations provide community services in areas such as "strengthening families" and "at-risk youth." Faith Initiatives has also received $347,000 in federal faith-based funding. Some of the organizations that Faith Initiatives has helped with funding are religious pregnancy crisis centers.

Greek Jewish Community Wants Equal Recognition

The European Jewish Press reported yesterday that the Central Jewish Board of Greece is asking the Greek government to increase governmental support and recognition of the Jewish community. Moises Constantinis, president of the Board, wants the government pay the salaries of local rabbis just as it pays for Christian priests and Muslim Imams. He also wants the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Metropolite reduced. Currently its permission must be obtained for the building of new synagogues. There are 13 synagogues in Greece, but only 3 hold regular services.

Saudi Textbooks Still Assail Non-Muslims

Yesterday's Washington Post carries a story on the textbooks that have been used during the current academic year for Islamic studies in Saudi Arabian schools. Despite repeated Saudi claims that textbooks have been revised, a survey of actual textbooks by Freedom House shows numerous statements in them that promote intolerance toward non-Muslims. A first grade text includes the statement: "Every religion other than Islam is false." An eighth grade text includes: "The apes are Jews, the people of the Sabbath; while the swine are the Christians, the infidels of the communion of Jesus."And an eleventh grade text says: "The greeting 'Peace be upon you' is specifically for believers. It cannot be said to others." The article contains twenty more textbook excerpts. Saudi Arabia distributes its religion texts worldwide to a number of Islamic schools operated by others. [Thanks to Sanford Levinson via Religionlaw for the lead.]

Report On Status Of Iran's Jewish Community

Today's Belfast Telegraph carries a feature on the status of the 20,000 members of the Jewish community who remain in Iran. Jews, Zoroastrians and Christians each have an elected representative in Iran's parliament. They may worship freely and are not bound by Muslim dietary restrictions. But non-Muslims may not proselytize. Synagogue attendance in Iran has gone up. This is attributed partly to the increased religious atmosphere generally fostered by the government, and in part to the need for the community to draw on its own resources. Iranian Jews say they suffer discrimination in obtaining government jobs; there is anti-Semitism in the government media; but Jews are not openly persecuted. Generally they have had to publicly renounce any connection to Israel or Zionism. And they are increasingly nervous about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statements denying the Holocaust.

Intelligent Design Judge Gives Commencement Address

Yesterday in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones gave the commencement address at his alma mater, Dickinson College. Jones, who last year wrote the Kitzmiller opinion striking down the teaching of intelligent design, used the opportunity to discuss the religious views of America's founders as shaped by the Enlightenment. The Associated Press quotes portions of his talk:

The founders believed that true religion was not something handed down by a church or contained in a Bible, but was to be found through free, rational inquiry.... They possessed a great confidence in an individual's ability to understand the world and its most fundamental laws through the exercise of his or her reason.... This core set of beliefs led the founders, who constantly engaged and questioned things, to secure their idea of religious freedom by barring any alliance between church and state.

Italian Official Supports Civil Unions and Liberalization of Assisted Fertility Law

In Italy, according to AKI, the government's new Minister for Family has taken on the Vatican. The minister, Rosy Bindi, is a practicing Catholic whose religion has been important in her political career. In a published interview yesterday, Bindi supported civil unions as well as changes to Italy's restrictive assisted fertility law. Her interview came only two days after Camillo Ruini, the head of the Italian Bishops' Conference, spoke in opposition to civil unions saying that only homosexuals were interested in the move because "heterosexual couples eventually end up getting married." Here is the interview in Italian from Corriere Della Sera.

Commentary: Looking For Establishment Clause Loopholes

John Marshall once famously wrote, "we must never forget that it is a constitution that we are expounding." (McCulloch v. Maryland). He meant, we must interpret the document not as we interpret a technical tax code, but as a repository of broad principles. Nevertheless, two items over the week end remind us that today lawyers seem to often be seeking technical loopholes instead of broad principles in looking at Establishment Clause jurisprudence.

First is the Russell County Kentucky case in which a federal district judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing Megan Chapman, who was elected graduation chaplain by her classmates, from giving her scheduled prayer at high school commencement ceremonies. Perhaps following an emphasis on technical loopholes in a legal memorandum circulated earlier this month by Liberty Counsel, at graduation during the principal's remarks, 200 graduates stood, and in unison recited the Lord's Prayer, to the thunderous applause of the audience. (Louisville Courier-Journal.)

The second development is an article in Saturday's Wall Street Journal [subscription required] which reports on the growing phenomenon of after-school religious clubs in elementary schools being run by the same teachers who teach students during the school day. Relying on a questionable 8th Circuit precedent, the practice has spread. Prodded on by their teachers, ten-year olds try to recruit fellow-students to attend. Permission slips they distribute tell parents that club can "improve memory skills, grades, attitudes, and behavior at home and school." John Blake, Durham executive director for the Child Evangelism Fellowship understands what is going on. He said, having teachers participate "boosts the number of children who enroll .... Kids just want to be there because their teacher's involved." One mother, who agreed reluctantly to let her daughter participate said her daughter was just reaffirming her faith. But she added, "if I wasn't Christian, if I was Jewish, I might be a little peeved about this."

First Clergy Admitted As Lawyers In India

Now that nuns and priests in India have won the right to become lawyers (see prior posting), the first ones have been admitted to the bar. According to Chennai Online, today two nuns and six priests were among the 300 new lawyers enrolled in Kerala as advocates.

Constitutionality of Eagle Protections To Be Argued In Federal Court

In U.S. federal district court in Jackson, Wyoming on Monday, oral arguments are scheduled in a case involving the constitutionality of federal restrictions on Native Americans taking bald eagles for religious purposes. The Jackson Hole Star Tribune reports that the Northern Arapaho tribe and defendant Winslow Friday (charged with shooting a bald eagle without Interior Department permission) claim that federal law places an undue restriction on their free exercise of religion. They argue that the population of eagles has increased to the point that now some could appropriately be taken for religious purposes. They say that the current system that forces tribes to rely on the National Eagle Repository for salvaged eagles imposes a lengthy delay and often furnishes eagles that are "unusable" for traditional ceremonies. Prosecutors say that since Friday never applied for a permit to hunt eagles, he cannot now assert that hunting restrictions infringe his rights.

Articles of Interest - Including New Symposia

From SSRN:

• Sara C. Galvan, Beyond Worship: The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 and Religious Institutions' Auxiliary Uses, Yale Law & Policy Review, Vol. 24, pp. 205-237 (2006).
• Michael M. O’Hear, Faith, Justice, and the Teaching of Criminal Procedure (May 2006)Marquette Law School Legal Studies Paper No. 06-23.

From bePress:

• Sean J. Young, The Rise and Fall of the Centrality Concern in Free Exercise Jurisprudence (May 2006). (Yale Law School Student Scholarship Series).
  

From SmartCILP:

• John P. Forren, Revisiting Four Popular Myths About the Peyote Case, 8 Univ. Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 209-253 (2006).
• Vol. 14, No. 1 of the William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal contains a large group of articles of interest. A group of essays comprise a mini-symposium on An Analysis of the Ten Commandments Cases. Contributors are Erwin Chemerinsky, William VanAlstyne, Jay Sekulow & Francis Manion, and Greg Abbott. Also in the issue is Robert G. Natelson, The Original Meaning of the Establishment Clause, 14 Wm. & Mary Bill of Rights. Jour. 73-140 (2005).

• Emory International Law Review, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Summer 2005) is an 850 page symposium on The Permissible Scope of Legal Limitations on the Freedom of Religion or Belief. It contains articles by 19 authors from around the world.
  

Appeal Filed In CLS Suit Against Hastings Law School

The Alliance Defense Fund announced that on Wednesday its attorneys and those from the Christian Legal Society Center for Law & Religious Freedom filed an appeal with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Christian Legal Society of University of California, Hastings College of the Law v. Kane. In April, the federal district court upheld the anti-discrimination rules applied by Hastings Law School to prohibit recognized student groups from discriminating on the basis of religion or sexual orientation. The Christian Legal Society was denied official recognition because it required its voting members and officers to hold Christian beliefs and avoid sexual activity that violates Christian doctrines.

Church Entanglement In Solution To Puerto Rico's Budget Crisis

Puerto Rican writer Mayra Montero has an op-ed column in today’s New York Times suggesting that the role of religious groups in settling Puerto Rico’s recent budget crisis was much greater than had generally been realized. While it had been reported that San Juan’s Catholic Archbishop Roberto González had been instrumental in getting a special commission formed to come up with a solution to the governmental crisis, Montero’s reporting suggests a much more pervasive religious influence in the matter. She says:

Serious debates over taxes, public spending and government bonds were held amid prayers and hymns. Although San Juan's Roman Catholic archbishop took part in the negotiations, the messianic tone of evangelical and Pentecostalist churches predominated. Each session began and ended with a "prayer circle." The speaker of the House told reporters that he was consulting with God about the budget. San Juan's mayor led a mystic march accompanied by a woman with a title like "director of spiritual affairs."

At the Capitol, legislators surrounded a singer of religious music, a "holy man" with miracle-working pretensions who walked around laying on hands. The governor himself joined his opponents to murmur praises, and he was "anointed" by the leaders of evangelical churches who wandered through the Capitol and the executive mansion, La Fortaleza, advising, instructing and eating snacks. If anyone complained about their presence, they threatened to put "100,000 Christians" inside the Capitol to apply pressure.

It worked: on Monday, public employees returned to work after a resolution was reached, though not without a mini-crisis last weekend that was once again resolved thanks to mediation by religious leaders, who declared their work a "great victory of Jehovah, king of kings."

Ms. Montero argues that the role of religious institutions in this crisis will give them undue influence on substantive issues that are likely to later come to the Puerto Rican legislature.

Death Penalty Survives Establishment Clause Challenge

In Hogan v. State, (May 15, 2006), the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rejected a novel Establishment Clause challenge to the death penalty. Convicted murderer Kenneth Hogan argued that the effectiveness of capital punishment depends on the sectarian religious notion of a merit-based afterlife, such as heaven and hell, and thus unconstitutionally advances religion. The court, however, held that there are adequate secular punitive reasons for the death penalty, so that its primary purpose and effect are not to advance religion.

Prison Sex Offender Program Has Establishment Clause Problems

In Edmondson v. Curry, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30416 (D. NH, April 3, 2006), a federal Magistrate Judge in New Hampshire concluded that complaints of a New Hampshire State Prison inmate, William Edmondson, about the religious nature of the prison’s 12-step sex offender program (SOP) had merit, but that there was no need to issue an injunction since Edmondson was not currently in the program.

While public prayer is not a part of the SOP, inmates post a daily quote—often from a religious text-- in a public area for use by all the participants in the program. The judge concluded that “there is no substantive difference between posting a scriptural quote on a public board and hanging a crucifix on the wall.” He also found that the state, through its management of the program, was responsible for the quotes being posted. He found that the Establishment Clause was violated by subjecting inmates to quotes from a particular religious tradition as part of a state-run program.

Religious Minorities Concerned About Reported Iranian Sumptuary Law

A number of news outlets today, including Canada's National Post, UPI, the Jerusalem Post and YNet News , are reporting that Iran's Parliament has passed a National Uniform Law that obligates non-Muslims to wear specific colored ribbons or bands when they are in public. They say that Iranian expatriates have confirmed that the law has been enacted. However, another news source, 940 Montreal, says that the report is false, quoting independent reporter Meir Javedanfar, an Israeli Middle East expert who was born and raised in Tehran.

The reports on the law's passage say that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei must still approve it before it goes into effect. Under the law, Jews will have to wear yellow bands, Zoroastrians blue ones, while Christians will be required to wear red bands.

These provisions are part of a broader requirement in the law that all Iranians wear "standard Islamic garments" in order to remove ethnic and class distinctions. These Islamic uniforms will establish "visual equality" for Iranians as they prepare for the return of the Hidden Imam. The identifying ribbons for others are to then prevent Muslims from becoming najis (ritually unclean) by accidentally shaking the hands of non-Muslims in public.

These requirements, of course, remind many of similar mandates in Nazi Germany. Rabbi Marvin Heir, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said that Iran is getting "closer and closer to the Nazi ideology." He demanded that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan intervene immediately.

UPDATE: On Friday night and Saturday, information coming from Iranian diplomats, and from the Jewish community in Iran (including a Jewish member of parliament), suggests that the bill preliminarily passed by the Iranian parliament does not contain provisions regarding the wearing of distinctive colors by religious minorities. Piecing together the reports, it appears that a bill to promote an Iranian-Islamic style of dress for Muslim women was approved in preliminary form. Sponsors were mainly concerned with recent tendencies among Muslim women to move to light colored clothing during the hot summer months. Apparently there was some discussion in parliament of dress requirements for other religious groups, and language on the matter may have been in earlier drafts of the bill. However the language is not in the preliminary version of the bill that was adopted. (Globe & Mail, National Post, Debka).

California Supreme Court Rejects Claim that Jews Were Kept Off Capital Jury

In the case of In re Freeman, (Cal. Sup. Ct., May 16, 2006), the California Supreme Court rejected the petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by Fred Freeman who had been sentenced to death for murder. Freeman claimed that Judge Stanley P. Golde, who presided over his trial, had secretly urged the prosecutor, John Quatman, to peremptorily challenge Jewish jurors in order to make it more likely that the jury would impose the death penalty, and that the prosecution exercised challenges on this basis. The referee that the Supreme Court appointed to hear evidence in the habeas case found that there was no factual basis for Freeman's claim, concluding that Quatman's testimony that the alleged improprieties occurred was not credible. (See related prior posting.) Yesterday's Contra Costa Times has more on the case.

Louisiana House Defeats Anti-Discrimination Bill

By a vote of 39 in favor, and 55 against, the Louisiana House of Representatives on Tuesday defeated HB 853. The bill would have prohibited harassment or discrimination in employment or the provision of services by any state agency on the basis of religion, as well as on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation, or disabilities. The Associated Press reports that the bill would have put into permanent law a ban that is now in place through Executive Order KBB 2004-54 that expires at the end of current governor Kathleen Blanco's term of office. A similar bill, SB 347, had also been introduced in the Senate, but had not reached a final vote. The House defeat is attributable to the provisions in the bill that would protect gays and lesbians from discriminatory treatment.

Four Charged With Using Religious Schools To Steal State Voucher Funds

In Bartow, Florida yesterday, four defendants went on trial accused of using two private religious schools to siphon off funds from Florida's school voucher program for their personal use. The Lakeland (Fla.) Ledger reports that the four are charged with using the Faith Christian Academy in Bartow and Cathedral of Faith Christian Academy in Lakeland as conduits for some $200,000 from the voucher program and the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs.

Vatican Speaks Out On Religious Freedom And Proselytization

In a conference report, and in two papal speeches this week, the Vatican focused on issues of religious freedom and proselytization. In Lariano, Italy, an inter-religious consultation (WCC news release) organized by the Vatican and the World Council of Churches issued a report on Conversion: Assessing the Reality. Here are some of the report's conclusions:

Freedom of religion is a fundamental, inviolable and non-negotiable right of every human being in every country in the world. Freedom of religion connotes the freedom, without any obstruction, to practice one’s own faith, freedom to propagate the teachings of one’s faith to people of one’s own and other faiths, and also the freedom to embrace another faith out of one’s own free choice.

We affirm that while everyone has a right to invite others to an understanding of their faith, it should not be exercised by violating other’s rights and religious sensibilities. At the same time, all should heal themselves from the obsession of converting others.

Freedom of religion enjoins upon all of us the equally non-negotiable responsibility to respect faiths other than our own, and never to denigrate, vilify or misrepresent them for the purpose of affirming superiority of our faith.

Meanwhile, in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI spoke twice this week on the importance of religious freedom in countries with non-Christian majorities. (Reuters report.) On Monday, speaking to the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, he urged Muslim countries to grant Christian minorities the same rights as Muslims have in Western nations. (Zenit report.) He said that Christians in Muslim nations should be able to speak openly about their religion.

On Thursday, the Pope told India's new ambassador to the Vatican that the efforts by Hindu nationalists in some Indian states to ban conversions were unconstitutional and "contrary to the highest ideals of India's founding fathers." (Full text of statement.) His objections, and others, seem to have had an effect. BBC News and Daily India report today that the governor of the Indian state of Rajasthan, citing religious freedom concerns, has refused to sign a bill passed by the state assembly that would have prohibited religious conversions impelled by fraud, force or allurement. (See prior posting.)

Senate Committee Passes "Marriage Protection Amendment"

Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee approved and sent to the full Senate a proposed Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. The Washington Post reports on the bitter 10-8 party-line committee vote favoring S.J.Res. 1. Reaction to the vote fell along expected lines. Americans United for Separation of Church and State said "that the Senate is trying to wed church and state in unholy matrimony." On the other hand, the Family Research Council applauded the Committee's action.

Memorial Day 2006-- Is It A Religious Holiday?

Memorial Day, celebrated this year on May 29, was first officially proclaimed in 1868 by Gen. John Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. (Background.) His General Order No. 11 was framed largely in secular terms, providing that the day is "for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit."

As with other aspects of our civic culture, such as the Pledge of Allegiance, the struggle against "godless Communism" in the 1950's led the U.S. Congress to stress the role of religion in national ceremonies. That more recent aspect of Memorial Day is reflected in the 2006 Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day Proclamation that President Bush issued at the White House on Tuesday. It provides in part:

Those who lost their lives in the defense of freedom helped protect our citizens and lay the foundation of peace for people everywhere. On Memorial Day, a grateful Nation pays tribute to their personal courage, love of country, and dedication to duty.

In respect for their devotion to America, the Congress, by a joint resolution approved on May 11, 1950, as amended (64 Stat. 158), has requested the President to issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe each Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace and designating a period on that day when the people of the United States might unite in prayer. The Congress, by Public Law 106-579, has also designated the minute beginning at 3:00 p.m. local time on that day as a time for all Americans to observe the National Moment of Remembrance.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Memorial Day, May 29, 2006, as a day of prayer for permanent peace, and I designate the hour beginning in each locality at 11:00 a.m. of that day as a time to unite in prayer. I also ask all Americans to observe the National Moment of Remembrance beginning at 3 p.m., local time, on Memorial Day.

Native American Couple Seek Damages For Wrongful Peyote Enforcement

James "Flaming Eagle" Mooney, and has wife Linda, have been in a long battle with authorities over the use of peyote. They are leaders of the Oklevueha Earth Walks Native American Church of Utah. In February, federal charges against them were dropped under an agreement that they would refrain from possessing, buying, using or distributing peyote "until they become members of a federally recognized tribe or there is a definitive clarification of the law regarding the use of peyote by court ruling or legislative action." Now the Washington Post reports that the Mooneys have filed a federal law suit seeking damages from local, state and federal governments, claiming that past enforcement actions aimed at their peyote use violated their First Amendment rights.

Court Refuses To Order Amendment In Baptismal Certificate

In Matter of Wilson v. Kilkenny, (NY Sup Ct, Kings Co., May 15, 2006), a New York state trial court refused an unmarried father's request that the court order the Roman Catholic Church to issue his child an amended baptismal certificate. As part of a suit to force a change in the child's name, the father sought to have the baptismal certificate reflect that he is the child's father. The court held that the First Amendment precludes it from interfering in what amounts to a religious dispute between the parents, finding that it is solely for Church authorities to decide whether the baptismal certificate should be amended.

Illinois Governor Signs Bill To Bar Funeral Protests

The Chicago Tribune reports that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich on Wednesday signed the "Let Them Rest In Peace Act" to prevent a Topeka church group from conducting anti-gay protests at soldiers' funerals. Public Act 094-0772 prohibits loud demonstrations at funerals, and prohibits visual images that contain fighting words or actual or veiled threats within 200 feet of a funeral. It also prohibits blocking anyone's entry to or exit from to a funeral. The prohibitions apply for 30 minutes before and after the funeral ceremony. Other states have passed similar laws.

Shirley Phelps-Roper, attorney for the Westboro Baptist Church said that despite the law, pickets would be at the Illinois funeral of Afghanistan veteran Christopher Donaldson on Friday. Defiantly, she said, "The law is impotent. You've done nothing to change that God is killing your children and sending them home from battle. Keep your big, fat snout out of our religion."

Prisoner Free Exercise Claims Move Ahead

Ghashiyah v. Frank, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29083 (ED Wis., May 11, 2006) is a broad-ranging civil rights suit filed by 8 prisoners, pro se, against 85 Wisconsin officials and employees alleging a wide variety of constitutional claims growing out of alleged mistreatment while in prison. This decision is the initial screening of the complaints as required by 28 USC Sec. 1915A for prisoner claims. A group of claims alleging violations of RLUIPA and the Free Exercise clause were permitted to move forward. They included claims by one plaintiff that his prison forms were diverted because officials refused to recognize his religious name; and that he was prevented from participating in Ramadan. Various plaintiffs contend that they are prohibited from possessing religious materials other than the Bible, Quran, or equivalent major text while in segregation, and are denied access to other religious materials. And plaintiffs allege that Jewish and Muslim inmates were involuntarily injected with a pork by-product.

Florida Synagogue Can Move Ahead With Discrimination Claims

Today's South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports on last week's Florida federal district court decision in Hollywood Community Synagogue v. City of Hollywood, Fla., 2006 WL 1320044 (S.D.Fla., 2006, May 10, 2006). The Hollywood Community Synagogue Chabad Lubavitch, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice, has has sued the city of Hollywood alleging various violations of the synagogue's religious freedoms after the Hollywood City Commission reversed the grant of a Special Exception to zoning restrictions that had been granted by the city's Development Review Board. The Commission said that the synagogue was "too controversial". (See prior posting.)

The court held that the synagogue had sufficiently shown a practice of harassment and selective enforcement against the Synagogue through checking daily for code violations and ticketing only cars parked on the synagogue's side of the street. The court dismissed the synagogue's claim under the federal RLUIPA and Florida's RFRA that a substantial burden was placed on its religious exercise by the city's denial of a Special Exception under its zoning laws, but permitted the synagogue to proceed with its discrimination claim under RLUIPA, as well as its equal protection, due process and promissory estoppel claims. It also permitted it to move ahead on its claim that City's Zoning and Land Development Regulations fail to provide objective criteria to measure zoning decisions made by the Commission.

Turkish High Court Judges Shot In Religiously Motivated Attack

BBC News reports that in Ankara, Turkey today, a gunman attacked the judges of the Council of State, the country's the top administrative court, in what may have been a religiously motivated shooting. One judge died after 6 hours of surgery, and four others are wounded. One of the wounded judges, Judge Mustafa Birden, whose injuries are not life-threatening, achieved notoriety earlier this year when he ruled that a school teacher should not be promoted because she wore her Muslim head scarf (hijab) outside of school, even though she removed it, as required by law, while teaching. (See prior posting.) He has received death threats since then, and an Islamist newspaper has printed photos of him and his fellow judges. The gunman, who was carrying papers indicating that he is a lawyer, reportedly shouted "Allahu akbar" (God is great) as he fired at the judges.

UPDATE: On Thursday, more than 15,000 Turks, including students and judges dressed in their robes, marched in Ankara to support secularism and to condemn the shooting of Council of State judges. (AP report.)

Utah Supreme Court Upholds Polygamy Ban

Yesterday, in State of Utah v. Holm (UT Sup. Ct., May 16, 2006), Utah's Supreme Court yesterday upheld the constitutionality of the state's bigamy statute which provides that "[a] person is guilty of bigamy when, knowing he has a husband or wife or knowing the other person has a husband or wife, the person purports to marry another person or cohabits with another person." Utah Code Ann. § 76-7-101. The majority held that the state's statute bars polygamous marriages that are solemnized through religious ceremonies even when no state marriage license has been sought.

The court rejected defendant's claim that outlawing polygamous marriage violates his free exercise rights under Art. I, Sec. 4 of Utah's constitution. In so holding, the majority focused on the explicit ban on polygamy placed in Utah's constitution (Art. III, Sec. 1) as a condition of statehood, as required by the 1894 federal Utah Enabling Act. The majority also rejected the contention that criminalizing religiously motivated plural marriage violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Finally the court rejected the defendant's claim that the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas protects polygamous relationships as a fundamental liberty interest.

The case involved the conviction of FLDS member Rodney Holm, who had been a police officer in Hilldale, Utah. Charges were filed after he married a 16-year old third wife (the sister of his first wife), and fathered her two children.

An interesting dissent by Chief Justice Durham takes the position that Utah's polygamy ban only applies to licensed marriages, and not to a mere religious union where there has been no attempt to obtain state recognition of marital status or the legal benefits of marriage. She also held that imposing criminal penalties on Holm’s religiously motivated entry into a religious union violates the state constitution's provisions protecting religious freedom. Finally she argued that if Holm's polygamous relationship had been with an adult instead of a minor, it would be protected under the U.S. Supreme Court's Lawrence v. Texas holding.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports on the case in two news articles. 1, 2 .

Milwaukee Deputy Sheriffs Claim Religious Rights Violation

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the union representing deputy sheriffs filed suit yesterday alleging that their religious rights were violated when the sheriff allowed a speaker from the Fellowship of Christian Centurions to appear at the department's mandatory roll call. The speaker invited deputies to attend an seminar to learn how Christ had affected people's lives and how employees could then affect others' lives through Christ. Yesterday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the civil rights suit was filed after a Milwaukee County Circuit Judge denied the union's request earlier Tuesday for a temporary restraining order.

Kentucky ACLU Seeks To Stop Planned Graduation Prayer

The ACLU of Kentucky filed suit yesterday in federal district court on behalf of a Russell County High School senior who objects to plans for a clergyman to offer a prayer at his school's graduation this Friday. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that the suit asks for a preliminary injunction, arguing that U.S. Supreme Court precedent bar clergy-led prayer at commencement ceremonies.

UPDATE: On Friday, U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley granted a temporary restraining order in the case. (Louisville Courier-Journal).

Egyptian Court Suspends Pro-Bahai Ruling Pending Appeal

Reuters reports that Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court decided on Monday to suspend the implementation of an earlier lower court ruling that allowed Bahais to have their religion recognized on official documents. (See prior postings 1, 2.) The suspension apparently was imposed to prevent the new ruling from taking effect while the case is on appeal.

Government Censors Take Aim At Da Vinci Code Movie

All around the Middle East and Asia, Christian groups are pressing to have government censorship boards ban the showing of the Da Vinci Code, or at least to cut out some of its scenes or limit it audience to adults. The movie is scheduled for worldwide release at the end of this week. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Sunday that in Egypt, the likelihood of a ban is so great that distributors have decided not to schedule a showing. Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are the only Middle Eastern countries now scheduled to show the film.

In India (CNN-IBN report) the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has said that the film will not be cleared until it is screened by the Catholic Churches Association of India. In Thailand, according to the Bangkok Post, the censorship committee of the Police Registration Division has agreed to cut out the last ten minutes of the movie. Christian groups say that portion of the film distorts the Bible by claiming that heirs of Jesus are alive today. Malaysia is permitting the movie to be shown. The Philippines gave the film an "adults only" certificate, which prohibits those under 18 from seeing the movie in theaters. (Reuters report.) In Korea, Seoul's Central District Court on Tuesday rejected a petition by the Christian Council of Korea seeking to prevent the film's screening. (Korea Times report.) [Thanks to Geoff Rapp for the lead to some of this information.]

WTC Memorial Encounters Church-State Issue

Plans for the building of a memorial to 9-11 victims at New York's World Trade Center site are about to bog down in a church-state dispute. After the World Trade Center collapsed, two girders in the shape of a cross were left standing. They became a center of reverence for rescue workers, and religious services were held near the beams. They still remain standing at Ground Zero because clergy groups objected to their removal for storage. On Friday, according to the Associated Press, WTC Memorial Foundation President and CEO Gretchen Dykstra agreed to find some way to permanently display the girders in the memorial that is being built. In a letter to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Dykstra said: "We agree wholeheartedly that this important and essential artifact belongs at the WTC site and affirm that its respectful placement, possibly with the memorial museum, will be a considered part of our content planning process." She went on: "The artifact will be treated with utmost respect, but again as a public institution, we will not explicitly offer religious services in association with the artifact."

This decision does not set well with American Atheists. A press release e-mailed widely by AA yesterday reaffirms its long-standing opposition to including the cross as part of the memorial. The group's Communications Director, Dave Silverman, said that including the cross ignores the diverse background of the 9-11 victims. "It wasn't just certain types of Christians who died that day," he said. "Jews, Muslims, Atheists and others were victims of the terrorists. A memorial should be inclusive and remind us what we share in common as a nation, and not promote religious differences."

Supreme Court Discusses Taxpayer Standing

Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court decision in DaimlerChrysler Corp. v. Cuno (May 15, 2006) denied plaintiffs' standing to challenge state tax benefits offered by Ohio to attract industry to the state. One of plaintiffs' arguments was that taxpayers should have standing to make a dormant commerce clause challenge, just as they have standing to challenge government expenditures under the Establishment Clause. Here is what the Court said about that claim:

Quite apart from whether the franchise tax credit is analogous to an exercise of congressional power under Art. I, § 8, plaintiffs' reliance on Flast is misguided: Whatever rights plaintiffs have under the Commerce Clause, they are fundamentally unlike the right not to "'contribute three pence . . . for the support of any one [religious] establishment.'" Indeed, plaintiffs compare the Establishment Clause to the Commerce Clause at such a high level of generality that almost any constitutional constraint on government power would "specifically limit" a State's taxing and spending power for Flast purposes.... [S]uch a broad application of Flast's exception to the general prohibition on taxpayer standing would be quite at odds with its narrow application in our precedent and Flast's own promise that it would not transform federal courts into forums for taxpayers'"generalized grievances."...

The Flast Court discerned in the history of the Establishment Clause "the specific evils feared by [its drafters] that the taxing and spending power would be used to favor one religion over another or to support religion in general." ... The Court therefore understood the "injury" alleged in Establishment Clause challenges to federal spending to be the very "extraction and spending" of "tax money" in aid of religion alleged by a plaintiff.... And an injunction against the spending would of course redress that injury, regardless of whether lawmakers would dispose of the savings in a way that would benefit the taxpayer-plaintiffs personally.

LA Times Suggests Solution For Historic Mission

An editorial in today's Los Angeles Times suggests some solutions to the problem of paying for repairs of the historic Mission San Miguel Arcangel. The Roman Catholic Church that owns the Mission says it does not have the $15 million needed for its repair. California has refused to provide state funds for the repairs because of limitations in the state constitution on funding of religious institutions. Attempts to get federal funding have not materialized. State Sen. Abel Maldonado has proposed a state constitutional amendment to qualify any religious building on the state or national registers of historic places for government funding, but the LA Times thinks that this goes too far. Instead, it suggests that San Miguel be deeded to the state, and then leased back to the Church at nominal cost for its religious services.

ACLU Files FOIA Request On Monitoring of Mosques

Yesterday, the ACLU of Southern California announced that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act request on behalf of several Muslim-American groups and mosques in southern California in order to obtain information on reported government monitoring of religious institutions. Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council said: "We are people of faith and our mosques are peaceful and tolerant places of worship. But people are being scared away from worship because of reports that mosques and those who pray at them are being monitored. People are afraid that practicing their religion or even visiting a mosque will make them a suspect of the government." Today's Los Angeles Times, covering the story, points out that in January, the FBI acknowledged that its agents have monitored mosques, Muslim-owned businesses and homes throughout the country for radiation levels.

Dutch Parliamentarian, Critic Of Islam, May Lose Citizenship

According to today's New York Times, the government of Netherlands is threatening to revoke the citizenship of a prominent member of Parliament, Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Minister of Immigration Rita Verdonk claims that Ali, a refugee from Somalia who arrived in the Netherlands 14 years ago, gave false information when she applied for political asylum, and later for Dutch citizenship. Ali said she has explained many times that she changed her name and birth date when she arrived in Netherlands, escaping from an arranged marriage. Ali has been an outspoken critic of conservative Islam and its treatment of women. She was the writer of a television documentary on violence against Muslim women that led to the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh. The killer pinned a note to van Gogh's body saying that Ms. Ali would be next. Ali, who plans to move to the United States anyway, says that the Dutch government is trying to silence her.

Muslim Students Want Released Time For Friday Prayers

Last week, the Howard County (Maryland) Times reported that the county's Muslim community is asking public school officials to excuse Muslim students early from school every Friday afternoon so they can attend prayer services and religious instruction. School officials, however, object saying that this would cause students to miss twenty percent of a course over the school year. Instead a committee set up by the school board to study the issue has proposed an alternative policy: "students with an approved, documented religious obligation that cannot be fulfilled at any other time may be lawfully excused from class once per week for a thirty minute period or less ... to fulfill that obligation within the school building." Muslim students would rather be able to leave the building to attend traditional services held weekly at an Interfaith Center. Congregational prayer on Fridays is required of Muslim men and encouraged for Muslim women.

The Howard County Board of Education will hold a public hearing on the issue on May 23. Meanwhile there has been a vigorous discussion of the question on Religionlaw listserv.

California Defendants Challenge Eagle Protection Act Distinctions

Copley News Service yesterday reported on criminal charges pending in California against Manuel Rodriguez-Martinez and Mario Manuel Vasquez-Ramos, two Native American religious ceremonial leaders charged with illegally possessing eagle feathers. Members of federally recognized Indian tribes can obtain eagle parts for ceremonial use from the National Eagle Repository. Federal law otherwise prohibits possession of bald and golden eagle feathers and parts. The two defendants here do not qualify to access the National Eagle Repository because they are connected with Indian tribes based in Mexico.

California U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero earlier this month rejected the defendants' claim that distinguishing between recognized tribes and others with sincere religious beliefs is unconstitutional. So the defendants will now plead guilty and appeal Judge Otero's ruling to the 9th Circuit, claiming that their free exercise rights are being infringed. Federal authorities also suspect that the defendants were involved in the theft of two golden eagles from the Santa Barbara zoo six years ago. However they have been unable to find sufficient evidence to pursue a prosecution for that crime. (See prior related posting.)

City Kept Preachers Too Far From Pride Fest Event They Were Protesting

In World Wide Street Preachers' Fellowship v. Reed, (MD Pa., May 8, 2006), a Pennsylvania federal district court issued a declaratory judgment (but not a permanent injunction) after finding that Harrisburg, Pennsylvania authorities violated the free speech rights of two ministers who wished to talk or preach in opposition to homosexual conduct near PrideFest, a gay pride festival being held in the city's Riverfront Park. The city's permit ordinance was treated as allowing the permit holder to exclude individuals for any reason-- including speech-- from the permit area. Here plaintiffs were barred from preaching in an unused space within the area covered by PrideFest's permit. The court found that this restriction was not narrowly enough tailored to serve the city's interest in merely protecting use of space by a permit holder. The court also found First Amendment problems with enforcement of a 50-foot no-speech zone by a city police officer at one end of the PrideFest event area. Alliance Defense Fund, which represented the preachers, issued a release on the decision.

India Supreme Court Hears Unusual Muslim Divorce Case

Outlook India reports that India's Supreme Court today heard arguments in a case involving a Muslim couple seeking police protection for their marriage. In 2003, Nazma Biwi's husband Sher Mohammed, while drunk, divorced her by pronouncing triple talaq. He later changed his mind and decided to live with his wife and three children. Even though the couple originally received a religious ruling that the divorce was ineffective because it was carried out under intoxication, local clerics at Bhadrak in Orissa issued a Fatwa holding that the couple was divorced and could not live together unless Nazma performed 'Nikah Halala' (marrying another man, consummating the marriage, then getting a divorce and remarrying her first husband). The couple obtained a protective order from a lower court in India in April, but claim the local government has not enforced the order. Nazma and Sher are currently living apart because of threats from the community. Orissa government counsel Shibo Shanker Mishra claims that the government has complied with the lower court order.

Initial Win For Church In Lawsuit Challenging Differential Fee Schedule

In Canyon Ridge Baptist Church v. City of San Diego, (SD Cal., May 12, 2006), a California federal district court refused to dismiss a claim brought by a church group challenging the charging of higher fees for it to use the Kearney Mesa Recreation Center than for comparable secular groups. (See prior posting.) The court permitted plaintiffs to move ahead with claims under the U.S. and California constitutions alleging free speech, equal protection, due process, free exercise and establishment clause violations. Lawyers for the Alliance Defense Fund that represented Canyon Ridge Church (news release) will argue in court today for the issuance of a preliminary injunction.

Religious Issues Face New Israeli Government

Earlier this month, as is traditional in Israel, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert presented to the Knesset the Basic Guidelines that will govern the policies of his new government. On religious matters, those Guidelines were brief. First they provide that "the status quo, as it pertains to religion, will be maintained." However, the new government did promise to "act immediately to pass legislation solving the problem of 'those prevented from marrying'." Presumably this means that the government will move ahead to authorize civil marriages in Israel, despite earlier reports that the Shas party had gotten a commitment to the contrary as part of its arrangements for joining the government.

The marriage issue has become more pressing recently. The New York Jewish Week on Friday carried a long article detailing ways in which Israel's Chief Rabbinate is making approval procedures more difficult for individuals seeking to be married by a rabbi. The Rabbinate is requiring extensive proof that both parties desiring to marry are in fact Jewish. The large number of Russians granted citizenship even though they were not Jewish according to religious law has been a significant factor in the crackdown. Also, changes in the office of the Chief Rabbinate has been a factor. A new official, Rabbi Yigal Krispel, is in charge of determining which rabbis' certifications will be accepted as proof that an individual was validly converted to Judaism. Krispel is less familiar with many U.S. and other diaspora rabbis than was his predecessor.

Other religious pressures are simmering in Israel as well. While Israel's High Court of Justice has just upheld the "Tal law" granting exemptions from military service to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, the Court suggested that the Knesset should act to make changes in the law. And yesterday, YNet News ran an article questioning why haredi (ultra-Orthodox) girls are excused from military or other national service requirements, while other Israeli girls are required to serve. The exemption for haredi men is justified by the country's need for Torah scholars. But the haredi community does not permit girls to study Torah.

Vermont Catholic Diocese Tries To Shield Assets

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington is placing the assets of each of Vermont's 130 parishes in a separate charitable trust. Today's Rutland Herald reports that the move is an attempt to shield parish assets from claims against the Diocese in priest sexual abuse cases. The Diocese has settled several of those cases, and the lawyer representing 19 men accusing priests of prior sexual abuse says the charitable trust arrangement is a violation of Vermont's fraudulent conveyance law.

Florida High Schools Move Graduations Out Of Church

Yesterday's Orlando Sentinel reports that four high schools in Brevard County, Florida, this year will hold their graduations in secular venues. Last October, the Brevard County School Board settled a suit brought by Americans United For Separation of Church and State, agreeing that they would no longer hold graduation in houses of worship unless religious symbols were concealed or removed. The schools had been using Calvary Chapel, a church at the foot of a 25-foot-tall Christian cross. Last year's graduations were still there because the court held there was not enough time to reschedule the ceremonies then. But this year, the schools are complying with the settlement agreement. Interestingly, three of the four schools are holding their graduations this year on Saturday morning, and no one seems to have raised any question about whether this creates a problem for students who observe Saturday as their Sabbath.

Toledo Priest And Diocese Face Further Legal Problems

The murder conviction on Thursday of Toledo, Ohio Catholic priest Gerald Robinson for the murder of a nun in 1980 is not the end of legal problems for the priest or Toledo's Catholic diocese. Today's Toledo Blade reports that Robinson and the diocese are defendants in a civil suit filed by a 40-year old woman and her husband alleging that the woman was raped and tortured in ritual abuse by Robinson when she was a young girl. Also, Lucas County (Ohio) Prosecutor Julia Bates is still considering obstruction of justice charges against the Toledo Diocese for failure to turn over documents the state requested during its lengthy murder investigation of Robinson.

Iranian Letter In Islamic Context

Last week's letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to President George W. Bush, full of appeals to Bush's religious values and heavy on quotes from the Koran, seemed somewhat bizarre by Western diplomatic standards. However, according to columnist Amir Taheri in today's Jerusalem Post the letter fits squarely into Islamic traditions that date back to the Prophet Muhammad himself. In 625 AD, Muhammad wrote letters to the rulers of Persia, Byzantium and Ethiopia calling on them to convert to Islam. In 1987, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini wrote a letter to Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev inviting him to convert to Islam before Iran would assist the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Taheri argues that instead of ignoring Ahmadinjad's letter, Bush should respond by inviting him to convert to liberal democracy.

Azerbaijan Backs Down On Promise To Have Alternative Service for CO's

Forum 18 reported last week that Azerbaijan is backing down on its commitments to permit alternative service for conscientious objectors. A 23-year-old Jehovah's Witness is facing trial for refusing military service on grounds of religious conscience, even though the Azerbaijan Constitution (Art. 76) guarantees the right to perform alternative service. When Azerbaijan joined the Council of Europe in 2001, it promised to have alternative service in place by 2004. However, Krzysztof Zyman, an official of the Council of Europe's Directorate General of Human Rights, says that no progress has been made in adopting an alternative service law.

Article On Religious Use Of Common Areas Focuses On Religion Clause Blog Coverage

Today's Spartanburg (South Carolina) Herald-Journal carries a follow-up on its coverage earlier this week of a local apartment building whose residents were banned by management from conducting a Bible study group in the building's common area. The article carries lengthy quotes from a telephone interview that the reporter had with me and cites to coverage of other similar cases on Religion Clause blog. In what will not go down as one of my most eloquent interviews, I conclude that there is no clear reason why there has been a cluster of similar cases in the last month or so.

Last Week's Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

In Jefferson v. Gonzalez, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27720 (D DC, May 10, 2006), a DC federal district court rejected free exercise, RFRA and equal protection challenges to Bureau of Prisons Program Statement 5360.09, regulations on the wearing of religious headwear and religious garments . Muslim inmates are permitted to wear a Kufi, but not a turban, while Sikhs are permitted to wear a turban. As to ceremonial clothing, the Program Statement provides that "Islamic inmates may not hem or wear their pants above the ankle." The court found that the government's security interests and its interest in prisoner rehabilitation justified the restrictions.

In Muhammad v. San Joaquin County Jail, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27821 (ED Cal., May 10, 2006), a Magistrate Judge recommended that a jail inmate be permitted to proceed with a claim that he was improperly denied bag meals to eat after sundown during Ramadan. However the Magistrate Judge rejected the claim that the inmate's free exercise rights were violated when the jail failed to provide Muslim services on Fridays.

Challenge To Firing Of Youth Director Dismissed; Defamation Claim Goes On

In Patton v. Jones (Tex. 3d Dist. Ct. App., May 11, 2006), a Texas appellate court upheld dismissal of some of the claims brought by Ken Patton, a Methodist church's Director of Youth Ministries, who was terminated from his position after rumors circulated about his dating certain women and hugging girls at church. There were also unsubstantiated rumors about his viewing pornography. The court held that the Free Exercise clause prohibits state interference in church governance matters. Therefore actions taken and communications made by the Church as part of its employment decision about Patton's ministerial position are ecclesiastical matters protected from secular review. However, the court permitted Patton to proceed with defamation claims that arose out of statements made about him after the Church's decision on his dismissal was final.

Challenge To UNC's Student Organization Rules Dismissed As Moot

In Alpha Iota Omega Christian Fraternity v. Moeser, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28065 (MD NC, May 4, 2006), a North Carolina federal district court dismissed as moot a suit that had originally been filed in 2004 by AIO, a Christian student group, challenging the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's requirement that the organization be open to all interested students regardless of religion or sexual orientation. While the litigation was pending, the University changed its policy to permit student groups to select their members on the basis of commitment to a set of beliefs, and gave official recognition to AIO.

Right To Trial Delay For Religious Observance Rejected

In Hoyt v. Lewin, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28294 (SDNY, May 12, 2006), a Magistrate Judge in a New York federal district court recommended rejection of a free exercise claim brought by Leroy Hoyt, who had been convicted in state court on drug charges. In Hoyt's criminal trial the state court had refused to adjourn jury deliberations on a Friday, thereby forcing Hoyt, a Muslim, to choose between attending religious services and being present at his trial. The Magistrate Judge said that the trial court had a compelling interest in declining to interrupt jury deliberations, particularly given the approach of a weekend.

A Wealth of New Books and Articles

Books:

• Michelle Goldberg, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism (WW Norton, 2006). Here is the book's website. And here is the link to NPR's Fresh Air interview with the author.

Articles (full text online):

• William Martin, Secular State, Religious People-- The American Model (April 2006) [Thanks to Mainstream Baptist for the information.]

Articles from Bepress:

• Eric Alan Isaacson, Traditional Values, or a New Tradition of Prejudice? The Boy Scouts of America vs. the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (May 2006).

Articles from SSRN:

• Stephen M. Bainbridge & Aaron H. Cole, The Bishop’s Alter Ego: Enterprise Liability and the Catholic Priest Sex Abuse Scandal.
• Thomas Berg, What’s Right and Wrong with the "No Endorsement of Religion" Test (forthcoming Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, Vol. 21, 2006).
• Marc O. Degirolami, The New Religious Prisons and Their Retributivist Commitments (forthcoming Arkansas Law Review 2006).
• Robert K. Vischer, The Sanctity of Conscience in an Age of School Choice: Grounds for Skepticism.

SmartCILP's recently published articles:

• Bradley P. Jacob, Free Exercise In the "Lobbying Nineties", 84 Nebraska Law Review 795-845 (2006).
• Victor E. Schwartz & Leah Lorber, Defining the Duty of Religious Institutions To Protect Others: Surgical Instruments, Not Machetes, Are Required, 74 Univ. Cincinnati Law Review 11-54 (2005).
• Jeffrey Shulman, Spiritual Custody: Relational Rights and Constitutional Commitments, 7 Journal of Law & Family Studies 317-349 (2005).
• L. Scott Smith, From Typology To Synthesis: Recasting the Jurisprudence of Religion, 34 Capital Univ. Law Review 51-123 (2005).
• Iman Feisal Abdul Rauf, John E. James Distinguished Lecture, What is Islamic Law? 57 Mercer Law Review 595-619 (2006).
• Symposium: Can the Seamless Garment Be Sewn? The Future of Pro-Life Progressivism, 2 University of St. Thomas Law Journal 235-424 (2005).
• Lectures on Law and Culture, Presented at the John Paul II Cultural Center, Washington, D.C. Fall 2004. 2 University of St. Thomas Law Journal 425-474 (2005) (lectures by Thomas C. Berg, John Witte, Jr., and Richard W. Garnett).
  
  

  
  

7th Circuit Asked To OK Sectarian Prayer In Indiana Legislature

This week, according to the Indianapolis Star, Indiana state House of Representatives Speaker Brian C. Bosma filed the anticipated appeal to the 7th Circuit a lower court ruling that prohibited the House from opening its sessions with prayers that mention Jesus or endorse a particular religion. Both the Indiana House and Senate had passed resolutions directing Bosma to appeal the decision. (See prior posting.)

Creationist Invited To Speak In Missouri Schools

The St. Louis Post Dispatch today reported that in Missouri's Potosi R-III school district, the superintendent and board invited Mike Riddle, a Biblical Creationist from Answers in Genesis, to discuss science with high school and middle school students. The paper reports that during Riddle's presentations to student groups, he never referred to "Jesus" or "God" or even "religion." Instead, he urged students to question established scientific principles and theories and encouraged them to think about a career in science. Riddle talked about amino acids, proteins, DNA, telemers and thermodynamics, and used examples to challenge the idea that life began on land. He interspersed his talk with quotations from scientists, some with ties to creationist or intelligent design organizations.

Last-Ditch Attempt To Save Mt. Soledad Cross

After a federal judge last week took new action to require the removal of the large cross from on top of California's Mt. Soledad, California Representative Duncan Hunter has written President Bush, asking him to exercise the federal power of eminent domain to turn the land under the cross into a national park. Orders by a federal judge to remove the cross rely on provisions in the California constitution. Supporters think that federal law is less restrictive. The developments are reported in today's San Diego Union Tribune.

UPDATE: Sunday's San Diego Union Tribune profiles Jim McElroy, lawyer for the plaintiff in the Mt. Soledad cross case. McElroy has received a good number of nasty, and even threatening, e-mails and phone calls from outraged defenders of the cross.

US Civil Rights Commission Investigating California Campus Anti-Semitism

Today's Los Angeles times reports that the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is for the first time conducting an investigation of anti-Semitism on a college campus. It is focusing on the University of California Irvine. Renewed concerns have arisen on campus as the school's Muslim Student Union has scheduled a program for next week titled "Holocaust in the Holy Land". Jewish leaders are not asking university officials to cancel the program, but do want them to condemn the use of the term "Holocaust" in its title. Chancellor Michael V. Drake issued a more generic statement on Tuesday, merely calling on students "to show appreciation for one another, for people of diverse opinions, backgrounds and cultures and for ideas that may be different from their own." Last month, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission made a number of recommendations to counter campus anti-Semitism. (See prior posting.)