Spokane Diocese Wins Appeal In Bankruptcy Case

The Catholic Diocese of Spokane, Washington has successfully appealed a bankruptcy judge's August 2005 decision that said parish churches, schools and similar properties were all assets that could be liquidated to pay off Diocese creditors in its bankruptcy proceedings. Yesterday's Washington Post reports that U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush in Spokane has overturned the bankruptcy judge's decision. Quackenbush apparently agreed with the Diocese that while the Bishop holds formal title to parish properties, the beneficial interest is held by each parish. Quackenbush sent the case back to the bankruptcy court for it to determine the status of each individual parish. Shaun Cross, a lawyer for the Diocese, predicted that the decision will lead to serious settlement negotiations.

Arapaho Tribal Courts Ignored On Sun Dance

In Concho, Oklahoma, a dispute over the Arapaho Indian tribe's Sun Dance Ceremony is back in tribal court. The controversy is the subject of two recent articles by the Associated Press. The Shoshone and Arapaho Tribal Court and the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribal Court previously issued injunctions prohibiting the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribe of Oklahoma from holding the Sun Dance Ceremony because it violated the ceremony's secrecy when it permitted an anthropologist to attend and write about the dance. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has refused, however, to enforce the tribal court orders. Last week Patrick Spottedwolf was among a group of Oklahoma Arapahos who ignored the tribal court injunctions and began to build a ceremonial arbor to conduct the ceremony. This led some 20 to 50 people, including members of the Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming, to take the law into their own hands. They attacked the group preparing the ceremony, cut down the arbor with chain saws and set it on fire. Then Spottedwolf was charged with contempt for violating the tribal court injunctions. He has pled not guilty, claiming that the injunctions unconstitutionally violate his freedom of religion.

The Indian Civil Rights Act, enacted by Congress in 1968, requires that Indian tribes exercising their rights of self government abide by most of the provisions of the Constitution's bill of rights. The Act prohibits tribes from making or enforcing any law that prohibits the free exercise of religion. It does not impose establishment clause constraints on tribes.

Suit Filed In Pakistan Over Destruction Of Hindu Temple

GulfNews.com today reports that in Lahore, Pakistan, lawyers are asking the High Court to order builders of a commercial plaza who have demolished the city's only Hindu temple to stop the construction and rebuild the Krishna shrine. The suit charges that the country's Evacuee Property Trust Board had an obligation to protect the Hindu temple, and that instead it permitted the construction project. The petitioners say that those responsible should be tried under Section 295 of the Pakistan Penal Code which prohibits the demolition of the places of worship.

EEOC Faces Large Budget Cut

The Labor Research Association reported earlier this week that the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission faces a $4.2 million budget cut for the coming year. The EEOC, which is the major federal agency charged with enforcing laws against religious and other discrimination in employment, has lost 20% of its staff since 2001. The agency currently has a backlog of more than 30,000 discrimination cases (over one-third involve racial discrimination) and it takes an average of 180 days to process a case.

Wisconsin Gets Faith-Based Office

Wisconsin Democratic Governor Jim Doyle yesterday announced that he has issued an executive order (full text) setting up an Office of Community and Faith-Based Partnerships. The Duluth News Tribune yesterday reported that the office will be funded by $100,000 in federal funds granted to the state. As in the 32 other states that have similar agencies, the Minnesota office will help local social service organizations access and effectively use federal grants. Doyle's Republican challenger in the governor's race, current U.S. Rep. Mark Green. said that Doyle was appropriating his idea. Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder of the Freedom From Religion foundation, said "The whole thing is just a very uneasy union between church and state. You can't separate the politics out."

Finland Debates Unsolicited Religious Mailings

In May, Jukka Lindstedt, one of the Finnish Parliament's two deputy ombudsmen, issued a decision invalidating the general distribution of parish publications that includes sending them to homes that have not requested them. Lindstedt ruled that this was an unconstitutional infringement of freedom of religion of those who do not wish to receive the publications. NewsRoom Finland reported yesterday that a constitutional scholar, Veli-Pekka Viljanen, disagrees with Lindstedt's conclusion.

Accommodating Muslim High Schoolers In Seattle

How to accommodate the religious needs of Muslim high school students to offer prayer 5 times each day has become a difficult problem for schools. Today's Seattle Times details some of the techniques being used in the Seattle School District. These include setting aside an empty classroom for Muslim student prayer sessions, and excusing students early on Friday afternoon so they may attend prayer services at a nearby mosque. Some, like Andy McDonald on the blog Sound Politics, criticize the setting aside of classrooms saying that this places Islam in a privileged position by making it the only religion that may be practiced officially during the school day.

Court Permits Religious Profiling In Immigration Enforcement

Yesterday in Turkmen v. Ashcroft, (EDNY, June 14, 2006), New York federal district Judge John Gleeson issued a lengthy decision in a class action brought by illegal aliens of Arab and Middle Eastern origin who were detained for several months in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The court permitted plaintiffs to proceed with various claims relating to their conditions of confinement, including claims of illegal interference with their religious practices by denying them copies of the Koran, denying halal food, refusing to give them information on dates or time of day so plaintiffs could pray, and constantly interrupting their prayers.

However on a broader equal protection issue, the court seemed to hold that it is permissible for the government to engage in religious (as well as racial) profiling in its enforcement of the immigration laws. Relying on language from a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court case, Reno v. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the judge wrote:

This is, of course, an extraordinarily rough and overbroad sort of distinction of which, if applied to citizens, our courts would be highly suspicious. Yet the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the political branches, "[i]n the exercise of [their] broad power over naturalization and immigration ... regularly make[] rules that would be unacceptable if applied to citizens." Mathews v. Diaz, 426 U.S. 67, 79-80 (1976);....

Similarly, I do not believe the plaintiffs’ claims of selective enforcement on the basis of their race and religion provide any cause to depart from the general rule laid out in AADC. In the investigation into the September 11 attacks, the government learned that the attacks had been carried out at the direction of Osama bin Laden, leader of al Queda, a fundamentalist Islamist group; some of the hijackers were in violation of the terms of their visas at the time of the attacks. In the immediate aftermath of these events, when the government had only the barest of information about the hijackers to aid its efforts to prevent further terrorist attacks, it determined to subject to greater scrutiny aliens who shared characteristics with the hijackers, such as violating their visas and national origin and/or religion. Investigating these aliens’ backgrounds prolonged their detention, delaying the date when they would be removed.

As a tool fashioned by the executive branch to ferret out information to prevent additional terrorist attacks, this approach may have been crude, but it was not so irrational or outrageous as to warrant judicial intrusion into an area in which courts have little experience and less expertise.

Today's New York Times reports on the decision, quoting Georgetown law professor David Cole's take on the decision: "What this decision says is the next time there is a terror attack, the government is free to round up every Muslim immigrant in the U.S. based solely on their ethnic and religious identity, and hold them on immigration pretexts for as long as it desires."[Thanks to How Appealing for the case link.]

Illinois Village And Church Spar Over Building Requirements

The village of Wadsworth, Illinois has granted a temporary occupancy permit so that Cornerstone Community Church can continue to use its new building even though landscaping has not been completed, according to a release yesterday from the Alliance Defense Fund. Earlier this month the village board voted to support an order from village President Ken Furland requiring that landscaping, required by the church's special use permit, be completed. This had the effect of reversing informal permission to begin using the building given by the village's inspector. The city's order threatened cancellation of today's memorial service for for Staff Sergeant Edward G. Davis III who died in April while serving in Iraq. The village relented only after a federal lawsuit was filed claiming that the village's action infringed the church's First Amendment rights and the protections granted by RLUIPA. (Full text of complaint.)

The Associated Press report on the controversy earlier this week had a somewhat different slant. It quotes village officials as saying that there has been a long series of attempts by Cornerstone Community Church to get around the village's permit requirements.

Secretary Rice Talks About Religious Faith and Freedom

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday was interviewed by Tampa, Florida radio talk show host Bill Bunkley just before she spoke to the Southern Baptist Convention in Greensboro, North Carolina. BP News has released the full transcript of her interview that focuses on the role of faith in her life and moves toward religious freedom in the Muslim world.

UPDATE: Here is another interview with Secretary Rice on similar topics, this time with the editor of SBC Life.

California Supreme Court Will Review Doctors' Religious Defense

The Associated Press reports that yesterday the California Supreme court agreed to review the court of appeals decision in North Coast Women's Care Medical Group v. Superior Court. The case raises the question of whether two doctors being sued by a lesbian woman for refusing to perform intrauterine insemination on her can defend on the basis of their religious beliefs. The lower court held that the doctors could introduce evidence of their religious beliefs to show that their refusal was based on the fact that the patient was unmarried, rather than on the fact she was a lesbian. (See prior posting.)

Egypt To Ban Both Da Vinci Code Film And Book

Egypt's Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, told Parliament this week that Egypt will ban the film The Da Vinci Code for insulting religion. Ali Abu Shadi, director of Egypt's censorship board, said official action has not yet been taken because copies of the film have not yet been received in Egypt. Culture Minister Hosni also said that the government will go further and confiscate copies of the book version of The Da Vinci Code, even though it has been on sale in the country for over two years. The Associated Press reported yesterday that the moves come after Georgette Qelliny, a Coptic Christian member of Parliament, demanded that the action be taken. There has been increased tension between Muslims and Christians in Egypt recently. (See prior related posting.)

US Muslim Women Seek Religious Accommodations

USA Today carries an article on the efforts of some Muslim women in the United States to get both private and public groups to accommodate their belief in separation of the sexes in most contexts. Issues have arisen in connection with public swimming pools, gyms and women's basketball teams. In the American Muslim community there are disagreements on whether these requests for accommodation are an appropriate exercise of religious freedom, or are unduly alienating to non-Muslim Americans.

Bolivian Constitutional Rewrite Focuses On State Religion Issue

In March, Bolivian President Evo Morales signed a law calling for a special assembly to rewrite the country's constitution. (BBC News.) That has led to a lively debate on whether Catholicism should remain Bolivia's official religion, or whether the country should become a secular State. Spero News yesterday reviewed the competing positions. The ruling party, Movement to Socialism (MAS), wants to eliminate the special privileges enjoyed by the Catholic Church and move to a fully secular constitution. Another group, Democratic and Social Power, wants the current constitutional provision recognizing the Catholic Church to remain unchanged. The Catholic Church takes an intermediate position. It supports a provision granting "broad religious freedom," but with recognition of "the Catholic Church and perhaps other religions as part of the history of the formation of Bolivia." This general approach is also supported by the Bolivian Episcopal Conference and evangelical Christians organized as National Unity".

Temporary Injunction Saves Church Services In School Gym

A South Carolina federal district judge has granted a temporary injunction to the members of Gracepointe (Southern Baptist) Church, ordering Woodland High School in Dorchester, SC to continue renting its gymnasium to the group for Sunday services pending trial in a lawsuit filed by the Church. The Church has rented the gym for Sunday services at the rate of $250 per week since August 2005. The school has asked the Church to leave, saying that the rental arrangement was never intended to be a long-term one and that the Church is being subsidized through below-market rent. Yesterday's Charleston Post and Courier reports that Judge David Norton's ruling says that the school district's rental policy distributed to community groups says nothing about time limits for renting facilities and all community groups get the same low rental fee.

Ugandan Police Arrest Muslim Groom After Marriage To Hindu Bride

Police in Uganda have arrested Syed Sadiq, a Muslim, after he married Anju Bala in a mosque in Nsambya, Arua Municipality, on Friday according to the (Kampala) Monitor. That ceremony followed a civil ceremony before the Arua District Registrar. The bride is Hindu. Her family and the Hindu community complained to authorities that the marriage is illegal. They consider it impermissible for a Hindu to marry a non-Hindu. During the wedding ceremony the bride's family actually stormed the mosque, but they were held back by police. Then the two families filed competing complaints at the Central Police Station. The groom's family says the bride converted to Islam before the wedding. The bride's family says that if this is so, it was a forced conversion or the bride was mentally incompetent. The groom is still in jail, but the rival groups are besieging the police station arguing for and against his continued incarceration.

Recent Developments In Religious Land Use Cases

Newspapers around the country report on developments in a number of RLUIPA and other religious land use cases.

In Boulder County, Colorado, Rocky Mountain Christian Church is seeking permission for a 15 to 20 year construction plan that would add an education building, a multipurpose chapel building, a gymnasium, a connecting gallery, and about 500 parking spaces. Yesterday's Longmont (CO) Daily Times-Call reported that the U.S. Justice Department has now entered the pending litigation in which Boulder County is challenging the constitutionality of RLUIPA's land use provisions.

The Orange County (CA) Register today reports that in Huntington Beach, California, lawyers for the city and Praise Christian Center are negotiating in a final attempt to settle a lawsuit, now on appeal, in which the church charges that the city violated RLUIPA in 2003 when it required the church to make various changes to a warehouse before using it a a church. These included a sprinkler system, soundproofing, and relocation of 3 parking spaces. The city prevailed at trial, but Praise Christian Center is appealing because the court refused to hear expert testimony on other situations in which the city did not require businesses to make like changes.

In Bedminster Township, New Jersey, under the prodding of a federal judge, the township is attempting to reach a settlement with Church of the Hills that has filed a RLUIPA suit because the township zoning board denied it a crucial variance it needs to proceed with its plans to quadruple the size of its facilities. Last fall, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a brief supporting the church. Yesterday, the Bernardsville News reported that the church has agreed to scale back its plans, and the township may now have more incentive to settle because its insurance carrier is no longer supporting its defense.

Finally, in Washington state, the Seattle Times reports today that a state court of appeals is being asked to grant an emergency stay of the order obtained by the city of Woodinville evicting 60 residents of Tent City 4. The tent city, sponsored by SHARE/WHEEL (a non-profit homeless advocacy group), is being hosted by Northshore United Church of Christ. One of the arguments on appeal is that the city's land-use code unconstitutionally infringes the church's right to religious expression. The city claims that Tent City 4 promoters did not follow proper permit procedures. In November, a RLUIPA claim was filed to challenge another Seattle suburb's regulation of a Tent City 4 encampment. (See prior posting.)

British Religious Groups Urge Enforcement Of School Prayer Requirements

In Great Britain, a group of religious leaders has written the new Secretary of State for Education, Alan Johnson, urging him to make sure that secondary schools carry out their obligation to provide daily collective worship for students. Britain's School Standards and Framework Act of 1988, Sec. 70 and Schedule 20, requires daily organized school prayer that is "wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character". Parents can request to have their children excused from prayer, and religiously-affiliated schools have prayer in their faiths' traditions. The religious leaders said, according to today's Guardian Unlimited, that many secondary schools are ignoring the daily worship requirement, even though it makes a "major contribution ... to the spiritual and moral development of pupils". They said that more teacher training is required and that the government needs to issue a clear statement to schools setting out their legal obligations. However the British Humanist Association has urged the education secretary to press for a change in the law that would allow schools to have more inclusive student assemblies.

9th Circuit Permits Religious Health Care Providers To Intervene In Weldon Amendment Challenge

In State of California v. United States, (9th Cir., 2006), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has permitted the Alliance for Catholic Health Care, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Christian Medical Association and the Fellowship of Christian Physician Assistants to intervene in a case challenging the constitutionality of the Weldon Amendment-- a federal provision preventing federal, state and local governments from receiving certain federal funds if they discriminate against health care providers that refuse to provide, pay for, provide coverage for or refer for abortions. California sued to challenge the constitutionality of the Weldon Amendment because arguably its law requiring emergency health care providers to furnish medical services for any condition posing a threat to life or a threat of serious injury or illness would cause California to lose federal funds. Finding that the United States will not adequately represent the intervenors' position, the Court of Appeals reversed the district court and ordered that the intervenors be made parties defendant.

Today's Sacramento dBusiness News reports on a statement issued by the Alliance of Catholic Health Care praising the court's decision.

Alaska Tax Exemption Challenged As Favoring One Religion

The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska is suing the state challenging a law passed in May that broadens the property tax exemption for clergy housing to include housing occupied by religious teachers who are not members of the clergy. The Associated Press says that the suit was filed Monday in state court in Anchorage. The broadened exemption in fact benefits only the Anchorage Baptist Temple. The Alaska ACLU says that the new law not just favors religion, but favors one religious institution.