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

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

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

Preacher Loses Challenge To Miami University's Speech Policy

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

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

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

Jail Permits On-Site Baptisms After Threat of Suit

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

Gideons In Court In Florida As Defendants and Plaintiffs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Baltimore Schools Pressed To Close For Muslim Holidays

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

Church of England To Crack Down On Bogus Marriages

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

Australia Worries About Rush of Prison Conversions To Islam

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

Recent Articles on Law and Religion

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bishop Heading China's State-Backed Catholic Church Dies

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

President Sets May 3 As "National Day of Prayer"

On Friday, President George W. Bush issued a Proclamation setting May 3, 2007 as a National Day of Prayer. The Proclamation asks "the citizens of our Nation to give thanks, each according to his or her own faith, for the freedoms and blessings we have received and for God's continued guidance, comfort, and protection." The annual Proclamation is required by federal statute, 36 USC Sec. 119.

The National Day of Prayer Task Force, headed by Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family founder and chairman James Dobson, calls its website the "official" website for the National Day of Prayer. It includes a history of the Day. Florida Baptist Witness reported last week that author and pastor Charles Swindoll is this year's Honorary Chairman and main speaker for scheduled ceremonies at the Cannon House Office Building. It says that this year's theme is "America, Unite in Prayer," which is based on 2 Chronicles 7:14.

Texas Legislature Has Faith-Based Agenda

Today's Dallas Morning News carries a lengthy article on initiatives in this year's Texas legislature to enact laws making the expression of faith more prominent in schools and government. Religion Clause has reported on a number of these previously. The bills introduced include ones on Bible classes, prayer in public schools, marriages that are harder to dissolve, abstinence education and public religious declarations (such as adding "under God" to the Texas flag pledge). Church-state separationists say that the bill on Bible classes has been improved as it makes its way through committee. Last week the Houston Chronicle reported that as amended, the classes will be optional for school districts, and teacher training and curriculum standards have been added. [Thanks to Blog from the Capital for the lead.]

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Decisions

In Sanders v. Ryan, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29070 (D AZ, March 19, 2007), an Arizona federal district court rejected First Amendment and RLUIPA claims by a Baptist prisoner that his rights were violated when prison officials limited him to possessing 10 audiotapes at a time, insisting that he send back his old tapes before adding new ones.

In Hawk v. Alameida, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28740 (ED CA, April 17, 2007), a federal Magistrate Judge recommended dismissal of a Native American prisoner's objections to enforcement of prison grooming regulations against him. Plaintiff alleged first amendment and Equal Protection violations. Dismissal of his retaliation claim was recommended for failure to exhaust administrative remedies.

In Roddy v. West Virginia, (4th Cir., April 16, 2007), the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the district court's dismissal of a prisoner's free exercise claim in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's January 2007 decision in Jones v. Bock that liberalized exhaustion requirements under the Prison Litigation Reform Act.

In Muhammad/Smith v. Freyder, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27717 (ED AK, April 12, 2007), a federal Magistrate Judge dismissed a prisoner's claim that his rights under RLUIPA were violated when he was not served the same meal as other Muslim inmates were served to celebrate the end of the Ramadan fast. The court found that prison authorities had a compelling interest in not serving meals catered from outside (here from Popeye's restaurant) to inmates confined to administrative segregation for violation of prison rules.

In King v. Bennett, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27702 (WD NY, March 30, 2007), a federal Magistrate Judge rejected a claim by a Sh'ia Muslim prisoner that he was denied the right to free exercise of religion by virtue of the New York Department of Corrections' policy of holding joint Friday prayer services for both Shi'a and Sunni Muslims. Prison officials said that granting plaintiff's request would pressure them to provide separate services for numerous Protestant and Jewish subgroups. That in turn would increase fiscal and administrative burdens and encourage rivalries by promoting power struggles and competition for new members and converts.

NJ Rastafarian Employee Can Proceed With Discrimination Claim

Last week, a New Jersey federal district court permitted a Camden County, NJ government employee to proceed with his religious discrimination claims under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, but dismissed his federal and state free exercise claims. Sistrunk v. Camden County Workforce Investment Board, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28854 (D NJ, April 18, 2007), involved a claim by a practicing Rastafarian that he was dismissed as a Youth Coordinator because he wears his hair in dreadlocks. The court found that issues of fact, requiring a trial, exist on whether notice had been given to the employer about plaintiff's religious beliefs and whether his termination was because of those beliefs. The free exercise claims were dismissed because the Board's dress code was found to be a neutral rule of general application.

Minneapolis College's Foot Bath Proposal Stirs Accommodation Controversy

Minnesota's Twin Cities, already the site of conflict over accommodating Muslim cab drivers and supermarket cashiers, is facing another controversy. Minneapolis Community and Technical College, concerned over the safety of Muslim students using high sinks in its bathrooms to wash their feet before prayer, proposed installing foot baths for their use. The College saw this as a non-controversial accommodation to prevent the kind of injury that occurred last year when a student slipped and hit her head. However the American Family Association sent out an "action alert" urging its members to contact their legislators to insure that the College does not use tax money "to promote Islam while censoring Christians".

Now, the board of Minnesota's State Colleges and Universities says it will discuss creating uniform guidelines for cultural and religious accommodations at its next meeting. Also, state Rep. Jim Abeler plans to introduce an amendment to the House Higher Education bill to assure that college employees can display religious symbols at their desks. It will also provide for sending a legislative letter reminding college officials that accommodation should be equally available for all religious groups. Details appear in Wednesday's Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Westboro Baptist Bargains Away Virginia Tech Funeral Picketing For Radio Time

Plans (previously reported here) by virulently anti-gay members of the Topeka, Kansas Westboro Baptist Church to picket funerals of the Virginia Tech victims have now been called off in a deal with a radio talk show host. The blog Straight, Not Narrow reported yesterday that church spokesperson Shirley Phelps-Roper will get 3 hours on the air with conservative radio host Mike Gallagher in exchange for calling off the funeral demonstrations. While a posting on Gallagher’s website is somewhat apologetic about the deal, Westboro describes the deal in contractual terms on its website. The church's earlier posting announcing the picketing of the first of the student funerals had said that the Virginia Tech killings were explainable as God "punishing America for her sodomite sins and for persecuting Westboro Baptist Church for warning America of her doom". Another of its postings says "The 33 Massacred at Virginia Tech died for America's sins against WBC."

Louisville Sues Over Church's Right To Land; Issue Is Rule Against Perpetuities

Over 80 years ago, the family of S. Thruston Ballard donated two parcels of land (about 2 acres) to the city of Louisville, Kentucky for use as a park, playground or for recreation. The conveyance provided that if the land ceased to be used for these purposes, it would revert to the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky. Now the city has agreed to convey the land-- located along the Ohio River-- to developers who are building a $200 million residential and office project. The Diocese says that this agreement means that the land now belongs to the Diocese. After negotiations between the city and the Diocese broke down, the city filed a quiet title action, asking the court to declare that it has clear title to the land. The city claims that the Diocese's revisionary rights lapse long ago, and that the law does not permit the rights to continue indefinitely. Attorneys for the Diocese disagree. Apparently the dispute is over the interpretation of Kentucky's Rule Against Perpetuities. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported on the case on Thursday.

Records Subpoenaed From Congressmen In Mt. Soledad Cross Challenge

The San Diego Union-Tribune today reports that plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of Congress' transfer of the Mt. Soledad cross to the federal government have issued subpoenas to three members of Congress. The subpoenas ask for records relating to communications with the executive branch, with any city government and with outside groups such as the Thomas More Law Center. Plaintiffs are seeking to prove that the purpose of Congress' taking of the memorial site from the city was to endorse religion. Reps. Duncan Hunter, Darrell Issa and Brian Bilbray have asked lawyers for the House of Representatives to review the subpoenas. Congressman Issa called the subpoena an attack on freedom of religion. Earlier this month, a federal court rejected the same plaintiffs' request to take depositions from Congressman Hunter and San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. It said that subjective motivations were irrelevant and that the request of Rep. Hunter violated the Constitution's speech and debate clause.