In Spain, Church Is At Odds With PSOE Party As Elections Appoach

CNS News and the World Socialist Web Site today both report on the growing tensions in Spain between the Catholic Church and the country's ruling Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), as the country's March 9 elections approach. The Catholic Bishops have been attacking the PSOE's policies on abortion and same-sex marriage, as well as the government's dealings with the Basque separatist group ETA. Under Church pressure the PSOE has removed from its platform a call for extending aboirtion rights. Meanwhile, on January 30, the Spanish Bishops Conference issued a statement declaring that although: "Catholics may support and join different parties, it is also true that not all [electoral] programmes are equally compatible with the faith and Christian demands in life."

Punitive Damages Reduced In Funeral Picketing Case

Yesterday in Snyder v. Phelps, (D MD, Feb. 4, 2008), a Maryland federal district judge ruled on a number of post-tial motions filed by Westboro Baptist Church and its leaders in the suit brought against them for their picketing of the funeral of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew A. Snyder. (See prior posting.) In November, a jury awarded compensatory damages of $2.9 million and punitive damages of $8 million for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress growing out of the anti-gay picketing and website postings by defendants.

The court rejected defendants' claim that Lance Cpl. Snyder had become a public figure and his funeral a public event when his father filed a notice of the funeral in the obituary section of the local newspaper. A finding that he had become a public figure would have given greater First Amendment protection to defendants' speech. The court also rejected defendants' claim that their comments and actions were protected by the Free Exercise clause. However the court, on due process grounds, reduced the amount of the punitive damages award against each of the four defendants from a total of $8 million to a total of $2.1 million.

Yesterday's Baltimore Sun, reporting on the decision, indicated that a pending appeal to the 4th Circuit remains on hold until the district judge decides that amount of bond that defendants must post in order to proceed with the appeal. A hearing on that issue is scheduled for March 6.

Proposed Iran Penal Law Mandates Death For Apostasy

The Institute on Religion & Public Policy reported yesterday on the draft Islamic penal code that is being considered by Iran's Parliament (Majlis). Among its provisions is one that mandates the death penalty for anyone who converts from Islam to another religion. However, an individual who was born of non-Muslim parents who converts to Islam but then leaves Islam is given three days after sentencing to recant before the death penalty becomes final. Other provisions of the proposed law-- especially those relating to actions against the security of the country-- are of particular concern to Baha'is. The IRRP article carries the full text of the proposed amendments.

California Episcopal Diocese Sues Breakaway Church

Yesterday the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California filed suit against the breakaway St. John's Anglican Church in Sonoma County (CA) Superior Court seeking a declaration that the building and property of the congregation are held in trust for the Diocese and that purported amendments to the corporate articles and bylaws of St. John's were invalid. A release by the Diocese announced the filing of the lawsuit. The complaint in Episcopal Church v. St. John's Anglican Church, sets out eleven related causes of action against the Petaluma congregation.

University of Wisconsin Catholic Group Can Try Again For Funding

Even though a federal district court last month rejected a complaint by the Roman Catholic Foundation at the University of Wisconsin Madison protesting its denial of student activity fee funding for 2008-10, the school's Student Judiciary has now ruled that a new presentation can be made by the group. The court did find that the school's refusal of funding for 2007-08 violated the Establisment Clause. Yesterday's Daily Cardinal reports that in an appeal, the UW-Madison Student Judiciary found that the 2008-10 denial was based on the same unconstitutional standards. This prevented the Foundation from highlighting its unique Roman Catholic perspective as a basis for receiving university fuding eligibility.

Court Upholds Pastor's Firing Over Challenge To Procedures

The decision in Doles v. Rodgers, 2007 Va. Cir. LEXIS 210 (Portsmouth VA Cir. Ct, May 3, 2007), while handed down some months ago, has just become available through LEXIS. The decision rejected a challenge to a meeting of the congregation of New First Baptist Church in Taylorsville, Virginia. The church has no written constitution or bylaws. The notice of the congregational meeting was given one day in advance through a hand-out at church services. At the meeting, the congregation affirmed the decision of the church's "unified board" to dismiss the pastor. The court concluded that it was proper for it "to conduct a limited review of the process only and then make a determination that the basic 'fundamental principles of democratic government' have been observed." The court found that the unified board meeting was defective because five members were excluded. However, the follow-on congregational meeting was valid and therefore "the congregation acted, the majority had its say, and there is nothing further for this court to do."

Military Court Upholds Conviction of Muslim Soldier For Iraq Refusal

In United States v. Webster, (Army Ct. Cr. App., Jan. 30, 2008), the Army Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the court martial conviction and eleven-month sentence of an Army sergeant who refused to deploy to Iraq. Abdullah Webster, a convert to Islam, claimed that his understanding of Muslim teachings prelcuded him from killing a fellow-Muslim in the circumstances presented by the war. The court held that the military judge's acceptance of Webster's guilty plea was not an abuse of discretion. The court rejected Webster's assertion that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act required reversal of his conviction.

In its opinion, the court developed an interesting reconciliation of the strict scrutiny test imposed by RFRA and the pre-RFRA holding by the U.S. Supreme Court in Goldman v. Weinberger, that "review of military regulations challenged on First Amendment grounds is far more deferential than constitutional review of similar laws or regulations designed for civilian society." The Army Court held that:

while strictly scrutinizing the Army’s burden on free exercise of religion, we apply judicial deference to "the professional judgment of military authorities concerning the relative importance of a particular military interest."

Employing this test, it found that the Army has a compelling interest in requiring soldiers to deploy with their units, and that this interest was furthered by the least restrictive means in that Webster was offered a number of accommodations as well as the opportunity to seek conscientious objector status.

President's New Limits On Earmarks May Affect Religious Groups

Last week, President Bush signed an Executive Order titled Protecting American Taxpayers From Government Spending on Wasteful Earmarks (full text). It provides that future earmaks contained in committee reports, and not in statutory language, will be ignored unless the federal agency involved decides under merit-based standards that the earmarked project is the best expenditure of taxpayer dollars. Members of Congress may express their views in this process, but their comments will be made avaialble on the Internet for public examination. (White House Fact Sheet.) The White House says that these changes are directed at wasteful and excessive pork-barrel spending. The Executive order may have a significant impact on religious groups. A study last year by the New York Times found that between 1989 and January 2007, Congress approved nearly 900 earmarks for religious groups, totaling more than $318 million. Yesterday's Kansas City Star reports on $2 million in earmarks in the 2008 appropriations bill for World Impact, a Christian group that conducts outreach programs directed at the urban poor.

Presidential Hopefuls Reach Out to Latino Evangelicals

Yesterday's Kansas City Star reports on the outreach by Presidential candidates-- both Republican and Democratic-- to Latino evangelicals. Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, is described as "the go-to pastor" for candidates seeking their votes. NHCLC is launching a voter registration drive. Christianity Today in Sept. 2006 published a lengthy profile of Rodriguez and his work.

Recent Law Review Articles of Interest

From SSRN:

• Tarum Jain, General Principles of Intestate Succession Under Hindu Law, (2008).
• Timothy Sandefur, Reason and Common Ground: A Response to the Creationists' "Neutrality" Argument, (Chapman Law Review, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2008).
• Dr. Dipa Dube, Some Reflections on Interplay of Law and Morality in Contemporary India, (January 29, 2008).

From SmartCILP:

• Monica K. Miller, Alayna Jehle & Alicia Summers, From Kobe Bryant to Saddam Hussein: A Descriptive Examination and Psychological Analysis of How Religion Likely Affected Twenty-five Recent High-Profile Trials, 9 Florida Coastal Law Review 1-33 (2007).


• Mark G. Toews, Mennonites, the First Amendment, and the Role of Selective Conscientious Objectors in a Democratic Society, 9 Florida Coastal Law Review 35-64 (2007).

NH Federal Court Holds Prison Anti-Violence Program Is Secular

In Bader v. Wren, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6952 (D NH, Jan. 30, 2008), a New Hampshire federal magistrate judge rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to the "Alternatives to Violence Program" offered to inmates at the New Hampshire State Prison. He concluded that the program is not religious, even though it is rooted in Quaker philosophy. Unlike religion-based 12-step programs, AVP's identification of "Transforming Power" is much closer to "the non-religious idea of willpower within the individual." He explained: "AVP teaches that Transforming Power has a unique meaning to each participant.... It could mean the same thing, or diametrically opposite things, to a Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or atheist participant. While the program teaches an ideology of the power within each individual to transform his or her perspective. It seeks to accomplish this without reliance on, reference to, or invocation of, any theology. Transforming Power, as utilized in the AVP, is not part of any religion and cannot be understood as religious."

Malaysian and South African Muslims Warned Not to Use Botox

In both Malaysia and South Africa, influential Muslim legal bodies have banned the use of botox for cosmetic purposes. They have ruled it can be used only in emergency situations or situations of great necessity. In Malaysia, according to a report today by Religious Intelligence, the ban was issued by the National Fatwa Council, made up of Islamic scholars chosen by Malaysia's Sultans, the constitutional monarchs of nine Malay states. Today's Johannesburg Times reports that South Africa's Muslim Judicial Council, based in Cape Town, followed suit this week. (The Times story says that Malaysia's ruling was made two years ago.) The ban was issued after it was discovered that the manufacturing process for botox includes growing bacteria in a culture containing an enzyme derived from pig's milk.

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

In Rainer v. Calderon, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5591 (ED CA, Jan. 25, 2008), a California federal magistrate judge recommended dismissal of an inmate's claim that "he was denied services to study and follow the life of his Prophet (Muhammad)…" The court said plaintiff failed to link the alleged denial to the conduct of any of the named defendants.

In Wesley v. Muhammad, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6248 (SD NY, Jan. 28, 2008), a New York federal district judge accepted a magistrate's recommendation in a case in which a Muslim inmate challenged the selling of pork-based products in a prison's commissary without clearly labeling which products comply with Muslim dietary restrictions. The court dismissed claims against officers who merely worked at the commisary, but permitted them to go forward against supervisory officials. Plaintiff had objected to dismissal of the commissary workers, arguing that they were "like Nazi concentration camp guards, relying on a defense that they followed the orders of superiors to avoid liability...." The court said that argument reflected both a lack of any sense of proportion, and the weakness of plaintiff's case.

In Joseph v. Arpaio, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6227 (D AZ, Jan. 28 2008), an Arizona federal district court dismissed a claim by a Muslim inmate that he was being given pork products in his meals. Defendants demonstrated that he was receiving a no-pork diet.

In Grissom v. Cole, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7169 (D AK, Jan. 30, 2008), an Arkansas federal magistrate judge found that there were factual disputes that prevented dismissal of a prisoner's claim that defendants denied him the right to bring his Bible into the day room at the Clay County Detention Center.

SMU Siting of Bush Institute Sparks United Methodist Church Procedural Wrangle

After George W. Bush leaves office next January, his Presidential Library will be built on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Now, according to a Friday report from Ekklesia, the George W. Bush Foundation would also like to build a partisan institute devoted to "promoting the views of George W. Bush on international and domestic matters" at SMU. The United Methodist Church's 21-member Mission Council last March approved a 99-year lease on SMU land for the Institute. The 290 delegates to the Church's upcoming South Central Jurisdictional Conference plan to review that decision at their July 2008 meeting. Urging rejection of the lease, retired Bishop C. Joseph Sprague says that Bush administration polices "are in direct conflict with the Social Principles of The United Methodist Church on issues of war and peace, civil liberties and human rights, care for the environment, and health care. Our United Methodist identity and its moral authority would be seriously compromised were it to be identified with the policies of George W. Bush in this way." Concerned over this kind of criticism, the George W. Bush Foundation has now asked the eleven active United Methodist Bishops in the United States to rule that the decision of the Mission Council approving the lease was final and is not subject to review by the Jurisdictional Conference.

Romney's Attendance At Mormon Leader's Funeral Analyzed

Today, funeral services were held in Utah for Mormon Church President Gordon B. Hinckley. The AP carries an interesting political analysis of Mitt Romney's attendance at the funeral:

The death of Mormon church President Gordon B. Hinckley renews attention on Mitt Romney's little-known religion — yet rather than being reluctant to discuss it, he's making a public embrace that shows some shifting political attitudes....

The death of Hinckley, and Romney's decision to attend his funeral on Saturday, underscores his connection to and stature within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at a pivotal time for him: He is reaching out to conservatives for their support after a series of high-profile wins and endorsements have boosted rival John McCain's campaign.

The difference now is that Romney approaches both his ongoing campaign and the funeral rites with less tension over his religion. Contests in Iowa and South Carolina, which both have significant evangelical voting blocs, are behind him.

India Arrests Two Sikh Separatist Leaders

The blog Unique Pakistan reports on the arrest in India earlier this month of two Sikh separatist leaders, Sardar Kanwarpal Singh Dhami and Dr. Jagjit Singh Chohan. In 1987, Khalistan (an area comprising pre-1966 Punjab) declared its independence from India in a so-far unsuccessful attempt to become an independent Sikh homeland. The two Sikhs arrested spoke out and organized events in support of a free Khalistan. They were charged by authorities with "sedition, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony, imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration and statements conducing to public mischief."

Russian Authorities Ban Moderate Islamic Text As Extremist

Forum 18 reports today that Russian authorities have banned as "extremist" a moderate Islamic theological text that gives Koran-based advice on family and social relationships. Russia's 2002 Extremism Law prohibits mass distribution, or preparation or storage with the aim of mass distribution, of books found to be extremist. Last August, the Bugurusla City Court found 16 books to be "extremist". One of those was the moderate publication, "The Personality of a Muslim" by Muhammad Ali al-Hashimi. Now the latest Federal List of Extremist Publications, released in December 2007, also contains al-Hashimi's book. If the ban is not reversed, local Muslims face a problem of how to dispose of the tons of copies of the book that they have. Islamic law calls for holy books to be disposed of by Muslims burying or burning them.

British Lawsuit Claims Definition of Who Is A Jew Amounts To Racial Discrimination

A lawsuit has been filed against Britain's largest government-funded Jewish school challenging its admission standards as violating prohibitions against racial discrimination. Today's Jewish Chronicle reports that the action brought in the High Court challenges the policy of JFS to give preference only to Jewish students who are recongized as such under Orthodox Jewish law. In the case the school refused to recognize as valid the conversion to Judaism of the mother of the child applying for admission. She was converted by a rabbi from the Progressive stream of Judaism. However, even Rabbi Tony Bayfield, head of the Reform movement, was concerned about the implications of the case. Every stream of Judaism as some definition of who is Jewish that requires either Jewish parentage or conversion. Bayfield fears that if the plaintiff is successful in contending that this amounts to racial discrimination, the court will impose upon Judaism a definition that turns solely on religious belief. That, he says, is a Christian notion.

1st Circuit Rejects Parents' Objections To Books Depicting Gay Couples

In Parker v. Hurley, (1st Cir., Jan. 31, 2008), the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a claim by two sets of parents that their free exercise and parental privacy-due process rights were violated when they were not given an opportunity to exempt their elementary school children from exposure to books that offended their religious beliefs. In one case, kindergarten and first grade children had available as supplemental reading the books Who's In a Family?. and Molly's Family. Both include depictions of families with same-sex parents. In the other case, a second grade teacher read aloud to her class the book King and King, the story of a prince who falls in love with another prince. The court also rejected a claim that exposure to these books violated the school children's free exercise rights. The ACLU issued a press release discussing the decision. (See prior related posting.) [Thanks to Marty Lederman via Religionlaw for the lead.]

Large Church Super Bowl Parties Violate Copyright Law

Again this year, the NFL is objecting to large churches hosting Super Bowl Parties this Sunday if the game is screened on a TV screen larger than 55 inches. According to World Net Daily and the Christian Post, the copyright law (17 USC 110(5)(A)) grants only limited exceptions for the showing of copyrighted broadcasts, such as the Super Bowl. Sports bars with under 3750 square feet of space may freely show the broadcasts, but other establishments can do so freely only if they have less than 2000 square feet. Widespread showings to large audiences would cut into TV network ratings, and would in turn reduce advertising revenues. The NFL appears to be showing some flexibility this year, especially as home receivers now often exceed 55 inches. (See prior related posting.)