Religion Clause

Monday, May 12, 2008

Texas Bigamy Prosecution Wll Test Strengthened Law

For the first time since the Texas prohibition on bigamy (Penal Code, title 6, Sec. 25.01) was strengthened by the legislature in 2005, a prosecution is about to take place. Sunday's Dallas Morning News reports that in February, 73-year old House of Yahweh prophet Yisrayl "Buffalo Bill" Hawkins was indicted on four counts of promoting bigamy. In addition, sect elder Yedidiyah Hawkins has been charged with sexual assault of his 14-year-old stepdaughter who authorities say he was planning to marry. Hawkins secretive sect lives on a compound of hundreds of acres near the town of Eula in Callahan County, Texas. The House of Yahweh sends its apocalyptic message to the world over satellite broadcasts, radio and the Internet.

Frankenmuth Resident Gives Up On Challenge To Cross On City Shield

Frankenmuth, Michigan resident Lloyd Clark says he is giving up his effort to require the city to remove a Lutheran cross that appears on the city shield. (See prior posting.) According to NBC25 News, Clark made his decision after family and friends told him they were embarrassed by his efforts. Ed Brayton has posted a lengthy report on last Tuesday's Frankenmuth City Council meeting at which the mayor said that that city government was firmly committed to protecting the current version of the shield.

Sri Lankan Buddhists Protest Discriminatory Electric Rates For Temples

In Sri Lanka, Buddhist clergy are calling the country's new electric rates religious discrimination. Colombo's Sunday Times reprints a statement from Ven. Galaboda Gnanissara Thera, head of Colombo’s Gangaramaya Temple who says that the Ceylon Electricity Board has adopted a new rate schedule "that is aimed at a closure of all charitable institutions and places of worship. The new bill for these places exceeds that charged for hotels." The statement calls on all Buddhist places of worship to protest the new rates by using oil lamps instead of electricity on Vesak Poya day (May 19-20).

Sunday, May 11, 2008

FLDS Advocate Asks Bush To Intercede

Willie Jessop, head of a group called Mothers and Children of YFZ, has written a letter dated May 10 (full text) to President George W. Bush. The letter has been posted on the "Captive FLDS Children" website. The letter begins:

We appeal to you, as President of the United States of America and Leader of the Free World, to intercede in behalf of an American community which has been invaded and devastated by an armed militant force. Mr. President, it does not require a foreign country to commit terrorist acts on American soil. Terrorist acts can be committed by federal, local, and private entities that are operating under the guise of “protecting the public.”

Near the end of his 10-page letter, Jessop says:

It has been customary for a President to visit the site of a disaster of this magnitude where so many innocent people are involved.... We personally invite you, First Lady Laura Bush, and members of your staff to visit the YFZ community and witness firsthand the site of these gross violations of human rights that have occurred in your peaceful neighboring west-Texas community. Reunite these children with their loving parents, and return families to their homes!

We call upon you to ... hold accountable those who perpetrated these acts of terror and now are determined to save the state from embarrassment by selectively prosecuting members of the FLDS faith.

Deseret News says the letter was hand delivered to President Bush's staff yesterday near the Bush ranch in Texas where the President was attending the wedding of his daughter Jenna.

1990's Actions By Castro Helped Revive Cuban Jewish Community

Cox News Service reports today that in Cuba, actions taken by Fidel Castro in the 1990's have encouraged revival of Cuba's Jewish community. Most of the island's Jews fled in the 1950's, and the community was once down to about 800. It has now grown to 1500. The country has 3 synagogues and a Jewish community center, though as yet no full-time rabbi. After Castro in the 1990's eased the government's opposition to organized religion, Jewish leaders began to seek out Cubans with Jewish roots, some of who were no longer formally Jews because of intermarriages in their families. Several dozen Cubans with such roots have formally converted back to Judaism.

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Litigation

In Massingill v. Livingston, (5th Cir., May 8, 2008), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a trial court's rejection of free exercise and RLUIPA claims by a prisoner who was a member of the Israyl Identity faith. Plaintiff had challenged the prison's grooming requirements, wanted to be kept separate from prisoners of other races, and wanted his Saturday meals delivered on Friday. In his appeal, plaintiff unsuccessfully raised several evidentiary issues. (See prior related posting.)

In Blast v. Fischer, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36318, (WD NY, May 5, 2008), a New York federal magistrate judge refused plaintiff prisoner's request to appoint an expert witness to testify in his RLUIPA case about the Santeria religion and Western Cultural African Yoruba. The court said that the main issue is the sincerity of plaintiff's beliefs, not the objective importance of a particular practice within his faith system.

In El-Tabech v. Clarke, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36793, (D NE, May 5, 2008), a Nebraska federal district court awarded $196,605 in attorneys' fees and $8,380 in costs against defendants in a lawsuit in which a Muslim prisoner won his claim to receive a kosher diet, and his request that the prayer schedule be posted so that guards are aware of it. In awarding the fees, the court said: "Significant and complicated constitutional issues and statutory issues were adjudicated and El-Tabech vindicated not only his own rights, but those of similarly situated prisoners." (See prior related posting.)

In Lakhumna v. Friel, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37859, (D UT, May 8, 2008), a Utah federal district judge permitted a prisoner to proceed against most of his named defendants in a lawsuit claiming that authorities failed to accommodate his Hindu dietary requirements, and that Hindu inmates are not given the same access to the prison chapel as are others.

Korean Court Rejcts Damage Claim By Expelled High Schooler

In Korea, the Seoul High Court has reversed a trial court's award of damages to a student who, in 2004, was expelled from his Christian high school after he refused to attend required chapel services. Friday's Korea Times reports that Kang We-suck announced his refusal to attend chapel at Daegwang High School though an announcement over the school's loudspeakers and at a one-person rally in front of the school. Kang claimed that the school infringed his freedom of religion and inflicted mental suffering on him by expelling him. The High Court disagreed.

Romney Addresses Importance of Religious Freedom To Non-Believers

On Friday, former presidential candidate Gov. Mitt Romney and his wife Ann were awarded the Becket Fund's Canterbury Medal for "Courage in the Defense of Religious Liberty." (Press release). In his acceptance speech (full transcript), Romney reflected on his now-famous speech about religious liberty and his religious beliefs delivered last December during his unsuccessful campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. (See prior posting.) In one portion of his address at the Becket Fund dinner, Romney responded to criticism that he had not mentioned the rights of non-believers in December. Romney told the Becket Fund audience:

upon reflection, I realized that while I could defend their absence from my address, I had missed an opportunity…an opportunity to clearly assert the following: non-believers have just as great a stake as believers in defending religious liberty.

If a society takes it upon itself to prescribe and proscribe certain streams of belief – to prohibit certain less-favored strains of conscience – it may be the non-believer who is among the first to be condemned. A coercive monopoly of belief threatens everyone, whether we are talking about those who search the philosophies of men or follow the words of God.

We are all in this together. Religious liberty and liberality of thought flow from the common conviction that it is freedom, not coercion, that exalts the individual just as it raises up the nation.

Romney also strongly defended his December statement that "freedom requires religion." Saturday's Salt Lake Tribune reports on the Becket fund speech.

Court says RLUIPA Applies To Zoning Limits On 12-Step Program

Friday's Prescott (AZ) Daily Courier reports on an unusual RLUIPA decision by an Arizona Superior Court judge in Yavapai County. The case involves attempts by an AA 12-step program, known as Safe Harbor, to operate out of a neighborhood location in north Prescott. The city claimed that AA needed a special use permit to operate. In rejecting that claim, the court, noting AA's spiritual nature, applied the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. It held that "the city's effort to 'zone' the AA members of Safe Harbor out of the property is a land-use regulation which imposes a substantial burden on the religious exercise of the AA members of Safe Harbor and of AA..."

Friday, May 09, 2008

Next Steps In FLDS Custody Proceedings Described

Yesterday's Ft. Worth Star-Telegram reports on what to expect at the next round of hearings, scheduled to begin May 19, in the cases of 464 children taken into state custody from the FLDS compound in Eldorado, Texas. In simultaneous hearings in 5 San Angelo courtrooms, children will be grouped by family so that siblings will have hearings together. The hearings are likely to continue the children in state custody while parents work on "service plans" to meet Child Protective Service guidelines for return of their children. The court will attempt to to complete all hearings by June 5, the 60-day deadline as required by law.

Faith Group Sues Over California Limits On Its Use of Park To Feed Homeless

In Orange County, California, an interfaith religious group, Welcome INN (Interfaith Needs Network), has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the state's limits on public assemblies and demonstrations in state parks. According to a press release by the ACLU, when the group attempted to set up supplies in a Doheny State Park picnic area in order to offer a meal to the homeless, a park ranger told them to disperse, citing California Administrative Code, Title 14, Sec. 4321 that requires permission of the Department of Parks and Recreation in order to hold an assembly there. This action came after the group, on two previous days, used the park to conduct a prayer, serve donated food to about 20 homeless people, distribute Bibles and refer those who requested it to local social service agencies. The complaint (full text) in Welcome INN, Inc. v. Coleman, (CD CA, filed 5/7/08) alleges that the permit provision is an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech in a traditional public forum, and its enforcement against the group infringes their speech, associational and free exercise rights.

Today's Los Angeles Times, reporting on the case, quotes ACLU attorney Hector Villagra who compares the gathering of homeless at the state beach to picnics and barbecues that are allowed there. Park officials say this is different because it is an organized feeding event that requires a special use permit, like all other formal gatherings.

Group Seeking To Set Up Test Case On Tax Code Non-Profit Limits

Today's Wall Street Journal reports that Alliance Defense Fund is attempting to create a constitutional test case to challenge the tax code limits on church involvement in political campaigns. It is seeking 40 to 50 houses of worship to take part in a protest on Sept. 28. ADF is asking clergy to preach sermons on that day about candidates in the November election. Under the Internal Revenue Code, churches and other charitable groups can be fined or lose their non-profit tax status if they endorse or oppose political candidates.

Oregon Supreme Court Clarifies Standard For Religious Discrimination

In Nakashima v. Oregon State Board of Education, (OR Sup. Ct., May 8, 2008), the Oregon Supreme Court clarified the test that is to be used in determining whether a public school program is "fair in form but discriminatory in operation" so that it violates Oregon's anti-discrimination statutes. At issue was an attempt by Portland Adventist Academy (PAA) to get the Oregon School Activities Association to alter the schedule of the 2A State High School Boys' Basketball Tournament. PAA requested the change so that its basketball team would not be required to compete on their Sabbath. The court remanded the case to the Oregon State Board of Education for it to determine whether the challenged scheduling policy that adversely impacts PAA is "reasonably necessary" to the successful administration of the Tournament. The AP yesterday reported on the decision. (See prior related posting.)

10th Circuit Upholds Bald Eagle Protection Against RFRA Challenge

In United States v. Friday, (10th Cir., May 8, 2008), the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a challenge under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to the government's enforcement of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act ("Eagle Act"). The case involved the prosecution of Winslow Friday, a member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe, for killing a bald eagle so he could use it in his tribe's Sun Dance. Friday had never applied for a permit under the Eagle Act. The district court had held that the government's permit process was so maladministered that it would have been futile for Friday to apply for a permit. The Court of Appeals disagreed with this finding. It went on to hold that "the Eagle Act and its regulations are the least restrictive means of pursuing the government’s compelling interest in preserving the bald eagle." The AP yesterday reported on the decision. (See prior related posting.)

UPDATE: The May 13 San Diego Union-Tribune follows up on the decision with a mixed reaction to it from Sarah Krakoff, an associate professor of law at the University of Colorado. It also reports that Winslow Friday's attorney is considering seeking en banc review of the 3-judge panel's decision.

Two Schools Want Exemption From Quebec's Religious Culture Course

As previously reported, Quebec's Education Department is requiring, starting next fall, all public and private religious schools to offer a new course in Ethics and Religious Culture. Yesterday's Montreal Gazette reported that two schools have asked for an exemption from the requirement. Loyola High School, a Jesuit institution in Notre Dame de Grâce, told the Education Department that its students are already "strongly formed" in the key values to be taught in the new course. The other school seeking an exemption is Emmanuel Christian School in Dollard des Ormeaux. The Education Department says that the new course is intended to teach religious culture so students will be able to understand the importance of places of worship, beliefs and religious institutions in the province.

Feds Appoint Prosecutor To Focus On Polygamy Issues

Today's Salt Lake Tribune reports that the U.S. Justice Department has appointed a senior, career prosecutor to work with Utah, Arizona and Nevada to combat polygamy related crimes. This disclosure came in letters that Nevada Sen. Harry Reid sent this week to the attorneys general of Utah and Arizona. Today's Toronto Globe and Mail says that the U.S. investigation may extend to combating the so-called "polygamy underground railway" across the Canada-U.S. border through which young women are sent to marry older men. Women are sent between FLDS communities in British Columbia, Utah and Arizona. This action by the Justice Department may be the first step toward appointing a special task force. Last week, the Deseret News reported that Sen. Reid had long been pushing for the Justice Department to take action. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, while welcoming federal involvement, took issue with Reid's criticism of Utah's law enforcement. Shurtleff said Utah has done much to combat polygamy.

Meanwhile yesterday in St. George, Utah, some 200 people attended the annual conference presented by the Utah-Arizona Safety Net Committee to hear presentations by members of polygamous communities, news media, social service providers and law enforcement. Yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune quotes conference participant Anne Wilde from the "fundamentalist Mormon" advocacy group, Principle Voices, who said that fundamentalist Mormons represent a wide diversity of beliefs, and should not all be lumped together with the FLDS.

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Malaysian Sharia Court Agrees To Cancel Woman's Prior Conversion To Islam

AFP today describes as "rare" a decision handed down in Malaysia by Penang Sharia Court judge Othman Ibrahim. He permitted a Buddhist woman who had converted to Islam to reconvert to Buddhism. Islamic courts usually do not permit renunciations of Islam, but here the court said that Siti Fatimah only converted in order to be able to marry a Muslim man. She never practised Islam. Now that her husband has left her the judge said he had no choice but to order her original conversion certificate nullified since she had continued to practice Buddhism anyway. The woman now still has to convince authorities to change her identity card so she will no longer be classified as a Muslim on it.

Christian Student Group Sues to Challenge University Speech Code

On Wednesday, a student group, the Christian Fellowship, filed suit in federal court against Pennsylvania's Shippensburg University challenging university rules that plaintiff claims chills free speech and infringes its free exercise of religion. The complaint (full text) in Christian Fellowship of Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania v. Rudd, (MD PA, filed 5/7/08) alleges that "Christian Fellowship is a religious expressive student organization whose members hold and seek to advance Biblically-based opinions and beliefs regarding issues of race, gender, politics, and religion that may be objectionable or offensive to other students and sanctionable under applicable University speech codes." According to a release by the Alliance Defense Fund, a similar 2004 lawsuit was settled when the University agreed to revoke challenged provision in its speech code, but since then it has re-enacted many of the same policies. Today's Hagerstown (MD) Herald-Mail reports on the lawsuit.

Evangelical Manifesto Released Urging A "Civil Public Square"

Yesterday in a Washington, DC press conference, over 70 religious leaders endorsed a document titled An Evangelical Manifesto (full text, summary). Here is a small part of what it had to say about the place of Evangelicals in public life:

[W]e repudiate two equal and opposite errors into which many Christians have fallen. One error is to privatize faith, applying it to the personal and spiritual realm only.... The other error, made by both the religious left and the religious right, is to politicize faith, using faith to express essentially political points that have lost touch with biblical truth. That way faith loses its independence, Christians become the "useful idiots" for one political party or another, and the Christian faith becomes an ideology. Christian beliefs become the weapons of political factions....
[W]e repudiate the two extremes that define the present culture wars in the United States..... We are committed to a civil public square – a vision of public life in which citizens of all faiths are free to enter and engage the public square on the basis of their faith, but within a framework of what is agreed to be just and free for other faiths as well....
[W]e are concerned that a generation of culture warring ... has created a powerful backlash against all religion in public life among many educated people.... [W]e are concerned that globalization and the emerging global public square have no matching vision of how to live with our deepest differences on the global stage.... [W]e warn of the danger of a two-tier global public square. This is a model of public life which reserves the top tier for cosmopolitan secular liberals, and the lower tier for local religious believers.

The Associated Press, reported on the document, pointing out that a number of Christian religious leaders on the political right do not support it. Americans United for Separation of Church and State gave the Manifesto qualified praise, or, as it said, it gave it "one amen". More information on the Manifesto, including a lengthy Study Guide, is available on the Evangelical Manifesto website.