Pope Speaks On Separation of Church and State

On Monday, while receiving the letters of credence from Cristina Castañer-Ponce Enrile, the new ambassador of the Philippines to the Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about church-state relations. Zenit reports his remarks:

The Catholic Church is eager to share the richness of the Gospel's social message.... She carries out this mission fully aware of the respective autonomy and competence of Church and State. Indeed, we may say that the distinction between religion and politics is a specific achievement of Christianity and one of its fundamental historical and cultural contributions.

The Church is equally convinced that State and religion are called to support each other as they together serve the personal and social well-being of all. This harmonious cooperation between Church and State requires ecclesial and civic leaders to carry out their public duties with undaunted concern for the common good.

Legal Charges Against Anti-Scientology Group Members

BigNews.biz reports on two recent legal actions against members of Anonymous, an underground anti-Scientology organization. On Oct. 21, in Boston Municipal Court, defendant Gregg Housh admitted to leading a February 10, 2008 disturbance at the Boston Church of Scientology. The court continued the case charging disturbing the peace and disturbing religious services for one year, on the condition that Housh stay away from two Church of Scientology locations in Boston. Presumably charges will be dropped if the conditions are complied with for a year. Meanwhile on Oct. 17, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles filed a criminal information against Anonymous member Dmitriy Guzner who has agreed to plead guilty to charges of computer hacking for his role in a denial of service attack on Church of Scientology websites last January. (US Atty. Office Press Release). (See prior related posting.)

Real Estate Agents Increasingly Use Faith Advertising

An article in last Saturday's Washington Post reported on the growing practice among real estate agents to engage in faith advertising-- attempting to appeal to members of a particular religious group. An increasing number of real estate agents are aiming at Christians, either by incorporating Christian symbols in their advertising or joining groups such as the 1600-member Christian Real Estate Network. Other religious groups are following suit. Kosher Connection will connect users to Jewish real estate agents. In Michigan, a few real estate agents are marketing to Muslims who want Islamic financing for their home purchase. Some of these practices risk legal challenge. The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits real estate agents from using ads that indicate a preference for members of a particular religious group. Department of Housing and Urban Development guidelines however say agents can use religious symbols if they add a non-discrimination disclaimer. In 2004, federal authorities ruled that Section 806 of the Fair Housing Act required the Christian Real Estate Network to admit non-Christians to membership. This ruling is reflected in the organization's current policies.

Court Rejects Challenge To Sikh Temple Election

The Marysville (CA) Appeal Democrat reports that on Monday, a Sutter County (CA) Superior Court judge rejected challenges to an election of 73 directors for a Sikh Temple in Yuba, California. The challenge to the election that was held in September, filed by current temple president Didar Bains, cited irregularities in procedures. Over over 3000 Temple members took part in the election. As to the claim that sometimes two people were allowed to enter a voting booth together, the court speculated that this may have involved help for family members who did not understand English. Judge Perry Parker said: "We're not here to impose our values on a religious organization."

Exclusion of Juror Wearing Dreadlocks Held Impermissible Under Batson

In McCrea v. Gheraibeh, (SC Sup. Ct., Oct. 27, 2008), the South Carolina Supreme Court, in a 3-2 decision, held that counsel in a civil case failed to show that his peremptory striking of an African-American juror because he was wearing dreadlocks was race neutral. The majority held: "Regardless of their gradual infiltration into mainstream American society, dreadlocks retain their roots as a religious and social symbol of historically black cultures. For this reason, we hold that counsel’s explanation that the juror's dreadlocks caused him 'uneasiness' was insufficient to satisfy the race-neutral requirement in the second step of the trial court's Batson analysis."

Fordham's Award To Justice Breyer Protested Because of His Abortion Votes

Fordham University Law School's scheduled award tomorrow of the Fordham-Stein Ethics Prize to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is drawing protests from New York's Cardinal Edward Egan, 1100 Fordham alumni and the Cardinal Newman Society. The AP reported yesterday that the protests stem from the fact that Breyer wrote the majority opinion in Stenberg v. Carhart, the 2000 Supreme Court case that invalidated Nebraska's "partial-birth abortion" law. He also dissented in the 2007 case of Gonzales v. Carhart, which upheld the federal partial-birth abortion statute. AP says that six other justices have previously won the award, five of whom have voted for abortion rights. There were no protests in those cases. [Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]

McCain Campaign In Nevada Handing Out Christian Voter Guides

According to CBN News yesterday, the McCain campaign in Nevada is handing out flyers-- in English and Spanish-- titled "Voter's Guide for Serious Christians" and "Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics". The flyers say they are intended to help voters cast their votes"in an informed manner consistent with Christian moral teaching." The guides focus on "five non-negotiable issues": abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, and homosexual marriage. Among the advice given in Guides is: "Do not vote for candidates simply because they declare themselves to be Christian." They say that if no acceptable candidate is running, the voter should either vote for the candidate "who seems least likely to be able to advance immoral legislation," or not vote at all in that contest. The Guides were produced by a group called Catholic Answers Action which has posted the full text of the guides on its website.

FBI Releases 2007 Hate Crime Statistics

The FBI yesterday released hate crime statistics for 2007. (FBI press release). Today's Washington Post reports on the data, indicating that the 7,624 incidents reflected a 1.3% drop from 2006. However the FBI does not include year-to-year comparisons in its release because the number of law enforcement agencies participating varies each year. 18.4% of the single bias incidents in 2007 involved religious bias. That is a decline of 4.2% from the previous year. The FBI's website contains links to the full data. 1400 incidents involving 1628 victims were religiously motivated. 969 or those incidents were anti-Jewish, 115 were anti-Islamic, 61 were anti-Catholic, 57 were anti-Protestant, 6 were anti-Atheist/Agnosticism. According to an ADL press release on the data, despite the overall decrease, anti-Jewish incidents increased slightly from 2006 when 967 were reported.

Conservative Religious Groups Working In Favor of California's Marriage Amendment

Today's New York Times reported on the personnel and funding that conservative religious groups are investing in the campaign to pass Proposition 8, the ballot measure that would ban gay marriage in the state. Religious leaders are framing the battle in apocalyptic terms. Charles W. Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, said: "This vote on whether we stop the gay-marriage juggernaut in California is Armageddon. We lose this, we are going to lose in a lot of other ways, including freedom of religion." And Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said of the ballot measure: "It’s more important than the presidential election. We've picked bad presidents before, and we’ve survived as a nation. But we will not survive if we lose the institution of marriage." Ads warn that churches that refuse to perform gay marriages could lose tax exemptions and that ministers will be jailed if they preach against homosexuality-- both of which charges are strongly denied by Proposition 8 opponents. Swedish pastor Ake Green, who was sentenced to a month in prison under Sweden's hate speech law for an anti-gay sermon, was featured in a satellite simulcast that was shown in 170 churches. The Times article fails to note that Sweden's Supreme Court reversed Green's conviction. (See prior posting.)

Group Urges Changes On 10th Anniversary of International Religious Freedom Act

Today is the 10th anniversary of the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act. In a press release distributed by e-mail, the Institute on Religion and Public Policy uses the occasion to criticize the weakness of the current structures under IRFA and to suggest a number of steps the U.S. should take to strengthen international religious freedom protections. It urges that the State Department's annual religious freedom report place countries in tiers according to how well they protect religious freedom. More dramatically, it recommends a number of structural changes that should be recommended to the next Congress:

· Create ongoing program funding within the Office of International Religious Freedom to support deserving local organizations that monitor religious freedom abuses in their countries.

· Strengthen the role of the Office of International Religious Freedom in the State Department by having it report directly to the Secretary as was congressional intent, rather than remaining under the rubric of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.

· Ensure the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom enjoys the full diplomatic and negotiating privileges of his rank, and has a more central role in shaping U.S. foreign policy, as called for in the act.

· Follow the recommendations of the act by naming a director-level individual in the National Security Council to oversee strategic religious liberty issues within the White House.

· Allow the federal U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to dissolve as scheduled in 2011, and hold in the meantime a Congressional oversight hearing to assess its performance.

UPDATE: To mark the anniversary, Pew Forum carries an interview with Allen Hertzke, author of a 2004 book on the birth and development of the international religious freedom movement, Freeing God's Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights.

Florida Church Ordered To Permit Member Inspection of Records

Florida Statutes, Sec. 617.1602 -.1604 permit members of not-for-profit corporations to inspect records of the corporation. According to Florida Today, a Brevard County (FL) circuit judge on Friday ordered Palm Bay, Florida's Zion Christian Church to permit one of its members to inspect elder board minutes and financial records so that she can determine how her tithes are being used. She also wants records regarding property sale, renovation or expansion. Church member Stephany Eley, who is also a member of West Melbourne (FL) city council, says she wants the information in part to help her decide how to vote in an upcoming election to replace a member of the church's board of elders. Eley dropped her demand for access to e-mails of church officers that discuss finances since the church does not have a central e-mail account. The court will rule on any redaction of privileged information by the church in furnishing Eley the records.

Israel's High Court Says Saturday Fencing Matches Discriminate Against Athlete

Arutz Sheva reported yesterday on a recent religious discrimination decision by Israel's Supreme Court. The Court has ruled that a decision by Israel's Fencing Association to reschedule a competition from Friday to Saturday constitutes religious discrimination against Yuval Freilich, a young Jewish athlete whose religious observance precludes his participation on the Sabbath. The court held that either Freilich must be allowed to compete on Saturday night after the end of the Sabbath, or else he must be awarded a technical victory in any competition held on Friday night or Saturday so that he can advance in the competition without violating his religious beliefs. [Thanks to Joel Katz for the lead.]

Recent Articles Of Interest

From SSRN:

• Paolo Farah, The Influence of Confucianism on the Construction of the Chinese Political and Juridical System, in IDENTITA EUROPEA E POLITICHE MIGRATORIE, Giovanni Bombelli and Bruno Montanari, eds., pp. 193-226, (Vita e Pensiero, pp. 193-226, 2008).


• Christine Chambers Goodman, Beneath the Veil: Corollaries on Diversity and Critical Mass Scholarships from Rawls' Original Position on Justice, (Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2007.)


• Paul Horwitz, Churches as First Amendment Institutions: Of Sovereignty and Spheres, (Harvard Civil Rights- Civil Liberties Law Review, Forthcoming.)

From SmartCILP:

• Jose A. Lindgren Alves, Race and Religion in the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 42 University of South Florida Law Review 941-982 (2008).


• Virginia Hancock, "No-self" at Trial: How to Reconcile Punishing the Khmer Rouge for Crimes Against Humanity With Cambodian Buddhist Principles, 26 Wisconsin International Law Journal 87-129 (2008).

Teacher's ADA Claim Dismissed Under Ministerial Exception

In EEOC v. Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 85719 (ED MI, Oct. 23, 2008), a Michigan federal district court dismissed a retaliation claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act brought by a "called" teacher holding the title of "commissioned minister" in a Lutheran school. It held that the teacher must be considered a ministerial employee. It found that the "ministerial exception" for religious employers applies to ADA claims as well as Title VII claims.

Converts Not Complying With Indian State's Conversion Law

In the Indian state of Orissa, District Collector Krishan Kumar says that individuals converting to Christianity are not complying with the Orissa's 1989 Freedom of Religion Act that calls for converts to submit a form to a district magistrate. Express Buzz yesterday reported that between 1989 and 2008, only two individuals filed, while the Christian population of the Orissa went up by over 42,000. While some of the increase is likely due to migration, much of it is also from conversions.

Recently Available Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

In Lewis v. Ollison, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 54591 (CD CA, July 14, 2008), a California federal district court accepted the recommendation of a magistrate judge (2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82623, June 10 2008), and dismissed a free exercise and RLUIPA complaint by a Muslim prisoner. Plaintiff challenged prison limits on the amount of prayer oil that he could possess and rules that required that during lockdowns he must go the the showers only partially dressed.

In Terrell v. Montalbano, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84260 (WD VA, Oct. 21, 2008), a Muslim prisoner complained that prison officials denied him a religious diet for six months so they could evaluate the sincerity of his religious beliefs. A Virginia federal district court dismissed plaintiff's First Amendment challenge to this, but permitted him to move ahead with his RLUIPA challenge.

In Morris v. Newland, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71875 (ED CA, Sept. 22, 2008), a California federal district court adopted recommendations of a federal magistrate (2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84506)and dismissed free exercise and RLUIPA claim by a Muslim prisoner who objected that he was required to expose his naked body to female correctional officers. The court found that plaintiff's history of administrative discipline for inappropriate sexual behavior in the presence of female correctional officers defeated his claim.

In Martin v. Roche, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84603 (D CA, Sept. 8, 2008), a California federal magistrate judge rejected a claim by a Muslim inmate that his free exercise rights were violated when prison authorities denied him a copy of the Quran and a religious diet when he was placed in administrative segregation.

In Horacek v. Burnett, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84903 (ED MI, Aug. 19, 2008), a Michigan federal magistrate judge recommended that a Jewish prisoner be permitted to move to trial with most of his free Exercise, RLUIPA and infliction of emotional distress claims growing out of authorities' refusal to permit him to enter the Department of Corrections kosher meal program.

In Subil v. Sheriff of Porter County, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 85499 (ND IN, Oct. 22, 2008), a Jewish prisoner claimed that various restrictions infringed his rights under RLUIPA and the first amendment. An Indiana federal district court rejected his challenge to limitations on possessing certain religious items. While it found some merit in his complaint about access to a kosher diet and sabbath observance, it held that plaintiff could not get injunctive relief since he was no longer held in the jail about which he complained, and that he could recover only nominal damages for the violations if he ultimately succeeds.

Report Appears To Clear Three Baha'is Imprisoned In Iran

On Friday, Baha'i World News Service said that a confidential report issued in June by an Iranian investigator clears a group of Baha'is who were arrested in Shiraz, Iran in 2006. The investigation leading to the report was apparently undertaken at the request of Iranian provincial authorities. The report concludes that that the Baha'is were engaged solely in humanitarian work and were not teaching the Baha'i Faith. Three of the Baha'is are still being held in prison by Iranian authorities.

Preliminary Agreement Reached In Atlanta Church Zoning Case

Alliance Defense Fund on Friday announced an agreement with the city of Atlanta under which the city would allow Kingdom First Ministries to operate out of a building it has leased in Atlanta's Historic West End. The court issued a consent order (full text) in the case, under which the church can begin operating immediately and the parties agree to work toward a full settlement of the case. Earlier this month ADF filed a RLUIPA lawsuit against the city on behalf of the church. (See prior posting.)

Canadian Court Rejects Anti-Abortion Tax Protester's Defense

Friday's Edmonton (AB) Sun-News reports that a Court of Queen’s Bench justice has dismissed the appeal of a Canadian tax protester. Abortion foe David Little was convicted of failing to file tax returns. Little unsuccessfully claimed that his religious freedom under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms is violated if he is forced to pay taxes that are used, in part, to fund abortions.

Tanzanian Christians Say Move To Join OIC Violates Constitution

African Press Agency reported yesterday that in Tanzania, Christian church leaders have called for the resignation of the country's minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The Christian leaders say tat his moves to have Tanzania join the Organization of the Islamic Conference violates Tanzania's constitution. Part I, Sec. 19 of the Constitution provides: "the profession of religion, worship and propagation of religion shall be free and a private affair of an individual; and the affairs and management of religious bodies shall not be part of the activities of the state authority."