Three Lawsuits of Interest Are Settled

Settlements were announced this week in three unrelated cases-- all involving church-state or religious freedom issues. In Hempstead, New York, National Wholesale Liquidators Inc. agreed to an injunction and assessment of $225,000 in damages in a lawsuit brought by the EEOC charging it with discrimination by one of its store managers. According to IndiaWest, the manager was charged with sexual harassment and taunting of nine South Asian employees about their national origin and religion. He told one female Sikh employee to remove her turban so she would appear sexier.

In Pennsylvania, Shippensburg University has agreed to change its rules in order to settle a lawsuit by a student group, the Christian Fellowship. In February, student senate invoked university rules to object to the group's requirement that its members be Christians and its president to be a man. Tuesday's Christian Post reports that a similar lawsuit was settled in 2004. (See prior related posting.)

In Wyandot County (Ohio) Common Pleas Court, members of the St. Joseph Catholic Parish in Salem Township, whose rural Ohio church was closed by the diocese, filed suit in 2006 to obtain control of the parish's funds and property. Yesterday's Toledo Blade reports that a settlement agreement has been reached under which the church building, meeting hall, and related property will be transferred to the non-profit St. Joseph-Salem Heritage Society which was formed by ex-parishioners to preserve the parish's history. The agreement places some restrictions on the Society's future use of the buildings.

International Catholic Group Issues Report On Religious Freedom

The Australian-based international Catholic charity, Aid To the Church In Need, last week issued its extensive 2008 Report on Religious Freedom in the World. The 544-page document reports on the state of religious freedom for Christians and for other religious groups in each country in the world. It also contains an Annex titled Worldwide Freedom of Religion--The Catholic Point of View.

ACN's Oct. 29 press release on the report says that religious worship is under attack in more than 60 countries. It concludes: "violations of freedom of worship take place increasingly less for ideological reasons and increasingly more often because of power games. The attempt to stop religious freedom is addressed above all at impoverishing States, maintaining the population in conditions of slavery. In other nations ... such as for example China, fear of opening to freedom of worship coincides with the fear of encouraging other freedoms."

The organization has also issued a shorter report (112 pages) titled Persecuted and Forgotten?, focusing on religious persecution in 30 countries.

11th Circuit Upholds County Legislative Prayers With Sectarian References

In Pelphrey v. Cobb County, Georgia, (11th Cir., Oct. 28, 2008), the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, upheld the practice of the Cobb County Commission and the Cobb County Planning Commission to open their meetings with a prayer offered by local clergy or other members of the community, now invited randomly. The clergy have represented various faiths, and sometimes include in their prayers sectarian references. However the vast majority of clergy offering invocations have been Christian. Relying on the Supreme Court's decision in Marsh v. Chambers, the majority of the court held that county boards are not limited by the Establishment Clause to non-sectarian invocations so long as the prayers are not "exploited to proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other, faith or belief."

The appellate court, however, agreed with the district court that the prayer policy of the Planning Commission during 2003-04 was unconstitutional because it excluded certain faiths from the list of potential invitees. It agreed that nominal damages could be awarded for the violation. The majority opinion was written by Judge William Pryor who, before joining the court, was attorney general of Alabama. In that role he was part of a high profile church-state controversy involving the removal of Alabama's Chief Justice Roy Moore.

Judge Middlebrooks dissenting argued that the prayer policies of the county violate the Lemon test because they have both a religious purpose and effect and involve excessive entanglement of the state with religion. He argued further that the Marsh exception for legislative prayer should be limited to "invocations before the United States Congress and the state legislatures." He added:

I concur with the majority that judges, as representatives of the government, have no business editing or evaluating the content of prayer. However, I also believe that sponsorship of prayer by these commissions presents a similar, although less direct, danger. When state sponsored prayer is a perfunctory and sterile exercise marking the beginning of a commission agenda, religion becomes the casualty.

Americans United issued a press release criticizing the decision. Yesterday's Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer reported on the decision. [Thanks to Alliance Alert for the lead.]

RLUIPA Does Not Protect Church Against Watershed Ordinance Restrictions

In Hope in the City, Inc. v. City of Austin, Texas, (WD TX, Oct. 20, 2008), a Texas federal district court held a church that was prevented from paving over additional parts of its property for a parking lot had failed to allege facts showing a substantial burden on its exercise of religion. The church had not explored a number of alternatives to the proposed lot. The court therefore rejected a challenge to application of the Save Our Springs watershed protection ordinance to the church. The church had claimed that RLUIPA and the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act invalidated the city's refusal to allow it to construct the parking lot. Austin Legal yesterday reported on the decision. The court also rejected the church's claim that the proposed lot was protected under a "grandfather" clause, and rejected the church's procedural due process claim. (See prior related posting.)

NY High Court Upholds Rules On Free Water For Churches

In Matter of Brooklyn Assembly Halls of Jehovah's Witnesses, Inc. v Department of Envtl. Protection of the City of New York, (NY Ct. App., Oct. 28, 2008), New York's high court in a 4-3 decision upheld the New York City Water Board's interpretation of state and local statutes exempting places of public worship from various water and sewer charges. The Board only exempts that portion of a religious corporation's property in fact used for public worship, plus a single caretaker residence. Here the church, which contained a second caretaker's residence and two guest rooms as well, would need to separately meter those in order to obtains an exemption for the rest of the property. The dissenters argued that "the Department of Environmental Protection's ... unwritten rule - - that in order for the religious property to qualify for exemption pursuant to the Water Exemption Statute or the Sewer Ordinance it may not contain more than one caretaker residence on the property - - is arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable..." [Thanks to J.J. Landa for the lead.]

First Execution by Shariah Court In Somalian Port City Carried Out

In the Somalian port of Kismayo, the first punishment under Shariah law since the Islamist al-Shabaab militia took control of the city in August has been carried out. Bloomberg.com reports that on Monday, 23-year old Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was executed by stoning after being convicted of committing adultery-- an offense to which she had confessed. A Shariah Court judge said that Duhulow was "happy with the punishment" under Islamic law.

City Sued Over National Day of Prayer Observance

In San Antonio, Texas, on Oct. 24 atheist Patrick Greene filed a federal lawsuit to prevent the city from proclaiming next year's National Day of Prayer from the steps of City Hall. KSAT News reports Greene's argument-- the Day excludes non-Christians, and even some Christian denominations. Greene urges the court to find that this is an Establishment Clause violation, because it suggests government preference for one religion over another. Next year's National Day of Prayer is scheduled for May 7, 2009. (See prior related posting.)

Court Holds Ministerial Exception Inapplicable To Quaker Directorship Positions

In Leaphart v. American Friends Service Committee, (ED PA, Oct. 22, 2008), plaintiff charged racial discrimination and retaliation under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act in connection with the refusal by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) to hire and/or interview him for four positions within the organization. According to a report in Monday's Legal Intelligencer, plaintiff Jerry Leaphart was a corporate lawyer who underwent a spiritual transformation and decided to move to a law practice that focused on social justice. He applied for positions as director of the Quaker United Nations Office; director of Quaker Affairs; associate director of AFSC's community relations unit; and director of affirmative action.

A Pennsylvania federal district court rejected AFSC's assertion of the "ministerial exception" as a defense in the lawsuit. First it found that defendant had waived the defense. However, even if it was not waived, the exception would not apply because the positions at issue were not pastoral or ministerial in nature. The court denied defendant's motion for summary judgment, holding that there was sufficient evidence for a jury to find that the reasons given for not hiring plaintiff were pretextual.

Appeal to 9th Circuit Filed In Arizona Town Sign Ordinance Case

Alliance Defense Fund announced Monday that it is appealing the denial of a preliminary injunction in a sign ordinance case to the 9th Circuit. (Full text of Notice of Appeal.) In Reed v. Town of Gilbert, Arizona, in 2007 an Arizona federal district court entered a stipulated preliminary injunction after the town agreed to change the ordinance that required signs about religious gatherings to be smaller in size, fewer in number, and displayed for less time than similar non-religious signs. (See prior posting.) However, according to ADF, the amended code still treats religious signs less favorably than others. Nevertheless last month an Arizona federal district court refused to issue a second preliminary injunction to bar enforcing the new ordinance against Gilbert's Good News Presbyterian Church. That denial is the subject of the appeal.

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.