French Appellate Court Reverses Controversial Annulment

An appellate court in Douai in northern France yesterday reversed a decision by a lower court that had granted a Muslim husband an annulment when he discovered that his wife was not the virgin she had claimed to be. The lower court had held that the husband was misled "concerning essential qualities" of his wife. (See prior posting.) Agence France Press reports that now the wife supports the annulment. Many European parliament members complained however that the lower court decision amounted to unacceptable infringement of religion into the public sphere. French Justice Minister Rachida Dati says that, despite the government appeal of the case, the annulment would be acceptable on other non-religious grounds such as breach of trust between husband and wife.

British Employment Appeal Tribunal Broadly Protects Against Religious Bias

In Saini v. All Saints Haque Centre, (UK Empl. App. Trib., Oct. 24, 2008), a British Employment Appeal Tribunal held that the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 were violated when Employee A is mistreated for the purpose of seeking to get rid of Employee B on the grounds of Employee B's religion. The claimant asserted that an immigration advice center was controlled by adherents to the Ravidass faith who were determined to bring pressure against Hindus employed at the center. Personnel Today reported on the case in yesterday's edition.

Nigerian Court Orders Release of Man Arrested For Having 86 Wives

IBN reports today that Nigeria's Federal High Court has ordered the unconditional release of Mohammed Bello Abubakar. The 84-year old man had been arrested and charged with "insulting religious" creed and "unlawful marriages" after local Muslim leaders ordered him to divorce 82 of his 86 wives. (See prior posting.) Initially he was arraigned by an Upper Sharia Court in Niger state. Now the Federal High Court has ordered the inspector general of police to give Abubakar protection from local authorities. BBC News reported several days ago that Abubakar had been released on bail, but IBN says he is still in custody. There is no law against polygamy in Nigeria, but Islamic law permits only four wives. The Niger state government says it will appeal the High Court's order. It is one of the Nigerian states that has reintroduced Sharia law.

Court Supervised Election of Buddhist Temple Board Upheld

In Wat Phra Buddha Chinnaraj Buddhist Temple v. Ketpongsuda, (CA Ct. App., Nov. 14, 2008), a California Court of Appeals upheld a trial court's resolution of a dispute over control of a Buddhist Temple in Chino Hills, CA. The trial court found that bylaws adopted in 1996 were the governing instrument and that later revisions were not properly adopted. It went on to order an election of new directors under the 1996 bylaws. The election was supervised by a court-appointed special master. The appellate court found that the court below properly applied "neutral principles of law" in making its determinations, and did not infringe the Temple's free exercise of religion protected by the California constitution.

Seven Amish Men Convicted For Refusing To Use Safety Emblem

After an all-day trial in a Graves County court in Mayfield, Kentucky, seven Amish men were convicted Friday of refusing to use the state-mandated orange "slow-moving vehicle" emblem on their horse-drawn buggies. They were fined a total of $250. Objecting to bright colors, they are willing only to use gray tape, plus lanterns at night. Believing that they should not trust their safety to a man-made symbol, they insist that the tape only outline the back of their buggies. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported yesterday that the defendants, members of the Swartzentruber Amish sect, plan to appeal. They claim that insistence on using the state emblem infringes their free exercise rights, and that their prosecution was discriminatory because the law has not been enforced against slow-moving farm machinery. (See prior related posting.)

Recent On-Topic Scholarly Articles and Book

From SSRN:

• Paul Horwitz, The Philosopher's Brief, (Constitutional Commentary, Forthcoming).


• Thomas Charles Berg, Religious Organizational Freedom and Conditions on Government Benefits, (Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, 2009).


• Perry Dane, West Virginia State Board of Education V. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943), (ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, David Spinoza Tanenhaus, ed., Gale, 2008).


• Amelia J. Uelmen, 'It's Hard Work': Reflections on Conscience and Citizenship in the Catholic Tradition, (Journal Catholic Legal Studies, Vol. 47, pp. 317-342, 2008).

From Bepress:

• Maurice Adams & Adriaan J. Overbeeke, The Constitutional Relationship between Law and Religion in the History of Ideas: A Contemporary European Perspective, (Global Jurist: Vol. 8 : Iss. 3, 2008)).

From SmartCILP and elsewhere (Constitutional Law issues):

• Paul E. McGreal, The Case for a Constitutional Easement Approach to Permanent Monuments in Traditional Public Forums, (Northwestern University Law Review, Oct. 27, 2008).


• Susan Gellman & Susan Looper-Friedman, Thou Shalt Use the Equal Protection Clause for Religious Cases (Not Just the Establishment Clause), 10 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 665-743 (2008).


• Daniel A. Seeger, Reconciling Religious Faith and Democratic Practice: The Problem of the Elusive Definition of Religion, 84 Notre Dame Law Review 97-109 (2008).


• Deborah Jones Merritt & and Daniel C. Merritt, The Future of Religious Pluralism: Justice O'Connor and the Establishment Clause, 39 Arizona State Law Journal 895-948 (2007).

From SmartCILP (Law & Religion):

• Marriage, Religion, and the Role of the Civil State. Foreword by Joel A. Nichols; articles by Margaret F. Brinig, Steven L. Nock, Elliot N. Dorff, John Witte, Jr. and Joel A. Nichols. (Links to full text.) 5 University of St. Thomas Law Journal 544-615 (2008).


• Liaquat Ali Khan, Advocacy under Islam and Common Law, 45 San Diego Law Review 547-608 (2008).


• W. Jesse Weins, Employer Funding of Fertility Awareness Training: Acceptable Alternative to Mandated Prescription Contraceptive Coverage in Employee Benefits, 12 Michigan State University Journal of Medicine & Law 321-339 (2008).


• Alfred L. Brophy, How Missionaries Thought: About Property Law, For Instance, 30 University of Hawaii Law Review 373-399 (2008).


• Charles R. Foster, Identity and Integrity in Clergy Formation, 5 University of St. Thomas Law Journal 457-469 (2008).

Recent Book:

• John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think, (Gallup Press, March 2008), author interview in Christianity Today.

Will Prince Charles Eventually Have Religiously More Inclusive Title?

According to an article in yesterday in Religious Intelligence, recent reports that Britain's Prince Charles would change the Coronation Oath to make it more multi-faith when he eventually becomes king are unfounded. Britain's monarch is head of the Church of England as well as head of state. Prince Charles has indicated in the past that he would like the king's traditional title, "Defender of the Faith", to be changed to the more inclusive "Defender of Faith"-- omitting "the" from the title. The exact style of the British sovereign has been modified over the years by Parliament. Apparently one way for Charles to accommodate his wishes would be for Parliament to revert to the original Latin form-- "Fidei Defensor." It can be translated either as referring to "faith" or "the faith". Despite the implication to the contrary in the Religious Intelligence article, the Coronation Oath does not appear to contain a reference to the title of the monarch.

Boy At Center of D.C. Hospital's Suit Buried After Heart-Lung Function Ends

AP reported yesterday that 12-year old Motl Brody died Saturday and was buried on Sunday in Brooklyn, NY. Brody was at the center of a pending lawsuit in Washington, D.C. (See prior posting.) Children's National Medical Center was seeking court approval to disconnect the boy's ventilator because he was pronounced brain dead. The religious beliefs of Motl's Orthodox Jewish parents were that life does not end until heart and lung functions cease. Apparently that point was reached Saturday.

German Professor of Islamic Theolgy Says Muhammad Never Existed

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal reports on Prof. Muhammad Sven Kalisch, head of the Center for Religious Studies at Germany's Munster University. A convert to Islam, Kalisch is Germany's first professor of Islamic theology. Hired to apply Western scholarship to Islamic studies, he has now concluded that the Prophet Muhammad probably never existed. He says this does not mean he is no longer a Muslim. Officials, alarmed at the implications of his scholarship, have removed him as head of a program to train teachers to teach religion to their Muslim students in public schools. Police have told Kalisch to move his Center to a more secure area. The Center has removed a sign identifying its location and has eliminated its address from its website.

Challenge To Religious Workers Visa Provisions Moves Ahead

In Ruiz-Diaz v. United States, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91967 (WD WA, Oct. 31, 2008), a Washington federal district court denied defendants' motion to dismiss a class action brought on behalf of certain foreigners in the United States who are seeking Religious Worker visas and by three religious organizations that employed them. The suit challenges a government regulation (8 CFR 245.2) that precludes applicants from filing for Adjustment of Status before their employer's visa application is approved. Plaintiffs were permitted to move ahead on their due process, equal protection, free exercise and Religious Freedom Restoration Act claims. (See prior related posting.)

Muslim Deli Owner Charges Yonkers Police With Selective Enforcement

A Yonkers, New York delicatessen owner has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against 14 Yonkers police officers. According to Friday's Lower Hudson Journal News, Haifa Tamimi says police engaged in selective enforcement against her of a city ordinance requiring businesses to close between midnight and 6 a.m. She says she was targeted beginning in 2002 because she was a Muslim and an Arab. The lawsuit claims other businesses were not ticketed. Her 24-hour deli did most of its business during the midnight to 6 a.m. shift.

Court Upholds Jurisdiction To Decide Which Faction Controls Church Property

Avondale Church of Christ v. Merrill Lynch, (TN Ct. App., Nov. 10, 2008) involves a dispute between two factions of a congregationally governed church. The dispute developed after the minister selected new leadership for the congregation. A Tennessee state appellate court affirmed the trial court's jurisdiction to decide who should control church funds and property and held that it acted properly in ordering a vote of the membership on that issue. However the trial court lacked jurisdiction to decide the propriety of the dismissal of the church's minister by the faction-- known as the Men's Business Committee-- that won the election or the identity of "church leadership" beyond control of church property.

Recently Available Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

In Charleston v. Rojas, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91573 (CD IL, Nov. 12, 2008), an Illinois federal district court dismissed an inmate's complaint that authorities denied his request for a vegan diet for religious reasons. the court found that plaintiff had not exhausted his administrative remedies.

In Berry v. Waushara County Jail, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91540 (ED WI, Nov. 4, 2008), plaintiff alleged that jail authorities violated his rights under the 1st Amendment and RLUIPA by failing to provide him with a Halal diet, refusing to let him order religious items, denying Muslims group worship and forcing him to purchase a Q'uran while Bibles were given out for free. The court allowed plaintiff to proceed in his claim for damages against the jail administrator in his official capacity, but dismissed claims for injunctive relief because plaintiff was now housed in a different facility.

In Means v. Lampert, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 92257 (WD OK, Nov. 12, 2008), an Oklahoma federal district court held that an inmate's complaint should be construed to include a RLUIPA claim even though only 1st Amendment claims were initially referenced.

In Mosley v. Campbell, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71454 (ED CA, Aug. 11, 2008), a California federal district court approved a magistrate's recommendation (2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 92409, July 15, 2008) to dismiss a Muslim inmate's challenge to prison grooming standards. The court found that plaintiff was not disciplined because he grew his beard, but instead because he "designed" the beard differently from its natural growth.

"Hisba" Lawsuits Growing In Egypt

A story in last Thursday's Middle East Times discusses the growing use of "hisba" lawsuits in Egypt and elsewhere in the Muslim world against bloggers, journalists and intellectuals. As explained in another Middle East Times article last August, hisba lawsuits are an invention of Islamic jurisprudence that permit private individuals to defend matters of faith to hold fellow citizens and the state accountable for upholding religious principles. Egypt's Decree Law 78 gives individuals the right to file lawsuits in cases where an exalted right of God has been violated. Increasingly however political critics are being charged with apostasy under these laws.

Speeches and Declaration From UN Sessions On Interreligious Understanding

The United Nations has released a summary of all the remarks made by world leaders at the Nov. 12-13 "Culture of Peace" meeting of the General Assembly called to discuss interreligious dialogue. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's opening statement at a press conference following the sessions thanked Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah for initiating the conference. The Secretary General also read the Declaration adopted by the participants. It stated in part:

Concerned about serious instances of intolerance, discrimination, hatred expressions, and harassment of minority religious communities of all faiths, participating states underlined the importance of promoting dialogue, understanding, and tolerance among human beings, as well as respect for all their diverse religions, cultures and beliefs. Participating states affirmed their rejection of the use of religion to justify the killing of innocent people and actions of terrorism, violence and coercion, which directly contradict the commitment of all religions to peace, justice and equality.

(See prior related posting.)

Indiana School's Released Time Program Challenged In Court

The Ft. Wayne (IN) Journal Gazette reported yesterday on a federal lawsuit filed by the Indiana ACLU challenging a Huntington Indiana elementary school's "released time" program. The suit brought on behalf of parents of an 8-year old argues that the school district has violated the Establishment Clause by supporting the voluntary religious instruction program that is offered during school hours in church-owned mobile trailers parked in Horace Mann Elementary School's parking lot. The trailers use the school's electricity, students are escorted to the trailers by their teachers, and students who elect not to participate go to their school classroom but receive no alternative programming.

Diocese Repudiates Priest Who Told Obama Voters To Seek Penance

ABC News today reports on an unusual public repudiation by the Catholic Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina of statements made by a Greenville, SC priest, Father Jay Scott Newman . Last week Newman wrote in his church newsletter that any Catholic who voted for Barack Obama needed to seek penance before again taking communion. He said: "Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exits constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ's Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation."

Monsignor Martin T. Laughlin, Administrator of the Diocese of Charleston, issued a statement yesterday reading in part:

This past week, the Catholic Church’s clear, moral teaching on the evil of abortion has been pulled into the partisan political arena. The recent comments of Father Jay Scott Newman ... have diverted the focus from the Church’s clear position against abortion.... [L]et me state with clarity that Father Newman’s statements do not adequately reflect the Catholic Church’s teachings. Any comments or statements to the contrary are repudiated....

Christ gives us freedom to explore our own conscience and to make our own decisions while adhering to the law of God and the teachings of the faith. Therefore, if a person has formed his or her conscience well, he or she should not be denied Communion, nor be told to go to confession before receiving Communion.... We should all come together to support the President-elect and all elected officials with a view to influencing policy in favor of the protection of the unborn child.

Focus Continues on Mormon Leadership of Proposition 8 Campaign

The AP reports that Fred Karger, founder of Californians Against Hate, filed a complaint Thursday with the California Fair Political Practices Commission. It alleges that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints failed to report the full value of its in-kind contributions to the campaign in support of California's Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage. Meanwhile today's New York Times ran an article detailing the extensive funding and volunteer efforts by members of the Mormon Church in the campaign for Proposition 8. Leaders were careful to keep the activities volunteer ones that did not formally involve the Church. But, according to the Times, "Proposition 8, was to many Mormons a kind of firewall to be held at all costs." (See prior posting.) [Thanks to Alliance Alert for the lead.]

Marines Sued By Contractor Whose Car Decals Were Banned On Base

Last Monday, Jesse Nieto, a Marine veteran who works as a civilian at Camp Lejuene Marine base in North Carolina, filed suit against military officials challenging their order that he remove various anti-Islamic decals from his car that he drives to work. Nieto's son was killed in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole. The Base Magistrate issued a written order barring Nieto's car from the base and all other federal installations until all the decals were removed. This had the effect of also barring him from using his car to visit his son's grave at Arlington Cemetery.

According to an AP report today, Camp Lejeune's Equal Employment Opportunity office received several complaints that Nieto's decals were offensive. The suit reveals that among the offensive decals were one that read: "Islam = Terrorism"; and another that read: "Disgrace My Countries Flag. And I will SHIT On Your Quran." Even after the most offensive decals were removed, officers insisted that he remove others as well. The federal court complaint (full text) alleges that these orders violated Nieto's free speech and equal protection rights. It argues that the orders are not viewpoint neutral. A Nov. 12 release by the Thomas More Law Center that represents Nieto says that the orders are "political correctness run amuck."

NC Senator-Elect Drops Defamation Suit Over "Godless Americans" Ads

Kay Hagan, winner in the recent election of the U.S. Senate race in North Carolina, has dropped her defamation lawsuit filed just before the election against incumbent Sen. Elizabeth Dole. CNN reported yesterday on Hagan's decision to focus on economic issues facing the country instead of pursuing the lawsuit that challenged election ads Dole ran against Hagan questioning her religious beliefs. The challenged ads attempted to identify Hagan with members of the Godless Americans Political Action Committee who attended a fund raiser for Hagan. Hagan is an elder of the Presbyterian church and a Sunday school teacher. (See prior posting.)