ABC Interview With Bush Includes Extensive Discussion of Religious Views

Last night, ABC's Nightline aired a wide-ranging interview with President George W. Bush. An article and published excerpts of the interview on ABC's website report that among the topics discussed were Bush's religious beliefs. Bush said he is not a literalist when it comes to reading the Bible. Asked about his views on evolution, Bush said:

I think evolution can -- you're getting me way out of my lane here. I'm just a simple president. But it's, I think that God created the Earth, created the world; I think the creation of the world is so mysterious it requires something as large as an almighty, and I don't think it's incompatible with the scientific proof that there is evolution.

Asked about the development of his personal faith, Bush said:

It is hard for me to justify or prove the mystery of the Almighty in my life. All I can just tell you is that I got back into religion and I quit drinking shortly thereafter and I asked for help -- I was a one-step program guy.

In the interview, Bush rejected the notion that he was chosen by God to be president, and the suggestion that his decision to go to war in Iraq was based on his religious views.

6th Circuit Upholds Michigan's Exclusion of Biblical Quotes From Advocate Directory

In Grosjean v. Bommarito, (6th Cir., Dec. 4, 2008), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected free speech, free exercise, overbreadth and vagueness challenges to the editorial practices of Michigan's Unemployment Insurance Agency in its listing of advocates available to assist claimants. Advocates are private contractors paid by the state to furnish free advice and representation to claimants in their appeals of rulings on unemployment benefits.

The Agency removed Biblical quotations that plaintiffs wished to include in their profiles that UIA sent out to claimants. Clients had previously been attracted to plaintiffs because of those references. The court held that the current compilation, using a required template that limits the form and style of biographical information presented, is government speech. So UIA can make content-based choices to limit published information to narrow professional biographical data. An earlier, more open-ended version, of the listings arguably were not government speech. However they were a non-public forum, in which the UIA could impose reasonable, content-based regulation. (See prior related posting.)

Denial of Equal Protection To Jews Claimed In Appeal of Bail Denial

A fascinating religious discrimination issue is raised in a motion to reverse an Iowa federal magistrate's denial of bail in the prosecution of Sholom Rubashkin. (Full text of Motion and of the Memorandum in Support of the Motion in US v. Rubashkin, (ND IA, filed 12/8/08.)) Rubashkin is the former CEO of the large Postville, Iowa kosher meat packing plant, Agriprocessors, Inc. The plant was the subject of a high-profile immigration enforcement raid earlier this year. (See prior posting.) Originally Rubashkin, charged with immigration law violations, was released on bail. Two weeks later he was arrested under a superseding indictment, this one including bank fraud charges. This time the magistrate judge denied bail, claiming a risk that Rubashkin would flee to Israel. In denying bail, the magistrate pointed to the fact that two other Agriprocessors supervisors had fled, and that Israel's Law of Return gives Jews moving there an automatic right of citizenship.

In appealing the magistrate's order to the court, defendant argued first that the extradition treaty with Israel made reliance on the Law of Return useless. Defendant went on to argue that invoking the Law of Return violated his equal protection rights. The brief argues that a rule which treats Jews differently is subject to strict scrutiny. It went on:

The government clearly has a compelling interest in insuring that defendants are present at trial.... But it has no compelling interest in a rule that Jews are a heightened bail risk, for the simple reason that is has failed to demonstrate any statistical correlation between Jews and flight risk. In other words, the government introduced no evidence that Jews are more likely to flee because of the Law of Return than non-Jews. An unproven assumption is fatal in a case subject to strict scrutiny.... Moreover, there are clearly narrower, tailored measures, that would be effective rather than subjecting Jews to a different set of standards.

JTA reported on these developments yesterday.

UPDATE: Here is the full text of the magistrate's Nov. 20, 2008 Order for Detention denying bail, thanks to Volokh Conspiracy.

President Bush Sends Muslims Greetings On Eid al-Adha

In a statement issued yesterday (full text), President Bush sent greetings to Muslims around the world who were celebrating Eid al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice. As reported by AFP, the festival, which was celebrated yesterday as the Hajj concludes, commemorates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son at God's command. In the end, God provided a sheep as an alternative sacrifice. Muslims sacrifice a sheep to symbolically re-enact the moment. In his statement, Bush said: "Our Nation is blessed by vibrant Muslim communities. On this holiday, all Americans celebrate our religious liberty, and we remember that religious freedom belongs not to any one nation but to the world."

Cert. Denied In Case On Religious Candy Canes In School

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in Curry v. Hensinger, (Docket No. 08-190) (Order List.) In the case, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that a Saginaw, Michigan school had legitimate pedagogical reasons for barring a fifth-grader from selling candy canes with religious material attached as part of a classroom project to learn about marketing. (See prior posting.) Education Week reported on the Supreme Court's action. [Thanks to Alliance Alert for the lead.]

Another Appeal To 5th Circuit Filed In World Wide Street Preachers Case

According to the Monroe (LA) News Star, an appeal to the 5th Circuit has been filed in World Wide Street Preachers Fellowship v. Town of Columbia, Louisiana. The Fellowship is seeking reversal of a determination by a Louisiana federal district court that the town of Columbia should be dismissed as a defendant because the court found no widespread municipal practice of infringing speech rights. (See prior posting.) A claim under 42 USC Sec. 1983 can be brought against a municipality only if it has a policy or custom of infringing constitutional rights. Regardless of the outcome of the appeal, the trial court has allowed plaintiffs to proceed against a police officer who broke up the Fellowship's protests. The Fellowship generally protested against abortion, homosexuals and the ordination of women ministers. The case has already been on appeal once before the 5th Circuit.

Raelians Threaten To Sue Las Vegas Police For Airport Discrimination

Ricky Roehr, a bishop in the Raelian Movement and its North American Continental Guide, says that the movement will file suit against the Las Vegas (NV) police and the Las Vegas airport authority for religious discrimination and abuse of power. A press release from the Raelians says that they were forced to leave the Las Vegas McCarran International Airport on Saturday afternoon under threat of arrest as they awaited the arrival of their spiritual leader, Rael. Roehr says that none of the Raelians created any disturbance that would justify the police order. Hundreds of believers are expected to attend the Dec. 13th International Raelian Celebration in Las Vegas. The Raelians believe that life on earth was created by extraterrestrial human beings. A French journalist, Rael, learned this in 1973 when he was contacted by a visitor from another planet. (Rael website.)

2nd Circuit Hears Arguments In Vermont License Plate Case

The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday heard oral arguments in Byrne v. Rutledge, a case in which a Vermont federal district court upheld Vermont's policy of refusing to place religious messages of any kind on "vanity" license plates. (See prior posting.) Yesterday's Burlington Free Press reported on the arguments. Appellants claim that the rule amounts to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination since motorists can obtain vanity plates with letters or numbers that express their non-religious viewpoints on policies. Motorist Shawn Byrne had wanted to obtain a license plate reading "JN36TN," short for John 3:16.

President Bush Gives Half-Hour Interview To Saudi TV Network

Yesterday, President Bush gave a 30-minute interview (full text) to Middle East Broadcasting Center reporter Nadia Bilbassy-Charters. MBC is a Saudi-run television network broadcasting from the UAE. Here an excerpt from the interview:

Q: Sir, some people say that the war on terror is a war on Islam.... Yet you went to the first mosque after 9/11 and you spoke there. How do you convince people in the Middle East that George Bush is not fighting a war against Islam?

THE PRESIDENT: ... [I]t troubles my soul, because I believe we're all God's children. And I hear people say, George Bush doesn't like Muslims; he wants to fight Muslims.... But I am objecting to anybody who murders innocent people to achieve their objectives. I don't think people who murder in the name of religion are truly religious people. And secondly, I would hope that people would know that when we try to use some of our influence to help on education programs ... or we welcome students, Saudi students, to the United States to study here, that it's a sign of respect and a sign of my desire to reach out to all people regardless of their religion.

Vietnam Court Gives Suspended Sentence To Catholic Demonstrators

In Vietnam today, eight Catholics were tried for disturbing public order and damaging property during a series of prayer vigils last year. The vigils were protesting the government's asserted ownership of Church property and the proposed sale of the property near Thai Ha Church to developers. Officials say that defendants destroyed a brick wall around the property whose claimed ownership by the city of Hanoi is disputed by Catholics. (AP). Javno reports that at the conclusion of the trial, seven of the defendants were given suspended prison terms and one was merely given a warning. Nearly 1,000 supporters carried signs outside the Dong Da district court where the trial was taking place. The sentence was more lenient than many had expected. Defendants could have been sentenced to up to seven years in prison. (See prior related posting.)

Title VII's Religious Organization Exclusion Held Non-Jurisdictional

Smith v. Angel Food Ministries, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98280 (MD GA, Dec. 4 2008) is a religious discrimination decision that will be of interest to experts in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Angel Food Ministries (AFM) is an organization that partners with churches to help distribute food to the poor. James and Crystal Smith, who were employed by AFM in non-clergy positions, were discharged because they had stopped attending Emmanuel Praise Church. Attendance was a condition of employment. When the Smiths sued under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act claiming religious discrimination, AFM moved to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, arguing that AFM comes within the exclusion in Title VII (Sec. 702) that permits religious organizations to hire on the basis of religion. The Smiths contend that AFM is not a religious organization entitled to claim that exemption. The court held that whether the religious exemption is available is not a "jurisdictional" question. Therefore plaintiffs' FRCP Rule 12(b)(1) motion is not the appropriate way to assert the defense. Instead the defense should be raised, after discovery, by way of a Rule 12(b)(6) motion for failure to state a claim, or a Rule 56 motion for summary judgment.

Religious Worker Visa Rules Have Been Amended

The Department of Homeland Security has recently amended its regulations implementing the Citizenship and Immigration Services' Religious Worker program. (73 Fed. Reg. 72275 (Nov. 26, 2008)). The long-pending regulations were adopted after Public Law 110-391, signed by the President on Oct. 10, 2008, mandated their issuance within 30 days. Responding to concerns about fraud in the religious worker program, the new regulations require

religious organizations seeking the admission to the United States of nonimmigrant religious workers to file formal petitions with USCIS on behalf of such workers.... USCIS will conduct inspections, evaluations, verifications, and compliance reviews of religious organizations to ensure the legitimacy of the petitioner and statements made in the petitions. This rule adds and amends definitions and evidentiary requirements for both religious organizations and religious workers. Finally, this rule amends how USCIS regulations reference the sunset date by which special immigrant religious workers, other than ministers, must immigrate or adjust status to permanent residence.

The new rules appear to answer prospectively an issue left open by the 9th Circuit in a decision handed down last week. In order to qualify as a "religious occupation," among other things the duites may not be "primarily administrative or support such as janitors, maintence workers, clerical employees, fund raisers, persons solely involved in the solicitation of dontations, or similar positions, although limited administrative duties that are only incidental to religious functions ar permissible."

Responding to criticism of the rules as they were originally proposed in 2007 (see prior posting), USCIS announced:

The final rule also removes the examples of employment positions from the proposed definition of "religious occupation.'' The listed employment positions were only examples, but commenters appeared to believe that the examples represented an exhaustive or biased list of employment positions that were eligible for religious worker status and that the list was tailored only to Judeo-Christian organizations. USCIS has removed those examples to eliminate confusion. The final rule, however, clarifies that religious organizations must submit evidence identifying religious occupations that are specific to that denomination.

India's Supreme Court Says Marriage By Christian Under Hindu Marriage Act Is Void

In Raj v. Pavani, (India Sup. Ct., Dec. 4, 2008), the Supreme Court of India held that a marriage entered into and registered under the Hindu Marriage Act is void where the husband was actually a Roman Catholic and misrepresented at the time of the marriage that he was Hindu. The court held that the wife (who was now remarried) should be granted a decree of nullity. The Hindu on Sunday reported on the decision.

Recent Articles and Book of Interest

From SmartCILP:

• Donald R. Davis, Jr., Before Virtue: Halakhah, Dharmasa, and What Law Can Create, 71 Law & Contemporary Problems 99-108 (2008).


• Laura Dudley Jenkins, Legal Limits on Religious Conversion in India, 71 Law & Contemporary Problems 109-127 (2008).


• Martha Nussbaum, David C. Baum Memorial Lecture. Living Together: The Roots of Respect, 2008 University of Illinois Law Review 1623-1641.

New Book:

• Zaki Cooper and Guy Lodge (Eds.), Faith in the Nation:Religion, Identity and the Public Realm in Britain Today, (IPPR, Dec. 2008), reviewed in the Times of London.

Group Calls for Removal of Texas State Board of Education Member

The Texas Freedom Network is calling for the removal of Cynthia Dunbar from the Texas State Board of Education. Saturday's Ft. Wort Star-Telegram reports that the call came after Dunbar published a new book titled One Nation Under God. In it she claims that the public school system is unconstitutional and tyrannical, because public schools undermine the scriptural authority of families to direct their children's education. However she goes on to say that it would not be responsible at this late date to try to dismantle our system of public education. Dunbar says her book was written for Christian parents seeking an alternative to public education. [Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]

Texas County Denies Televangelist Tax Exemption Because of Secrecy on Salaries

Ft. Worth (TX) televangelist Kenneth Copeland, who has been resisting Congressional requests for financial information from his prosperity gospel organization (see prior posting), now finds that this lack of transparency has created state tax problems. According to yesterday's Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Tarrant County, Texas has denied Kenneth Copeland Ministry's application for a personal property tax exemption for its $3.6 million jet. Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Form 50-115, which charitable organizations must file to apply for a property tax exemption, requires the charitable organization to attach a list of salaries and other compensation for services paid in the last year, and to list any funds distributed to members, shareholders or directors. Tarrant's chief appraiser denied the Ministry's application because Copeland's accountant was only willing to state that the ministry "is operated in a way that does not result in accrual of distributable profits, realization of private gain resulting from payment of compensation in excess of a reasonable allowance for salary or other compensation for services rendered...." The Ministry is appealing the exemption denial at a hearing on Monday.

Recent Prisoner and Institutional Free Exercise Cases

In Desimone v. Bartow, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97271 (MD GA, Oct. 27, 2008), a Georgia federal district court refused a request to appoint counsel in a pro se case in which plaintiff, confined in a mental health Department of Corrections facility, alleged that his free exercise rights were violated by authorities denying him the ability to write in a language he refers to as "Atlantean." (See prior related posting.)

In Hawkins v. Ferriter, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98220 (D MT, Dec. 4, 2008), a Montana federal district court dismissed a prisoner's free exercise claim against Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer. Plaintiff had alleged that the Governor holds authority over the workings of the Montana State Prison and harbors "anti-Catholic feelings."

In Marr v. Foy, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97891 (WD MI, Dec. 3, 2008), a Michigan federal district judge affirmed a federal magistrate's order denying plaintiff prisoner's motion for appointment of counsel in a suit alleging free exercise and RLUIPA violations. The suit alleges that in retaliation for his requesting kosher food, authorities assigned plaintiff to work as a "midnight porter" which interfered with his daytime religious study and worship.

CBN News reports (Dec. 4) that the ACLU of New Jersey has filed a lawsuit against New Jersey prison authorities on behalf of inmate Howard N. Thompson Jr., an ordained Pentecostal minister, challenging a 2007 ban imposed by the New Jersey Corrections Department on preaching by inmates.

California Housing Discrimination Case Settled

Lookout News reported on Friday that a settlement has been reached in a complex group of lawsuits in Santa Monica, California growing out of charges that a group known as Or Khaim Hashalom (OKH) was evicting tenants from a rent-controlled apartment building because of their race, religion and national origin in order to build luxury condominiums for Jewish persons from the Middle East. The building is located in an exclusive part of the city. The city also says that OKH falsely claimed to be a religious organization. The city had designated the building an historic landmark in order to keep OKH from demolishing it. (See prior posting.) Under the terms of the settlement, OKH will adopt a comprehensive fair housing policy, will return the apartments to the jurisdiction of the Rent control Board at their former rates, and will keep the building on the rental market for at least three years (with an additional one year grace period for current tenants). The settlement allows evicted tenants to move back and provides for mandatory mediation with tenants over damages.

Samoan Council of Churches Wants To Limit Entry of New Religions To Country

In the South Pacific Ocean nation of Samoa, Congregational Church minister Oka Fau'olo, who is head of the Samoa Council of Churches, says the Council has asked the country's Prime Minister to consider limiting the constitutionally protected freedom of religion in the country. According to Radio New Zealand on Friday, Fau'olo want the government to limit the number of religious groups entering the country. He is concerned that mainstream churches are losing members. Their congregants are converting to small denominations and non-Christian beliefs. Currently the main religious groups in Samoa are the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa, the Methodists, Roman Catholics, Latter Day Saints, Assembly of God and Seventh Day Adventist. The prime minister is skeptical about the proposal that would likely require amendment Article 11 of Samoa's Constitution. The limitation is not a new idea. A 2002 Pacific Magazine article reported Fau'olo supported the idea then, although the Samoan Supreme Court had ruled that it was illegal for village councils to forbid the entry into villages of new religious groups.

Nebraska High Court Rejects Free Exercise Challenge To Newborn Screening Law

In In re Interest of Joel Anaya, (NE Sup. Ct., Dec. 5, 2008), the Nebraska Supreme Court held that the religious freedom clause of the Nebraska Constitution (Art. I, Sec. 4) should be interpreted identically to the federal Free Exercise clause in determining whether a neutral law of general applicability is constitutional. Applying this standard, the court rejected a state constitutional free exercise challenge to a Nebraska statute that requires newborns to have a blood screening test for specified metabolic and genetic disorders. The court pointed to its 2005 decision in which it had reached the same conclusion in a federal free exercise challenge to the law brought by the same family in connection with another of their children. However, the court concluded that the state's enforcement of the newborn screening law by taking temporary custody of the newborn was not justified, since there was not evidence of child neglect. The AP today reports on the decision. (See prior related posting.)