Final Defendant Settles In Sex Abuse Case Against Seattle Archdiocese

Yesterday's Tacoma (WA) News Tribune reports that the second of two plaintiffs in a priest sex abuse case brought against the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle has agreed to settle for $700,000 following his testimony at trial. The Archdiocese gave plaintiff a short deadline to accept, after jurors raised some questions about the testimony. Plaintiff had already settled with other potential defendants, receiving some $600,000 from them. In the current trial, another plaintiff settled earlier this week. (See prior posting.) Both had allegedly been abused by former priest Patrick G. O’Donnell.

Pending British Equality Bill Creates Only Narrow Exemption For Religious Objections

As previously reported, in April Britain's new Equality Bill was introduced into the House of Commons. The Explanatory Notes published by the Equalities Office devoted several pages to the exemption from the provisions on sexual orientation discrimination for organized religious groups. [Scroll to pp. 85-89 of the PDF document]. Wednesday's London Telegraph reported that Deputy Equalities Minister Maria Eagle speaking to the delegates at the Faith, Homophobia, Transphobia, & Human Rights conference in London has indicated that the exemption will be read narrowly. She said in part:

The circumstances in which religious institutions can practice anything less than full equality are few and far between. While the state would not intervene in narrowly ritual or doctrinal matters within faith groups, these communities cannot claim that everything they run is outside the scope of anti-discrimination law. Members of faith groups have a role in making the argument in their own communities for greater LGBT acceptance, but in the meantime the state has a duty to protect people from unfair treatment.

Does "WWJD" Violate Fair Debt Collection Practices Act?

The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act prohibits debt collectors from engaging in "conduct the natural consequence of which is to harass, oppress, or abuse any person" (15 USC 1692d) or using "unfair or unconscionable means "(15 USC 1692f) in collecting amounts owed by consumers. In Neill v. Bullseye Collection Agency, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 41931 (D MN, May 14, 2009), plaintiffs argued that placing "WWJD" ("What would Jesus do?") in the top corner of collection letters violated these provisions. They claimed that the practice "has the effect of invoking shame or guilt in alleged debtors and 'portray[s] the debtor as a sinner who is going to hell.'" The court denied defendant's motion to dismiss the claim, finding that plaintiffs had stated enough facts to make out a plausible claim. The court put off any consideration of the constitutionality of the statute.

French Government Agency Combatting Cults Releases Report

On Tuesday, the French government agency Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectaires, (MIVILUDES), i.e. "Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cultic Deviances," released its 2008 annual report (full text in French). France 24 says the report:

warns that religious sects are on the increase in France, tripling in the last 15 years to reach at least 600 different movements across the country. The report also denounces a huge increase in unqualified therapists, warning that sects are using the personality coaching and self-help trends to target impressionable people.

Digital Journal says that 10 pages in MIVILUDES' 199-page report are devoted to criticizing the activity of sects in the United Nations and the OSCE. The report says that non-governmental organizations are attempting to limit MIVILUDES influence in the UN and OSCE, and that the Church of Scientology has particularly taken aim at MIVILUDES.

Priest's Conviction on Child Molestation Charges Upheld

In State of Wisconsin v. McGuire, (WI Dist. II Ct. App., May 20, 2009), a Wisconsin state appellate court upheld the 7-year prison term imposed on a former, once-prominent Jesuit priest who was convicted of molesting two teenage boys in the late 1960's. Priest Donald McGuire was not charged until 2005, and was tried in 2006. The statute of limitations had not run because McGuire was not in Wisconsin in the intervening years, thus tolling the statute. The court rejected McGuire's claims that the 36-year delay in bringing charges against him prejudiced his defense and violated his constitutional rights; that he received ineffective assistance of trial counsel; and that the trial court had admitted unduly prejudicial evidence. Yesterday's Chippewa Valley (WI) Newspapers reporting on the appeal said that the now 78-year old priest was also sentenced earlier this year by a federal court to 25 years in prison for traveling across state lines and out of the country to have sex with a teenager between 2000 and 2003.

Same-Sex Marriage Not Yet A Done Deal In New Hampshire

As previously reported, New Hampshire Governor John Lynch told the legislature that he would sign the same-sex marriage bill it had passed only if it made changes to grant stronger protections to religious institutions. According to yesterday's Concord Union Leader, the state Senate on Wednesday agreed to the governor's requested changes by a vote of 14-10. However later in the day, the state House of Representatives in a close vote (188-186) refused to adopt the Governor's changes, and by a larger vote (207-168) asked the Senate to negotiate a compromise.

Meanwhile, as gay marriage seems to be gaining momentum in state legislatures, Pew Forum yesterday published a Q&A with Professors Ira "Chip" Lupu and Robert W. Tuttle, titled: A Clash of Rights? Gay Marriage and the Free Exercise of Religion.

4 Men Arrested In New York Charged With Plot To Bomb Synagogues

According to today's New York Times, four upstate New York men were arrested last night, charged with plotting to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx (as well as shoot down planes at Stewart Air National Guard base in Newburgh, NY). The criminal complaint (full text) filed against them charges them with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles. The four men, all U.S. citizens who are Muslims, were arrested after planting what they believed to be bombs in cars outside the Riverdale Temple and the Riverdale Jewish Center in the Bronx. In fact, the bombs were fake, having been provided by an FBI informant. The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York issued a press release yesterday announcing the arrests.

Elementary Teacher Sues Charging Religious Discrimination and Harassment

In Bakersfield, California, Bruce Neal, who has taught for 20 years in the Edison School District, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging that that former Orangewood Elementary School Principal Mark Holmes engaged in religious discrimination and harassment against him from 1999 to 2008. Yesterday's Californian reports that Neal, a second grade teacher who is also a rabbi, says that the former principal forced him to remove his yarmulke (skullcap). Neal also alleges that he was criticized for his religious diet and clothing and subjected to negative comments from co-workers about being Jewish. In 2008, Principal Holmes, who is the target of Neal's complaints, resigned after he was charged by school officials with fostering an environment in which teachers were free to "terrorize, gossip, tattle."

Permit Requirement For Church's Use As Homeless Shelter Upheld

In Westgate Tabernacle, Inc. v. Palm Beach County, (FL 4th Dist. Ct. App., May 20, 2009), a Florida state appellate court upheld Palm Beach County's application of its zoning rules to Westgate Tabernacle's use of its church building as a homeless shelter. The court rejected challenges under the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act and federal RLUIPA, finding that merely requiring a church to apply for a conditional use permit is not a substantial burden on its free exercise. Also plaintiff did not show that running a shelter at a specific location was fundamental to its religious exercise. Yesterday's South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported on the decision.

Ireland's Massive Report On Clergy Sex Abuse Released

Yesterday Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse released its mammoth 2,600-page report on child abuse at Catholic institutions in Ireland from 1936 to the present. The 30-page Executive Summary and the text of the full report are both available online, as are transcripts of testimony that the Commission took in 2004 and 2005. BBC News summarized the findings:

The report, nine years in the making and covering a period of six decades, found thousands of boys and girls were terrorised by priests and nuns. Government inspectors failed to stop beatings, rapes and humiliation....

The five-volume study concluded that church officials encouraged ritual beatings and consistently shielded their orders' paedophiles from arrest amid a "culture of self-serving secrecy". The commission found that sexual abuse was "endemic" in boys' institutions, and church leaders knew what was going on.

Victims of the abuse-- particularly those who had testified before the Commission --were particularly upset by the fact that the report will not be used as the basis for additional criminal prosecutions. In part this is because one of the largest religious orders involved-- Christian Brothers--obtained a court order in 2004 to keep all its members discussed in the report anonymous. Police were called to the news conference in which the report was released as victims who were prevented from attending began to object. BBC News has reactions of abuse victims, church leaders and political leaders.

Court Dismisses Some Discrimination Claims Brought By Muslim Researchers

In Ridha v. Texas A&M University System, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 41290 (SD TX, May 15, 2009), a Texas federal district court dismissed some, but not all, of the claims brought by husband and wife medical researchers against various defendants alleging discrimination on the basis of race, national origin and religion. Both plaintiffs are Iraqi Muslims (one Arab and one Kurdish) who left Iraq after the U.S. invasion in 2003. Both plaintiffs, who conducted research in the Reproductive Sciences Lab at Texas A&M, alleged among other things that various individuals who worked with them ridiculed their Muslim faith and threw animal urine and feces on their prayer rugs. Plaintiffs also allege that they were fired from their positions in retaliation for their complaints about harassment and discrimination. Among other things, the court held that the University System was not plaintiffs' employer for purposes of Title VII and that the 11th Amendment shields the University from damage claims for alleged 1st Amendment violations. It also held that claims under 42 USC Sec. 1981 can be brought for racial discrimination (including discrimination on the basis of ethnicity), but not for religious discrimination.

Taliban Terrorize Peshwar, Pakistan In Drive Against Un-Islamic Activities

Today's Wall Street Journal reports from Peshawar, Pakistan on a terror campaign by the Taliban on businesses they consider "un-Islamic." They have already used car bombs to destroy an Internet cafe, women's clothing stalls, and have threatened a video store. Taliban have also bombed girls' schools and Sufi religious shrines. The Journal reports further that while the Taliban are unlikely to seize Peshwar, the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province:

through a campaign of bombings, kidnappings and murders, the militants are increasingly imposing on Peshawar the rigid religious restrictions that are already enforced in Swat, Waziristan, and other northwestern areas that have succumbed to Taliban control. Such "Talibanization" is a grim setback for a storied city that braced itself for revival when a secular Pashtun nationalist movement, the Awami National Party, won provincial elections last year, ousting a coalition of religious parties.

Court Dismisses Religious Group's Challenge To Support Order

In Christ's Household of Faith v. Ramsey County, (D MN, May 18, 2009), a Minnesota federal district court dismissed a number of federal challenges to a state court's order that a religious group, Christ's Household of Faith, as a "payor of funds" send child support and spousal maintenance payments (including arrearages) to the Ramsey County (MN) Department of Community Services for Patricia Rooney who had been awarded the amounts in her divorce proceeding. Michael Rooney, Patricia's former husband who had originally been ordered to pay the amounts, was a member of Household of Faith whose members give up most of their property, live communally and merely receive a small stipend of less than $100 per month. In the 20 years since the Rooneys divorce, the parties have been involved in numerous lawsuits challenging state determinations of the value of Michael's services to CHOF and CHOF's liability to pay the child support owed by Michael. The court dismissed the challenges under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine that calls for dismissal of cases in which federal district courts are called on to review and reject a state court judgment. Yesterday's Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports on the decision.

Iran's Guardians Council Approves 4 Presidential Candidates

In Iran, the country's 12-member Guardians Council has selected the 4 candidates who will run in the Presidential election next month. According to a report today from AFP, a total of 475 Iranians (including 42 women) had registered as possible candidates. The Council is made up of six clerics picked by the supreme leader and six jurists chosen by the head of the judiciary. The approved candidates are incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former head of the Revolutionary Guards Mohsen Rezai (a conservative), former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi (a moderate reformist) and ex-parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi (a reformist).

Teen and Mother Fail To Appear At Hearing On Cancer Treatment For Boy

Thirteen-year old Daniel Hauser and his mother Colleen Hauser failed to appear at their scheduled court hearing in New Ulm, Minnesota yesterday. They apparently have gone into hiding rather than comply with a court order to take steps toward obtaining chemotherapy for Daniel's Hodgkin's lymphoma. They object on religious grounds to the treatment. (See prior posting.) In accordance with the court's mandate, Daniel did obtain a new chest X-ray on Monday. It showed that his tumor had returned to its size before the one chemotherapy treatment he had. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that Daniel's father, Anthony Hauser, told the court that he does not know his wife's and son's whereabouts. Brown County District Judge John Rodenberg held Colleen Hauser in contempt of court. and ordered that Daniel be placed in foster care for oncology treatment as soon as he is found. AP reports that Daniel's father, Anthony, now believes his son should restart chemotherapy.

NY Town Charges Zoning Violations In Cow and Chicken Slaughter

Lower Hudson Journal News reports on motions that were granted in the Ramapo, New York town court yesterday in two cases pitting zoning authorities against some of the town's Orthodox Jewish population. In one case, the judge granted owners of a yeshiva more time to answer charges that they violated zoning regulations when they slaughtered a cow in the school's back yard. In the other case, the court permitted organizers of last fall's kaparot ceremony involving slaughter of 13,000 chickens in a parking lot in Monsey (NY) to withdraw their guilty pleas and go to trial on zoning violation charges. Officials charged defendants with washing slaughtered chicken remains down a storm sewer and with leaving the parking lot littered with trash and chicken remains. (See prior posting.)

Reports On Two Priest Sexual Abuse Cases

The Seattle Times reported yesterday that a settlement has been agreed to in mid-trial by one of two plaintiffs suing the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle over sexual abuse by a priest in 1976. The offending priest, Patrick O'Donnell, was transferred from Spokane to Seattle without Spokane Bishop Bernard Topel telling Seattle Church officials that O'Donnell was a repeat pedophile. 87-year old former Seattle Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen testified at the trial yesterday. Yesterday's Seattle Post-Intelligencer describes his testimony in some detail. The second plaintiff in the case has not settled, and the trial continues on his claims.

Meanwhile, the Wilmington, Delaware News-Journal reports on another ongoing priest abuse case. A civil suit was filed in Delaware state court by a 46-year old man against the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales and Salesianum School. Plaintiff says he was abused from 1982-1984 by now-deceased Rev. Richard Grant who was principal of the school. This is one of more than a dozen suits that have been filed against the Oblates and several of their priests since Delaware opened a two-year window for old claims to be filed through its 2007 Child Victim Act.

Laid-Off Church and Synagogue Employees Find No Unemployment Benefits

UPI today, in a report from Richmond, Virginia, says that many people recently laid off their jobs by churches and synagogues are surprised to find that they are not entitled to state unemployment benefits. Under Virginia law, churches are exempt from paying unemployment taxes. (Va. Code § 60.2-213(B)) The Catholic Diocese of Richmond has a voluntary self-insurance arrangement with the state under Va. Code § 60.2-501. Laid-off workers file for unemployment, and if the claim is approved, the state bills the Diocese for the actual amount of benefits paid out to the former employee.

Israel's High Court Orders Equal Funding For Non-Orthodox Conversion Classes

Jerusalem Post reports that Israel's High Court of Justice today handed down a landmark ruling requiring the government to fund Reform and Conservative institutions that offer classes to prepare individuals for conversion to Judaism, on an equal basis with Orthodox bodies. Ruling in a case brought by the Israeli Movement for Progressive Judaism, a 3-judge panel of the Court ordered the Immigration and Absorption Ministry to set criteria for equal funding, and to retroactively fund the organizations for the past three years. Justice Dorit Beinisch, president of the Supreme Court , wrote in her opinion that the government must allow different conversion institutions to "coexist" as a matter of "freedom of religion and pluralism." Her opinion suggested that an alternative would be for the government to stop funding private Orthodox conversion classes.

Meanwhile, JTA reports that in another ruling yesterday, Israel's Supreme Court ordered the High Rabbinic Court to explain why, in a decision last year, it retroactively nullified conversions that had been carried out through special conversion courts headed by Rabbi Haim Druckman. (See prior posting.)

Conference Discusses Legal Issues In Sharia-Compliant Financing

Reuters reports on a conference of Islamic scholars held yesterday in Bahrain to discuss legal issues raised by Sharia-compliant financing arrangements. Western business partners generally want contractual provisions that stipulate British law will govern commercial contracts-- and any arbitration proceedings to settle contractual disputes. However strict interpretations of Islamic law preclude this because Sharia does not accept human-made law that is not derived from Islam. Scholars urged parties to contracts to build in arbitration provisions that refer disputes to Sharia-based arbitration centers, like Dubai's International Islamic Centre for Reconciliation and Commercial Arbitration. However Westerners are reluctant, and Dubai's center, created in 2005, has yet to hear a case.

As international economic problems increase, courts are beginning to see disputes involving Sharia-compliant real estate financing. One of the issues being raised is whether, in loans structured as purchases by the bank on behalf of the borrower to comply with Islamic law, courts should look to the form of the transaction and apply laws applicable to real estate sales, or should instead look through form to substance and apply rules applicable to loans.