Goa Rejects Christian Requests For Burial Grounds

In the Indian state of Goa, Christian leaders are criticizing a statement made by the mayor of the Corporation of City of Panjim. Today's Times of India reports that in rejecting applications of various religious groups for burial grounds in the city, Mayor Carolina Po declared: "The corporators feel that people who have converted to other religious sects should ask those people who led them to convert to provide them with burial grounds also." Christian pastors argue that all citizens should have the right to be buried.

Advocacy Group Launching Campaign To Encourage Religious Speech On Public Campuses

Arizona Republic's Livewire Blog reported yesterday that Alliance Defense Fund is using a $9.2 million anonymous donation as the catalyst to launch its $20 million "University Project." The Project is a legal campaign to get public colleges and universities to encourage religious speech on campuses.

Paper Reports On Parallel Orthodox Jewish Social Service System

Saturday's Asbury Park (NJ) Press reports on the parallel system of social services maintained by the large Orthodox Jewish community in Lakewood, New Jersey:

With their own judicial order, ambulance brigade, civilian patrol, school system and political force, Orthodox Jews here live, in large part, in a parallel society, with dual public services mirroring those municipal bodies that officially govern. When they collide, controversy is often sparked.

[Thanks to Steven H. Sholk for the lead.]

Religious Homeless Shelter and Treatment Program Not Limited By Fair Housing Act

In Intermountain Fair Housing Council v. Boise Rescue Mission Ministries, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82459 (D ID, Sept. 10, 2009), an Idaho federal district court held that the homeless shelter component of the Boise Rescue Mission is not a "dwelling" and therefore is not subject to the religious anti-discrimination provisions of the federal Fair Housing Act. It also held that both in the homeless shelter and in the Rescue Mission's second component-- a residential recovery program for individuals with drug or alcohol dependency-- the Religious Freedom Restoration Act bars application of the Fair Housing Act to prohibit the Rescue Mission's religious activities or religious favoritism of certain participants. Plaintiffs in the case challenged preferential treatment of homeless shelter residents who participated in the shelter's religious programs, and and also complained of required participation in Christian religious activities for those in the New Life Discipleship/Recovery Program. Expanding on its RFRA holding, the court wrote:

The court ... finds the following to be core ecclesiastical matters with which the government may not interfere: a religious organization's teaching, preaching, and proselytizing to individuals on its own property; a religious organization's preferential treatment of guests on its property who attend religious services; a religious organization's limiting participation in a residential addiction recovery program to individuals who are or who wish to be of the same faith; and a religious organization's imposing requirements that guests and residents on its property attend and/or participate in religious services and activities.

Recent Articles of Interest

From SSRN:

• Wilbren Van der Burg & Frans W.A. Brom, In Defense of State Neutrality, (in: K.P. Rippe (Hrsg.), Angewandte Ethik in der Pluralistischen Gesellschaft, Freiburg, CH: Freiburger Universitätsverlag, 53-82).

From SmartCILP and elsewhere:

• Brooke Goldstein & Eitan Meyer Aaron, "Legal jihad": How Islamist Lawfare Tactics are Targeting Free Speech, 15 ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law 395-410 (2009).
• Eugene K.B. Tan, From Clampdown to Limited Empowerment: Soft Law in the Calibration and Regulation of Religious Conduct in Singapore, 31 Law & Policy 351-379 (2009).
• I.CON Debate! on The Crisis of the Secular State, Article by Lorenzo Zucca; response by Andras Sajo. 7 I.CON: International Journal of Constitutional Law 494-528 (2009).
• Journal of Law and Religion, Vol. XXIV, No. 2, 2008-09 has recently appeared.

Suit Challenging Star of David In US Supreme Court Dismissed As Frivolous

In Smith v. Roberts, (IN Ct. App., Sept. 8, 2009), an Indiana state Court of Appeals rather easily dismissed as frivolous an unusual lawsuit filed by an Indiana resident against U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts. According to the court, plaintiff's "complaint alleges there is a Star of David carved into the Supreme Court building and 'alleges that Roberts has acted negligently in his officials [sic] duties by allowing and continuely [sic] establishing, advocating, and advancing the Jewish religion in violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution of America [sic].'" The Indiana appellate court said that plaintiff had essentially conceded that relief was not available under either the Federal or Indiana Tort Claims Acts, the statutes he had invoked. At any rate, the court said, it could not grant relief against the U.S. Supreme Court.

Court Blocks Release of Names of Referendum Petition Signers

In Washington state, a group called Protect Marriage Washington obtained enough signatures on petitions to place Referendum-71 on this fall's ballot. The Secretary of State certified the referendum earlier this month. It seeks to overturn SB 5688, Washington's recently-enacted domestic partnership law. Two groups supporting gay rights, Whosigned.org and KnowThyNeighbor.org sought copies of the referendum petitions under Washington's Public Records Act, intending to post on the Internet the name and address of every petition signer, apparently with the intent to get gay rights supporters to contact the signers to complain. In John Doe #1 v. Reed, (WD WA, Sept. 10, 2009), a Washington federal district court granted a preliminary injunction against any public release of documents showing the names and contact information of individuals who signed petitions. The court concluded:

Plaintiffs have established that it is likely that supporting the referral of a referendum is protected political speech, which includes the component of the right to speak anonymously.... In light of the State’s own verification process and the State’s own case law, at this time the Court is not persuaded that full public disclosure of referendum petitions is necessary as "an important check on the integrity of the referendum election process." ... Therefore, the Court finds that Plaintiffs have established that it is likely that the Public Records Act is not narrowly tailored to achieve the compelling governmental interest of preserving the integrity of the referendum process.

AP reported on the decision on Friday. According to Friday's Seattle Times, Washington's Attorney General will appeal the decision to the 9th Circuit.

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

In Searles v. Werholtz, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79719 (D KS, Sept. 2, 2009), a Kansas federal district court granted a prison food service provider's motion for summary judgment, finding that plaintiff had not produced evidence he was denied a properly prepared kosher diet.

In Sosa v. Lantz, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79677 (D CT, Sept. 2, 2009), a Connecticut federal district court, finding little likelihood of success on the merits, refused to grant a preliminary injunction to an inmate who alleged that authorities forced him "to participate and support the Muslim religion" by assigning him to a cell with a Muslim prisoner who prayed aloud five times each day.

In Henderson v. Kennell, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 80752 (CD IL, Sept. 4, 2009), an Illinois federal district court rejected an inmate's claim that his free exercise rights were violated when the prison chaplain refused to permit him to change his religion from Christianity to Al-Islam, after previously changing it from Al-Islam to Christian. the court held that the prison: "has obvious reasons for preventing inmates from switching religions frequently and without following the specified rules. Correctional facilities have limited resources and must be able to plan on the number of inmates who may participate in religious services and holidays as well as those which require a specific religious diet."

In Collins v. Sisto, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81318 (ED CA, Sept. 8, 2009), a federal magistrate judge permitted plaintiff to move ahead with his claim that his First Amendment rights were violated when prison authorities refused to provide him, as a Muslim, with kosher instead of vegetarian meals. However the court held that defendants had qualified immunity as to the same claim under RLUIPA because at the time it was not clearly established that RLUIPA guaranteed this right.

In Mouton v. Gold, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81928 (ED OK, Sept. 9, 2009), an Oklahoma federal district court held that jail officials did not violate plaintiff's free exercise rights when they refused to provide him a copy of the Qur'an that he wanted not because he was a Muslim, but simply because he had a general interest in reading it.

In Thornton v. Hill, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81651 (WD OK, May 27, 2009), an Oklahoma federal magistrate judge allowed a pre-trial detainee to move ahead with his complaint that authorities confiscated two Bibles and other Christian literature from his cell.

In Slice v. Ferriter, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81934 (D MT, May 27, 2009), a prisoner complained she was required to participate in a faith-based "Therapeutic Community" program. A Montana federal magistrate judge recommended that the claim be dismissed because plaintiff had already lost her challenge on the same matter before the Montana Human Rights Bureau and had failed to appeal that decision.

British Court Allows Appeal of Order Barring Church's Anti-Gay Ad

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, the Sandown Free Presbyterian Church has been granted permission by a High Court judge to appeal a ruling against it issued in April by the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority. According to yesterday's Belfast Telegraph the court concluded that ASA order may have infringed the church's rights to religious belief and freedom of expression. At issue is an ad taken out by the church in the Belfast News Letter objecting to last year's gay pride parade. It was captioned: "The Word of God Against Sodomy." ASA ruled that the ad should not appear again in its current form because it violated a provision of Britain's advertising code that bars ads likely to cause serious or widespread offence on the basis of sexual orientation. The court, however, urged both sides to seek a compromise, saying: "It would seem there's not a great deal of change required in the wording and tone, perhaps, in order to meet the objections made by the ASA."

India's Supreme Court Orders Reconsideration of Decision on School's No-Beards Policy

On Friday, a two-judge panel of India's Supreme Court ordered reconsideration of a decision on enforcement of a Catholic schools' grooming policy that was handed down by a different panel of the Court in March (see prior posting). At issue is a Muslim student's challenge to his dismissal from Nirmala Convent Higher Secondary School because he refused to shave his beard. According to yesterday's The Hindu, the new decision stayed the school's order dismissing Mohammad Salim, saying that the order "needs to be reviewed afresh as the core issue of a Muslim's right to sport a beard as guaranteed by Article 25 of the Constitution [right to practise and profess one’s religion] was violated by the school." The Court's earlier oral decision was controversial because of comments by Justice Markandey Katju who said: "We don't want to have Taliban in the country."

Moves Seek Return of 17-Year Old Convert To Ohio

Extensive press attention has been given to the case of 17-year old Rifqa Bary who last month fled her home near Columbus, Ohio after converting from Islam to Christianity. A Florida court ordered that Rifqa remain in temporary foster care with the Christian family with whom she has been placed while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates her allegations that her father threatened to kill her because of her conversion. (See prior posting.) Now, however, it appears that Ohio authorities would like Rifqa returned to their jurisdiction. A spokesperson for Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland said on Friday that the Governor believes the case should be handled by Ohio authorities. (AP) In what appears the first step toward obtaining Rifqa's return to Ohio, her parents filed a complaint in court in Columbus, Ohio charging Rifqa with being incorrigible. (UPI). The complaint says that Rifqa cut school and disappeared from home before fleeing by bus to Florida.

Lame Duck Hardliners In Indonesian Province Press For Strict Sharia Criminal Code

From the Brisbane Times, ABC News and the Jakarta Post this week we piece together the following story. In Indonesia's province of Aceh in 2005, separatist rebels and the government signed a peace accord after 29 years of conflict. (Background.) Four years earlier, the government had granted broad elements of autonomy to the province which proceeded to adopt a code partially enforcing Islamic law. This past April, however, the secular Partai Aceh (the former independence fighters) won elections and will take control of the legislative council in a few weeks. It wants to repeal portions of the province's Islamic code, which has been enforced with less rigor in recent years. However religious fundamentalists are attempting to get the lame duck legislature to enact a new jinayat, or strict Islamic criminal law, before they finally leave office. Apparently a vote will be held in the legislative council on Monday.

The jinayat covers consumption of alcohol, gambling and rape. However the greatest attention has been given to its punishments for adultery. Unmarried couples would receive 100 lashes with a cane, while married adulterers would be stoned to death. Now though opposition is growing to the death penalty for married adulterers from government officials. The new law would also punish those who give assistance to others violating the sharia law on adultery, such as beauty salons, motels or hotels.

Dawkins, Armstrong Debate Evolution and God In the Wall Street Journal

Under the caption Man vs. God, today's Wall Street Journal publishes a lengthy and interesting exchange between biologist Richard Dawkins and religious historian Karen Armstrong on evolution and the existence of God. Here is an excerpt from Dawkins article:

Making the universe is the one thing no intelligence, however superhuman, could do, because an intelligence is complex—statistically improbable —and therefore had to emerge, by gradual degrees, from simpler beginnings: from a lifeless universe—the miracle-free zone that is physics....

Where does that leave God? The kindest thing to say is that it leaves him with nothing to do, and no achievements that might attract our praise, our worship or our fear. Evolution is God's redundancy notice, his pink slip. But we have to go further. A complex creative intelligence with nothing to do is not just redundant. A divine designer is all but ruled out by the consideration that he must at least as complex as the entities he was wheeled out to explain. God is not dead. He was never alive in the first place.

Here is an excerpt from Armstrong's response:

Most cultures believed that there were two recognized ways of arriving at truth. The Greeks called them mythos and logos. Both were essential and neither was superior to the other; they were not in conflict but complementary, each with its own sphere of competence. Logos ("reason") was the pragmatic mode of thought that enabled us to function effectively in the world and had, therefore, to correspond accurately to external reality. But it could not assuage human grief or find ultimate meaning in life's struggle. For that people turned to mythos, stories that made no pretensions to historical accuracy but should rather be seen as an early form of psychology; if translated into ritual or ethical action, a good myth showed you how to cope with mortality, discover an inner source of strength, and endure pain and sorrow with serenity.

In the ancient world, a cosmology was not regarded as factual but was primarily therapeutic; it was recited when people needed an infusion of that mysterious power that had—somehow—brought something out of primal nothingness: at a sickbed, a coronation or during a political crisis..... The Genesis creation hymn, written during the Israelites' exile in Babylonia in the 6th century BC, was a gentle polemic against Babylonian religion. Its vision of an ordered universe where everything had its place was probably consoling to a displaced people....

Religion was not supposed to provide explanations that lay within the competence of reason but to help us live creatively with realities for which there are no easy solutions and find an interior haven of peace; today, however, many have opted for unsustainable certainty instead. But can we respond religiously to evolutionary theory? Can we use it to recover a more authentic notion of God?

8th Circuit Says No Damage Claims Against States Under RLUIPA Prisoner Provisions

The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has joined the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Circuits in holding that while RLUIPA's prisoner provisions are an appropriate use of Congress' spending power, states do not waive their sovereign immunity from damage claims under the Act by accepting federal prison funds. The 11th Circuit has taken the opposite position. In Van Wyhe v. Reisch, (8th Cir., Sept. 10, 2009), the court also held that the Civil Rights Remedies Equalization Act of 1986 (42 USC Sec. 2000d-7) which provides for the waiver of sovereign immunity by states for claims under any "Federal statute prohibiting discrimination by recipients of Federal financial assistance" does not apply to the institutionalized persons section of RLUIPA. The case involved claims by a Jewish inmate in the South Dakota State Penitentiary who wanted time and facilities to study Hebrew and who wanted to eat his meals outside in a sukkah during the Jewish holiday of Sukkkot.

In an amusing confusion of Hebrew terms, in denying plaintiff's request for an injunction giving him additional group study time to learn Hebrew, the court said: "his religion considers learning Hebrew to be a 'mikvah,' or 'good deed'." The court, of course meant "mitzvah". A "mikvah" is a ritual immersion pool. (See prior related posting.)

Suit Challenges Brooklyn Housing Project As Favoring Hasidic Residents of Area

The Brooklyn Paper reported yesterday on a state court lawsuit filed in New York by a coalition of forty excluded community groups in North Brooklyn claiming religious and racially discriminatory impacts from a proposed Broadway Triangle rezoning plan. The plan calls for converting 31 acres of former industrial land in East Williamsburg into a mixed-income community with much of the area reserved for below-market-rate housing. Two non-profit groups-- United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizen Council-- were given no-bid contracts to develop the area.

There is a long history of tension between the Hispanic and Hasidic communities in the area. Plaintiffs claim that the Williamsburg Hasidic community has been the beneficiary of racial quotas despite federal court orders calling for an end to discriminatory practices. The waiting list for low-income housing is 90% Hispanic and African-American, while almost 50% of the 2,000 public housing units in the area are occupied by Hasidic Jews. (See prior related posting.) According to the New York Daily News, the lawsuit charges, among other things, that limiting buildings in the rezoned area to 8-stories favors Orthodox Jews who cannot ride elevators on the Sabbath, while taller buildings would create more housing. The rezoning project however does have support from both Catholic and Hasidic groups and from some politicians. The rezoning still has to be approved by the City Planning Commission. [Thanks to Steven H. Sholk for the lead.]

House Resolution Marks Today's Anniversary of 9-11

The House of Representatives on Wednesday marked today's anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by passing H. Res. 722 by a vote of 416-yes; 0-no; 18-not voting. The Resolution mourns and remembers those killed on that day. It also: "asserts, in the strongest possible terms, that the fight against terrorism is not a war on any nation, any people, or any faith," and "calls on all Americans to renew their devotion to the universal ideals that make the Nation great: freedom, pluralism, equality, and the rule of law."

CNN reports on other major events that will take place today to mark the anniversary-- memorial services in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania and a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. (the time the first hijacked plane hit the World Trade Center) led by President Obama, Michelle Obama and White House staff on the South Lawn of the White House

Appeal To Utah Supreme Court Filed By FLDS In Trust Reformation Case

Yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune reports that five members of the FLDS Church, including two of its bishops, have asked the Utah Supreme Court to review a trial court ruling that refused to permit them to intervene in proceedings brought by Utah's Attorney General to reform the United Effort Plan trust. The trust holds lands of church members in Hildale, Utah; Colorado City, Ariz., and Bountiful, British Columbia. In In the Matter of the United Effort Plan Trust, trial court Judge Denise Lindberg held that potential beneficiaries of charitable trusts do not have a legally cognizable interest that permits them to assert claims. (See prior posting.) The petition for review, filed last month, argues that church members have an interest in the matter distinct from the public at large represented by the attorneys general of Utah and Arizona.

Ramdadan Brings Arrests For Eating In Egypt; Ridicule of Bachelors In Nigeria

For the first time this year, Egypt's Ministry of Interior has begun arresting those caught eating or drinking in public during Ramadan. Al Arabiya reported Wednesday that in the governorate of Aswan, 150 Egyptians were charged with the misdemeanor of publicly breaking the fast. Many others were arrested in the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada where the governor ordered all restaurants closed during the day. Human rights groups criticized the arrests. One lawyer also said that the ban on eating "in public" might not cover those eating in a restaurant or cafe, since they are a closed place not seen by everyone.

Meanwhile Al Arabiya yesterday reported on a rather unusual Ramadan activity in Nigeria that apparently has received official sanction. The country's mainly-Muslim city of Kano each Ramadan holds a carnival title "kamun gwauro" (meaning "bachelor catch" in the local Hausa language). The hereditary Nalako (bachelors' hunter), wearing amulets, an animal skin, woven shirt and cap wanders around the city with a noose looking for unmarried men. Bachelors who are found are paraded around with singing and drumming and are forced to dance and sing a "bachelor song" to embarrass them into taking a wife.

Admissions Criteria of British Jewish School Bend After Court Decision

Yesterday's London Jewish Chronicle reports that for the first time London's Jewish Free School has admitted a student who was not considered Jewish under Orthodox religious law as interpreted by the Office of Britain's Chief Rabbi. The student's mother was converted to Judaism by a rabbi from one of the non-Orthodox movements in Judaism. Earlier this year, Britain's Court of Appeal ruled that the school's traditional admission criteria amounted to unlawful racial discrimination, and said that publicly supported Jewish schools could favor Jewish students only if they base their selections on a student's faith, and not his or her ethnicity. (See prior posting.) The case is being appealed. (See prior posting.) Apparently the decision to admit this student was made after the student's parents appealed to an independent panel of the Brent Council, which is the school’s local authority. Unless the Court of Appeal decision is overturned, beginning next year Jewish schools will have to rewrite their admissions policies. Britain's United Synagogue says that parents who will need certificates of synagogue attendance for their children to show their Jewish faith should register at their local synagogue by next week. [Thanks to Rabbi Michael Simon for the lead.]

Chabad Group Sues Connecticut Town Over Zoning Refusal

Yesterday's Litchfield County (CT) Times reports that a RLUIPA lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Connecticut on Wednesday by Chabad Lubavitch of Litchfield County and its rabbi, Joseph Eisenbach, challenging the refusal by the town of Litchfield to allow Chabad to restore and add onto a Victorian house on the edge of the town's Historic District. Chabad wants to use the building as a synagogue, community center and classrooms. The proposed 21,000 square foot renovation would also contain living quarters for the rabbi, his family and guests, a mikveh, kitchens, offices and a swimming pool. (See prior posting.) The Historic District Commission says the size of the building would have overwhelmed the town's central historic district. But the lawsuit says that the zoning denial was motivated in large part by anti-Hasidic animus as reflected in a number of public statements by officials. The Hartford Courant says: "The lawsuit raises the specter of one of the most scenic villages in this wealthy state being accused of using its strict architectural standards to help it violate a group's right to practice its religion."