3. For years, the trustees, the chancellor, and the president of Saddleback College have routinely held official prayer at numerous events for college students and faculty, including scholarship ceremonies, graduations, and the Chancellor’s Opening Sessions.[Thanks to Alliance Alert for the lead.]
4. The college communities are religiously diverse, and the official prayers deeply offend many students, faculty, and staff. For some, the official prayers are insulting to their deeply held religious beliefs, or even offensive to God. For some, the official prayers make them feel like outsiders because they do not belong to the District’s preferred faith community. And for some, the official prayers represent the District’s attempt to impose that preferred faith on them.
5. For years, therefore, college students, faculty, and staff, as well as scholarship donors, community members, and others have publicly objected to the District’s prayer practice, requesting that a moment of silence or some other, less divisive practice be adopted instead. But rather than respecting the beliefs of its faculty and students, the trustees, the chancellor, and Saddleback College’s president have responded by expanding the prayer practice, by making the prayers ever more religious and divisive, and by publicly attacking members of minority faiths and nonbelievers for not sharing the District’s preferred faith. Plaintiffs therefore have no choice but to seek provisional relief and a permanent injunction to stop the prayer.
Objective coverage of church-state and religious liberty developments, with extensive links to primary sources.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Suit Challenges Policy of Opening College Events With Prayer
White House Marks Sikh Holiday For First Time
Recent Articles Of Interest
- Israel Zvi Gilat, 'Conquest by War' in Jewish Law: The Beautiful Woman Case, (November 17, 2009).
- John Mikhail, Dilemmas of Cultural Legality: A Comment on Roger Cotterrell's 'The Struggle for Law' and a Criticism of the House of Lords' Opinions in Begum, (International Journal of Law in Context, Vol. 4, pp. 385-393, 2009).
- Norman T. Deutsch, May Religious Worship Be Excluded from a Limited Public Forum? Commentary on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Decision in Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries v. Glover, (University of Hawaii Law Review, Vol. 31, No. 29, 2008).
- Lael Daniel Weinberger, Religion Undefined: Competing Frameworks for Understanding 'Religion' in the Establishment Clause, (University of Detroit Mercy Law Review, Vol. 86, No. 4, 2009).
From SmartCILP and elsewhere:
- Robert A. Kahn, The Danish Cartoon Controversy and the Rhetoric of Libertarian Regret, 16 University of Miami International & Comparative Law Review 151-181 (2009).
- Richard Falk, Responsible Scholarship in "Dark Times", 7 UCLA Journal of Islamic & Near Eastern Law 1-16 (2008-2009).
- Umar F. Abd-Allah, Living Islam with Purpose, 7 UCLA Journal of Islamic & Near Eastern Law 17-66 (2008-2009).
- Mohamed Abdel Dayem & Fatima Ayub, In the Path of Allah: Evolving Interpretations of Jihad and Its Modern Challenges, 7 UCLA Journal of Islamic & Near Eastern Law 67-120 (2008-2009).
- Nicholas May, Holy Rebellion: Religious Assembly Laws in Antebellum South Carolina and Virginia, 49 American Journal of Legal History 237-256 (2007).
- Susan Weiss, The Tort of Get Refusal, (Conversations, The Journal of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals, Issue 5, 2009).
Norwegian Univeristy Debates Use of Gym For Muslim Prayers
Recent Prisoner Free Excercise Cases
In Pressley v. Madison, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107231 (ND GA, Nov. 17, 2009), a Georgia federal district judge permitted a Muslim plaintiff to move ahead with her complaint that she was not permitted to wear her hijab covering her head while temporarily transferred for two days from prison to a county jail. The suit asks for an injunction to prohibit Barrow County Jail from depriving Muslim women of their hijabs and also seeks several million dollars in damages.
In Williams v. Cate, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107920 (ED CA, Nov. 10, 2009), a California federal magistrate judge allowed a prisoner who was a member of the House of Yahweh faith to proceed against some of the defendants named in his lawsuit for alleged violations of the free exercise and equal protection clauses, as well as RLUIPA. The lawsuit alleged refusals to accommodate plaintiff's religious dietary requirements, failure to hold House of Yahweh religious services and discrimination in funding from the religious services budget.
In Morris v. Woodford, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107612 (ND CA, Nov. 18, 2009), a California federal district court held that a prisoner had stated a cognizable claim under the 1st Amendment and RLUIPA. His complaint alleged denial and confiscation of his Qu'ran and other Islamic study and prayer materials.
In Lynch v. Huffman, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107476 (SD IN, Nov. 17, 2009), an Indiana federal district court dismissed an inmate's claim that his free exercise rights were violated when his request to see a chaplain was ignored while he was in administrative segregation for two months. He did not allege this imposed a substantial burden on his religious exercise. Moreover the claim was now moot.
European Commission Tells Britian Its Exemption For Church Employees Is Too Broad
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Religious Scholar Becomes Effective Regime Opponent In Iran
Maldives Considering Ban On Public Worship By Non-Muslims
Suit Challenges Closing of 50 Churches By Cleveland Catholic Diocese
Last month McGrath was named in a restraining order preventing her and other protesters from taking over a church in Akron scheduled for closure. The Diocese has now worked out a compromise under which protesters can remain in a Church until midnight on the day of its last Mass.
Regulatory Issues Abound In New York Hasidic Village
The most controversial immediate issue is the planned construction of a large kosher poultry slaughterhouse on city land abutting on homes just outside of New Square. The slaughterhouse project has received a $1.62 million grant of state development funds, even though it has not received approval from local planning departments. A smaller slaughterhouse constructed ten years ago already cause various sorts of problems for its neighbors.There has also been a history of non-compliance with state fire codes in the dense housing developments in New Square. The problems are complicated by the insularity of the Hasidic community, whose first language is Yiddish, and its political clout growing out of its ability to get the community to vote as a block for favored candidates. Earlier this month, 100% of New Square's 2075 votes went to one of the two candidates running to head Ramapo's government. The opposing candidate had expressed concern about the slaughterhouse project.
Rhode Island Bishop Tells Patrick Kennedy Not to Receive Communion
UPDATE: Former New York governor, Mario Cuomo, reacting to Church pressure on Patrick Kennedy, warned that if Church leaders pressure Catholic politicians to follow Church teaching in their political roles, this may well lead to people being hesitant to vote for Catholics. According to AP on Sunday, Cuomo said in part: "The American people need no course in philosophy or political science or church history to know that God should not be made into a celestial party chairman."
UPDATE2: Bishop Thomas J. Tobin issued a statement (11/22) in response to Rep. Kennedy's remarks. He says he wrote Kennedy in Feb. 2007 asking that he refrain from receiving Holy Communion in light of his consistent actions in opposition to Church teachings. The letter said that Tobin was writing Kennedy "personally and confidentially as a pastor addressing a member of his flock." Tobin says he is disappointed that Kennedy has now made this public.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
2nd Circuit Says EEOC Can Subpoena Company's Nationwide Records
9th Circuit Won't Enjoin Church Sign Regulations, But Remands For Further Consideration
New York High Court OK's State Employee Benefits To Same-Sex Spouses
IRS Schedules Hearing On Changes For Authorizing Church Tax Examinations
Indiana Christian TV Station Produces Program on Faith and the Law
Ohio Supreme Court: Regional Church Offices Are Not Tax Exempt
The dissenters argued that the headquarters were exempt as property used exclusively for a charitable purpose because it plays an integral role in the public worship and outreach programs of local churches.
Friday, November 20, 2009
New Catholic, Evangelical Declaration Reaffirms Pro-Life, Traditional Marriage Agenda
Today's New York Times reporting on the Declaration says that the document, written by Prison Fellowship founder Charles Colson, "is an effort to rejuvenate the political alliance of conservative Catholics and evangelicals that dominated the religious debate during the [Bush] administration.... They want to signal to the Obama administration and to Congress that they are still a formidable force that will not compromise on abortion, stem-cell research or gay marriage." [Thanks to Ira "Chip" Lupu for the lead.]While the whole scope of Christian moral concern, including a special concern for the poor and vulnerable, claims our attention, we are especially troubled that in our nation today the lives of the unborn, the disabled, and the elderly are severely threatened; that the institution of marriage, already buffeted by promiscuity, infidelity and divorce, is in jeopardy of being redefined to accommodate fashionable ideologies; that freedom of religion and the rights of conscience are gravely jeopardized by those who would use the instruments of coercion to compel persons of faith to compromise their deepest convictions.
.... We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right—and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation—to speak and act in defense of these truths.... Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.