Objective coverage of church-state and religious liberty developments, with extensive links to primary sources.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Fired Muslim Workers Denied Unemployment Benefits
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Contributions To Arizona Scholarship Organzations Raise Federal Tax Issues
H1N1 Precautions Suspended Religious Activities At Montana Jail
FLDS Church Asks Utah Supreme Court To Stay Proceedings In Trust Case
Holocaust Survivors' Suit Against Vatican Bank Dismissed By 9th Circuit
This decision, involving the property claims, concluded that neither the international takings exception nor the commercial activities exception removed this suit from protection under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. AP yesterday reported on the decision.A group of twenty-four individuals and four organizations ... claim that the Vatican Bank, known by its official title Istituto per le Opere di Religione, the Order of Friars Minor, and the Croatian Liberation Movement ..., profited from the genocidal acts of the Croatian Ustasha political regime ... which was supported throughout World War II by Nazi forces. That profit allegedly passed through the Vatican Bank in the form of proceeds from looted assets and slave labor. The Holocaust Survivors brought suit in federal court claiming conversion, unjust enrichment, restitution, the right to an accounting, and human rights violations and violations of international law arising out of the defendants' alleged involvement with the Ustasha during and following World War II.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Court OK's Ban of Creche on Roadway Median
Plaintiff sued, claiming that the refusal violates his freedom of expression. (See prior posting.) Observing that this is an "extremely close case," the court analyzed a number of "public forum" cases and concluded that a median in the middle of a busy roadway is not a "traditional public forum." It further ruled that the county has a compelling interest in prohibiting placement of the creche in the median because it may impede sight lines at the intersection. Also if this structure is allowed, the county would have to permit all sorts of displays on road medians, creating safety hazards around the county. At the same time, the alternative of displaying the creche a few hundred yards away on Church property would not create any public safety concerns. Finally, the court concluded that banning of temporary structures on busy road medians would not convey a message of endorsement or disapproval of religion. Yesterday's Detroit News reported on the decision.
Egypt Questioning Reporter On Blasphemy Charges
Virginia Warden Retires Amid Charges of Denying Prisoners Religious Services
Concerns About Religious Profiling for Security Arise Again After Flight 253
According to TPM, over the week end, Rep. Peter King (R-NY), Ranking Member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said on Fox News:
I think there are situations like this where we are afraid of being accused of profiling. The fact is while the overwhelming majority of Muslims are outstanding people, on the other hand 100% of the Islamic terrorists are Muslims, and that is our main enemy today. So while we should not be profiling people because of their religion, at the same time we should not be bending over backwards to somehow keep them off a list.A press release yesterday from the Council on American-Islamic Relations urged authorities to avoid ethnic and religious profiling.
LAPD, Citing Discrimination, Ends Affiliation of Its Youth Program With Scouts
Monday, December 28, 2009
Interview With Appellee In Famous Flag Salute Case Is Published
If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.The article is part of a series of Interviews with Principals in Supreme Court First Amendment Cases.
Top 10 Church-State, Religious Liberty Developments In 2009
There are at least two other Top 10 lists published this month on religion related stories. You may find it interesting to compare their picks, many of which differ a good deal from mine, though they were using somewhat different criteria. They are Don Byrds' Top 10 Religious Liberty Stories of 2009; and Religion Newswriters Top 10 Religion Stories.1. U.S. Catholic bishops are at increasing odds with President Obama over abortion. Very public disputes, sometimes splitting the Catholic community, erupted over Notre Dame's award of an honorary degree to Obama and over the USCCB's insistence on strict language in health care reform bills to limit abortion coverage.
2. Conservative Christian groups mount extensive but unsuccessful attempt to prevent passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
3. The Freedom From Religion Foundation becomes a major player in pressing for church-state separation by challenging a wide variety of practices, from sectarian prayers at city council meetings, to the tax code's parsonage allowance, to engravings at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center.
4. The Rifqa Bary case requires Florida and Ohio courts to become involved in run-away teenager's claim that her Muslim father threatens her life because of her conversion to Christianity.
5. U.S. Supreme Court rules that a Utah city can refuse to allow the religious group, Summum, to put up a monument containing its "Seven Aphorisms" in a public park, even though a 10 Commandments monument and other monuments are already there.
6. Britain's new Supreme Court holds that a Jewish school's admissions policy using the traditional Orthodox definition of who is a Jew amounts to ethnic, and therefore racial, discrimination.
7. Courts around the country decide disputes over ownership of property after numerous conservative Episcopal parishes move to Anglican affiliations.
8. South Carolina's attempt to issue state-sponsored "I Believe" license plates is ruled a violation of the Establishment Clause.
9. France convicts Scientology and its leaders of fraud while German court limits tactics of German government against Scientology.
10. A Utah trial court rejects a settlement proposed by Utah's Attorney General in the complicated attempt to reform the FLDS United Effort Plan Trust, while the estate of a deceased leader of the polygamous FLDS Church seeks control of the $120 million trust.
UPDATE: Politics Daily has also published an interesting list of Top 10 Religion/ Politics Stories of '09.
Pending Lawsuit Challenges Favoritism To Catholic School In Use of City Athletic Fields
Recent Articles and Books of Interest
- Todd E. Pettys, Sodom's Shadow: The Uncertain Line between Public and Private Morality, (December 26, 2009).
- Neil James Foster, Freedom of Religion and Discrimination - Two Important UK Cases, (December 23, 2009).
- Legal Studies Research Paper Series, University of Wisconsin, No Altars: An Introduction to Islamic Family Law in US Courts, (December 16, 2009).
From SmartCILP:
- Symposium: The Natural Law in Protestant Political and Legal Thought. Articles by J. Daryl Charles, Michael DeBoer, Daniel R. Heimbach, Michael V. Hernandez, H. Wayne House, Mark Liederbach, Donald R. McConnell, Gilbert C. Meilaender, John Warwick Montgomery, Peter Judson Richards, Joe M. Sprinkle, Max L. Stackhouse, David VanDrunen and Ronald J. Wright. 2 Liberty University Law Review 607-995 (2008).
- Fr. Evaldo Xavier Gomez, Church-State Relations from a Catholic Perspective: General Considerations on Nicolas Sarkozy's New Concept of Laicite Positive, 48 Journal of Catholic Legal Studies 201-217 (2009).
- Piero A. Tozzi, Whither Free Exercise: Employment Division v. Smith and the Rebirth of State Constitutional Free Exercise Clause Jurisprudence?, 48 Journal of Catholic Legal Studies 269-301 (2009).
Recent and Forthcoming Books:
- David A. J. Richards, Fundamentalism in American Religion and Law : Obama's Challenge to Patriarchy's Threat to Democracy, (Cambridge University Press, Feb. 2010).
- Donald L. Drakeman, Church, State, and Original Intent, (Cambridge University Press, Nov. 2009).
Sunday, December 27, 2009
U.S. Missionary Crosses Into North Korea, Complicating Diplomacy
UPDATE: North Korea announced on Dec. 29 that it has custody of an American who crossed into the country illegally on Christmas Eve. Apparently this is Robert Park, whose uncle says this is good news because it means Park was not executed. (CP).
Catholic Church Says Historic Designation of Building Infringes Its Rights
Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases
In Oliverez v. Albitre, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118555 (ED CA, Dec. 2, 2009), a California federal magistrate judge allowed an inmate to move ahead with his free exercise claim that the prison's
Native American Spiritual Leader failed to provide him with the prayer oil he ordered.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
No "Necessity" Defense In Trial of Accused Killer of Abortion Doctor
Court Rejects Free Exercise Defense To Bald Eagle Act Prosecution
[T]he repository and permit processes, while arguably inconvenient, do not impose a substantial burden on the defendant's right to practice his religion. The evidence established that a tribal member would have to wait ninety days to six months for delivery of feathers from the repository. This moderate delay does not deny the defendant a reasonable opportunity to practice his religion. Alternatively, the court finds that even if the Eagle Protection Act imposed a substantial burden, the government has met its burden to show that the repository and permit process are the least restrictive means to further the government's compelling interest in protecting and preserving the bald eagle population.
Catholic Hospitals Group Differs With Bishops On Senate Health Insurance Language
UPDATE: Catholic Health Association has told CNS 12/28 that the New York Times is wrong. There is not a split between CHS and the Bishops.