Suit Challenges Exclusion of Sectarian Groups From State Employee Charitable Campaign

Earlier this week, the Montana Family Foundation filed suit in federal district court challenging its exclusion from the Montana State Employees' Charitable Giving Campaign. The complaint (full text) in Montana Family Foundation v. Stoll, (D MT, filed 4/15/2010), alleges that MFF's application to become one of the numerous non-profit groups eligible to receive charitable contributions from state employees was rejected because eligible organizations may not have sectarian activities as their primary focus. MFF focuses on issues of the family, such as marriage and abortion, from a traditional Christian viewpoint. The complaint alleges that this anti-sectarian rule is vague and overbroad, discriminates against religious speech based on content, discriminates based on the speaker's viewpoint, and infringes rights of expressive association. It also alleges that the Campaign's practices violate the free exercise and establishment clauses, and infringe due process and equal protection rights. Alliance Defense Fund issued a release yesterday announcing the filing of the lawsuit.

Religion Clause Blog Is 5 Years Old Today

Today is Religion Clause's 5th birthday. Thank you to all the readers who have been on board for many years and to the many new readers who have joined us recently as well. All of you have contributed to the success of Religion Clause. As I look back at postings five years ago, it calls to mind the French proverb: Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. There has been surprising stability in the major church state and free exercise issues that have captured the attention of courts, legislatures and the media over this period of time. I remain committed to continuing neutral coverage of both recurring and newly emerging developments, and to continuing to make extensive primary source material available for additional reference. I welcome your e-mails on leads for blog posts. I also urge you to e-mail me with any corrections that are called for in postings-- accuracy is an important goal on Religion Clause. Finally, if you are the subject of a post, or are personally involved in the situation covered, I invite your e-mail giving any additional context that would be helpful. Please note Religion Clause's new e-mail address: religionclause@gmail.com.

Kyrgyzstan's New Government Seeks To Liberalize 2009 Religion Law

The Washington Post reported today that with the overthrow of Kyrgyzstan's president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, interim leader Roza Otunbayeva says her new government is working on a new constitution that will set up a parliamentary democracy. Religious groups in the country are wondering if this will mean a backing off from the restrictive Religion Law passed last year by the Bakiyev government. (See prior posting.) According to a report today from Forum 18, Kanybek Imanaliyev, head of the interim government's Press Service, said: "We want to establish freedom of speech and freedom of religion. We will reform the Constitution, the laws as necessary and the Religion Law." However Imanaliyev said he is unsure whether religious groups will be able to carry on normal activity in the period before the changes are made.

Father's Religious Freedom Trumped By State's Interest In Protection of His Children

In Thorne v. Arkansas Department of Human Services, (AR Ct. App., April 14, 2010), an Arkansas appellate court upheld the November 2008 removal of three children from the Tony Alamo Ministry compound in Fouke, Arkansas. The trial court had conditioned the return of the children to their father on his obtaining both housing and employment separate and apart from the Tony Alamo Ministries. The father argued that this condition violates his religious freedom by forcing him to choose between his religion and his children. The court disagreed, saying that the state's interest in preventing potential harm to the children outweighs their father's "conscientious choice to live on ministry property, work for the ministry, and depend on the ministry for his family’s every need." (See prior related posting.)

Foster Care Agency Charged With Religious Discrimination

A Muslim woman, with the help of the ACLU of Maryland, has filed a complaint with the Baltimore City Community Relations Commission charging that a state-licensed agency refused her application to house foster children because she will not serve pork products in her home. According to an ACLU press release, Contemporary Family Services, an organization that places foster children, denied Tashima Crudup's application for a foster care license on the ground that exclusion of pork products from her home could create a discrepancy between her expectations and the needs and personal views of a foster child. Cudrup had finished a mandatory 50 hours of training for foster parents. She and her husband agreed that they would accept children of other religious faiths, would not impose their own religious faith on them and would make arrangements for the child to attend the church of his or her choice. ACLU says that the foster care agency has discriminated against Cudrup because of her religious beliefs, in violation of a Baltimore City Code, Chap. 4, Sec. 3-4.

Rights Group Charges Exploitation of Beggar Children By Senegal's Quranic Teachers

Human Rights Watch yesterday issued a 114-page report titled Off the Backs of the Children: Forced Begging and Other Abuses against Talibés in Senegal. [Links to full text and summary.] It charges that in the African nation of Senegal, over 50,000 boys, many under the age of 12, are forced to beg on the streets every day by brutal religious teachers, known as marabouts. According to an HRW press release:

In Senegal's predominantly Muslim society, where religious leaders wield immense social and political power, children have long been entrusted to marabouts who educate them in these residential Quranic schools, called daaras. Many marabouts, who serve as de facto guardians, conscientiously carry out the important tradition of providing young boys with a religious and moral education.

But research by Human Rights Watch shows that in many urban residential daaras today, other marabouts are using education as a cover for economic exploitation of the children in their charge. Many marabouts in urban daaras demand a daily quota from the children's begging and inflict severe physical and psychological abuse on those who fail to meet it.

A New York Times article also focuses on the HRW report.

NASA Employee Sues For Religious Discrimination After Demotion For Pushing Intelligent Design

According to a release issued yesterday by the Discovery Institute, an employee at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has filed suit in a California state court claiming religious discrimination, harassment and retaliation; wrongful demotion; and infringement of free speech rights. In the lawsuit, information technology specialist David Coppedge alleges that he was demoted for "pushing religion" after he loaned co-workers DVDs that support the theory of intelligent design. The suit was brought against JPL and California Institute of Technology which manages the NASA Laboratory. The Discovery Institute, which takes the position that Intelligent Design is not religion, argues that it is nevertheless illegal for an employer to discriminate against an employee based on what the employer believes to be a religion.

Presidential Memo Expands Non-Family Members' Visitation and Surrogate Health Care Rights

The President yesterday issued a Memorandum (full text) to the Secretary of Health and Human Services aimed at assuring that hospital patients have the right to designate visitors and surrogate decision-makers other than immediate relatives. While the action is aimed primarily at problems faced by gays and lesbians, the President framed the issue in broader terms:

Often, a widow or widower with no children is denied the support and comfort of a good friend. Members of religious orders are sometimes unable to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions on their behalf. Also uniquely affected are gay and lesbian Americans who are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives -- unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated.

The Memorandum calls both for new rule making and for enforcement of current protections. New rules must also bar hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid from denying visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. The Memorandum gives HHS six months to develop further recommendations on health care issues that affect LGBT patients and their families. The Washington Post reported on the President's action.

Court Says Muslim Did Not Prove Employment Discrimination, But Can Proceed on Other Claims

In Awad v. National City Bank, (ND OH, April 15, 2010), an Ohio federal district court dismissed claims of religious, racial and national origin discrimination brought by Muslim, Arabic, Palestinian bank employee who was eventually fired. The court concluded that the bank had non-discriminatory reasons for the actions it took. However the court allowed plaintiff to pursue his claims of retaliatory discharge, and his claims of a hostile work environment caused by comments from fellow employees critical of Palestinians and Arabs. A press release yesterday from CAIR discusses the court's decision.

National Day of Prayer Declared Unconstitutional

In an important decision yesterday, a Wisconsin federal district court held that the federal statute which designates the first Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer violates the Establishment Clause. In Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. v. Obama, (WD WI, April 15, 2010), the court, in a 66-page opinion, concluded that 36 USC Sec. 119 goes beyond mere acknowledgement of religion. It endorses and encourages citizens to engage in prayer. Examining the legislative history of the law, the court said:

This legislative history supports the view that the purpose of the National Day of Prayer was to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, and in particular the Judeo-Christian view of prayer. One might argue that members of Congress voiced secular purposes: to protect against "the corrosive forces of communism" and promote peace. That is true, but the references to these purposes do nothing to diminish the message of endorsement. If anything, they contribute to a sense of disparagement by associating communism with people who do not pray. A fair inference that may be drawn from these statements is that "Americans" pray; if you do not believe in the power of prayer, you are not a true American. Identifying good citizenship with a particular religious belief is precisely the type of message prohibited by the establishment clause.

Conceding that much of the controversy had resulted from activities of the private National Day of Prayer Task Force, the court said that "government officials, including former Presidents, have sometimes aligned themselves so closely with those exclusionary groups that it becomes difficult to tell the difference between the government's message and that of the private group."

The court concluded with this explanation of its holding:

Although the law does not always point in the same direction on matters related to the establishment clause, my review of that law requires a conclusion that 36 U.S.C. §119 is unconstitutional.

I understand that many may disagree with that conclusion and some may even view it as a criticism of prayer or those who pray. That is unfortunate. A determination that the government may not endorse a religious message is not a determination that the message itself is harmful, unimportant or undeserving of dissemination. Rather, it is part of the effort to "carry out the Founders' plan of preserving religious liberty to the fullest extent possible in a pluralistic society." .... The same law that prohibits the government from declaring a National Day of Prayer also prohibits it from declaring a National Day of Blasphemy.

It is important to clarify what this decision does not prohibit. Of course, "[n]o law prevents a [citizen] who is so inclined from praying" at any time.... And religious groups remain free to "organize a privately sponsored [prayer event] if they desire the company of likeminded" citizens.... The President too remains free to discuss his own views on prayer.... The only issue decided in this case is that the federal government may not endorse prayer in a statute as it has in §119.

AP reporting on the decision quotes a White House spokesman as saying that the President still plans to issue a proclamation to recognize a National Day of Prayer next month. The court in its decision stayed its injunction for the 30-day period during which an appeal may be filed, and for the peridod during which any appeal is pending. (See prior related posting.) [Thanks to Paul Ballard and Ira "Chip" Lupu for the leads.]

House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Anti-Semitism

Yesterday the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs held a hearing on Combating Anti-Semitism: Protecting Human Rights. (Witness list.) Here are links to the prepared statements presented at the hearing by Subcommittee Chair Russ Carnahan; Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Hannah Rosenthal; ADL Deputy National Director Kenneth Jacobson; AJ Committee Director of International Jewish Affairs, Rabbi Andrew Baker; Human Rights First CEO Elisa Massimino; and Simon Wiesenthal Center Associate Dean, Rabbi Abraham Cooper.

Magazine Explores Hipsters Intrusions Into Insular Hasidic Community

This week's New York Magazine carries an interesting article titled Clash of the Bearded Ones: Hipsters, Hasids and the Williamsburg Street. The lengthy article focuses on Williamsburg's Bedford Avenue bike lane as a symbol of the intrusion of modern hipsters into the insular New York Jewish enclave of Satmar Hasidim. These excerpts give the flavor of the article:

For a full year, the city seemed to ignore the hipster-Hasid war. Then, on December 1, 2009, came a sudden announcement. The Department of Transportation—under Janette Sadik-Khan, the bike-friendliest commissioner it’s ever had—was going to rip up "a small portion" of the lane.... Just about everyone’s assumption, including that of more than a few Hasids, is that Michael Bloomberg had needed the Satmars—who tend to vote enthusiastically and in a single block—in the upcoming election and that this was an easy bone to throw them.

On December 1, a crew of municipal workers descended on Bedford, sandblasting the lane and its stenciled biker figures off the asphalt. The next day, a group of three bike activists ... hit the street with aerosol cans and handmade stencils. According to Ben, more than a few Satmars saw them paint. "As they walked by, I made sure I said hello, explained to them that we’re not vandalizing the street, and asked if they wanted to help," he says. "At first, they were a little standoffish, but a couple of guys had a sense of humor about it."

.... Baruch Herzfeld, 38, is a classic macher and motormouth with a foot in both the Hasid and hipster worlds.... His real bread and butter is some sort of telephone-card business, which finances his largely nonprofit bike shop with the awesome name Traif Bike Gesheft—Unclean Bike Business. For South Williamsburg’s Hasids, Traif Bike Gesheft functions as a semi-secret window onto the larger world and a clubhouse of mild transgressions. Herzfeld rents bikes to Hasids at no cost, just to get them to venture beyond the neighborhood....

New "Church Project" Aims At Protecting Churches From Government Intrusion

Alliance Defense Fund yesterday announced its new "Church Project," an effort to "protect churches from excessive and unconstitutional government intrusion prohibited by the First Amendment." Kevin Theriot, who heads the Project, said: "Historically, the Church has been the moral and cultural conscience of the nation. Every day the Church is intimidated into silence on issues like life, liberty, marriage, and the family is another day the cultural erosion continues unchecked." ADF's Pulpit Initiative has been integrated into the broader Church Project. A new website set up for the project is aimed at educating pastors and religious leaders, and furnishing them with resources to defend their religious freedom.

Suit Challenges School's Refusal To Permit Church Related Flyers

A federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday against the Pulaski County, Arkansas Special School District on behalf of an elementary school student who, along with her mother, was denied permission to distribute flyers inviting other students to a swimming event sponsored by plaintiff's church. The complaint (full text) in A.W. v. Pulaski County Special School District, (ED AR, filed 4/13/2010), alleges that the school violated the free expression, free exercise and establishment clauses as well as the due process and equal protection clauses by permitting students and community groups to distribute other flyers, but banning those promoting a church-related event. Alliance Defense Fund issued a release announcing the filing of the lawsuit.

City Voters Approve Continuing Prayers To Open Council Meetings

On Tuesday, voters in Lancaster, California approved by a vote of more than 3-1 Nonbinding Measure I that calls for City Council to continue its present prayer policy. According to yesterday's Merced (CA) Sun-Star, the policy provides for clergy of different faiths to lead a prayer opening council meetings. Most of the invocations, however, have been sectarian Christian prayers. Mayor R. Rex Parris says that is not surprising since up to 90% of the community is Christian. The ACLU is considering filing suit over the city's prayer policy. Parris says he is confident the policy will be upheld in court. (See prior related posting.)

Milwaukee Reviewing Good Friday Closures

On Tuesday, the Freedom from Religion Foundation wrote Milwaukee (WI) Mayor Tom Barrett (full text of letter) complaining that the city acted unconstitutionally when it closed numerous city offices in observance of Good Friday. FFRF argued that the closures violate a 1996 federal district court ruling finding that Wisconsin's statute declaring Good Friday a legal holiday violates the Establishment Clause. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the Milwaukee City Attorney is reviewing the city's situation after receiving FFRF's letter.

Virginia High Court Hears Oral Arguments In Episcopal Church Split

The Washington Times has extensive coverage of the oral arguments presented on Tuesday in the Virginia Supreme Court in In re: Multi-Circuit Episcopal Church Property Litigation. (See prior posting.) Three of the Court's 8 justices had recused themselves. The remaining five justices pressed lawyers on whether Virginia's "Division Statute" applies to the case. The statute provides that if a "division" has occurred in a church, a majority of the congregation may decide to which "branch" the congregation shall belong. Lawyers argued over whether a "division" had occurred in the Episcopal Church, and whether the Convocation of Anglican Churches in North America (CANA) is a "branch" of the Church.

Court Rejects Establishment Clause Challenge To Housing Financing

In Glassman v. Arlington County, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35745 (ED VA, April 12, 2010), a Virginia federal district court rejected an Establishment Clause challenge to county financing arrangements with the First Baptist Church of Clarendon (FBCC) for construction of an affordable housing complex. Plaintiff had alleged, among other claims, that FBCC had been overpaid for property it sold as part of the development plan, and that the housing units would have a "religious overtone" because they would be on church land and would share a lobby and entrance with the church itself. (See prior related posting.)

Student Paper Publishes Controversial Interview With Mike Huckabee

The College of New Jersey's student news magazine, The Perspective, last week reported on an interview with former Arkansas Governor and Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. In the interview, Huckabee took strong stands against same-sex civil unions as well as same-sex marriage, and expressed support for an Arkansas law that bars same-sex couples from adopting children or becoming foster parents. Huckabee, now a Fox News celebrity, said he believes an atheist could serve as President: "I'd rather have an honest atheist than a dishonest religious person," he commented. In a statement on Monday, Huckabee criticized the article as distorting and sensationalizing his views. The editor of The Perspective responded to Huckabee's criticism and posted a recording of the interview with Huckabee to counter the claim that Huckabee's statements were sensationalized.

New Source For Vatican Press Releases

A new source for news from the Vatican is now available. Vatican Information Service, the Holy See's Press Office, is making current and past news releases available in a blog format. VIS News is available in English, Spanish, Italian and French. According to Zenit yesterday, the new blog, which also links to the Vatican's Twitter and YouTube pages, not only features current news but has archived some 35,000 past Vatican news releases going back to 1999. A link to VIS News has been added to the Religion Clause sidebar under "Resources."