Hungary's Ombudsman Wants Court Review Of Law On Churches

BosNewsLife reported yesterday that in Hungary, the country's Ombudsman who is elected by Parliament to protect fundamental civil rights is asking the Constitutional Court to overturn the country's recently enacted Law on the Right to Freedom of Conscience and Religion, and on Churches, Religions and Religious Community. The Constitutional Court struck down an earlier version of the law last year on procedural grounds. (See prior posting.) The law recognizes only 14 religious faiths, instead of the 300 that have previously recognized, and permits others to apply to Parliament for recognition if they have been operating in Hungary for at least 20 years. Under this provision Parliament has recognized 18 additional groups. The Ombudsman contends that the provision in the law that gives Parliament the unreviewable power to decide which groups will be recognized is "contrary to the principle of separation of power, to the right to fair procedure and to the right to legal remedy."  Formal recognition gives churches tax-free status and access to government support.  It also authorizes them to collect contributions during services and do pastoral work in jails and hospitals.

11th Circuit Orders Hearing On Standing In 10 Commandments Case

In American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Inc. v. Dixie County Florida, (11th Cir., Aug. 15, 2012), the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals remanded to the district court for a hearing on standing a case challenging the constitutionality of a Ten Commandments statue near the entrance to the Dixie County, Florida courthouse. The individual (identified as John Doe) through whom the ACLU claims organizational standing is a North Carolina resident who was offended when he saw the statue during a trip to the courthouse to check out certain real estate records. At issue was whether the statue was the cause of  Doe's not moving ahead to purchase property in the county. Judge Edmondson dissented in part, arguing that the case should be remanded for immediate dismissal, rather than for a further hearing on standing. The Wall Street Journal reports on the decision.

Islamists Launch Online Attacks Against 2 Tunisian Olympians

AP reported yesterday that in Tunisia, Islamic fundamentalists are using social media in a campaign against two Tunisian Olympic athletes. Islamists on social media networks are calling on the Tunisian government to strip steeplechase silver medalist Habiba Ghribi of her Tunisian citizenship because her running outfit was too revealing.  Ghribi is first Tunisian woman to win an Olympic medal.   Separately, the Islamist group Ansar al Chariaa is conducting a Facebook campaign against swimmer Oussama Mellouli because he drank juice before racing during Ramadan. Mellouli won a gold and a bronze medal.

State Secrets Privilege Leads To Dismissal Of Suit For Spying On Mosques

The Los Angeles Times reports that yesterday a California federal district court dismissed a class action lawsuit that had been filed against the federal government and the FBI for planting an informant in Orange County, California mosques. The court accepted the government's assertion of the state secrets privilege-- that national security would be endangered by disclosing targets in counter-terrorism investigations. The court, however, permitted claims under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act against individual FBI agents and supervisors to proceed.

UPDATE: The text of the court's opinion in Fazaga v. FBI, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 116723 (SD CA, Aug. 14, 2012) is now available.

Court Can Hear Clergyman's Claim For Unpaid Salary Due

In Crymes v. Grace Hope Presbyterian Church, Inc., (KY App., Aug. 10, 2012), a Kentucky state appeals court held that the 1st Amendment does not prevent a court from hearing a suit for unpaid salary and benefits brought by a Presbyterian pastor who was fired from his position.  The court said:

It is undisputed that Crymes is not contesting Grace Hope's termination of him as pastor. Rather, Crymes is merely seeking compensation for unpaid salary and benefits allegedly owed to him for work performed prior to his termination.... A claim for unpaid wages and benefits for work previously performed under an employment contract is not ecclesiastical and is reviewable by the court.

First Amendment Center reports on the decision.

Passenger Sues El Al After Orthodox Jewish Man Takes Her Seat To Avoid Sitting Next To A Woman

A Florida woman is suing Israel's El Al airlines, apparently in an Israeli court, for gender discrimination after a flight steward on her flight to Israel moved her to a less desirable seat further back in the plane.  As reported by Israel Hayom, Digital Journal and Arutz Sheva, Debra Ryder boarded a flight in New York and found that her assigned seat was already occupied by an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man who had moved to it to avoid sitting beside a woman passenger who was next to him in his original seat.  The man refused to move back, and a crew member asked Ryder to instead take the man's assigned seat so the flight could take off.  Ryder had chosen her original seat so she could be near a rest room to facilitate her taking medications. The seat change also resulted in her not getting the vegetarian meal she had pre-ordered. Ryder is asking for NIS 50,000 ($12,500 US) in damages .

Pastor Convicted Of Aiding Parental Kidnapping By Woman Ending Her Civil Union

Yesterday, a federal court jury in Burlington, Vermont found Kenneth L. Miller, a Beachy Amish-Mennonite pastor from Virginia, guilty of abetting an international parental kidnapping. The New York Times reports on the case in which Lisa Miller (no relation to the pastor), who had been in a Vermont civil union with another woman, sought to avoid the court-ordered child visitation rights awarded to her former partner by fleeing with her daughter first to Virginia (where she declared herself a born-again Christian), then to Canada and finally to Nicaragua. Pastor Miller helped the mother arrange to fly from Canada to Nicaragua and obtain shelter from missionaries in Nicaragua. (See prior posting.)

Pope's Butler Formally Indicted In Document Leak

Radio Vatican reported yesterday that Pope Benedict XVI's former butler, Paolo Gabriele, has been formally charged with, and will stand trial for, grand theft in the leaking of private documents about the Pope and other Curia officials to the press. The full text of the indictment in Italian is available online. Apparently Gabriele has confessed to furnishing the documents to Italian Journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, saying that he believed the Pope was ill-informed of evil and corruption in the church. (See prior related posting.)

NYC Informed Consent Proposal To Controversial Circumcision Procedure Draws Opposition

The Forward reports today on the growing opposition in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community to a proposed rule (full text) published last month by the New York City Health Department that would require written informed consent by parents to a controversial ritual circumcision method.  The procedure, known as metzitzah b’peh, involves use of the mohel's mouth-- rather than the more commonly used sterile pipette-- to suction blood from the circumcision site. The practice can pass dangerous herpes infection to the child. The proposed regulation would require that parents sign a form to be developed by the Health Department whenever oral suction is to be used in a circumcision of a boy under one year of age. While signing of the consent form does not violate Jewish law, but ultra-Orthodox rabbinic leaders object to the health department's proposed form that describes the procedure as dangerous.  A Health Department vote on the proposal is scheduled for Sept. 13. (See prior related posting.)

RLUIPA Claim For Delay In Granting Zoning Variance Can Move Ahead

In Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ v. City of Hackensack, (D NJ, Aug. 9, 2012), a New Jersey federal district court held that plaintiff church has made out a prima facie case under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.  The church alleged that the city of Hackensack delayed for 4 years its eventual approval of the church's application for a variance that the church sought so it could use a building it rented as a school to train priests. (See prior related posting.) The court also refused to dismiss claims for monetary damages under RLUIPA against two city officials in their personal and official capacities, as well as 1st Amendment claims against the two officials.

Fired Muslim Employee Sues Disney For Barring Her Hijab

The ACLU of Southern California announced yesterday that it has filed suit in a California federal district court against Walt Disney Corp. on behalf of a former employee who alleges religious harassment and refusal to accommodate her Muslim religious practice of wearing a hijab (headscarf).  The complaint (full text) in Boudlal v. Walt Disney Corp., (CD CA, filed 8/13/2012), alleges claims under Title VII of the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act, California's Fair Employment and Housing Act, and common law claims for wrongful termination, negligent retention and supervision and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The suit claims that 28-year old Imane Boudlal-- who worked at Storytellers Café at Disney’s California Adventure-- was told that her hijab would violate the Disney "look" policy for employees. She offered to wear a scarf with a Disney logo to match her uniform.  However management insisted that she either wear a large fedora on top of her hijab or work in a back area out of view of customers. She refused and was fired. The suit also alleges various incidents of offensive anti-Muslim and anti-Arab comments by Boudlal's co-workers.

Arizona Court Dismisses Challenge To State Day of Prayer For Lack of Standing

In Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. v. Brewer, (AZ Super. Ct., Aug. 7, 2012), an Arizona trial court judge dismissed a constitutional challenge to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's proclamation of an annual Arizona Day of Prayer.  According to the court:

In the absence of a particularized and concrete injury suffered by Plaintiffs, their claims cannot go forward. Plaintiffs have not alleged that they filed their claims in their capacity as taxpayers, nor have they shown a direct injury, pecuniary or otherwise.

Gov. Brewer issued a statement (full text) applauding the decision which she called "little more than another sad attempt to stifle an American tradition."

Saudi Arabia Building All-Women's Industrial City To Comply With Sharia

In order to both comply with strict interpretations of Sharia law and also increase participation of women in its work force, Saudi Arabia plans to build an industrial city for female workers.  Today's Los Angeles Times and International Business Times report that the city, which will be built within Hofuf, will have sections and production halls reserved for women within factories, and will be located near residential neighborhoods to facilitate women getting from home to work. The new city is expected to attract the equivalent of $133.3 million (US) in investments and create 5,000 jobs in the textiles, pharmaceuticals and food processing industries. Additional similar cities are planned.

Advocacy Group Sends US Schools Publication On Right of Religious Expression

Liberty Counsel announced last week that it is sending a copy of its publication Patriot's Handbook of Religious Freedom in Public Schools to every school in the United States. It says it is completing delivery of 99,750 copies around the country. According to the press release: "This booklet clarifies the rights of students to pray, form Bible clubs, and engage in religious expression in public schools, including holiday celebrations and the rights of teachers, parents, and guardians." According to God Discussion, Matt Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel, says that he believes public school teachers lack information on religious freedoms.

Recent Articles and Forthcoming Book of Interest

From SSRN:

• David R. Upham, Pope Pius Xi’S Extraordinary — But Undeserved — Praise of the American Supreme Court, (July 31, 2012).
• Lucas Swaine, Freedom of Thought, Religion, and Liberal Neutrality, (August 4, 2012).
• C.G. Bateman, Sovereignty's Missing Moral Imperative, (International Zeitschrift 8.2 (May 2012): 30-41).
• Nelson Tebbe, Government Endorsement and Disparagement, (Brooklyn Law School, Legal Studies Paper No. 287, Aug. 6, 2012).
• Meghan J. Ryan, Death and Rehabilitation, (SMU Dedman School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper, Aug. 11, 2012).
• Carlos Martínez de Aguirre, Is 'Living Together, Loving Each Other' Enough for Law? (Reflections on Some 'Brave New Families'), (International Journal of the Jurisprudence of the Family, Forthcoming).
• Jeremiah Egger, Glucksberg, Lawrence, and the Decline of Loving's Marriage Precedent, (Virginia Law Review, Vol. 98, December 2012, Forthcoming).
• Ursula Hackett, Republicanism, Catholicism and the West: Explaining the Strength of Religious School Aid Prohibitions, (APSA 2012 Annual Meeting Paper).
• Farrah Ahmed and S. Luk, How Religious Arbitration Could Enhance Personal Autonomy, (Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, Forthcoming).
• Ebrahim Moosa, Ahsan Arozullah and Aasim I. Padela, Brain Death in Islamic Ethico-Legal Deliberation: Challenges for Applied Islamic Bioethics, (December 13, 2011).
• Steven F. Friedell, The Recent Transformation of Medical Liability in Jewish Law, (August 3, 2012).

Forthcoming book:

• Jacques Berlinerblau, How to Be Secular: A Call to Arms for Religious Freedom, (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, September 11, 2012).

Nominations For ABA Journal's Top 100 Legal Blogs Now Open

The American Bar Association Journal announced last week that it is working on its annual list of the 100 best legal blogs, and invites blog readers to use the form at this link:

to tell us about a blawg—not your own—that you read regularly and think other lawyers should know about. Or if you don't have particular blawgs in mind but think blawgs from a certain practice areas should be represented in the Blawg 100, you can use this form to let us know which ones. If there is more than one blawg you want to support, feel free to send us additional amici through the form. We may include some of the best comments in our Blawg 100 coverage. But keep your remarks pithy—you have a 500-character limit. Friend-of-the-blawg briefs are due no later than Sept. 7, 2012.

The ABA has also urged us bloggers to tell readers about the opportunity to send messages on behalf of their favorite legal blogs. Religion Clause has made the top 100 list four out of the last five years. I invite any readers who think it belongs there again-- or who have a different favorite legal blog-- to participate in the ABA's selection process.

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

In Hennis v. Tedrow, (3d Cir., Aug. 7, 2012), the 3rd Circuit upheld dismissal of an inmate's claim that his rights were violated when he was told to cut his dreadlocks (but never in fact forced to do so) and was not provided his religious vegetarian meals during a prison lock down.

In Burton v. Clark, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109106 (ED CA, Aug. 2, 2012), a California federal magistrate judge recommended dismissing free exercise and RLUIPA claims by an inmate whose request for a special religious diet was refused.  He sought a vegetarian diet free of excess beans, butter, margarine, peanut butter, and cheese, and claimed that the food needed to be blessed by a rabbi to make it kosher.

In Hull v. Cox, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109272 (D NV, July 27, 2012), a Nevada federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendations (2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109273, June 6, 2012) and dismissed for failure to exhaust administrative remedies an inmate's complaint that prison officials have refused to recognize his Community of Christ religion and have not scheduled a time slot for its services.

In Gibson v. Campbell, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111050 (D CO, Aug. 8, 2012), a Colorado federal district court agreed with a federal magistrate judge that an inmate's free exercise rights weer not infringed when authorities prohibited him from having an audio book player in his cell.

In Lemcool v. Poole, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111131 (ND FL, Aug. 8, 2012), a Florida federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendation (2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111132, July 9, 2012), and dismissed as moot a Wiccan inmate's complaint about the inability to schedule Sabbat and Esbats and holy day worship. A change in policy now permits inmates to engage in religious exercise under staff supervision, even if an outside volunteer is unable to be present.

In Chance v. TDCJ, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111214 (ED TX, Aug. 8, 2012), a federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendations (2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111230, July 9, 2012) and dismissed complaints of a Native American inmate regarding the adequacy of Native American religious ceremonies that are offered.  He objected to the lack of weekly group teaching ceremonies, and complained that smudging and pipe ceremonies are held only monthly with only the chaplain smoking the pipe and only water smudging. He was also denied the right to carry a lock of his deceased parents' hair in a pouch.

In Wesley v. City of New York, (SD NY, Aug. 10, 2012), a New York federal district court rejected a Muslim inmate's claim that he should be furnished Halal food prepared in accordance with his interpretation of Halal. He objected to the food that the Department of Corrections served under its religious meal program because Halal food trays were washed together with non-Halal trays.

Consent Decree Issued On City's Display of Crosses

A consent decree (full text) has been issued in Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. v. Town of Whiteville, Tennessee, (WD TN, Aug. 8, 2012). The decree enjoins the town and its mayor from installing decorated or undecorated stand-alone crosses on public property. (The city had placed a cross at city hall and the mayor had installed one in front of his business.) The city also agreed not to replace one arm of a cross on the city's water tower that the city had removed when FFRF complained about the display. (See prior related posting.) FFRF issued a press release announcing the consent decree.

7th Circuit: City's Litigation Position On Proselytizers' Rights Is Not An Official Policy For Sec. 1983 Liability

In Teesdale v. City of Chicago, (7th Cir., Aug. 10, 2012), the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a suit brought by a group from a nearby Baptist church that sought to proselytize for several years at the annual festival of Chicago's St. Symphorosa Catholic Church. In the case, the district court ruled that plaintiffs' 1st Amendment rights were threatened by an official city policy that St. Symphorosa could exclude plaintiffs from the public streets on which the festival was held. (See prior posting.) The 7th Circuit agreed that the city's position was unsupportable, but concluded that since it was merely a legal argument taken in litigation, the city's position does not amount to an "official policy" that gives rise to liability under 42 USC Sec. 1983:

We acknowledge the great importance that our society accords to freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion, and that the plaintiffs’ legitimate rights to such freedoms are to be respected. Like any other member of the public, the plaintiffs can exercise their rights at future public festivals, subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions. But under the particular facts of this case, there is no evidence of an official City policy that threatens the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights, giving rise to municipal liability and entitling the plaintiffs to a declaratory judgment. A mere legal pleading or a litigating position, with nothing more, is insufficient to constitute an official policy under Monell. Without such an official policy, these plaintiffs do not have standing to obtain the declaratory judgment.

Opinion Filed Supporting Injunction Against Public Feeding In Parks

As previously reported, last month a Pennsylvania federal district judge, from the bench, issued a temporary injunction against enforcement of Philadelphia's new ordinance that bans public feeding of groups of more than 3 people in any city park.  The ordinance is part of the city's efforts to close down an established program by Philadelphia churches to feed the homeless in city parks, and move the food program to indoor facilities. The court has now filed extensive findings of fact and conclusions of law to support the issuance of the temporary injunction.  In Chosen 300 Ministries v. City of Philadelphia, (ED PA, Aug. 9, 2012), the court concluded that the churches' food-sharing program is an exercise of religion under the Pennsylvania Religious Freedom Protection Act and that the new regulation places a substantial burden on that exercise of religion.  It added:

Defendants argue that because the ban "imposes no restrictions upon praying or preaching or reading the Gospel or engaging with the homeless in [Fairmount Park]," the ban does not burden plaintiffs’ free exercise.... Essentially, defendants have assumed the authority to ascribe some of plaintiffs’ religious activities more religious significance than others, irrespective of the significance that plaintiffs themselves ascribe to their own religious activities.

The court also found that the regulation is not the least restrictive means to further a compelling governmental interest.  The court said:

There is some evidence that the true purpose behind the ban is to move plaintiffs' activities away from the many cultural attractions along the Parkway in an effort to hide the City’s homeless population away from tourist eyes. Defendants vehemently deny this and do not attempt to defend the ban on this ground. Nor could they, as discriminating against unpopular groups is not a legitimate government purpose, let alone a compelling one..... [D]efendants have failed to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the ban is the least restrictive means of furthering their objectives of ending homelessness, feeding the homeless indoors, providing social services to the homeless, increasing the dignity of the homeless, or reducing the trash burden along the Parkway.