Egyptian Lawyers File Complaint With Prosecutor Against El Baradei Over His Criticism of Islamists

As previously reported, last Friday Islamists in Egypt held a demonstration in Cairo's Tahrir Square demanding that the assembly drafting the country's constitution include language giving more deference to Islamic law. The same day, reformist Dostour Party chairman Mohamed El Baradei spoke to a news conference in Aswan, urging various political groups to come together and criticizing the Islamists, calling them "the clowns of religion who call people infidels and secularist as they please and act as if they have moral authority over us." (Egypt Daily News). Now Ahram Online reports that today 40 Egyptian lawyers filed a complaint with the prosecutor general accusing El Baradei of offending Islamists, opposing Islamic sharia law and insulting prominent Islamist preachers.

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

In Krieger v. Brown, (4th Cir., Nov. 8, 2012), the 4th Circuit held that an inmate had not shown that his practice of Asatru was substantially burdened by the denial of an outdoor worship circle and various requested sacred items.

In Armstrong v. Etchebehere, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 158485 (ED CA, Nov. 5, 2012), a California federal magistrate judge dismissed, with leave to amend, an inmate's claims that staff and the Catholic Chaplain blocked previously approved Islamic programs such as Jumm'ah prayer and religious objects such as a prayer rug, Thikr beads and prayer oils, and deprived him of the Eid celebration was in retaliation for his filing grievances.

In Terrell v. Hendricks, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 159080 (D NJ, Oct. 25, 2912), a New Jersey federal district court dismissed with leave to amend an inmate's claim that he was denied the right to practice his Muslim religion while in punitive segregation.

In Booker v. Tokarz, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 159837 (SD NY, Nov. 7, 2012), a New York federal district court permitted a Muslim inmate to move ahead with his claims that conditions in the special housing unit substantially burdened his practicing his religion. He could not attend Jum'ah services or make Fithra (the removal of body hair).

In Dickerson v. Gusman, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 159611 (ED LA, Nov. 6, 2012), a Louisiana federal district court approved a magistrate's recommendations (2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 159609, Oct. 2, 2012)  and permitted an inmate to proceed with his complaint that he is being denied the ability to participate in congregational prayer with other Muslims.

In Spivey v. Taylor, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 158760 (SD IL, Nov. 6, 2012) an Illinois federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendation (2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 159741, Oct. 19, 2012) and dismissed an inmate's complaint that a correctional officer refused to provide him with his Jewish Bible for two days.

In Njos v. Carney, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 160564 (MD PA, Nov. 8, 2012), a Pennsylvania federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendations (2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161168, Sept. 12, 2012) and permitted an inmate to proceed against 3 prison chaplains on claims that they refused to furnish him kosher meals as well as juice and matzohs each week for the Sabbath. The chaplains asserted that plaintiff's beliefs were not sincere. Plaintiff's believed that non-kosher foods could be blessed by him to meet kosher standards. Various other claims were dismissed.

Charles Darwin Gets 4000 Write-Ins Against Evolution Opponent In Georgia

Congressman Paul Broun is a physician who represents Georgia's 10th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Particularly because he is a member of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committe, he attracted attention last month when a portion of a September speech he made at the 2012 Sportsman's Banquet at Liberty Baptist Church in Hartwell, Georgia became public.  Huffington Post reports that Broun said in part:

God's word is true. I've come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the big bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell. It's lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior.

The speech particularly irked some at the University of Georgia which is located in Broun's district. However, Broun was running unopposed in this past week's election.  So, as reported by the Athens Banner-Herald, plant biology professor Jim Leebens-Mack started a Facebook page to encourage voters to write in "Charles Darwin" instead of voting for Broun, even though the votes would not count because Darwin was not certified as a write-in candidate. The official results show Broun receiving 211,022.  However it is reported that "Darwin" received nearly 4,000 write-ins.

Court Continues Order For State To Home School Senior Who Objects To Immunizations

West Virginia is one of two states that have no religious exemption from requirements that students obtain immunizations before they can attend school.  AP reports that on Thursday, a West Virginia trial court continued a previously issued injunction requiring the Randolph County Board of Education to provide home instruction to high school senior Olivia Hudok who refuses immunizations for religious reasons.  Hudok and her father sued in September seeking an order allowing her to attend the county's small public school-- Hudok is one of only 3 seniors. The court instead ordered home instruction while a suit challenging the immunization rule played out in another county. That suit upheld the requirements, and the school board unsuccessfully then sought a dismissal of the preliminary injunction. The court however said the Randolph County injunction will continue until the West Virginia Supreme Court gives some guidance in the area.

Evangelist Sues College Over Access To Open Campus Area

The Rapid City (SD) Journal reports on a federal lawsuit filed last Thursday against the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology by evangelist Mark Gavin over access to campus areas to preach.  Gavin wants to preach on the "quad," a grassy area outside the student center. University officials insist that he comply with the rules for commercial activities-- pay a $50 fee and be limited to a table inside the student center. The suit claims the restriction infringes Gavin's free speech rights.

Islamists In Egypt Demonstrate For Stronger Deference To Shari'a In New Constitution

In Egypt today, more than 10,000 conservative Muslims demonstrated in Cairo's Tahrir Square demanding that Egypt's 100-member constitutional assembly which is drafting the county's new constitution include language in the document that gives more weight to Shari'a law.  According to AP, secularists and liberals want the new document to carry over the language from Art. 2 of the present Constitution: "Principles of Islamic law ( Shari’a) are the principal source of legislation." The Islamic demonstrators, on the other hand, want the new section to provide that "the rulings of Shari'a" will be the basis for legislation. This is seen as giving more power to religious scholars to control the content of Egyptian law.

Plane Gets Military Escort As Passenger Insists On Praying In Aisle During Landing

A United Airlines flight from Denver to Washington, D.C. got a military escort into Washington's Dulles airport last night after the crew reported an emergency.  According to the Chicago Tribune and KUSA-TV, as the plane was preparing to land, a male passenger, instead of following flight crew instructions, stood up in the middle of the aisle and began to pray, apparently acting in a disorderly manner. After the plane landed, police and paramedics took the passenger off in handcuffs.

Court Requires Street Preacher To Stay Back From School Bus Stops

In Central Dauphin School District v. Garisto, (PA Com. Pl. Ct., Sept. 20, 2012), a Pennsylvania Dauphin County trial court, in a suit by a school district, issued a permanent injunction requiring a street preacher to stay at least 20 yards away from any school bus stop at which children are waiting to board or de-board buses.  Street preacher Stephen Garisto for at least 4 years has handed out Gospel tracts and spoken with school students at a school bus stops. The court concluded that a school bus stop, even though it is on a public sidewalk, is a non-public forum, so speech restrictions are permissible if they are viewpoint neutral and reasonable. The court said:

Certainly the School District has a strong interest in preventing an adult stranger from approaching captive audience school children and engaging them in conversation, handing out pamphlets, stopping them as they get off a school bus or pursuing them as they walk away therefrom.

The Central Pennsylvania Patriot-News reports on the decision.

Czech Parliament Passes Restitution To Churches For Nationalized Property

According to BosNewsLife yesterday, the Czech Parliament has approved a plan to provide restitution to churches whose property was nationalized after the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948. Negotiations over the claims have been going on for several years. (See prior posting.) Under the legislation, churches will receive property and compensation totaling $7 billion over 30 years. Among the property that will be returned is some 6% of the country's forests and fields that once belonged to Christian churches. The bill now goes to President Vaclav Klaus for his signature, but he has expressed reservations about the legislation. However the bill received enough votes so that any veto is likely to be overridden.

Suit Charges Town With Forcing Property Owner To Display Church Sign

According to the Wilkes-Barre (PA) Citizens Voice and the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader, a former member of the Shickshinny (PA) borough council filed suit in federal court Wednesday, alleging that the borough and various of its current and former council members are unconstitutionally forcing her to support a religion by placing a church sign in her yard without her consent.  Francene Tearpock-Martini says that in 2008 council approved the request of a local church to place a sign reading "Bible Baptist Church Welcomes You" on her property, even though she told the church and council that she objected. At one point the sign fell down and the borough reinstalled it with poured concrete.

Analysis of Tuesday's Results By Religion of Voters

Pew Forum yesterday published its preliminary analysis, based on exit polls, of Tuesday's presidential vote by religion, race and worship attendance. Gov. Romney did best among White Protestant born-again and evangelical voters- 79%.  He received 69% of all White Protestant votes and 59% of White Catholic votes. He received 30% of the Jewish vote, up significantly from the 21% received by John McCain in 2008. Romney received 78% of the Mormon vote.

President Obama did best among Black Protestants- 95%.  He received 75% of the Hispanic Catholic vote and 68% of the Jewish vote.  He received 74% of the votes of those who listed themselves as being of some faith other than Christian or Jewish, and 70% of the vote of those who are religiously unaffiliated. He received 21% of the Mormon vote.

Broken down by attendance at worship services, Romney received 59% of the votes of those who attend services at least weekly, while Obama received 62% of the votes of those who never attend worship services. Protestants made up 53%, Catholics 25%, Jews 2%, and other faiths 7% of the total electorate.

Court Rejects Challenge To Scope of Fish and Wildlife Service's Bald Eagle Permit

In Northern Arapaho Tribe v. Ashe, (D WY, Nov. 5, 2012), a Wyoming federal district court upheld the action of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that granted Northern Arapaho tribe members permission to kill up to two bald eagles per year for religious purposes, but not on their own reservation in west-central Wyoming. The court held that plaintiffs lack standing to seek declaratory and injunctive relief in their challenge to the two and a half year delay in granting of the permit because they are unlikely to suffer similar delays in the future. Then the court rejected plaintiffs' claim that their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act were violated by the limitation in their permit that prevents them from taking eagles on the Wind River Reservation that they share with the Eastern Shoshone tribe. The Eastern Shoshones oppose the taking of eagles on the reservation for religious and cultural reasons.  The court upheld the exclusion, saying:

The FWS was between a rock and a hard place. No matter what policy it chose---either allowing or disallowing eagle take within the Reservation-it would have furthered its compelling interest with regard to one tribe and disserved its compelling interest with regard to the other....  The FWS's alternative advances and balances the FWS's competing compelling interests in fostering and protecting both tribes' cultures and religions.

(See prior related posting.) AP reports on the decision.

UPDATE: The court refused to certify its order for interlocutory appeal. 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36443 (D WY, Jan. 23, 2013).

Other Election Results of Interest

In Tuesday's election, former Alabama chief justice Roy Moore won in his quest to again hold that office.  Moore captured 52% of the vote. (Results). As reported by AL.com, Moore, a Republican, defeated his Democratic challenger, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Bob Vance.  When Moore previously served as chief justice, he was removed from office for refusing to comply with a federal court order to dismantle a 5,200 pound granite Ten Commandments monument in the lobby of the state judicial building.

Iowans voted Tuesday to retain state Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins on the court. Opponents of same-sex marriage had urged a vote against retention because Wiggins was one of the 7 justices who voted in 2009 to invalidate the state's law that had barred recognition of same-sex marriages. Wiggins received a 54.6% vote in favor of retention. (Results.) Three other of justices who voted in favor of same-sex marriage in the 2009 case lost their bid for retention in the 2010 election. (Des Moines Register).

Tulsi Gabbard, who won the race for U.S. House of Representatives in Hawaii's 2nd Congressional district on Tuesday, becomes the first Hindu member of the U.S. Congress. (IndiaWest).

Mazie Hirono, currently representing Hawaii's 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives, won her bid for election from Hawaii to the U.S. Senate. She becomes the first Buddhist member of the U.S. Senate. (Wall Street Journal).

Same-Sex Marriage Proponents Win 4 Out of 4 Yesterday

In four states yesterday, voters approved of same-sex marriage.  In Washington state (official results), voters passed Referendum Measure 74 by a vote of 51.79% for approval, and 41.21% for rejection. The referendum approved the same-sex marriage law that the legislature passed earlier this year. Seattle Times reports on the measure.

In a Maryland referendum, voters approved (official results) the Civil Marriage Protection Act that had been enacted earlier this year by the state legislature. The vote on the referendum, Question 06, was 51.9% for the law, and 48.1% against the law. Washington Post reports on the vote.

In Maine, with 75% of the precincts reporting, it appears that voters have approved Question 1, authorizing the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The vote so far is 53% in favor and 47% opposed. (Results). Boston Globe reports on the vote.

In Minnesota (official results), voters defeated a state constitutional amendment that would have provided that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota. With almost 99% of the precincts reporting, only 47.65% voted in favor of the amendment. Duluth News Tribune reports on the vote.

Florida Voters Defeat Religious Freedom Amendment; Anti-Abortion Amendment

Florida voters yesterday (official results) defeated Amendment 8, the proposed Religious Freedom Amendment, that would have repealed the state's Blaine Amendment-- the state constitution's ban on public funds going to religious institutions. It would have cleared the way for religious institutions to participate on an equal footing with secular ones in government programs and funding, to the extent permitted by federal law. The vote on Amendment 8 was 44.47% for approval; 55.53% for rejection. A 60% affirmative vote was needed for passage.

Voters also defeated Amendment 6 which, with some exceptions, would have barred the use of public funds to pay for abortions or for insurance coverage for abortions. The vote was 44.95% for approval; 55.05% for rejection. A 60% affirmative vote was required for passage.  The Tampa Bay Times reports on the results.

10th Circuit Vacates Injunction Against Utah's Reformation of FLDS Trust

In Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints v. Horne, (10th Cir., Nov. 5, 2012), the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected on procedural grounds a constitutional challenge by the polygamous FLDS Church to Utah's reformation of the FLDS United Effort Plan Trust. Last year, a federal district court issued a preliminary injunction, finding that the state had impermissibly entangled itself with religion in reforming and managing a religious trust.  The 10th Circuit, ordering the injunction vacated, concluded that FLDS should be precluded from bringing the constitutional challenge. Federal courts should give full faith and credit to the Utah Supreme Court's decision that under the doctrine of laches the FLDS waited too long to challenge the state court proceedings. Reporting on the decision, KSL-TV says: "The ruling breaks a legal logjam surrounding $100 million worth of property Warren Jeffs, former leader of The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, once controlled."

Group Charges Catholic Bishops Conference Engaged In Prohibited Political Activity

Last week, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington announced that it has filed a complaint asking the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and its members have engaged in partisan political activity in violation of the Internal Revenue Code provisions regulating activities of non-profit organizations.  Their letter to the IRS (full text) says that:

According to press reports, a number of Catholic Bishops "are making forceful last-minute appeals to vote on election day" and at the same time, assailing the policies of the Obama administration as anti-Catholic.

Bankruptcy Court Settlement of Dispute Over Sikh Assets Approved

A federal bankruptcy court in Oregon yesterday approved a settlement agreement in a dispute over assets of a Sikh religious community.  According to the Eugene (OR) Register-Guard:

The feuding religious leaders and business leaders of the Sikh community founded by the late Yogi Bhajan agreed to drop their legal claims against each other. They will move on with an orderly give-and-take of payments and a transition to new leadership for the community’s for-profit companies, including East West Tea Company LLC.... Under the settlement agreement, former Eugene resident and prominent local businessman Kartar Singh Khalsa, will resign from the Unto Infinity management board that controlled the Sikh community’s for-profit companies and religious and educational charities.

Churches' Challenge To Hawaii Civil Union Law Dismissed

In Emmanuel Temple, The House of Praise v. Abercrombie, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 157950 (D HI, Oct. 2, 2012), a Hawaii federal district court dismissed a constitutional challenge to Hawaii's Civil Unions Law. Plaintiffs complained that the Act chills their free exercise of religion because it does not exempt churches from Hawaii's anti-discrimination laws. However the suit was filed before a 2012 amendment to the law that provides no religious organization shall be required to make their religious facility available for solemnizing civil unions if the facilities are currently limited to use for marriages only by members. The court held that the complaint as filed is moot because of the amendment to the law.  It also held that plaintiffs should not be allowed to amend their complaint to challenge the conditions on the exemption imposed by the 2012 amendment. According to the court, plaintiffs have not shown that they have standing or that the action is ripe for adjudication:

any threat of enforcement and imposition of fines by government officials ... for violating the Civil Unions Law is highly speculative. No one has asked Plaintiffs to use their facilities for a civil union. No one has inquired about such use in the days following Act 1's effective date. And, the record contains no indication that, in the nine months since its implementation, any couple has sought to use Plaintiffs' facilities in relation to solemnizing a civil union. Plaintiffs cannot say when and under what circumstances such a request might be made, if ever.

More Catholic Businessmen Sue Challenging ACA Contraceptive Coverage Mandate

Last week, one more lawsuit challenging the contraceptive coverage mandate under the Affordable Care Act was filed-- this time in federal district court in Minnesota.  The complaint (full text) in Annex Medical, Inc. v. Sebelius, (D MN, filed 11/2/2012), alleges that the individual plaintiffs are two devout Catholic businessmen, one of whom owns co-plaintiff Annex Medical, and the other of whom plans to buy a business in 2013. The plaintiffs:

believe that paying for a group health insurance plan that complies with Defendants’ Mandate is sinful and immoral because it requires them and/or the businesses they control to pay for contraception, sterilization, abortifacient drugs and related education and counseling in violation of their sincere and deeply-held religious beliefs and the teachings of the Catholic Church.

The complaint lists a number of business decisions made by plaintiffs in the past based on their religious values, including a decision by one of the plaintiffs last June to accept a below-market value offer for his former business, in part to avoid having to conform its group health plan to the mandate. The law firm representing plaintiffs issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit.