Homeowners Sue New Mexico County Challenging Its Zoning Settlement With UDV Church

Wednesday's Santa Fe New Mexican reports on a state court lawsuit by six New Mexico homeowners challenging on constitutional grounds the decision by Santa Fe County  to settle a lawsuit filed by O Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal (UDV).  UDV, a church that uses a hallucinogenic tea as a sacrament, sought county zoning approval to build a temple, a guesthouse for a clergy member, and a greenhouse, as well as renovating a yurt, on property of Seagram’s whiskey heir Jeffrey Bronfman who is a local UDV leader. (Background.) The County Commission voted 3-2 to deny the required permits, saying that the construction was incompatible with the neighborhood.  UDV sued in federal district court charging religious discrimination. [corrected]  This led the county to negotiate a settlement with UDV under which the county would approve a new temple, but not a greenhouse or yurt. UDV would limit the times and number of people attending services.  The county agreed it would also pay $300,000 to extend a waterline and install a fire hydrant on the property, and would spend another $80,000 for a waste water system there.  Plaintiffs in the state court lawsuit claim that these expenditures would violate the anti-donation clause of the state constitution as well as the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. [Thanks to Steven Siegel for the correction above.]

Iran Bars Overflights During Call-To-Prayer Times

The New York Times reported yesterday that Iran's Civil Aviation Organization has issued a directive prohibiting all aircraft from flying across the country during Adhan, the 5-times daily Muslim call for prayer. However the directive did not indicate whether planes in flight would be re-routed or forced to land.  Also under the new directive, no planes may take off in the morning until 30 minutes after the pre-dawn call to prayer. The head of the Civil Aviation Organization said the new rules were designed to give air travelers the time to carry out their religious duties. [Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]

President Extends Best Wishes To Those Celebrating Kwanzaa

The White House yesterday issued a statement (full text) from the President and the First Lady extending best wishes to all those celebrating Kwanzaa. The statement describes the festival as a "week-long celebration of African-American history and culture through the seven principles of Kwanzaa: unity, self determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith."

Parents Sue Rabbi For Sexual Assault and Defamation After He Received Light Criminal Sentence

Yesterday's Albany (NY) Times-Union reports on a civil suit for sexual assault and defamation that has been brought in state court in Albany County, New York against a former Chabad rabbi. In January 2010, Rabbi Yaakov Weiss plead guilty to misdemeanor charges of child endangerment after admitting inappropriate sexual contact with two 13-year old boys. Apparently Weiss' conduct with the boys took place in a mikveh (ritual purification pool). Under the plea agreement, Weiss was sentenced to 60 days in jail and 3 years probation, and was not required to register as a sexual offender. Weiss has also been suspended from his position with the local Chabad organization.  The boys parents, upset at the light sentence Weiss received, have now filed this civil suit which will come to trial next month. The defamation charges in the suit stem from Weiss' claim that the boys' allegations were "100% untrue." Meanwhile Weiss has complained to a rabbinical tribunal in Rockland County about the parents filing of the civil lawsuit.  The religious tribunal could potentially excommunicate the parents for bringing the lawsuit in civil court rather than submitting it to a religious tribunal for adjudication.

Justice Sotomayor Denies Injunction Pending Appeal In Hobby Lobby's Contraceptive Coverage Challenge

As previously reported, Hobby Lobby Stores and its sister corporation Mardel, Inc. have been seeking a temporary injunction to prevent enforcement of the Affordable Care Act contraceptive coverage mandate against them as they litigate their religious liberty challenges to the health care insurance rule.  After the 10th Circuit denied them an injunction, they sought a injunction from Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor in her role as Circuit Justice.  Yesterday, Sotomayor refused to grant the injunction.  In an in chambers opinion in Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. v. Sebelius, (Sup. Ct., Dec. 26, 2012), Justice Sotomayor wrote in part:

Applicants do not satisfy the demanding standard for the extraordinary relief they seek.  First, whatever the ultimate merits of the applicants’ claims, their entitlement to relief is not “indisputably clear.”... This Court has not previously addressed similar RFRA or free exercise claims brought by closely held for-profit corporations and their controlling shareholders alleging that the mandatory provision of certain employee benefits substantially burdens their exercise of religion.... Moreover, the applicants correctly recognize that lower courts have diverged on whether to grant temporary injunctive relief to similarly situated plaintiffs raising similar claims....

AP reports on the decision, as does SCOTUS Blog.

UPDATE: Following Justice Sotomayor's decision, the Becket Fund, counsel for Hobby Lobby announced:

Hobby Lobby will continue their appeal before the Tenth Circuit. The Supreme Court merely decided not to get involved in the case at this time. It left open the possibility of review after their appeal is completed in the Tenth Circuit. The company will continue to provide health insurance to all qualified employees. To remain true to their faith, it is not their intention, as a company, to pay for abortion-inducing drugs.

Company Settles EEOC Suit Alleging Refusal To Hire 7th Day Adventist

The EEOC announced last week that Altec Industries, Inc., a Birmingham, Alabama based manufacturing company, has agreed to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit brought against it by the EEOC. The suit claims that Altec refused to hire Seventh Day Adventist, James Wright, at its Burnsville, N.C. manufacturing  facility after it learned that Wright could not work on his Sabbath (sundown Friday to sundown Saturday).  Altec will pay $25,000 in damages to Wright, and will also provide training on religious discrimination to certain managers and supervisors, post notices of employee rights and report periodically to the EEOC.

Government Agrees That Priests for Life Qualifies For ACA Mandate Enforcement Safe-Harbor

Last January, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it would impose a moratorium on enforcement of the Affordable Care Act contraceptive coverage mandate until August 1, 2013  for non-profit employers who, based on religious beliefs, did not currently provide contraceptive coverage in their insurance plan. (See prior posting.) In August of this year, HHS issued a Guidance on the Temporary Enforcement Safe Harbor confirming that the temporary enforcement safe harbor would be in effect until the first plan year that begins on or after August 1, 2013 for non-profit employers with conscience exemptions which have consistently not provided contraceptive coverage in the past. Now in Priests for Life v. Sebelius, (ED NY, Dec. 21, 2012), the parties have filed a stipulation in a New York federal district court agreeing that Priests for Life qualifies for the temporary enforcement safe harbor. Priests for Life will provide a notice to its health plan participants that contraceptive services will not be covered during the safe-harbor period. The stipulation comes one day after oral arguments in Priests for Life's challenge to the mandate. (Press release from American Freedom Law Center.)  (See prior related posting.)

Top 10 Church-State and Religious Liberty Developments For 2012

Here are my nominations for the 2012 Top Ten Church-State and Religious Liberty Developments:

1.  The long-simmering tensions between the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Obama Administration took on a greater focus when in May some 40 Catholic institutions, in 12 lawsuits, filed challenges to the Obama administration's mandate that health insurance policies include contraceptive coverage. Other suits followed. The Administration had granted a one-year moratorium to non-profit institutions, while it worked unsuccessfully to produce a compromise that might be acceptable to religiously affiliated non-profit institutions. Meanwhile, for-profit companies owned by Catholics and conservative Christians also filed an avalanche of suits seeking conscience exemptions from the mandate.

2.  The battle between religious conservatives and advocates of marriage equality continued to rage on numerous fronts.  Each side saw some victories and some defeats, but proponents of marriage equality had a good year.  Legislatures in Washington and Maryland approved same-sex marriage. In November, voters in 4 states also indicated approval of same-sex marriage, but earlier in the year North Carolina voters approved a ban on same-sex marriage.. The 9th Circuit in a narrow opinion struck down California's Proposition 8, and the Supreme Court has agreed to review that decision. The Defense of Marriage Act was struck down by the 1st Circuit, the 2nd Circuit and a California federal district court. The Supreme Court has agreed to review the 2nd Circuit case. Same-sex marriage bans in Nevada and Hawaii were upheld by federal district courts.

 3.  Mitt Romney lost the Presidential election, but his Mormon religious faith was not an important issue in the campaign. Indeed, Romney's activities as a lay Mormon pastor were used to his advantage at the Republican Convention.

4. The Supreme Court in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC adopted the "ministerial exception" doctrine for employment discrimination cases, finding it to be constitutionally-based.

5.  Egypt has struggled to draft and adopt a new constitution.  The role the new constitution will provide for Sharia law in the country has been one of the central issues in debates on the document.

6.  A 17-year long struggle by the New York City Board of Education to bar churches from renting out school buildings on weekends for church services, even though the buildings are available to other community groups, was revived by a federal district judge. Most observers had thought that a 2011 decision by the 2nd Circuit had ended the dispute in favor of the Board of Education, but the court held that the 2nd Circuit had not passed on the Bronx Household of Faith's free exercise and establishment clause claims. The district court's vindication of the free exercise claim is now on appeal.

7.  An online video promoting the obscure movie "Innocence of Muslims" triggers demonstrations against American embassies in the Muslim world. The video leads to an unusual set of legal proceedings-- litigation involving probation violations by the producer, attempt by an actress in the movie to have it removed from YouTube, and in abstentia convictions in Egypt.

8.  New questions are raised around the world regarding ritual circumcision of young boys by Muslims and Jews. Germany's Bundestag confirmed the legality of religious circumcision after a Cologne district court held that parents lack the right to decide that their young sons should be circumcised for non-medical reasons. Ritual circumcision is also questioned in Australia and Norway. Meanwhile, in the United States some Orthodox Jewish groups sue challenging the New York City health department's new regulation requiring informed consent from parents when a Jewish religious circumcision involves use of the oral suction technique (metzitzah b'peh).

9.  The court martial trial of accused Fort Hood mass shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan is delayed as the question of his right to wear a beard for religious reasons at his trial is litigated.  In December, an appeals court held there was insufficient evidence to show that the beard materially interfered with the court martial proceedings. It also ordered court martial judge Gregory Gross removed from the case for the appearance of bias.

10.  In the wake of Congress' reorganization of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in late 2011, developments demonstrated internal divisions and conflicts in the Commission. The pressure of expiring terms of 5 Commissioners led to early release of USCIRF's annual report and to a public statement by 5 of the Commissioners charging that the report wrongly reflected the votes of Commissioners on the status of Turkey.  Meanwhile a former USCIRF staff member sued alleging anti-Muslim bias against her.  In an unrelated case, a different employee was sentenced to prison for embezzling USCIRF funds. And Muslim groups criticized one of the new Commissioners, claiming he is anti-Muslim.

Some of my picks were rather obvious candidates for inclusion, while others may surprise some readers. A number of the top developments continue trends reflected in last year's list.  You may also find it interesting to compare two other "Top 10" lists: Religion Newswriters 2012 Top 10 Religion Stories and Blog from the Capital's Top Religious Liberty Stories of 2012. I invite you to post your comments or disagreements with my choices this year.

Official Results: Egyptian Voters Approve Constitution By 63.8% Vote

Egypt's Supreme Election Committee told a news conference today that the country's new constitution has been approved by 63.8% of those casting votes.  According to Al-Jazeera, the election commission says it reviewed every complaint that has been filed by independent and opposition election monitors, and has rejected all of them.  The official turnout for the election, held in two parts on Dec. 15 and 22, was 32.9% of the country's 52 million eligible voters.  Earlier this month, National Review published an excellent analysis of the provisions in the new constitution that relate to religious freedom and protection of the rights of minorities. The document was drafted largely by Islamists after representatives of non-Islamist parties and the Coptic Christian minority withdrew in protest from the Constitutional Assembly that was drafting the document. (See prior related posting.)

UPDATE: Reuters reports on Wednesday that President Morsi has signed the new constitution into law.

Obamas Wish Everyone Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

President Obama and the First Lady used the President's weekly address (full text) last Saturday to extend wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone.  In the address, the Obamas made special mention of military families, and the President also said:

For my family and millions of Americans, it’s a time to celebrate the birth of Christ. To reflect on His life and learn from His example.  Every year, we commit to love one another.  To give of ourselves.  To be our brother’s keeper.  To be our sister’s keeper.  But those ideas are not just part of our faith.  They’re part of all faiths.  And they unite us as Americans.

A video of the address is available online.

IRS Seizes Synagogue and Day School For Back Taxes

JTA reported yesterday that in Worcester, Massachusetts, the Internal Revenue Service has seized a building housing a synagogue and Jewish day school for non-payment of taxes. The school owes over $435,000 in taxes dating back to 2004-- mostly payroll taxes that have not been paid. A public auction of the building is scheduled for January 4. In the meantime, Yeshiva Achei Tmimim synagogue and Yeshiva Academy day school continue to operate.

Federal Court Says Contraceptive Coverage Mandate Preempts State Law Seeking To Undercut It

As previously reported, last year in a move to oppose the federal mandate on contraception coverage in health insurance policies, the Missouri legislature enacted SB 749 that requires insurance companies to offer and issue policies that exclude coverage for contraceptives where coverage is contrary to the moral, ethical or religious beliefs or tenets of the person or entity seeking insurance.  Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed the bill, but the legislature overrode the veto. Now, in Missouri Insurance Coalition v. Huff, (ED MO, Dec. 21, 2012), a Missouri federal district court has issued a temporary restraining order barring the Department of Insurance from enforcing these provisions of SB 749, finding that under the Constitution's Supremacy Clause the provisions are preempted by the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive coverage mandate. Insurance News Net reports on the decision.

Pakistani Villagers Attack Traveler Accused Of Burning Qur'an

Reuters reported on Saturday on the violence in the Pakistani village of Seeta against a man accused of burning a Qur'an.  The man, a traveler, had spent Thursday night as the only person in the local mosque.  The next morning charred remains of a Qur'an were found there.  Villagers beat the man and turned him over to police. A few hours later, 200 villagers invaded the police station, dragged the suspect out and set him on fire. Police say 30 people have been arrested for murder and 7 police officers have been detained for negligence in the incident. [Thanks to Matthew Caplan for the lead.]

Recent Articles of Interest

From SSRN:

• Tom Ginsburg, Constitutionalism: East Asian Antecedents, (Chicago-Kent Law Review, 2013).
• Mohamed A. Arafa, President Mursi's Egypt Arab Spring: Does Egypt Will Continue to Be a Civil State or Under the Umbrella of Islamic (Sharie‘a) Law and Islamism?, (US-China Law Review, Vol. 9, No. 6, 2012).
• Veronique Champeil-Desplats, Laïcité Et Liberté Religieuse En France: Aux Sources De La Loi Interdisant La Dissimulation Intégrale Du Visage Dans L'Espace Public (Secularism and Religious Freedom in France: On the Legal Provisions Prohibiting the Veil to Cover the Face in Public Space), (Revista Derecho del Estado, No. 29, 2012).
• Xiomara Lorena Romero Perez, La Libertad Religiosa En El Sistema Interamericano De Protección De Los Derechos Humanos (Análisis Comparativo Con El Ordenamiento Jurídico Colombiano) (Religious Freedom in the American System of Human Rights Protection (Comparison with the Colombian Legal System)), (Revista Derecho del Estado No. 29, 2012).
• Omar M, Dajani, Responding to Ethnic and Religious Conflict in the Emerging Arab Order: The Promise and Limits of Rights, (November 10, 2012).
• Lucinda Ferguson, 'Families in All Their Subversive Variety': Over-Representation, the Ethnic Child Protection Penalty, and Responding to Diversity Whilst Protecting Children, (Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Forthcoming).
• Nicholas A. Primrose, Has Society Become Tolerant of Further Infringement on First Amendment Rights?, (December 4, 2012).

From SSRN (Jewish Law and Islamic Law)

• Yitshak Cohen, Midrashic Exegesis and Biblical Interpretation in the Meshekh Hokhmah – The Man and the Work – Their Legal Stature and Normative Influence, (Jewish Law Annual, Forthcoming).
• Yitshak Cohen, The Rabbbinic Decisors and the Halakhic Material in the Or Sameah, (Jewish Law Association, Forthcoming).
• Yitshak Cohen, The Jerusalem Talmud in Rabbi Meir Simcha Hakohen's Halachic-Legal Work, (9 Kiryat Hamishpat L. Rev. 301, 2011).
• Yitshak Cohen, Juridical Ideology and Its Influence upon the 'Or Sameach's' Halachic Decision Making Process, (Halakhah: Explicit and Implied Theoretical and Ideological Aspects, Avinoam Rosenak & Dafna Schreiber, eds., 2012).
• Mark Cammack and Michael Feener, The Islamic Legal System in Indonesia, (Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal, Vol. 21, No. 1, 2012).

From SmartCILP:

• David M. Engel, Vertical and Horizontal Perspectives on Rights Consciousness, [Abstract], 19 Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 423-455 (2012).
• Daisy Hurst Floyd, Timothy W. Floyd and Sarah Gerwig-Moore, Learning From Clergy Education: Externships Through the Lens of Formation [Abstract], 19 Clinical Law Review 83-114 (2012).
• Rodney D. Chrisman, Can a Merchant Please God?: The Church's Historic Teaching On the Goodness of Just Commercial Activity As a Foundational Principle of Commercial Law Jurisprudence, 6 Liberty University Law Review 453-494 (2012).

Developments From The Vatican Last Week

Several developments of interest came from the Vatican last week:

As reported by AP, Pope Benedict XVI met in the Vatican prison on Saturday with his former butler Paolo Gabriele and granted him a pardon. Gabriele had been sentenced to 18 months in jail for stealing the Pope's private correspondence, some of which were published in a best-selling book by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi. (See prior posting.)

On Saturday, the Vatican announced the appointment of Boston canon lawyer Rev. Robert W. Oliver as promoter of justice for the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith, the Vatican office charged with protecting church doctrine. As reported by the Boston Globe, this makes Oliver the Vatican's chief prosecutor of priests charged with sexual abuse of minors. He succeeds Monsignor Charles Scicluna who has been named auxiliary bishop in Malta. The director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests criticized Oliver's appointment, saying that he lacks credibility because he never publicly called for the ouster of Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law.

On Friday, the Pope delivered his Christmas greetings to the Roman Curia. (Full text). As reported by Catholic World, while the Pope's extensive remarks were widely headlined as an attack on same-sex marriage, in fact he spoke in broader philosophical terms. Focusing on "a new philosophy of sexuality" in the western world, he said in part:

According to this philosophy, sex is no longer a given element of nature, that man has to accept and personally make sense of: it is a social role that we choose for ourselves, while in the past it was chosen for us by society.... People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being. They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves.... When the freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God....

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

In Moussazadeh v. Texas Department of Criminal Justice, (5th Cir., Dec. 21, 2012), the 5th Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, held that a Texas prison inmate seeking access to kosher food had adequately exhausted his administrative remedies and, as a matter of law, had demonstrated the sincerity of his religious beliefs. It also concluded that charging plaintiff for his kosher food, while it was available at a different facility without cost to prisoners, imposes a substantial burden on religious exercise. It remanded plaintiff's RLUIPA claim for determination as to compelling interest and least restrictive means.

In Stewart v. Beach, (10th Cir., Dec. 18, 2012) a Rastafarian inmate objected to a prison rule that required him to cut his hair. The 10th Circuit held that correctional officers had qualified immunity as to the inmate's free exercise claim, and that individual capacity claims are not allowed under RLUIPA.

In Reed v. Hardy, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 179325 (ND IL, Dec. 19, 2012), and Illinois federal district court allowed an inmate to move ahead with free exercise and RLUIPA objections to being forced to choose between yard time and going to communal religious services.

In Scott v. Erdogan, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 178908 (MD PA, Dec. 18, 2012), a Pennsylvania federal district court adopted in part a magistrate's recommendations (2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 179482, Nov. 19, 2012) and permitted a Muslim inmate to move ahead with his free exercise and RLUIPA claims for injunctive relief against the prison's Muslim chaplain who he alleged infringed his right to practice his orthodox Sunni religion in various ways by funneling him to the Wahabi sect.

In Bedier v. United States, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 178897 (CD CA, Dec. 17, 2012), a California federal district court dismissed as moot a suit by plaintiff, who has now been deported to Lebanon, complaining that while he was held pending removal he was denied a halal or vegetarian diet and was denied the ability to pray. Injunctive relief was denied because plaintiff is no longer being detained and is unlikely to be held again in the future.

In Laurensau v. Romarowics, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 179788 (WD PA, Dec. 20, 2012), a Pennsylvania federal magistrate judge rejected an inmate's complaints about being taken off the kosher diet plan, finding that he lacked a sincerely held religious belief requiring kosher food.

In Jalloh v. Mullendore, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 179677 (D MD, Dec. 19, 2012), a Maryland federal district court permitted plaintiff to proceed with his claims that while he was a pre-trial detainee he was
denied access to Muslim services, programming and religious articles, while other religions were treated differently.

In Trapp v. Clarke, 2012 Mass. Super. LEXIS 311 (MA Super. Ct., Sept. 26, 2012), a Massachusetts state trial court held that prison authorities violated a previous settlement agreement, the Massachusetts constitution and RLUIPA when they stopped providing kinnick-kinnick with tobacco and substituted tobacco free kinnick-kinnick, and when they closed a sweat lodge at one facility because of health concerns of exposing staff and inmates to smoke. The court upheld closure of a second sweat lodge and a ban on colored beads.

In Clark v. Cambria County Prison, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 179789 (WD PA, Dec. 20, 2012), a Pennsylvania federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendations (2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 181044, Nov. 15, 2012) and dismissed an inmate's complaint that his prison did not have separate Jehovah's Witness services.

In Dowdy-El v. Caruso, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 180025 (ED MI, Dec. 20, 2012), a Michigan federal district court adopted a magistrate's recommendations (2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 181136, Aug. 15, 2012), and granted class certification to all Muslim inmates in Michigan who are denied the ability to participate in Jum'ah services because of a conflicting work, school or similar detail; and all Muslim inmates in Michigan who have been denied a halal diet.

Preliminary Injunction Denied In Factional Dispute In Ravidassia Temple

In Ram v. Lal, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 179958 (ED NY, Nov. 21, 2012), a New York federal magistrate judge denied a preliminary injunction in a suit between competing factions of a Ravidassia Temple in Woodside, New York.  Among the disputes between the factions is the question of whether Ravidassia is a separate religion or is a sub-group within the Sikh religion.  The suit grows out a a previous lawsuit filed in state court in which the state court disbanded the Management Committee of the Temple elected in 2009 and appointed a receiver to manage the Temple until a new election was held. Among other things, the receiver had the power to determine who could vote in the new election.  Plaintiffs complain that Defendants' faction has been recruiting non-Ravidassia-- in particular, Sikhs who are not members of the Chammar/ Addharmi caste-- to become Temple members in order to bolster their chances of winning the election. The court held that members of the Defendants' faction were not state actors, and so no 1st Amendment claim lies against them.  Plaintiffs failed to name the receiver or the state court as parties to the action. Moreover the injunction sought-- barring any actions contrary to the Temple's Bylaws-- was overly broad.

Mosque Can Move Ahead With Suit Challenging Denial of Conditional Use Permit

In Islamic Center of Western Suburbs v. County of DuPage, (ND IL, Dec. 18, 2012), an Illinois federal district court refused to dismiss claims by an Islamic Center that its rights under RLUIPA, the 1st and 14th Amendments and the Illinois constitution were infringed. The suit stemmed from the denial of Plaintiff's application for a conditional use permit for a mosque. However plaintiff's motion to strike various defenses asserted by the county was for the most part denied. The suit seeks damages, injunctive and declaratory relief. (See prior related posting.)

Iowa Supreme Court: Firing Attractive Female Employee Because Of Wife's Objections Is Not Sex Discrimination

In Nelson v. Knight, (IA Sup. Ct., Dec. 21, 2012), the Iowa Supreme Court upheld a decision by dentist James Knight to fire Melissa Nelson, a dental assistant who had worked for him for over ten years, after Knight's wife became concerned that Nelson posed a threat to their marriage. Knight was becoming personally attracted to Nelson and he feared he would eventually try to have an affair with her if he did not fire her. Knight reached the decision to fire Nelson after he and his wife consulted with the senior pastor of their church. Knight arranged for another pastor from the church to be present and witness the conversation in which he fired Nelson, and also a subsequent conversation he had with Nelson's husband about the firing.  The state Supreme Court held that the firing did not amount to gender discrimination. AP reports on the decision.

Supreme Court Asked To Decide On Holding Of Public School Commencements In Churches

The Becket Fund announced yesterday that it has filed a petition for certiorari (full text) with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of the 7th Circuit's decision in Doe 3 v. Elmbrook School District.  In the case, the 7th Circuit in a 7-3 en banc decision held that two Wisconsin high schools violated the Establishment Clause when they regularly held their graduation ceremonies in the sanctuary of a non-denominational evangelical Christian church. (See prior posting.) The Brookfield Patch reports on the filing of the cert. petition.