ID Trial Closes; More About Its Origins; Interested Reporter Attends

Yesterday, closing arguments were held in the Ktizmiller trial, pitting the Dover, Pennsylvania school board that advocates teaching of intelligent design against parents of school students challenging the school's policy. The Associated Press reported that Friday marked the conclusion of the six-week trial that featured expert witnesses debating intelligent design's scientific merits and disagreements among other witnesses over whether creationism was discussed in school board meetings months before the curriculum change. U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III said he hoped to issue a ruling by early January.

Meanwhile, yesterday the New York Times reported that the idea of introducing intelligent design was originally suggested to the Dover school board by an advocacy group hoping to create a test case. For years, a lawyer for the Thomas More Law Center in Michigan visited school boards around the country seeking one willing to challenge evolution and to face a high-profile trial. The Dover school board agreed despite a memo from its lawyer, Stephen S. Russell, warning that if the board lost the case, they would have to pay its opponents' legal fees. In the memorandum, made public in court on Wednesday, Mr. Russell advised that opponents would have a strong case because board members had a lengthy public record of advocating "putting religion back in the schools."

In a final twist of irony, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today says that one of the reporters covering the high profile trial for Harper's magazine is Matthew Chapman, great-grandson of Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution has been central to the case. Chapman's comment on the proceedings: "All of this is so unnecessary. People can believe in God and they can believe in evolution, too."

State Employee Claims Right To Send Religious Views By E-Mail From Work

Agape Press reported yesterday on an appeal to the California State Personnel Board filed last week on behalf of a state employee by the Pacific Justice Institute. The employee, who works for a California state agency, read an article in a national magazine featuring a lesbian attorney and her partner. She was troubled by a statement in the article attributed to the attorney, "Hypocrisy occurs when religion is used to justify why two people should not be married." The employee e-mailed the attorney from work, expressing her beliefs concerning religion and homosexuality and quoting several verses from the Bible. The attorney contacted the state employee's supervisors, complaining about the e-mail and saying that the use of scripture was harassing. After an investigation, the employee was suspended for 30 days without pay.

The appeal argues that workers' rights to express their religious convictions -- "especially when they are acting in their personal capacity"-- should be preserved. Particularly because other state employees are permitted to send e-mails on other topics in their free time, the Pacific Justice Institute contends that this employee is being "punished simply because [her] opinion happens to be from a Christian perspective."

6th Circuit Dismisses Claims Growing Out of Church Discipline

In Ogle v. Church of God, (6th Cir., Oct 31, 2005), the U.S. Sixth Circuit court of Appeals held that the courts lack subject matter jurisdiction as a matter of First Amendment law over a suspended clergyman's claims of breach of implied contract, tortious interference with business relationships, invasion of privacy, conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and defamation. The claims were filed after the Church of God delayed reinstating Troy Ogle as a pastor after his one year suspension by the church. An ecclesiastical panel had found Ogle guilty of conduct unbecoming a minister and ordered him to undergo counseling. The court held that the Free Exercise clause bars the court from adjudicating the numerous civil claims which Ogle had filed because they all grew out of church internal disciplinary proceedings. Those proceedings were initiated because Ogle's actions in making sexual advances to other men violated the Church of God Minutes of the General Assembly.

Alito Student Article On Establishment Clause Issue

While a student at Yale Law School in 1974, now-Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito published a lengthy Note in the Yale Law Journal that has been posted online. It is titled The "Released Time" Cases Revisited: A Study of Group Decisionmaking by the Supreme Court. It discusses the McCollum and Zorach cases-- involving release of public school students from class activities to attend religious instruction-- from the perspective of the interaction of various members of the Court. The Yale Law Journal has created a discussion board for posting of comments on Alito's 1974 Note. [Thanks to Marty Lederman via Religionlaw for the information.]

Alito Believes Court Has Gone Too Far In Church-State Separation

According to today's New York Times, Senators who have spoken with Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. say that Alito believes the Supreme Court may have gone too far in its rulings on separation of church and state. Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said that Thursday in a private meeting Judge Alito expressed empathy for "the impression that the court's decisions were incoherent in this area of the law in a way that really gives the impression of hostility to religious speech and religious expression."

Belarus Has Not Yet Responded To U.N. Charges

Forum 18 today reports that Belarus has not yet formally responded to a November 12 deadline set by the United Nations Human Rights Committee for confirming that the country has corrected a religious freedom violation against Hare Krishna followers. The U.N. body found that Belarus had violated Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The August 23 resolution (Communication 1207/2003) came in response to a formal complaint by two Krishna devotees, Sergei Malakhovsky and Aleksandr Pikul, that the government of Belarus had refused registration to their Krishna Consciousness Society at the building it used as a temple in Minsk.

Islamic Group Sues Media And Pro-Israel Supporters For Conspiracy To Deny Free Exercise

The Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) has charged supporters of Israel with defamation and conspiring to violate its civil rights in a lawsuit filed in Suffolk County Superior Court. Yesterday's Boston Jewish Advocate reported on recent developments. The suit was originally filed in May against the Boston Herald and Fox 25 News. This week, ISB added as defendants Anna Kolodner who is director of education of the David Project, as well as author and lecturer Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project, Steven Cohen and Dennis Hale of the group Citizens for Peace and Tolerance and William Sapers. The suit charges that defendants conspired in "a concerted, well-coordinated effort to deprive the Plaintiffs, who are members of the Boston area Muslim community, of their basic rights of free association and the free exercise of religion." The 58-page complaint alleges an elaborate web of connections between the defendants, all aimed at undermining the ISB’s $22 million mosque and cultural center project under construction in Roxbury.

Jeffrey Robbins who is representing the David Project said that the concerns raised in articles by the Herald and shared by members of the David Project alleging connections between ISB officials and extremist Islamic groups were legitimate causes for investigation. "You might have hoped that the Islamic Society, when they received these questions, would have sought to answer them. But instead the course chosen was to try and intimidate those who ask, which in itself speaks volumes about what this is about."

Burundi Declares Eid al-Fitr A Public Holiday

BBC reported yesterday that the African nation of Burundi, which has just emerged from a 12-year civil war, has for the first time has declared the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr a public holiday. Information Minister Karenga Ramadhani said the government wanted to redress an injustice against the 8%- 10% minority Muslim community. Most Christians to whom the BBC correspondent spoke were happy to have another public holiday.

Intelligent Design Bill To Be Introduced In Indiana

Preparations are under way to introduce a bill in the Indiana legislature to mandate the teaching of Intelligent Design in the public schools in that state. The blog, Dispatches From the Culture Wars, carries a long posting on these developments. Yesterday's Indianapolis Star also reported on reactions to the proposed bill which is being supported not only by Republicans, but by some Democrats. "Evolution was designed by God," said Democratic Rep. Jerry Denbo. "I really think that should be taught -- that there is a master. We didn't just come about by accident." However Democratic Rep. Ed Mahern, D-Indianapolis said, "It's one more instance where we are not concentrating on what we need to be concerned about -- higher test scores, keeping kids in school longer and promoting early childhood education."

ADF To Fight For Public Christmas Celebrations

The Alliance Defense Fund announced yesterday that it has more than 800 attorneys available nationwide to combat any improper attempts to censor the celebration of Christmas in schools and on public property. "As in years past, ADF's goal this season is to inform, educate, and help protect the rights of the 96% of Americans who celebrate Christmas regarding their rights," said ADF president Alan Sears. "We want to dispel the myths about religious expression at Christmas time that have prompted wrongful acts of government censorship of religious speech," Sears said. "Merry Christmas. It's okay to say it."

The North County, California Times today, in reporting on the ADF move, quotes a leader of the Anti-Defamation League in California, who contends that public Christmas celebrations that have been accepted in the past may no longer be viewed as appropriate because of the "enormous and increasing diversity" in America. He said that public events should not leave people feeling excluded.

New Books On Church-State and Religious Freedom

A flood of new books of interest have been published this fall:

Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States, in a new book strongly defends the separation of church and state. He argues that blurring the line between government and religion by rigid fundamentalists threatens civil liberties and privacy. The book, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis, draws on Carter's experiences as a president and a Christian. An excerpt from the book is available online, as is an audio recording of Carter's interview with National Public Radio's Terry Gross.

James H. Huston, The Founders on Religion: A Book of Quotations, is an impartial compendium of the founders' own remarks on religious matters, from Princeton University Press.

Peter Zagorin, How the Idea of Religious Toleration Came to the West, traces the roots of religious persecution in certain intellectual and religious traditions, and shows how out of the same traditions came the beginnings of pluralism in the West. From Princeton University Press.

Robert Wuthnow, America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity, looks not only at how we have adapted to diversity in the past, but at the ways rank-and-file Americans, clergy, and other community leaders are responding today. From Princeton University Press. A review of the book by Gary Rosen was published in the New York Times.

Jerry Weinberger, Benjamin Franklin Unmasked: On the Unity of His Moral Religious, and Political Thought, from University Press of Kansas. Weinberger discovers a serious thinker who was profoundly critical of religion, moral virtue, and political ideals.

Justus Weiner, Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society, from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Weiner finds that Christians who remain in territory governed by the P.A. are a beleaguered minority.

Satmar Rivals Feud In Court and Outside It

Today's Forward reports on the controversy between supporters of two sons of the grand rebbe of the Satmar Hasidic sect. Each side claims that their rabbi is the rightful successor to the ailing 91 year old leader of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish group. New York Supreme Court Judge Stewart Rosenwasser is presiding in a case in upstate New York that focuses on which group should control a cemetery in Kiryas Joel.

Rosenwasser, who is up for re-election as judge next week, recently issued a temporary ruling in favor of one of Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum's followers, but warned that it should not be read as determining the broader question of who controls the Satmar's communal assets of more than $100 million. Earlier, a different Brooklyn judge had ruled that followers of Rabbi Zalmen Teitelbaum, the other brother, should control the group. The Forward reports that coincidentally, Rabbi Aaron's followers are an important voting bloc in Rosenwasser's district. The feud between the two factions has led to physical violence between them at the main Satmar synagogue in Brooklyn. On Oct. 27, the judge wrote to lawyers on both sides demanding an explanation of the fight that broke out at the synagogue two days earlier during Shemini Atzeret services.

Damage Claim By Muslim Woman Against Prison Officials Dismissed

A Muslim woman forced to remove her hijab (religious headscarf) while visiting a state prison cannot sue the Wisconsin Department of Corrections or its secretary for damages in federal court, according to a decision handed down last week. The Janesville, Wisconsin Gazette yesterday reported on the case. U.S. District Judge John Shabaz dismissed the suit, holding that under the 11th Amendment the state cannot be held liable for monetary damages sought by private citizens in federal court, and that recent changes in policy rendered part of the claim moot. The state now permits visitors to wear head coverings if they do not conceal their identities. David Lasker, lawyer for plaintiff Cynthia Rhouni, said he would refile the lawsuit in state court seeking up to $200,000 for the emotional damage Rhouni suffered when inmates saw her without her head covered.

Christian Group Protests Proposed Indian Law On Foreign Contributions

Proposed new legislation in India, the Foreign Contribution (Management and Control) Bill, 2005, is opposed by the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America, according to today's Pakistan Christian Post. The law would require groups to register and obtain government permission in order to receive support from overseas donors. FIACONA's president, Dr. Bernard Malik, said: "the criteria for rejecting registration of an organization was so broadly and vaguely worded that they could be misused to target organizations (particularly charitable Christian organizations) on flimsy and spurious grounds. Actions that supposedly violate communal harmony which attract a severe penalty under the Bill have been so loosely defined that minority community institutions will inevitably suffer even when they are the victims of motivated attacks at the hands of religious extremists of the majority community."

L.A. City Council Debates Tax-Exempt Financing For Parochial School

Today's Daily Breeze reports that Los Angeles City Council is debating the scope of a court ruling handed down last year. In 2004, a California appellate court held that conduit financing by the state for pervasively sectarian schools violated California's constitution. In California Statewide Communities Development Authority v. All Persons Interested, a California appellate court held that t use of conduit financing, which allows schools to finance projects at a lower cost than they could through conventional financing, is a form of aid within the meaning of Cal. Const. Art. XVI, § 5, and has the direct and substantial effect of aiding religion. The case is on appeal to the California Supreme Court.

Today L.A. City Council is scheduled to vote on a plan to issue $30 million in tax-exempt bonds on behalf of Loyola High School, a Catholic parochial school. The bonds would save the high school $8 million in interest costs. The city's attorneys have recommended that the council move ahead with the transaction, saying Loyola's educational activities, and its willingness to admit students of all religious backgrounds, shows that it is not "pervasively sectarian." The bond proceeds will be used to build a new science facility. The ACLU of Southern California questions the proposed move, arguing that the school is pervasively sectarian. The city has already used tax-exempt bonds to assist three other parochial schools since 2001.

UPDATE: In its vote, the Los Angeles City Council approved the issuance of tax-exempt bonds for Loyola High School, prompting a promise from the ACLU to review the transaction to determine if it violates the state constitution's separation of church and state.

South Dakota Supreme Court Hears Case On Church Demolition

Arguments were heard yesterday in the South Dakota Supreme Court on whether an old Roman Catholic school listed on the National Register of Historic Places should be torn down. The Rapid City Journal reports on the case. A circuit judge has ruled that denying demolition of Notre Dame Academy would amount to unreasonable government interference with religion.

Oral Arguments Held In O Centro

Bloomberg reports on yesterday's oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court in Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal. (See prior posting.) The case challenges the federal government's attempt to bar a New Mexico church from using a hallucinogenic tea in religious ceremonies.

This is Chief Justice Roberts first religious freedom case on the Court. Roberts questioned the government's argument that it must prohibit all use of hoasca to prevent diversion to non-religious uses. "Your approach is totally categorical.'' If a religious group used only one drop of the drug a year, "your position would still be the same", Roberts told government lawyer Edwin Kneedler during the one-hour argument.

The government argued that it has a compelling interest in "uniform enforcement'' of its drug laws. But Justice Antonin Scalia pointed to an exception that Congress has made for peyote in American Indian religious ceremonies. He said, "It's a demonstration you can make exceptions without the sky falling.'' Justice John Paul Stevens followed up by asking whether the exception for peyote indicated that "maybe [the government's interest is] not all that compelling.''

Religious Freedom Moves Forward In Geogian Republic

Adventist News Network reported yesterday on a new religious freedom initiative in the Republic of Georgia. Leaders met on Oct. 23 to lauch the Georgian Religious Liberty Association. The new organization was created after the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and the International Religious Liberty Association urged that this type of step be taken. Leaders of various faith communities, representatives of human rights organizations, and government officials, covered by national television, met to inaugurate the IRLA. The event included the participation by representatives of the Patriarchate of Georgia and by government Ombudsman Beka Mindiashvili.

Candidate For Governor of Va. Talks About His Faith

Monday's Washington Post reported on the use of religion in his campaign by Timothy M. Kaine, Virginia's Lieutenant Governor, who is trying to become the state's first Catholic governor. "I'm a person of faith, and here's who I am, and you're entitled to know who I am because you ought to know about me, what's important to me," Kaine said in a recent interview in which he talked in depth about the influence of his religion on his life. "That'll give you a yardstick for judging my actions." Kaine is trying to signal that talking about his religious life doesn't mean that he represents a conservative perspective. This has created some delicate political challenges for him on two major issues: capital punishment and abortion. On both he has indicated a willingness to accept the legal status quo even though it conflicts with his religious convictions.

Alito Will Make Catholics A Majority On Court

An AP article in today's Washington Post points out that if Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is confirmed, for the first time a majority of the Court's justices will be Roman Catholics. Up to now, Protestants have dominated on the court. Only two Protestants will remain on the Supreme Court--David Souter and John Paul Stevens. The two other justices--Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer--are Jewish. Meanwhile, Carl A. Anderson - leader of the Knights of Columbus, the world's largest lay Catholic organization with more than 1.7 million members worldwide - said Monday that Alito is "a truly excellent choice".