Today Is Darwin Day

MSNBC's Cosmic Log reports that today is "Darwin Day." Around the world over 850 events will mark the 198th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth. Meanwhile, yesterday hundreds of churches marked "Evolution Sunday", an effort to show that religion and science can be compatible and that anti-evolution fundamentalists do not speak for thousands of Christian clergy.

Prisoner Religious Diet Litigation Hits Australia

While lawsuits by prisoners requesting special diets that comply with religious restrictions are common in the United States, apparently they are a new phenomenon in Australia. The Feb. 12 edition of Sydney's Daily Telegraph reported on a decision by Queensland's Supreme Court awarding $2000 in damages to a former Muslim prisoner who complained that prison officials would not supply him with fresh Halal meat. Instead they fed him vegetables, nuts and canned meat. The Government fears the decision could lead to an avalanche of suits from other prisoners whose special dietary requests may have been refused. Today, Judy Spence, Queensland's Minister for Police and Corrective Services, said she plans to ask Parliament to change the state's anti-discrimination law to prevent other prisoners succeeding in future cases. (ABC News Online).

UPDATE: Feb. 14 Australian reports that one of the victims of the Muslim prisoner who won this suit has urged the Queensland Government to freeze the funds awarded to him and file an appeal. The victim says she has had severe trauma from sexual abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of Sharif Mahommed.

Pressure In Thailand For Buddhism To Be Declared State Religion

In Thailand, pressure is growing for the country's Constitution Drafting Committee to declare Buddhism the nation's official religion in the new constitution it is drafting. The Nation today reports that Thailand's Defence Minister, General Boonrawd Somtas, is concerned over the controversy being generated by this issue. More than 90% of the country's population practices Buddhism

Obama Speaks About Religious Faith

In an interview with the Associated Press on Sunday, recently-announced Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said that voters do not have a litmus test on religion for candidates, but they do want a candidate to have "a value system and that is appreciative of the role that religious faith can play in helping shape people's lives". He said: "I think the majority of voters know that I'm a member of the United Church of Christ, and that I take my faith seriously."

5th Circuit Will Hear School Board Prayer Case En Banc

2theadvocate.com reports that the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted an en banc rehearing in Doe v. Tangipahoa Parish School District. (See prior posting.) A three judge panel was unable to agree on whether the Lemon case or the Marsh (legislative prayer) case governed invocations at school board meetings. Oral arguments are scheduled for the week of May 21. [Thanks to Alliance Alert for the lead.]

Conference On Anti-Semitism Begins In Jerusalem

The International Conference of the Israeli-based Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism began in Jerusalem on Sunday amidst a dispute between Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and the British Jewish community. The British Jewish Community Security Trust issued a report last week saying that anti-Semitic incidents in Britain reached a new high in 2006. However, an Israeli Foreign Ministry report said that anti-Semitic incidents in the UK had fallen by 3%. (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 10). For the first time, a representative of the Muslim community will speak at this year's Conference. Sheikh Abdallah Nimr Darwish, head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, will be part of a panel on anti-Semitism in the Arab and Muslim world. (Haaretz, Feb. 11).

Announcing the Conference, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: "The Global Forum will formulate strategies for dealing with the many aspects of anti-Semitism which plague public and political life. The Forum will focus on practical steps for combating anti-Semitism by legal means, through education and media, and will pay particular attention to the dilemmas posed by anti-Semitism in the Arab and Muslim world. The current wave of anti-Semitism in Europe and in the Arab and Muslim world, which culminated in the Holocaust denial conference held recently in Teheran, demonstrates the need for coordinated action."

In her speech opening the Conference (full text), Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said: "The modern anti-Semitism is spreading from the fringes to the mainstream, in parallel with the growth of radical Islamic ideology in Europe."

Prisoners Have Little Success In Recent Free Exercise Cases

In Salahuddin v. Perez, (2d Cir., Feb. 2, 2007), the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a New York federal district court's dismissal of a prisoner's claim that his transfer to a different prison facility violated his religious exercise rights.

In High v. Baca, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9181 (D NV, Feb. 6, 2007), a Nevada federal district court denied a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to a Muslim prisoner who claimed that he had been denied proper meal accommodations during Ramadan and that his access to chapel and religious oils had been reduced. The court found that the penological justifications suggested little likelihood of success on the merits.

In Burnett v. Wilson, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9193 (ND OH, Feb. 7, 2007), an Ohio federal district court rejected a claim by a blind prisoner that the failure to provide him with a braille Bible and training to read braille infringed his right to free exercise of religion.

In Maddox v. Berge, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9304 (WD WI, Feb. 8, 2007), a Wisconsin federal district court gave a prisoner an opportunity to amend his complaint to allege additional facts that would support his claim that his inability to attend congregate religious services violated his rights under RLUIPA and the First Amendment.

Utah Legislature Enacts Broad School Voucher Bill

Following the lead of the state House of Representatives, the Utah state Senate on Friday passed HB 148, the Parent Choice In Education Act. The broad school voucher program will appropriate $9.3 million in 2008 and $12.4 million in 2009 from the state's General Fund for tuition scholarships based on parents' income level. The vouchers may be used in either secular or religious private schools. Central Utah's Daily Herald on Saturday reported that the governor has indicated that he will sign the bill into law. It is expected that the law will be challenged as being in violation of the Utah Constitution, Art. X, Sec. 9 that prohibits public aid to church schools and Art. I, Sec. 4 that prohibits appropriations for religious instruction or support of "any ecclesiastical establishment". Legislative findings in Section 2 of the bill attempt to lay the groundwork for defending such challenges.

Israeli Court Says Jehovahs Witnesses Can Rent Haifa Auditorium

In Israel, Amutat Hamitzpeh L'Israel, an organization that represents Jehovah's Witnesses, has won a significant victory in Haifa's District Court. Following a recommendation by Israel's Attorney General's Office, the court held that a public accommodations law passed by the Knesset in 2000 requires Haifa's Convention Center to rent space to Jehovah's Witnesses for activities, which including public lectures on the New Testament that encourage people to learn more about Jehovah's Witnesses. Today's Jerusalem Post reports that Israel's former justice minister Yaakov Neeman has strongly criticized the decision, saying it has opened the door to Christian missionary groups operating in Israel. Haifa's Chief Rabbi, She'ar Yishuv Hacohen, sees Jehovah's Witnesses as more militant missionaries than other Christian groups.

The Convention Center had argued that permitting Jehovah's Witnesses to rent space would lead to boycotts and protests from Haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) groups that could force the Convention Center to close entirely. The decision may lead to a call for strengthening Israel's anti-proselytization legislation that presently only prohibits proselytizing through economic or emotional coercion.

Recent Scholarly Articles Of Interest

From SSRN:
Benjamin L. Berger, Law's Religion: Rendering Culture, (Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Vol. 45, No. 2).

Haider Ala Hamoudi, You Say You Want a Revolution: Interpretive Communities and the Origins of Islamic Finance, (February 1, 2007).

Roberto L. Corrada, The Interrelationship of Discrimination and Accommodation in Title VII Religion Cases, (October 2006, University Denver Legal Studies Research Paper No. 07-12).

Lawrence B. Slolum, Pluralism and Public Legal Reason, (William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, Vol. 15, pp. 7-23, 2006).

From SmartCILP:
Daniel Gordon, A Constitutional Res Gestae: Ending the Dueling Histories of Everson and McCollum and the Nazi State, 16 Widener Law Journal 1-42 (2006).

Diane Heckman, One Nation, Under God: Freedom of Religion In Schools and Extracurricular Athletic Events In the Opening Years of the New Millennium, (Abstract), 28 Whittier Law Review 537-624 (2006).

Elazar Nachalon, Structural Models of Religion and State in Jewish and Democratic Political Thought: Inevitable Contradiction? The Challenge for Israel, 22 Touro Law Review 613-744 (2006).
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The Autumn 2006 issue of Journal of Church and State (Vol. 48, No. 4) has recently been published.

Cert. Petition Filed In Church's Anti-Gay Billboard Case

A petition for certiorari has been filed in Okwedy v. City of New York. (365Gay.com, Feb. 9). The case involves a challenge to action taken by the president of the Borough of Staten Island who wrote a billboard company urging it to taken down an anti-gay billboard advertisement posted by Keyword Ministries church. (See prior posting.) In an August 16, 2006 summary order , the 2nd Circuit affirmed a New York district court's dismissal of plaintiff's claim that officials have construed New York City's Human Rights law in an unconstitutional manner. The Court of Appeals said that no city official was enforcing the Human Rights law when the request was made, and even if they were, the city is not bound by viewpoint neutrality in its own speech.

British Parents Protest Halal Menus In School

In Britain, a number of parents are protesting a primary school's attempt to accommodate religious needs of its growing Muslim student body. Kingsgate Primary in West Hampstead has begun serving only Halal meat in its lunch menus. The school's headmistress says that a majority of families support the move, but protesters say the school is forcing their children to to conform to "someone else's culture". Muslim parents say the protesters are guilty of racism. This Is London on Friday reported that Kingsgate is one of four schools in West Hampstead to institute halal-only menus.

Lawyer Sanctioned For Frivolous RICO Claims Against Catholic Church

AM New York yesterday reported that federal district judge Paul A. Crotty imposed an $8000 fine on attorney John A. Aretakis for bringing a series of baseless lawsuits claiming that a cover-up of priest sexual abuse by leaders of the Roman Catholic Church amounted to a violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute (RICO). Aretkis claims there was nothing frivolous in his allegations of "an organized, institutional, long-ranging criminal conspiracy" by church officials who were trying to protect priests accused of abusing children. The Rule 11 sanctions came as part of a ruling Friday in which the court dismissed a racketeering lawsuit in which Newark, NJ priest, Robert Hoatson, claimed he was forced out of a parochial school job for criticizing the church's handling of abuse cases. If available, a RICO claim might be brought even though state statutes of limitations had expired.

O'Connor On 8th Circuit Panel Hearing Challenge To Faith-Based Prison Program

According to the Associated Press, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor will be one of the three judges on a panel of the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals next week that will hear the appeal in Americans United for Separation of Church and State v. Prison Fellowship Ministries, a case in which an Iowa district court held that InnerChange, a state-financed faith-based prison rehabilitation program, violates the Establishment Clause. (See prior posting.) The district court opinion being appealed mentioned Justice O'Connor four times in its 140 pages as it referred to church-state decisions that she authored.

Mandaeanism Threatened As Communities Are Forced From Iraq and Iran

An Associated Press story yesterday reported that one of the lesser-known casualties of the Iraq war is the disappearance of Mandaeanism, a 2000 year old religion that looks to John the Baptist as its great teacher. Only 5000 to 7000 or the original 60,000 Mandaeans remain in Iraq-- and they are in increasing danger of being killed. Many Mandaeans have fled to various parts of the world, including Jordan, Syria and the United States. Mandaean communities have been set up around New York and Detroit. Driven from both Iraq and Iran, many Mandaeans have become successful in their diaspora. However the religion's few dozen priests that are left have failed to agree on how to bring children of mixed marriages into the faith. This creates concern that the religion may not survive

University of Georgia Will Permit Religious Membership Limits In Student Groups

Yesterday, the University of Georgia approved a policy that will permit faith-based student organizations to restrict membership to students of the same faith and still qualify for state funds and other support from the university's Campus Life office. Online Athens reports today that this is likely to lead to the dropping of a lawsuit that had been filed against the University by the student group Beta Upsilon Chi, also known as Brothers Under Christ. (See prior posting.)

Minnesota Ends Funding Of Faith-Based Pre-Release Program

The Minnesota Department of Corrections is ending its $100,000 per year subsidy to the faith-based InnerChange prisoner pre-release program. Today's St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that the policy change was motivated by budgetary, rather than church-state, concerns. Department of Corrections Commissioner Joan Fabian said that after the state had negotiated its second 2-year contract with the group, she found out that InnerChange was operating in Texas prisons without charge. Apparently one of InnerChange's board members has told Fabian that it would operate free of charge in Minnesota as well. Iowa's InnerChange program was struck down by a federal district court, and the appeal of that decision is to be argued next week in the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. However Minnesota contends that its program is sufficiently different that it would survive constitutional challenge.

Homeless Street Preacher Charged With Trespass

Today's Palm Beach Post reports on the latest trespassing arrest of Michaelene Cooney, a homeless street preacher. Her latest of 18 trespassing arrests occurred after she insisted on preaching under the archway at the Palm Beach County, Florida, Courthouse instead of moving onto the sidewalk. Judge Barry Cohen released her on her own recognizance and set a trial date of March 12. He said, however, that even if convicted she would not go to jail. Cohen announced, "I don't want her housed in jail. She's not a criminal". He also said that eliminating the possibility of jail time means that she will not be entitled to a public defender and will not tie up resources.

Sex-Segregated Busses In Israeli Haredi Neighborhoods Challenged

In Israel last week, Naomi Ragen, an Orthodox Jew and a feminist author, filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Transportation and the Egged Bus Cooperative that operates most public bus lines. The suit seeks an end to the 30 sex-segregated bus routes in which women are required to sit at the back of buses. The controversial bus routes were begun 10 years ago as a concession to ultra-Orthodox Jews who threatened to boycott buses otherwise. the lawsuit claims that Ragen and four other women were verbally harassed and in some cases physically beaten by Orthodox men on the buses when the women refused to comply with seating requirements. Middle East Online, reporting on this today, also says that in recent months, some Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) men in religious neighborhoods at Jerusalem's northern edge have run "modesty patrols" that splattered bleach on women they consider dressed immodestly.

California Episcopal Diocese Precluded From Raising New Claim Against Break-Away Church

In San Diego, California, a state Superior Court judge ruled last week that the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego could not amend its lawsuit to assert a new claim that it in fact owns the property on which the break-away congregation, St. John's Anglican Church, worships. The North County Times last week reported on the court's ruling that the case had ended with the court's decision last November invalidating a purported election of a new board loyal to the Diocese.