Religion Clause

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Churches Lack Standing To Challenge Oklahoma Illegal Immigrant Law

A Tulsa, Oklahoma federal judge yesterday ruled that a group of churches and church leaders lack standing to challenge the constitutionality of Oklahoma's new "Taxpayer and Citizens Act" (HB 1804). The new law makes it illegal to transport, hire, harbor, house or conceal illegal immigrants. It also requires local law enforcement authorities to check on immigration status, and effectively ends state benefits for illegal immigrants. NewsOK reports on the decision and says that the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders that-- along with several other plaintiffs-- filed the action will amend its complaint and refile it within the next few days. The law is scheduled to go into effect Nov. 1.

UPDATE: The Oklahoma City Journal Record reports that the lawsuit was refiled on Thursday, this time adding as a plaintiff a restaurant that claims it has lost 40% of its business as a result of the passage of HB 1804.

Israel's Justice Minister Opposes Proposed Constitutional Compromise On Religion

In a speech to the Knesset two weeks ago, Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert strongly supported ongoing efforts by the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee to come up with a draft of a Constitution. The compromise now under consideration would prohibit the High Court of Justice from exercising "judicial oversight" on various matters of religion and state - including marriage and divorce, religious conversion, the nature of the Sabbath and Jewish holidays in the public domain, Jewish dietary laws at state institutions and the granting of Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return. Under the proposal, Knesset legislation on religious matters could not be invalidated by the Court because it violates principles of equality, or other constitutional protections. So, for example, legislation that prohibited women from serving as judges on rabbinical courts would be protected. However today Haaretz reports that Israel's Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann is opposed to this compromise between secular and religious forces.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Ohio Court Refuses To Enforce Muslim Dowry Obligation

Saturday's Columbus Dispatch reports on an Oct. 10 decision by the Franklin County (OH) Common Pleas Court. Domestic Relations Judge Dana S. Preisse ruled that a promised dowry ("mahr") is unenforceable. Ruling against a Muslim woman, the judge said: "the obligation to pay $25,000 is rooted in a religious practice, the dowry is considered a religious act, not a legal contract ." Now-divorced Raghad Alwattar argued that the dowry was part of an enforceable pre-nuptial agreement. The judge ruled, however, that a prenuptial agreement must be entered into without duress. Here husband Mohammed Zawahiri was hurried into making the agreement only a few minutes before the wedding. In some other states, this sort of contract has been enforced. Columbus imam Mouhamed Tarazi says that after this case he will require grooms to sign a promissory note for the mahr so it will be enforceable in civil court.

Dalai Lama's Bloomington Visit Sparks Controversy Over City Hall Displays

Beginning Tuesday, the Dalai Lama will be spending six days in Bloomington, Indiana to visit the Tibetan Culture Center and to lecture at the University of Indiana. (Cincinnati Enquirer.) To mark the visit, Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan placed an exhibit in Ciy Hall. It includes photographs and craft work of Tibet, religious cloth paintings, a Peace Tree and statues of Buddha. A group of Christians however claim that they should be permitted space for a similar display. Friday's WorldNet Daily reports that they showed up at City Hall with two stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments and set them up on a table in front of the display of Buddhist artifacts. One participant read a statement saying: "These commandments are our symbol of peace, and we want to include them with the city's display to promote religious enlightenment. We ... do not agree with the ideology of the Dalai Lama or Buddhist beliefs – we are Christians and believe in one God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

In response to the city's contention that its display of Tibetan objects is cultural, not religious, Christian activist Amy Bernitt said the Ten Commandments also are cultural and artistic because they are carved from limestone for which the Bloomington area is famous. The city quickly removed the Ten Commandments after the brief ceremony.

Study of Florida's Faith-Based Prison Program Released

Last week, the Urban Institute Justice Policy Center released a report on Florida's faith-based prison rehabilitation program titled Evaluation of Florida's Faith- and Character-Based Institutions. The report concluded:

Staff, inmates, and volunteers overwhelmingly find value in the FCBI model and believe that it is achieving its goals of changing inmate behaviors, preparing inmates for successful reentry, and ultimately reducing recidivism. Respondents feel that, in particular, the FCBI experience helps promote family reunification and employment prospects upon release, while also improving the prison environment for inmates, volunteers, and staff.

... At six months after release, male FCBI inmates have lower reincarceration rates than a matched comparison group of inmates housed in general population FDOC facilities.... [However] the differences between the two male groups are not statistically significant at twelve months post-release, nor are the differences between female FCBI participants and their matched comparisons at either six or twelve months after release.... [C]orrections officials may ... wish to replicate the impact analysis ... in a year’s time, when the sample sizes are more likely to yield results in which they can have increased confidence.

The Report also concluded: "The FCBI model is carefully administered to avoid many of the conflicts with the principle of church-state separation that have led to challenges of other faith-based prison programs."

Role of Maldives Government Over Religion Debated After Extremist Bombing

A full-blown church-state controversy seems to have broken out in the Maldives according to a report by Minivan News yesterday. After a bombing in Male last month which injured 12 tourists, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has called for a ban on preaching by foreign clerics and for the criminalizing words or actions likely to encourage extremism. Grayoom has also written the government-appointed Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs [background], instructing it to impose a ban on the full-face veil. However the conservative Adhaalath Party has called on supporters to ignore the President's directive and the Supreme Council says it has not decided how to respond to it. More broadly, Supreme Council chief Sheikh Rasheed is supporting a bill to make the Council independent of the President. The Adhaalath Party argues that the government, instead of enacting criminal sanctions, should rely on Islamic scholars to reform religious dissidents.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Values Voter Summit Hears From Republican Candidates

The New York Times reports on the Values Voter Summit in Washington that ended yesterday. The meeting was an attempt by Christian conservatives to focus on which Republican Presidential candidate to support. Rudolph Giuiliani's speech [excerpts] was described at the "most anticipated", as he attempted to overcome concerns that conservative Christian voters have about his stands on abortion and gay rights, as well as his personal life. In a straw poll among attendees, Mitt Romney came out first, with Mike Huckabee second, and Ron Paul third. Giuiliani came in eighth out of the nine candidates, followed by John McCain.

Indian State Bans Private Publishing of Sikh Scriptures

In the Indian state of Punjab, the Cabinet this month agreed to the promulgation of an Ordinance to ban private publishing houses from publishing the Sikh scriptures, Sri Guru Granth Sahib. World Sikh News on Friday reported on developments. The new law will give a monopoly on publishing to the official Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). The announcement has led Punjab’s oldest publisher, B. Chattar Singh Jiwan Singh, to stop its publication of the Sikh scriptures. The government acted after two relatives of Harbhajan Singh, the owner of the private publishing house, were dragged and beaten by hardliners who alleged that copies of the scriptures published by them were being transported in a way that was not in accord with Sikh law.

Seattle Airport Opts For Secular Holiday Display This Year

After a highly publicized controversy last year over the display of Christmas trees and a request to display a Hanukkah menorah (see prior posting), this year Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is opting for a non-religious seasonal display. Friday's Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that the airport will feature a display of birch trees surrounded by lights in an artificial snow bank. Airport deputy managing director Michael Feldman said, "we’re featuring peace and harmony". The attorney representing a rabbi who was at the center of last year’s controversy says that the Airport instead should have had a multicultural display recognizing various religious and ethnic groups.

Unlicensed Marriage Gives Husband No Control Over Funeral Rites

Last Thursday, the Delaware Chancery court in Wilmington refused to issue an order blocking Christian funeral services for murder victim Jeanea Irvin, who had converted to Islam eight years ago. Saturday’s Wilmington News-Journal reports that Irvin’s husband, Timothy Boyer, had asked the court to stop the funeral being planned by Irvin’s family so she could be buried according to Islamic law. However, Timothy and Jeanea had married in 2006 in a religious ceremony without obtaining a civil marriage license. The court ruled this meant the marriage was not recognized under Delaware law, and the normal rights Irvin’s husband would have to determine the details of her funeral instead passed to her parents.

UPDATE: The full opinion is now available on LEXIS: Boyer v. Irvin, 2007 Del. Ch. LEXIS 146 (DE Ch., Oct. 19, 2007).

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Legislator Urges Schools To Seek Exemption From Moment of Silence

Legislative opponents of Illinois' new mandatory moment of silence in school classrooms are now suggesting that school boards take a different route, according to yesterday's Chicago Tribune. Illinois law, 105 ILCS 5/2-3.25g, permits school districts to seek a waiver of any mandate imposed by the School Code on various grounds, including when necessary to improve student performance. State Representative Jeff Schoenberg has written to Evanston/Skokie School District 65 urging it to seek a waiver of the moment-of-silence requirement on the ground that it is an unnecessary interference with teachers' management of their classrooms which has nothing to do with improving student performance. If the State Board of Education approves a waiver request, the state legislature may still veto it.

Street Preacher Sues After Citation For Violating City Sign Law

In Naperville, Illinois, Street preacher Elmer "Joe" Christopherson filed suit Thursday challenging a ticket he received for violating a city ban on signs within ten feet of a roadway. On Sept. 2, Christopherson was preaching in downtown Naperville, carrying a 6x3 foot placard with a message about Jesus and redemption. After he had been preaching for three hours, and had earlier been heckled by onlookers, police told Christoperson and his group from Burning Hearts Outreach Ministries that they had to take down their sign. The lawsuit filed in DuPage County Court alleges that the citation against Christopherson violates his First Amendment free speech and free exercise rights. Yesterday's Christian NewsWire and today’s Chicago Tribune report on the case.

British Appellate Court Finds Clergyman Covered By Employment Rights Act

Building on a 2005 sex discrimination case decided by the House of Lords (see prior posting), yesterday in New Testament Church of God v. Stewart, ([2007] EWCA Civ 1004, Oct. 19, 2007), the England and Wales Court of Appeal upheld an Employment Appeal Tribunal’s decision that a pastor of The New Testament Church of God is an "employee" under the 1996 Employment Rights Act. This holding permits him to bring a claim for unfair dismissal after the Church accused him of financial irregularities and suspended him from his duties.

The Court of Appeal said, however, that whether a clergyman is an employee will vary from church to church and from religion to religion. It observed: "The religious beliefs of a community may be such that their manifestation does not involve the creation of a relationship enforceable at law between members of the religious community and one of their number appointed to minister to the others. The law should not readily impose a legal relationship on members of a religious community which would be contrary to their religious beliefs." Reporting on the decision, The Times pointed out that earlier cases had referred to ministers as "servants of God" who had been appointed to a holy office, instead of treating them in the same way as secular employees.

California Church Loses Bid For Preliminary Injunction Under RLUIPA

In International Church of the Foursquare Gospel v. City of San Leandro, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76831 (ND CA, Oct. 2, 2007), a California federal district court has refused to grant a preliminary injunction under RLUIPA requested by a San Leandro, California church. International Foursquare Gospel was seeking either rezoning or a conditional use permit so a member congregation could construct a church on land now zoned for industrial use. The court found that plaintiff never completed the requirements for a conditional use permit application. As to its application for rezoning, plaintiff failed to show a likelihood of success in demonstrating either a substantial burden on its free exercise of religion or unequal treatment.

Jehovah's Witnesses Battle Authorities In 2 FSU Countries

Forum 18 reported on Thursday that Tajikistan’s Ministry of Culture has issued an order revoking the registration of the Jehovah’s Witness denomination and banning all activities by them in the country. The formal order says that Jehovah's Witness activity violated the country's Constitution as well as the Religion Law by distributing religious literature to non-members. However Saidbek Mahmudolloev, head of the Information Department at the Culture Ministry's Religious Affairs Department, said the major concern with the Jehovah's Witnesses is their refusal to serve in the armed forces. Jehovah's Witnesses plan to appeal to President Emomali Rahmon and Prime Minister Okil Okilov to challenge the ban.

Meanwhile the Jehovah’s Witnesses have won a significant legal victory in Pridnestrovia (also known as Trans-Dniestria)-- a break-away republic within the internationally recognized boundaries of Moldova. According to Thursday's Tiraspol Times, Pridnestrovia’s Supreme Court has held unconstitutional a requirement imposed by Religious Affairs Commissioner Pyotr Zalozhkov that that Jehovah’s Witnesses register under local laws governing the leadership of religious organizations.

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

In Peterson v. Price, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75737 (ND WV, Sept. 28, 2007), a West Virginia federal district court accepted a magistrate judge’s recommendation to dismiss a federal prisoner’s Fist Amendment claims. Plaintiff complained that he had been removed from the prison’s kosher food program, but the court found that this was justified; he had purchased non-kosher food from the commissary. The court also agreed that the failure to furnish plaintiff a kosher bag lunch during two mock lockdowns did not rise to the level of a constitutional violation.

In Tafari v. Annets, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76017 (SDNY, Oct. 15, 2007), a New York federal Magistrate Judge recommended that an inmate be permitted to proceed with his claim that his free exercise rights were violated when on five separate occasions he was denied kosher food while in transit between prison facilities. The magistrate recommended dismissal of a number of other claims.

In Farnsworth v. Baxter, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72209 (WD TN, Sept. 26, 2007), a Tennessee federal district judge denied defendant’s motion to dismiss a RLUIPA claim brought by a prisoner who complained about the failure to provide Messianic Jewish religious services. Defendant had argued that damages are not available under RLUIPA in suits brought against officials in their individual capacities.

In Cruz v. Scribner, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76423 (ED CA, Oct. 3, 2007), a California federal Magistrate Judge dismissed, subject to the right to file an amended complaint, claims by a Native American prisoner that he was denied the right to participate in the annual Pow-Wow, Banquet and Sweat Ceremony that is part of his religion. Plaintiff failed to allege any link between the named defendants and his free exercise, equal protection and RLUIPA claims.

In two nearly identical opinions, a California federal district court held that plaintiff prisoners must specifically allege how their religious rights are being violated in the institution where they are incarcerated instead of making broad and generic allegations about policies or practices at all other California prison facilities. The cases are Bonner v. Tilton, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76932 (ED CA, Oct. 2, 2007) and Green v. Tilton, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76925 (ED CA, Oct. 2, 2007).

In Jones-el v. Pollard, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77505 (ED WI, Oct. 18, 2007), a Wisconsin federal district court permitted an inmate to move ahead with a variety of claims under the First Amendment and RLUIPA. Plaintiff charged that he was prevented from observing Ramadan, was deprived of Islamic publications, was prevented from possessing prayer oil and a prayer rug while in segregation, and was denied Halal meals. He also alleged that prison authorities favor Christianity over Islam by employing full-time Christian chaplains and using Christian chapels.

Friday, October 19, 2007

USCIRF Report Criticizes Lack of Progress On Religious Liberty In Saudi Arabia

Yesterday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom released a long report (full text) that is highly critical of Saudi Arabia for failing to implement promised reforms designed to protect human rights, including the free exercise of religion. USCIRF recommended that the U.S. government strengthen its human rights diplomacy with the Saudis and address Saudi exportation of extremist ideology, hatred and intolerance in educational material sent around the world. The report also recommended a number of other steps to further religious liberty in Saudi Arabia, including dissolving of the Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice. A widely circulated AP article focuses on a recommendation in the report that the Islamic Saudi Academy, a private K-12 school in Fairfax County, Virginia, be closed down until the school's textbooks can be reviewed. [Thanks to Melissa Rogers for the lead.]

Power of Traditional Rabbinic Authorities In Israel Continues To Be An Issue

In Israel, the battle to liberalize Rabbinic courts continues. Yesterday's Jerusalem Post reports that several women's rights groups along with a group of progressive Orthodox rabbis have filed suit in the High Court of Justice challenging the recent appointment of 19 new judges to the Rabbinic courts. (See prior posting.) The 60-page petition claims nepotism, political pressure and procedural errors in the appointments. Underlying the lawsuit are concerns over how the traditional haredi judges will deal with women's rights in divorce proceedings.

Meanwhile, in another attempt to maintain the authority of traditional Rabbinic bodies, Israel's Chief Sephardic Rabbi, Shlomo Amar, arrived in the United States this week to oversee the Rabbinical Council of America's appointment of religious court judges to its conversion courts. Amar has ordered that only conversions by special Orthodox Jewish tribunals that he has approved should be recognized in Israel. JTA reports on these developments. (See prior related posting.)

Egyptian Muslim Fundamentalist Sues To Enforce His Views

Today's Wall Street Journal profiles Egyptian cleric Yusuf El-Badry, a conservative Muslim who has "pioneered the practice of suing ministers, poets, academics and religious scholars in Egypt's courts to promote his strict interpretation of Islam." El-Badry's most recent lawsuit has been filed against Egypt's Minister of Health and Population challenging the country's ban on female circumcision. The Journal reports that El-Badry "isn't a trained attorney, but he prefers to argue his cases before the judge himself. With his flowing robes and white turban, he stands out in court, where attorneys typically wear suits. Intellectuals across the Middle East have railed against his crusade..."