Plaintiffs Can Proceed With Negligent Retention and Supervision Claims Against Catholic Church and School

In Jones v. Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, (Sup. Ct. NY County, Oct. 7, 2010), a New York state trial court dismissed negligent hiring, breach of contract and deceptive business practice claims brought by a female student and her parents against the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York, the Church of St. Paul and the school it operates, growing out of sexual abuse of the student by a female part-time gym and music teacher.  It also dismissed negligent retention and supervision claims against the Diocese.  However plaintiffs were permitted to proceed with their claims of negligent retention and supervision against the Church of St. Paul's and St. Paul's Catholic School.

Survey Released On Church Involvement In Distributing Candidate Information

A survey released last week by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reports that among voters who attend religious services at once per month, 15% say that information on political parties or candidates has been made available at their places of worship. Within that group, 36% of Black Protestants report that information has been made available at their churches. However only 5% of all respondents, 6% of Black Protestants, and 7% of Catholics say that clergy have urged them to vote in a specific way.

In Tajikistan, Islamic Party's Prayer Room Burns Down

In Tajikistan's capital of Dushanbe on Sunday, a controversial room used for daily prayers in the headquarters of the Islamic Revival Party (IRP) was destroyed by fire. Central Asia Newswire reports that Tajikistan's Committee on Religious Affairs had threatened to close the room because under the country's constitution political parties are not allowed to sponsor religious activities. An IRP leader has suggested constitutional changes to recognize the importance of religion in Tajik culture.

Blogger Who Criticized Church Pastor Settles Lawsuit Against Police Officials

ABP last week reported on a settlement in Rich v. City of Jacksonville, a Florida federal court lawsuit by a blogger against against a sheriff's office official and an assistant state attorney charging free speech and Establishment Clause violations. Tom Rich began an anonymous blog on which he raised concerns about the pastor of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville. Officer Robert Hinson, who was also on the pastor's security detail, opened an investigation in order to be able to subpoena Google and Comcast to discover the owner of the blog. Hinson obtained subpoenas from the Office of the State Attorney. Ultimately church officials were told the blogger's identity and the church barred Rich from its premises and began proceedings to revoke his church membership. (See prior posting.)  The settlement, announced on Rich's blog, gives plaintiff $50,000 in damages and commits the Jacksonville sheriff's office to make changes in its conflict of interest code and develop training for detectives on First Amendment issues. [Thanks to Wall of Separation for the lead.]

California Abusive Priest Personnel Records Released Implementing 2007 Settlement

The San Francisco Examiner reports that after three years of litigation, a California judge on Friday issued an order releasing some 10,000 pages of personnel records relating to 48 Catholic priests in the San Diego diocese who were either convicted or credibly accused of sexual abuse or who were named in a civil suit.  The order (full text) in The Clergy Cases II, (CA Super. Ct., Oct. 22, 2010), grew out of a 2007 settlement by 144 plaintiffs with the diocese for some $200 million and an agreement that an independent judge would decide which personnel records would be made public. (See prior posting.) All of the documents released Friday are available at BishopAccountability.org. Attorneys are still seeking release of another 2000 pages of files.

Supreme Court Review Sought In Pastor's Defamation Claim Against Church

On Friday, a petition for certiorari (full text) to the U.S. Supreme Court was filed in Cooke v. Tubra.  In the case, an Oregon state appellate court held that jurisdiction over an interim pastor's defamation claim against his former church and two of its officers is not necessarily barred by the First Amendment. (See prior posting.) The Oregon Supreme Court denied review. The court below distinguished between statements made by a church that are necessarily religious in nature, and those that do not concern the religious beliefs and practices of the organization or are made for a non-religious purpose. [Thanks to Mark Chopko for the lead.]

Indian Court Holds Women Heirs of Priests Have Equal Rights To Share In Offerings

In India, a Delhi High Court judge has ruled that women in priestly families of the Kalkaji Temple have an equal right with men to share in the offerings collected during festivals. Today's Hindustan Times  and Express India report on the decision that dismissed a suit by one of the priests seeking an order to prevent his three sisters from claiming a share of the offerings.  The court rejected arguments that historically only males shared in the offerings because they are the ones who performed temple rituals.  The court wrote in part: "If one keeps the underlying principles of the international covenants and the guarantee of equality held out by our Constitution in mind, it would be anachronistic and regressive to affirm the contention that the discriminatory practice of excluding female heirs from the benefits of property rights to which Baris are attached, which appears to have existed all this while, should be continued."

Recent Articles of Interest

From SSRN:

• Maimon Schwarzschild, How We Judge the Judges, (Conversations, No. 8, p. 83, 2010).
• Geoffrey P. Miller, Monarchy in the Hebrew Bible, (NYU School of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 10-76, Oct. 19, 2010).
• Diane Marie Amann, Cecelia Goetz, Woman at Nuremberg, (International Criminal Law Review, Forthcoming).

From SmartCILP:

• Amos N. Guiora, Protecting the Unprotected: Religious Extremism and Child Endangerment, 12 Journal of Law & Family Studies 391-407 (2010).
• Ran Kuttner, What Does It Mean to Do the Right Thing?, 10 Nevada Law Journal 407-432 (2010).
• Adelaide Madera, Civil and Religious Law Concerning Divorce: The Condition of Women and Their Empowerment, 12 Journal of Law & Family Studies 365-389 (2010).
• Brett G. Scharffs & Suzanne Disparte, Comparative Models for Transitioning from Religious to Civil Marriage Systems, 12 Journal of Law & Family Studies 409-430 (2010).
• Rhona Schuz, The Relevance of Religious Law and Cultural Considerations in International Child Abduction Disputes, 12 Journal of Law & Family Studies 453-497 (2010).
• Lynn D. Wardle, Marriage and Religious Liberty: Comparative Law Problems and Conflict of Laws Solutions, 12 Journal of Law & Family Studies 315-364 (2010).
• Symposium: Families, Fundamentalism, & the First Amendment. Introduction by Vivian E. Hamilton; articles by Randall Balmer, Frederick Mark Gedicks, Andrew Koppelman, Robin Fretwell Wilson, Marci A. Hamilton, Catherine J. Ross, June Carbone, Naomi Cahn and John E. Taylor. 18 William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 883-1095 (2010).

Tony Blair's Sister-In-Law Converts To Islam; Says She Hopes It Changes Blair's Views

Yesterday's London Mail reports that Lauren Booth, the sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has converted to Islam after having a holy experience at the shrine of Fatima al-Masumeh in the city of Qom during a visit to Iran six weeks ago. Booth, the half-sister of Cherie Blair, works for Press TV, the English language Iranian news channel. She says she hopes her conversion will cause Blair-- now an envoy on the Middle East for the so-called Quartet-- to change his views of Islam.  Booth now wears a hijab whenever she is in public, prays five times a day and abstains from alcohol despite her previous craving for a glass or two of wine at the end of each day.

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

In Clifton v. Lappin, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111569 (WD LA, Oct. 18, 2010), adopting magistrate's recommendations (2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111473, Oct. 4, 2010), and Plummer v. Lappin, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111502, Oct. 18, 2010), adopting magistrate's recommendations (2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111477, Sept. 20, 2010), a Louisiana federal district court rejected complaints that inmates are prohibited from attending religious services when the entire prison is on lock down.


In Townsend v. Byers, 2010 Conn. Super. LEXIS 2285 (CT Super., Sept. 21, 2010), a Connecticut state trial court held that an inmate's free exercise rights were not violated when a correctional officer responded to his threat to file a grievance by telling him "to write to Allah."


In Means v. Nevada Department of Corrections, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112507 (D NV, Oct. 7, 2010), a Nevada federal district court permitted a prisoner to move ahead with due process and free exercise challenges to delays by prison officials in recognizing Vedantu/Kashmir Shavism as a religion and in approving various items, including prayer beads, to allow him his religious observances.

Complaint Says Roommate Ad On Church Bulletin Board Violates Fair Housing Act

WOOD-TV News and Fox News report on a complaint filed (full text) with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights over an ad that a woman posted on her church's bulletin board seeking a Christian roommate.  The Fair Housing Center of West Michigan filed the complaint against a 31-year old Grand Rapids (MI) woman after someone in the congregation complained about the ad. A Fair Housing Center spokesperson says that the woman has the right to limit renting out to Christian roommates, but it is a violation of law to advertise publicly using religious criteria. The federal Fair Housing Act, 42 USC Sec. 3604 provides that it is unlawful:

To make, print, or publish, or cause to be made, printed, or published any notice, statement, or advertisement, with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation, or discrimination.

An Alliance Defense Fund attorney representing the woman charged with the FHA and Michigan Civil Rights Act violations said: "Christians shouldn't live in fear of being punished by the government for being Christians. It is completely absurd to try to penalize a single Christian woman for privately seeking a Christian roommate at church -- an obviously legal and constitutionally protected activity." [Updated]

Geert Wilders Trial Halted Over Bias of Judicial Panel

The London Guardian reports that on Friday the trial in the Netherlands of far-right political leader Geert Wilders was halted as a separate panel of judges ruled that the panel hearing hate speech charges against Wilders was biased. Wilders is charged with inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims after urging that the Qur'an be banned (see prior posting) and production of a film titled Fitna.  Distributed online, the video equates Islam with violence. (See prior posting.) The move to disqualify the judicial panel came after it refused to permit Wilders to call as a witness a Dutch professor of Arabic studies, Hans Jansen.  Originally the Dutch prosecution service refused to file charges against Wilders, but an appeals court ordered charges to be brought. (See prior posting.) Now it appears that Tom Schalken, one of the appeals court judges who was involved in issuing that order, had dinner with Prof. Jansen and tried to convince him of the correctness of the decision to press charges against Wilders.

Fired Muslim Truck Driver Sues For Failure To Accommodate Religious Beliefs

Philadelphia Daily News on Friday reported on an employment discrimination lawsuit filed in federal court in Pennsylvania by a Muslim man who was fired from his job as a truck driver because he refused to transport a shipment of Miller Lite beer.  Plaintiff Vasant Reddy claims that when he was hired, Schneider National, Inc. told him they could accommodate his religious objections to transporting alcohol or tobacco. However two days after Reddy refused to transport a shipment of alcohol, he was told to resign or be fired.  Reddy's attorney claims that accommodation would not be difficult because less than 5% of Schneider National's shipments are of alcoholic beverages.

Catholics' Challenge To Critical San Francisco Resolution Dismissed By En Banc 9th Circuit

In Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights v. City and County of San Francisco, (9th Cir., Oct. 22, 2010), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday, en banc, dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Catholic League and two individual Catholics challenging on Establishment Clause grounds a resolution passed by the San Francisco (CA) Board of Supervisors. The Resolution, adopted in in 2006, "urg[ed] Cardinal William Levada ... to withdraw his discriminatory and defamatory directive that Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco stop placing children in need of adoption with homosexual households." A 3-judge panel of the 9th Circuit had dismissed the case. (See prior posting.)  A majority of the eleven judges of the 9th Circuit en banc agreed that the case should be dismissed-- 5 would dismiss on standing grounds (without reaching the merits) and 3 would dismiss on the merits.  Conversely 6 judges concluded that the plaintiffs had standing, but only 3 concluded that plaintiffs should have prevailed on the merits.

Judge Kleinfield, joined by Judges Thomas, Silverman, Clifton, Bybee and Ikuta, comprised the majority finding standing.  Judge Kleinfield wrote:

The standing question, in plain English, is whether adherents to a religion have standing to challenge an official condemnation by their government of their religious views, and official urging by their government that their local religious representative defy their church. Their “personal stake” assures the “concrete adverseness” required.... Plaintiffs aver that not only does the resolution make them feel like second-class citizens, but that their participation in the political community will be chilled by the City’s hostility to their church and their religion.

Judge Graber, joined by Chief Judge Rymer and Judges Kozinski, Hawkins and McKeown would have dismissed on standing grounds. Judge Graber wrote:

I agree with the District of Columbia Circuit that, "[w]hen plaintiffs are not themselves affected by a government action except through their abstract offense at the message allegedly conveyed by that action, they have not shown injury-in-fact to bring an Establishment Clause claim."

On the merits, Judge Silverman, in an opinion joined by Judge Bybee and Ikuta, concluded:

duly-elected government officials have the right to speak out in their official capacities on matters of secular concern to their constituents, even if their statements offend the religious feelings of some of their other constituents. The key here is that the resolution in question had a primarily secular purpose and effect and addressed a matter of indisputably civic concern.

However Judge Kleinfield, joined by Judges Thomas and Clifton, wrote:

We have not found another Establishment Clause case brought by people whose religion was directly condemned by their government.... For the government to resolve officially that "Catholic doctrine is wrong," is as plainly violative of the Establishment Clause as for the government to resolve that "Catholic doctrine is right."

SF Appeal today reports on the decision. [Corrected].

Ohio Middle School Science Teacher Drops Suit Over His Firing For Promoting Religion

Today's Mount Vernon (OH) News reports that on Thursday, Ohio middle school science teacher John Freshwater and his wife filed a stipulation along with the Mount Vernon (OH) school board asking an Ohio federal court to dismiss Freshwater's religious discrimination and other claims. Freshwater was fired for posting copies of the Ten Commandments in his classroom, refusing to remove his personal Bible from on his desk, and a storing a box of Bibles in the back of the classroom for use by the school's Fellowship of Christian Athletes. It was also claimed that an in-class experiment with a Tesla coil left a mark on a student's arm in the shape of a cross. (See prior posting.)  No settlement was reached between the parties in the case, but apparently Freshwater has run out of funds and is now hoping to prevail when a referee issues a decision in his administrative appeal of his firing. The referee heard 38 days of testimony. Referring to the fact that the school board has not paid anything in settlement to him in exchange for his dropping the case, Freshwater said: "We have already spent our life savings and have pledged our farm to get to the truth. It is better to leave the money on the table than to take the Bible off of my desk." The school's attorney said there was never any monetary settlement offer for Freshwater to reject.

Cert. Petition Filed In "Ministerial Exception" Case

Yesterday a petition for certiorari (full text) was filed in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC.  In the case, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals held that parochial school teachers who teach primarily secular subjects are covered by the Americans With Disabilities Act. They are not "ministerial employees" who are excepted from coverage. (See prior posting.) The Becket Fund issued a press release announcing the petition seeking Supreme Court review. [Thanks to Douglas Laycock for the lead.]

Tax Exempt Status of Prayer Breakfast Sponsor Challenged

According to the Washington Post last week, an Ohio-based clergy group, ClergyVOICE, filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service on Oct. 12 (full text) challenging the tax-exempt status of the Fellowship Foundation, the organization that sponsors the National Prayer Breakfast. The Foundation received two $25,000 checks in 2004 from the Missouri-based Islamic-American Relief Agency which was included on a Senate Finance Committee list of organizations that finance terrorist activities. In an indictment, the Justice Department claims that the funds were stolen from an AID grant for relief work in Mali. Allegedly, some $18,000 of the funds were funneled through the Fellowship Foundation and used to pay former Congressman Mark J. Siljander for lobbying to get IARA off the Senate Finance Committee list. The remaining $32,000 was allegedly retained by the Foundation, and possibly used to fund overseas travel for member of Congress or to fund the C Street Center which provided subsidized housing to certain members of Congress. The Foundation denies that it retained any of the funds or that it used them for these purposes.

Court Rejects Ethics Charge In Suit Challenging Establishment Clause Settlement

Responding rather quickly to a filing with it of a "Notice Suggesting Improper or Unethical Conduct" on the part of defendants (see prior posting), a federal district court in Allen v. School Board for Santa Rosa County Florida, (ND FL, Oct. 21, 2010), yesterday issued an order (full text) concluding that "The notice merits no action by the court." At issue was a charge that a high school principal did not authorized filings made on his behalf in a suit challenging a settlement of an Establishment Clause challenge to religious practices in the Santa Rosa, Florida school district. [Thanks to Glenn Katon and Randall Marshall for the lead.]

New Survey Says 33% Believe Religious Messages Contribute To Gay Suicides

A survey released yesterday by the Public Religion Research Institute in Partnership with Religion News Service shows that 33% of Americans believe that messages from places of worship are contributing "a lot" to higher rates of suicide among gay and lesbian youths. 42% gave places of worship a grade of "D" or "F" on their handling of the issue of homosexuality. However 75% of white evangelicals gave their own church an "A" or "B" in its handling of the issue. Young adults and Democrats are more likely than older Americans and Republicans to be critical of messages from religious groups about gays and lesbians.

Obama Visit To Sikh Temple In India Scrubbed, Apparently Over Head Covering Issue

President Obama will visit India next month. The New York Times reported yesterday that Sikhs in the United States are distressed that tentative plans for him to include a stop at the Golden Temple in Amristar have been cancelled. It is reported that part of the reason for the cancellation is the Sikh tradition that men tie a piece of cloth on their heads before entering the Temple.  Apparently the White House is concerned that photos of the President wearing a Sikh headscarf will further false perceptions that he is Muslim, not Christian. However security reasons may also be playing a part since the Temple is near the Pakistan border.  Sikh groups in the U.S. are encouraging Obama to reconsider, saying that a visit by him would allow Sikhs to introduce themselves to the world. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says Obama's schedule is not finalized