Showing posts with label Religious liberty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Religious liberty. Show all posts

Friday, February 23, 2024

Utah Legislature Passses Religious Freedom Bill

The Utah legislature yesterday gave final passage to S.B. 150: Exercise of Religion Amendments (full text). The bill is similar, though not identical to, Religious Freedom Restoration Acts passed in 35 other states. It prohibits governmental imposition of a substantial burden on the free exercise of religion unless the government demonstrates a compelling interest and uses the least restrictive means to further that interest. In a compromise with LGBTQ advocates, the sponsor of the bill added language in the introductory "Whereas" clauses to preserve existing protections against discrimination in employment and housing based on sexual orientation or gender identity. (Background). Those clauses read:

(d) WHEREAS, Utah has enacted a number of laws that balance religious freedom with other important civil rights; and

(e) WHEREAS, this part complements, rather than disrupts, the balance described in Subsection (1)(d).

The bill now goes to Governor Spencer Cox for his signature. States Newsroom reports on passage of the bill.

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Catholic Bishops Issue Report on Religious Liberty In the United States

Last week, the Committee on Religious Liberty of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued its Annual Report on The State of Religious Liberty in the United States (full text) (executive summary). The 48-page Report reviews developments at the national level in Congress, the Supreme Court and the Executive Branch.  It goes on to examine national trends in politics, culture and law. It forecasts important issues for 2024 and identifies what its authors see as the top 5 threats to religious liberty in the coming year.

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

New Report on Attitudes Toward Religious Freedom Released

Becket yesterday released its 2023 Religious Freedom Index (full text). This is the fifth year the Report has been compiled. The Executive Summary of the 99-page report says in part:

The Index is designed to give a holistic view of American attitudes toward religious freedom by surveying a nationally representative sample of approximately 1,000 American adults each year. The survey consists of 21 annually repeating questions that cover a broad range of topics, from the rights of religious people to practice their respective faiths to the role of government in protecting and promoting religious beliefs. The responses to these questions are broken down into six dimensions: 1) Religious Pluralism, 2) Religion and Policy, 3) Religious Sharing, 4) Religion in Society, 5) Church and State, and 6) Religion in Action....

In addition to the 21 repeating Index questions, the survey contains additional questions that differ from year to year and ask Americans about timely or special topics. This year, the Index asked about the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (which is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its passage), religion and parental rights in education, and the proper standard for religious accommodations on issues like abortion and Native American sacred sites....

Across a variety of questions, this year’s Index shows that Americans are deeply committed to the rights of parents to educate and raise their children in accordance with their faith and values....

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Today Is Religious Freedom Day

Today is Religious Freedom Day, commemorating Virginia's adoption of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom on January 16, 1786. President Biden last week signed a Proclamation (full text) designating today as Religious Freedom Day in 2024.  The Proclamation reads in part:

Everyone must be free to practice their faith without fear, whether they are gathering for worship, attending a religious school, participating in the activities of other faith-based organizations, or simply walking down the street wearing the symbols of their faith.  That is why, working with the Congress, my Administration secured the greatest increase in funding in our history for the physical security of non-profits — including churches, gurdwaras, mosques, synagogues, temples, and other places of worship.  In my 2024 Budget proposal to the Congress, I requested that this funding be raised to $360 million, and my Administration works continually to protect places of worship, including through an annual Protecting Places of Worship Week of Action.

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

HHS Adopts Rules Implementing Conscience Protections in Federal Law

The Department of Health and Human Services has made available a 100-page Release (full text) titled Safeguarding the Rights of Conscience as Protected by Federal Statutes that will be published in the Federal Register on January 11. The Release adopts the final version of amendments to rules initially adopted in 2011 and amended in 2019. though the 2019 version never took effect because of litigation. (See prior posting.) The new Rules seek to implement conscience protections in various statutes that bar recipients of federal funds from requiring health care personnel and organizations to participate in conduct that violates their religious or moral beliefs.  The new Rules provide in part:

OCR considers the posting of a notice consistent with this part as a best practice towards achieving compliance with and educating the public about the Federal health care conscience protection statutes, and encourages all entities subject to the Federal health care conscience protection statutes to post the model notice provided in Appendix A to this part. OCR will consider posting a notice as a factor in any investigation or compliance review under this rule.

(See prior related posting.) 

In a Release (full text) criticizing the new Rule, Alliance Defending Freedom said in part:

In its rule, HHS suggests it will continue its misguided use of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act to require doctors to perform abortions even though that federal law has no abortion requirement, and conscience laws provide no exception allowing forced performance of abortion.

In a Release (full text) commending the Biden Administration for the Rule change, the ACLU said in part:

The Biden administration announced it would partially repeal a dangerous and unnecessary Trump-era rule, which numerous courts had declared unlawful, that would have allowed health care institutions and providers to deny patients treatment and information based on personal religious or moral beliefs.

Thursday, November 02, 2023

2023 Report on Religious Liberty in the States Released

The Center for Religion, Culture and Democracy has released its report 2023 Religious Liberty in the States. In this, its second annual report that measures state-level protections for religious liberty, the Center has added three new criteria, so that it now bases its state rankings on 14 types of state laws. The Report's Executive Summary says in part:

RLS has approached religious liberty from the perspective that people of any faith or no faith should be allowed to live in all areas of their lives according to their sincere beliefs. For that reason, we have not limited our analyses to activities that typically occur within houses of worship or activities of the clerical professions; we have defined religious exercise broadly. And while in 2022 it was not our intention to focus on any particular areas of life—rather, in our first project year we aimed to characterize the laws in areas where they were most clear—we note that in 2023 the new safeguards are noticeably more closely tied to religious ceremony or observance, narrowly understood. RLS continues to explore new items for future years and welcomes feedback from interested parties.

The Report ranks Illinois as highest in religious liberty protections and ranks West Virginia lowest.

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

USCIRF Holds Hearing on Russian Violation of Religious Freedom Through Its Invasion of Ukraine

Last Wednesday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom held a virtual hearing on Russia's Invasion of Ukraine: Implications for Religious Freedom. (Video of full Hearing and transcripts of written presentations.) USCIRF described the hearings:

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale military invasion of Ukraine a year ago, Russian forces have committed numerous religious freedom and other related human rights violations in Ukraine, including the killing and torture of religious leaders and the destruction of countless houses of worship. Russian officials have repeatedly turned to antisemitic rhetoric and Holocaust distortion in an effort to justify the country’s groundless invasion. In the areas of Ukraine that Russia has occupied since 2014, its de facto authorities and proxies have imposed draconian laws to suppress religious communities such as the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, predominantly Muslim Crimean Tatars and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Meanwhile, in Russia, the state has continued to prosecute an ever-growing list of religious groups as so-called “extremists” for their peaceful religious activities and launched a ruthless campaign to silence civil society and independent media.

Wednesday, March 01, 2023

West Virginia Legislature Passes Religious Freedom Act

The West Virginia legislature yesterday gave final passage to the Equal Protection for Religion Act (full text). The bill bars state action that substantially burdens a person's exercise of religion unless there is a compelling governmental interest and the least restrictive means are used. It also prohibits treating religious conduct more restrictively than other conduct of reasonably comparable risk, or more restrictively than comparable conduct for economic reasons. It provides for injunctive or declaratory relief and recovery of costs and attorneys' fees. Among other things, the bill does not "protect actions or decisions to end the life of any human being, born or unborn..." The bill which now goes to Governor Jim Justice for his signature passed the Senate in accelerated fashion after it voted 30-3 to suspend its rules that normally require three readings. AP and the legislature's Wrap Up blog report on the bill's passage.

Monday, January 02, 2023

European Court Again Holds That Flying Spaghetti Monster Church Is Not a Protected "Religion"

In two recent Chamber Judgments, the European Court of Human Rights reaffirmed its prior holding in a 2021 case that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, whose adherents are also known as Pastafarians, does not qualify as a "religion" or "belief" protected by Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In Sager v. Austria, (ECHR, Dec. 15, 2022), Austria's Office for Religious Affairs refused to recognize the Church as a religious community. The European Court rejected petitioner's challenge to that decision, saying in part:

[B]y holding that Pastafarianism perceived itself as an ironical and critical movement with educational, scientific and political aims, and lacked religious rites, duties and an active following in Austria, the Office for Religious Affairs and the Federal Administrative Court duly applied the above‑mentioned standards requiring a certain level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance.

In ALM v. Austria, (ECHR, Dec. 15, 2022), Austrian authorities refused to issue petitioner an identity card with a photograph showing him wearing a crown made of pasta.  Again, the European Court rejected petitioner's challenge to that decision. Law & Religion UK reports on the decisions.

Friday, December 09, 2022

4th Annual Religious Freedom Index Released

Becket Fund for Religious Liberty this week released its fourth annual Religious Freedom Index. The 99-page Report (full text) (summary) is described in its Executive Summary:

The Index is designed to give a holistic view of American attitudes toward religious freedom by surveying a nationally representative sample of approximately 1,000 American adults each year. The survey consists of 21 annually repeating questions that cover a broad range of topics, from the rights of religious people to practice their respective faiths to the role of government in protecting and promoting religious beliefs. The responses to these questions break down into six dimensions: 1) Religious Pluralism, 2) Religion and Policy, 3) Religious Sharing, 4) Religion in Society, 5) Church and State, and 6) Religion in Action.

According to Becket's press release:

When asked about religious pluralism, more respondents than ever said that they think people should be free to choose a religion, to worship without fear of persecution, and to practice religion in daily life. Since 2020, this dimension of religious freedom increased by over 10 points, with over 90 percent of respondents completely or mostly agreeing to protect these freedoms.  

Americans’ support for religious minorities was also high. New questions on the Index asked respondents about protections for Native American sacred sites on federal land. Overall, 89 percent of respondents supported these protections, with strong support for these protections (57 percent) dwarfing strong opposition (three percent) by nearly 20 to 1.

Monday, November 28, 2022

Senate Will Begin Voting on Respect for Marriage Act with Religious Liberty Amendments

The U.S. Senate is expected to begin voting today on an amended version of H.R. 8404, the Respect for Marriage Act (full text). The House has previously passed the original version of the bill, and the Senate has passed a cloture motion ending a filibuster of the original bill.  The Act will assure federal recognition of same-sex marriages that were valid where performed and will require states to give full faith and credit to same-sex (as well as interracial) marriages performed in other states. Amendments designed to protect religious liberty were added in the Senate.  If the bill passes, it will then go back to the House to act on the amended version. Here are the major changes added in the Senate version to protect religious liberty:

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       Congress finds the following:

       (1) No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family.

       (2) Diverse beliefs about the role of gender in marriage are held by reasonable and sincere people based on decent and honorable religious or philosophical premises. Therefore, Congress affirms that such people and their diverse beliefs are due proper respect....

SEC. 6. NO IMPACT ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND CONSCIENCE.

       (a) In General.-- Nothing in this Act, or any amendment made by this Act, shall be construed to diminish or abrogate a religious liberty or conscience protection otherwise available to an individual or organization under the Constitution of the United States or Federal law.

       (b) Goods or Services.--Consistent with the First Amendment to the Constitution, nonprofit religious organizations, including churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, nondenominational ministries, interdenominational and ecumenical organizations, mission organizations, faith-based social agencies, religious educational institutions, and nonprofit entities whose principal purpose is the study, practice, or advancement of religion, and any employee of such an organization, shall not be required to provide services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods, or privileges for the solemnization or celebration of a marriage. Any refusal under this subsection to provide such services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods, or privileges shall not create any civil claim or cause of action.

SEC. 7. STATUTORY PROHIBITION.

       (a) No Impact on Status and Benefits Not Arising From a Marriage.-- Nothing in this Act, or any amendment made by this Act, shall be construed to deny or alter any benefit, status, or right of an otherwise eligible entity or person which does not arise from a marriage, including tax-exempt status, tax treatment, educational funding, or a grant, contract, agreement, guarantee, loan, scholarship, license, certification, accreditation, claim, or defense.

       (b) No Federal Recognition of Polygamous Marriages.-- Nothing in this Act, or any amendment made by this Act, shall be construed to require or authorize Federal recognition of marriages between more than 2 individuals....

As reported by The Center Square and The Hill, various conservative religious organizations (some expressing extreme concerns about the effect of the bill), as well as some Republican senators, continue to strongly oppose the bill.

UPDATE: On Nov. 29, the Senate by a vote of 61-36 passed the Respect for Marriage Act.  The bill now goes back to the House for a vote on the bill in the amended form passed by the Senate.

Thursday, September 15, 2022

Study Of State Statutory Religious Liberty Protections Released

First Liberty Institute's Center for Religion, Culture and Democracy yesterday released a 95-page report titled Religious Liberty In the States 2022 (full text). The Report ranks each state by examining its statutory protections and exemptions for religious belief in the following areas: absentee voting for religious reasons; religious exemptions from childhood immunization requirements; conscience protections for health care providers; religious exemptions from health insurance contraceptive mandates; provisions for religious entities, public officials and businesses to refuse to participate in marriages and weddings that violate religious beliefs; and a state Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Friday, July 08, 2022

Tribal Court Dismisses Trespass Charges Against Members Holding Religious Ceremony To Block Pipeline

An Ojibwe Tribal Court has dismissed civil trespass charges against three members of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe who took part in an 8-day ceremonial gathering blocking construction of a pipeline by Enbridge Energy Corp.  A press release from the Civil Liberties Defense Center gives more background:

Pipeline construction threatened sacred waters, including the Mississippi headwaters, as well as the concomitant ability to hunt, fish, gather, and engage in religious and cultural practices central to Anishinaabe people, and threatened the safety and wellbeing of Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirits as part of the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives.  In the face of these threats, Indigenous Water Protectors and their invited guests lit a ceremonial fire, gathered in prayer, and camped on the matting that stretched over the Mississippi River so that Enbridge’s pipeline could be built through it.  

Fire Light Camp participants were originally charged and prosecuted for trespass by the State of Minnesota in Clearwater County District Court.  The cases of several Indigenous participants were subsequently transferred to White Earth Tribal Court....

In White Earth Band of Ojibwe v. Beaulieu, (White Earth Band Tribal Court, June 27, 2022), the court concluded that the Tribal Code defines trespass as returning to property "without claim of right." Here defendants had the right to hold religious ceremonies (with invited guests) on land ceded to the United States. The Tribal Code recognizes "the rights to travel, use and occupy traditional lands and spiritual places for cultural purposes are part of each tribal members' individually held, historically inherent and inalienable rights that have existed from time immemorial."

Thursday, November 18, 2021

New Poll On American's Attitudes Toward Religious Freedom Released

Becket yesterday released its third annual Religious Freedom Index (full text) along with a one-page summary of the full 122-page report. Becket's press release describes the report, in part:

... Religious Freedom Index [is] the only annual poll that tracks trends across the full spectrum of opinions on American religious freedom. This year’s Index reached a new high as Americans bounced back from a uniquely divisive year with revitalized support for religious liberty. In addition to the Index’s standardized annual questions, this year Becket also asked about Americans’ opinions on faith-based organizations, free speech, and the pandemic.

Sunday, January 17, 2021

Religious Freedom Day Presidential Proclamaton

President Trump issued a Proclamation (full text) this week declaring December 16 as Religious Freedom Day. The date, commemorated annually, marks the anniversary of Virginia's adoption of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1786. President Trump's Proclamation is largely a catalogue of steps taken by his administration to further religious freedom, saying in part:

Over the past 4 years, my Administration has worked tirelessly to honor the vision of our Founders and defend our proud history of religious liberty.  From day one, we have taken action to restore the foundational link between faith and freedom and promote a culture of religious liberty.  My Administration has protected the rights of individual religious believers, communities of faith, and faith-based organizations.  We have defended religious liberty domestically and around the world.

Thursday, January 14, 2021

Apache Leaders Sue To Prevent Forest Service Transfer of Religious Site

Suit was filed this week in an Arizona federal district court on behalf of traditional Apache religious and cultural leaders seeking to prevent the U.S. Forest Service from transferring to mining companies a parcel of land used by the Western Apache Peoples for traditional religious ceremonies. The complaint (full text) in Apache Stronghold v. United States, (D AZ, filed 1/12/2021) alleges in part:

The deliberate and direct effect of the Defendants’ publicly stated plans and planned actions is to illegally annihilate the religious freedom rights of the Western Apache Peoples at a sacred and actively utilized religious place and traditional Western Apache cultural property known to the Apache since time immemorial as Chi’chil BiÅ‚dagoteel [or] as it is commonly known: “Oak Flat.” ***

[T]he Forest Service ... has suddenly publicly stated for the first time its intent to publish a Final Environmental Impact Statement ... on ... January 15, 2021.  That ... will immediately enable the Forest Service to attempt to convey a 2,422-acre parcel of “Forest Service land” to an entity owned entirely by foreign mining corporations, pursuant to a mandate in Section 3003 of the “Cromnibus” National Defense Authorization Act of 2015 ... slipped in at the 11th hour with a total federal government operational shutdown looming....

Apache Stronghold issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit. 

Tuesday, December 08, 2020

Department of Labor Broadly Defines Religious Exemption From Anti-Discrimination Rules for Federal Contractors

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs in a 159-page Release (full text) adopted amendments defining expansively the religious exemption in the agency's rules imposing anti-discrimination requirements on government contractors and subcontractors. The agency's rules incorporate Executive Order 11246 which imposes non-discrimination and equal treatment requirements for employees of the contractor or subcontractor.  The Executive Order bars discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin. However there is an exemption for:

a religious corporation, association, educational institution, or society, with respect to the employment of individuals of a particular religion to perform work connected with the carrying on by such corporation, association, educational institution, or society of its activities.

The amendments provide in part:

Religious corporation, association, educational institution, or society means a corporation, association, educational institution, society, school, college, university, or institution of learning that: 

(i) Is organized for a religious purpose; 

(ii) Holds itself out to the public as carrying out a religious purpose;

(iii) Engages in activity consistent with, and in furtherance of, that religious purpose; and

(iv)(A) Operates on a not-for-profit basis; or 

     (B) Presents other strong evidence that its purpose is substantially religious.

(2) Whether an organization’s engagement in activity is consistent with, and in furtherance of, its religious purpose is determined by reference to the organization’s own sincere understanding of its religious tenets....

Reactions to the new rule varied. For example, First Liberty praised the new rule, saying in part:

Religious organizations should never be forced to abandon their religious identity and mission in order to be eligible to partner with the federal government.

On the other hand, Americans United said in part:

The constitutional right to religious freedom promises everyone the right to live their lives secure that the government will treat them equally, no matter what their belief system. The new Department of Labor rule, however, turns this core American value on its head and puts countless peoples’ jobs at risk because they do not share the religious views or meet the religious code of conduct of a government contractor. Like so many others issued by the Trump administration, this rule particularly puts at risk workers who are LGBTQ, women, religious minorities and non-religious people.

Thursday, November 19, 2020

New Report On Attitudes Toward Religious Liberty

Becket Fund for Religious Liberty this week released its second annual Religious Freedom Index, a 90-page report on American attitudes toward religion, culture and the law. The Executive Summary says in part:

[T]he Index asks questions that provide insights into opinion on past, present, and future religious liberty topics. These responses statistically group into six dimensions that contribute to the yearly Index score: 1)Religious Pluralism, 2) Religion and Policy, 3) Religious Sharing, 4) Religion in Society, 5) Church and State, and 6) Religion in Action.

The Becket website has additional information.

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

State Department Releases Draft Report Of Commission on Inalienable Rights

On July 16, the U.S. State Department released the 60-page Draft Report of the Commission on Inalienable Rights. The Report was released in Philadelphia by Commission Chair Mary Ann Glendon and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. (Full text and video of their remarks.) The wide-ranging report emphasizes the religious traditions of the country's founders as well as the primacy of religious liberty.  Here are a few excerpts:
Foremost among the unalienable rights that government is established to secure, from the founders’ point of view, are property rights and religious liberty. A political society that destroys the possibility of either loses its legitimacy....
Some mistakenly suppose that so generous a conception of liberty must rest on skepticism about salvation and justice. Why give people freedom to choose if God’s will and the imperatives of justice are knowable? In fact, a certain skepticism is involved, but it is directed not at faith and justice but at the capacity of government officials to rule authoritatively on the deepest and greatest questions. The Madisonian view of religious liberty ... proceeds from a theistic premise about the sources of human dignity even as it denies the state the power to dictate final answers about ultimate matters....
[E]ven a quick, preliminary reading of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reveals many parallels to the fundamental constitutional and political principles of the United States.... 
The Universal Declaration’s weaving of civil and political rights together with economic, social, and cultural rights into an integrated whole poses a certain challenge for the United States. Unlike the Universal Declaration and unlike the majority of constitutions of the world that have been adopted since the early- to mid- 20th century, the U.S. Constitution does not generally recognize, let alone entrench, economic and social rights. Throughout the Cold War, the United States emphasized its commitment to civil and political rights almost exclusively, while rejecting the notion, championed by the Soviet Union, of the preeminence of economic and social rights. Since the end of the Cold War, a consistent aspect of U.S. human rights policy, across every presidential administration regardless of political party, has been U.S. reluctance to recognize economic and social rights as an integral part of the canon of international human rights....
The Draft Report is open for public comment until July 30. Reaction to the Draft Report by some has been very negative.

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

European Court Says Greece Should Not Have Indicated Non-Christening On Birth Record

In Stavropoulos and others v. Greece, (ECHR, June 25, 2020), the European Court of Human Rights, in a Chamber Judgment, held that Greece violated the religious freedom rights of parents when when their child's first name was entered into the birth record with an abbreviation in brackets next to it indicating that the parents had not christened the child.  The court, finding a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, said in part:
[T]he Court shares the applicants’ view that the note “naming” next to the third applicant’s first name carries a connotation, namely that she was not christened and that her name was given by the civil act of naming. That conclusion is further reinforced by the section concerning christening that is included in the birth registration act which ... has been left blank. Such information appearing in a public document issued by the State constitutes an interference with the right of all of the applicants not to be obliged to manifest their beliefs, which is inherent in the notion of freedom of religion and conscience as protected by Article 9 of the Convention. That is because it implies that the first and second applicants, as the parents and legal guardians of the third applicant, chose not to have the third applicant christened.
The court awarded damages of €10,000, plus costs, to petitioners.