Showing posts with label Rhode Island. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rhode Island. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Good News Clubs Sue to Get Access for After School Programs

Suit was filed last week in a Rhode Island federal district court by the Good News Clubs contending that their 1st and 14th Amendment rights were violated when Providence, RI school officials blocked approval of their use of school facilities for after-school programs. The complaint (full text) in Child Evangelism Fellowship of Rhode Island, Inc. v. Providence Public School District, (D RI, filed 3/10/2023) alleges in part:

CEF Rhode Island and its proposed Good News Clubs are similarly situated to the other organizations the District allows to host their afterschool programs in District elementary schools because all the organizations provide teaching and activities to develop things like confidence, character, leadership, and life skills in their participants. CEF Rhode Island, however, offers its programming from a Christian religious viewpoint, while the other organizations offer their similar programming from a nonreligious viewpoint....

The increasingly burdensome requirements the District has imposed on CEF Rhode Island as conditions to access for its Good News Clubs are discriminatory and pretextual disguises for the District’s hostility towards CEF Rhode Island’s Christian identity, message, and viewpoint.

Liberty Counsel issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit.

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Certiorari Denied In Fetal Personhood Case

The U.S. Supreme Court today denied review in Doe v. McKee,  (Docket No. 22-201, certiorari denied 10/11/2022) (Order List). The certiorari petition  asked the Supreme Court to review a decision of the Rhode Island Supreme Court that held unborn fetuses do not have due process and equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution and do not have standing to challenge Rhode Island's Reproductive Privacy Act which granted the right to abortions consistent with Roe v. Wade. CNN reports on the Court's action. [Thanks to Thomas Rutledge for the lead.]

Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Another Lawsuit Over Touro Synagogue Dismissed On A Technicality

Providence Journal reports on the latest legal scuffle over the historic Touro Synagogue which is owned by New York's Shearith Israel congregation, but which has been the home of Rhode Island-based Congregation Jeshuat Israel. (See prior related posting.) Shearith Israel had filed an action to evict Jeshuat Israel, though Shearith Israel says it was merely trying to obtain more transparency and two seats on Jeshuat Israel's 15-person board. A Rhode Island state trial court judge seized on a technicality to dismiss the eviction action. Judge Colleen Hastings concluded in an Aug. 29 decision that the eviction notice ordered Jeshuat Israel to vacate the premises on January 31, the last day of its lease, while it should have ordered it to vacate on February 1, the day after the lease expired. Apparently this latest controversy arose when the New York congregation discovered that a tombstone had been erected in the Rhode Island synagogue's cemetery for New York businessman, diplomat and philanthropist John Loeb, though Loeb is still alive. Loeb contributed $12 million for the building of the visitor center at Touro Synagogue.

Sunday, October 03, 2021

Rhode Island Vaccine Mandate, Silent On Religious Exemptions, Is Upheld

In Dr. T v. Alexander-Scott, (D RI, Sept. 30, 2021), a Rhode Island federal district court refused to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent enforcement of a Rhode Island Department of Health Emergency Regulation that requires all healthcare workers (except if medically exempt) to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Plaintiffs challenge the absence of a provision for religious exemptions.  Rejecting plaintiffs' 1st Amendment challenge, the court held that the regulation is a neutral law of general applicability. Responding to plaintiffs' claim that the Regulation is in conflict with Title VII, the court said in part:

Nothing in the language [of the Regulation] prevents any employer from providing a reasonable accommodation to an employee who seeks one in accord with their sincerely held religious beliefs. Indeed, the Regulation is silent on the issue of religious exemptions. Title VII requires employers to accommodate religious beliefs, practices, or observances only to the extent that doing so would not impose “undue hardship” on the employer.... While the Regulation may make it more difficult for employers to accommodate religious objections; it does not create a “physical impossibility.”

Monday, March 18, 2019

Certiorari Denied In Historic Touro Synagogue Dispute

The U.S. Supreme Court today denied review in Congregation Jeshuat Israel v. Congregation Shearith Israel, (Docket No. 18-530, certiorari denied 3/18/2019). (Order List.) In the case, the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals held that Rhode Island's historic Touro Synagogue, and a pair of historic silver Torah ornaments worth some $7 million, are owned by New York's Shearith Israel congregation. (See prior posting and denial of en banc review.) Providence Journal reports on the Supreme Court's denial of certiorari.

Thursday, August 03, 2017

1st Circuit: Historic Rhode Island Synagogue Owned By New York Congregation

In a decision handed down yesterday, the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a Rhode Island federal district court (see prior posting) and held that Rhode Island's historic Touro Synagogue is owned by New York's Shearith Israel congregation. In Congregation Jeshuat Israel v. Congregation Shearith Israel, (1st Cir., Aug. 2, 2017), the court also concluded that a pair of historic silver Torah ornaments worth some $7 million are also owned by the New York congregation.  Retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter, sitting by designation on the case, wrote the opinion for the court, saying that the court should rely on the parties' own agreements which are the "instruments customarily considered by civil courts."  He said in part:
The district court approached the competing claims ... by a conscientious and exhaustive historical analysis.... Much of that history reflected, albeit without directly addressing, the doctrinal tensions between the CSI congregation, committed to preserving Sephardic practice at Touro, and the later Newport congregation that emerged from the 19th century immigration, which included a significant Ashkenazic element. The district court was scrupulous in avoiding any overt reliance on doctrinal precepts....
Nonetheless, the court's historical investigation was unavoidably an immersion in the tensions between two congregations that were not doctrinally identical.... These are circumstances in which we think that the First Amendment calls for a more circumscribed consideration of evidence than the trial court's plenary enquiry into centuries of the parties' conduct....
AP reports on the decision.

Monday, May 22, 2017

Suit By Cannabis Church To Enjoin Prosecution Is Dismissed

In Armstrong v. Kilmartin, (D RI, May 17, 2017), a Rhode Island federal district court dismissed a suit to enjoin a state court criminal prosecution against clergy of the "Healing Church" which uses cannabis in its rituals. Plaintiffs say they are trying to protect a religious cannabis garden from law enforcement officials.  The suit claimed that the state and state officials engaged in religious discrimination and infringed free exercise rights of church leaders. The court dismissed this part of the lawsuit under the Younger abstention doctrine.  The court also refused to exercise ancillary jurisdiction to decide a separate claim against a religious leader over the ownership of a religious painting.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Court Places Control of Historic Touro Synagogue In Hands of Newport, Rhode Island Congregation

Yesterday, in a 106 page opinion in Congregation Jeshuat Israel v. Congregation Shearith Israel(D RI, May 16, 2016), a Rhode Island federal district court held that Newport, Rhode Island's Touro Synagogue is owned in charitable trust for the purpose of preserving a permanent place of Jewish public worship and that the trustee of the synagogue should be Newport's Congregation Jeshuat Israel.  In appointing the local congregation as trustee, the court removed New York's Shearith Israel congregation from that role finding that it had breached its duties.  The court also held that a  pair of historic silver Torah ornaments worth some $7 million previously owned by Newport's early Jewish residents are now owned by the local congregation which is free to sell them to raise funds to keep the synagogue open. New York Times reports on the decision. (See prior related posting.)

Thursday, January 28, 2016

African-American Church Files RLUIPA Suit Over Denial of Special Use Permit

A Johnston, Rhode Island predominately African-American congregation has filed a lawsuit against the town and its zoning official who denied the church a special use permit to allow it to use the church building it purchased last year for religious assembly. The complaint (full text) in King's Tabernacle v. Town of Johnston, Rhode Island, (D RI, filed 1/25/2016) contends that even though the building has been used for worship by other congregations since 1891, city officials required King's Tabernacle to apply for a special use permit, and then denied the application. The town's zoning official, who subsequently was recorded making racist remarks about the church, told the church it would now have to pay property taxes. The suit contends that the denial of the special use permit violated RLUIPA and the church's free exercise rights. Johnston Patch reports on the filing of the lawsuit.

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Interim Arrangement Gives Rhode Island Teachers Good Friday Off This Year As Lawsuit Advances

The Providence Journal reported ysterday the Cranston, Rhode Island School Department has reached a short-term settlement with the Cranston Teachers' Alliance in a lawsuit over teachers' right under the collective bargaining contract to take off for Good Friday. (See prior posting.) Teachers who put in their requests by Wednesday can take Good Friday off this year.  When the court ultimately interprets the collective barganing contract, teachers could be forced to pay the district back for the day off.

Friday, March 06, 2015

Suit Challenges Quote From British Jurist Posted In Rhode Island's High Court

A Rhode Island lawyer this week filed a federal lawsuit challenging a quotation from British jurist Sir Edward Coke inscribed above the bench of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. The complaint (full text) in Gelfuso v. Suttell, (D RI, filed 3/4/2015) alleges in part:
6. Inscribed above the bench of the Rhode Island Supreme Court are the words "Non Sub Homine Sed Sub Deo Et Lege" ....
7. On information and belief, this is a phrase which translates as "Not under man, but under God and law."
8. Plaintiff considers this inscription as conveying a government endorsement of religion and a particular religious viewpoint with which Plaintiff does not agree.
Plaintiff not only seeks an injunction against displaying the inscription, but also an injunction against the court's continued distribution of an allegedly misleading publication that describes the quote's history and Lord Coke's relationship with Rhode Island's founder Roger Williams. The complaint alleges:
15. Though the publication portrays Lord Coke as a defender of freedom and equality defying a tyrannical king, Coke had actually been a persecutor of religious and political dissidents in England who had supported the ecclesiastical court of the High Commission and its counterpart the Star Chamber.
16. While Coke had mentored Roger Williams as a youth, Roger Williams later denounced Coke's views regarding religious persecution, the separation of church and state, and the Church of England, which eventually led to his own religious persecution and the founding of Rhode Island.
The full complaint makes fascinating reading for fans of English legal history. GoLocalProv carries a lengthy story on the lawsuit.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Rhode Island Supreme Court Rejects Firefighters' Objections To Riding In Pride Parade

In Fabrizio v. City of Providence, (RI Sup. Ct., Dec. 19, 2014), the Rhode Island Supreme Court dismissed a suit brought by two Catholic firefighters who objected on religious grounds to serving as part of the crew on a fire engine in a gay pride parade. They contended that "their beliefs as Catholics do not allow them to “support, encourage, nor condone homosexual behavior.'" The Court said, however:
The respondents' appearance in the parade, solely as members of the Providence Fire Department, did not constitute a form of expression on their part. Rather, it was simply the accomplishing of a task assigned to an engine company of the Providence Fire Department, and the individuals chosen to carry out that assignment cannot be said to have engaged in personal speech by carrying out their work as public servants.
Courthouse News Service reports on the decision.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Professor's Law Review Article Used In Robocall By Opponent in Mayoral Race

In 2010, then-Associate Professor Jorge Elorza at Roger Williams University Law School published an interesting and sophisticated 65-page law review article in Pittsburgh Law Review titled Secularism and the Constitution: Can Government Be Too Secular?  (Given the timing, this may well have been his "tenure piece.") Elorza, now a full professor, is on leave and running as the Democratic candidate for mayor of Providence, Rhode Island.  WPRI News reported yesterday that the law review article has become the subject of a robocall attack by one of Elorza's opponents in the mayoral race, independent candidate Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr.:
The caller asks the listener to press 1 if they agree with Cianci that teaching about the existence or nonexistence of God “does not belong in schools,” or press 2 if they agree with Elorza that it would be acceptable “to teach in schools that there is no God.”

Saturday, February 08, 2014

Magistrate Recommends Dismissal of Suit Over Disturbing Church Bells

In Devaney v. Kilmartin, (D RI, Feb. 6, 2014), a Rhode Island federal magistrate judge recommended dismissing a Narragansett, Rhode Island resident's complaint about constantly ringing church bells.  The court described plaintiff's complaint:
the Amended Complaint focuses on St. Thomas More Church’s electronically-amplified bells, located across the street from Mr. Devaney’s home, which he contends have gonged and pealed 700 times per week at upwards of 100 decibels for at least thirteen years. The Amended Complaint adds another nearby church, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, which Mr. Devaney avers has rung its electronically-amplified bells hourly during daylight “beginning after Plaintiff moved to his home” eighteen years ago. Mr. Devaney alleges that the constant ringing has caused emotional distress and denied him peaceful enjoyment of his property.... 
Recommending dismissal without prejudice, the magistrate judge concluded:
While Mr. Devaney’s exasperation is clear as a bell in his Amended Complaint, the connection between his pique and a plausible federal cause of action is not. It is conceivable that he may have an important claim arising under the United States Constitution; however, his pleading does not articulate one.
WPRI reports on the decision.