Conviction For Distributing Religious Flyers Without Permit Reversed

In Baumann v. City of Cumming, (GA Super. Ct., Aug. 1, 2007), a Georgia Superior Court avoided passing on a constitutional challenge to a city parade permit ordinance. Instead it reversed the conviction of Frederic Baumann, who was distributing Christian religious literature on a sidewalk outside the City of Cumming Fairgrounds, finding that the permit ordinance did not apply to Baumann's activities. Apparently the permit requirement applies only to to private organizations or groups of three or more persons. (Alliance Defense Fund release). Baumann had been convicted by a municipal court judge and sentenced to the two days in jail that he had already served.

Clergy To Pray At School Board Meetings Are Scarce

The School Board in Virginia Beach, Virginia is having trouble finding enough clergy to deliver opening prayers at board meetings. Today's Virginian Pilot reports that only 31 pastors, priests or rabbis have agreed to be called on to deliver an invocation. Some clergy have refused to be included on the list because the School Board insists that the prayers be non-sectarian.

Romney Debates His Religion With Talk Show Host

Today's Deseret News reports on an exchange both on and off-the-air between Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and conservative talk-show host Jan Mickelson in which Romney engages in a rather heated and detailed explanation of his Mormon religious beliefs, including his beliefs on abortion. At one point, Mickelson suggested to Romney that he is distancing himself from his religion-- a position that Romney vehemently denied. The exchange is available here on YouTube.

Suit Challenges Moment of Silence In Texas Schools

Today, a federal district court in Dallas, Texas hears arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of holding a "moment of silence" at the beginning of school days in Texas. Plaintiff David Wallace Croft alleges that a teacher told his son that the time was to be used for prayer. Today's Dallas Morning News reports on the case which alleges that Texas legislators had primarily a religious purpose in providing for a moment of silence. Croft has a long history of complaining about manifestations of religion at the Carollton, Texas elementary school where his three children are enrolled. He has objected to Boy Scout rallies, fliers sent home about the Good News Bible Club, and a holiday concert that included "Silent Night" and a Hanukkah song. He took photos of "In God We Trust" posters hanging in the school and complained that a teacher was wearing an Abilene Christian University shirt.

Break-Away Episcopal Churches Appeal To California Supreme Court

Three break-away Episcopal congregations filed appeals yesterday with the California Supreme Court asking it to reverse the state Court of Appeals decision in the Episcopal Church Cases (See prior posting.) Virtue Online reported that the churhes seek a ruling from the California Supreme Court that church property disputes should be settled through the application of "neutral principles", instead of by giving deference to the highest church tribunal in an hierarchical church. The appeal also asks the Supreme Court to rule that California's anti-SLAPP statute applies to these suits by the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Los Angeles against individual congregations. (See prior posting.)

Cardinal Lustiger, Defender of Church's Role In Politics, Dies

French Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger died on Sunday at the age of 80. Catholic News Service traces the career of the Jewish-born cleric who converted to Catholicism as a teenager, and who maintained a strong interest in Catholic-Jewish relations throughout his life. Lustiger was known for defending the right of French bishops to express views on national political issues. He argued that the French Catholic Church has a right to use its "substantial moral credit" in discussions of public issues. In 2003, he urged the government not to "disturb a fragile balance" between church and state, encouraging it not to ban the wearing of religious symbols in public schools.

Egyptian Convert To Christianity Sues For Recognition of Change

An unprecedented lawsuit has been filed in Egypt by Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy. The 24-year old man is suing the Interior Ministry to force it to recognize his conversion from Islam to Christianity by changing his religious designation on his national identity card. While similar suits have been brought by Christian Copts who converted to Islam and then back to Christianity (see prior posting), Compass Direct News says this is the first case of its kind brought by a Muslim-born convert. Hegazy's attorney, Mamdouh Nakhla of the Kalema Center for Human Rights, has felt the backlash caused by his taking of the case. Muslim clerics and lawyers have filed charges against him of causing sectarian strife and baptizing Muslims. Egypt's security police, the SSI, have warned Nakhla that he may be killed if he does not withdraw the lawsuit.

UPDATE: On Wednesday, Compass Direct News reported that Hegazy's attorney has withdrawn from the case, and Hegazy has gone into hiding while seeking a new lawyer. Mamdouh Nakhla said he was withdrawing from the case both because he did not want to provoke public opinion and because his client failed to provide him necessary documents. However a member of the Center for Human Rights said Nakhla was withdrawing under pressure and death threats.

Pakistan Religious Minorities To Rally For Equal Rights

The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance is planning a massive rally on August 11-- the 60th anniversary of the founding of Pakistan-- to call for increased religious freedom for minority faiths. AsiaNews.it reported last week that organizers expect 100,000 Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsees and others to demonstrate in Lahore for protection of equal rights and abolition of Pakistan's blasphemy laws.

Baltimore Schools Investigate Church's Free Use of Building

Maryland law permits community groups, including churches, to rent space in public school buildings after school hours and on week ends. However, according to today's Baltimore Sun, city school officials in Baltimore are launching an investigation to make sure that churches are in fact paying the usage fees that they are supposed to be charged. Concern was triggered by reports that a Baltimore principal was permitting a church, run by his wife, to hold services without paying the $4140 in annual fees that are supposed to cover electricity and maintenance. Ronald N. Shelley, executive director of the Stadium School, says that he is providing janitorial services and security himself during the Friday night and Sunday services that the Holy Temple Holiness Church of Deliverance conducts in the school building. Stadium School is one of Baltimore's first small, innovative schools. Shelly, its principal, is also an ordained minister and missionary of the Church, a fact that appears on Stadium School's website.

Arabic Public School In NY Generates Continued Controversy

CNSNews today reports that controversy continues to surround the Khalil Gibran International Academy, a public middle school and high school in Brooklyn (NY) that will concentrate on Arab language and culture. (See prior posting.) Opponents, organized as the Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition, fear that the school which will open next month with its first 6th grade class will teach from a religious and political agenda. Officials say that the school's curriculum and textbooks will be the same as in other New York public schools. Joe Klein, chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, says the school is not religious and will be closed down if it becomes religious. The school's advisory board includes three imams, as well as Christian and Jewish clergy.

New Zealand Bishops Lose Appeal In Offensive "South Park" Case

In New Zealand, the High Court at Wellington has rejected an appeal by the Catholic Bishops' Conference challenging a controversial episode of the television show South Park shown by CanWest TV last February. The show, mainly about an alcoholic's struggle to stay sober, contained one scene-- the so-called "Bloody Mary" episode-- showing the Pope being squirted with menstrual blood from a statue of the Virgin Mary. (See prior posting.) Reporting on the decision, last week's New Zealand Herald said CanWest lawyers had defended the broadcast of free speech grounds. The Church, which argued that the program infringed good taste, decency and fairness, said that the court's opinion failed to consider the episode's denigration of women. The court also indicated that it would award $8000 in costs to CanWest.

Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases

In Hammons v. Jones, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55170 (ND OK, July 27, 2007), an Oklahoma federal district court rejected a challenge under RLUIPA to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections policy that prohibited in-cell possession of prayer oils. The oils could be used to mask the scent of drugs, and are lubricants that can be used in prohibited sex acts and to avoid or escape restraints. Permitting use of oils in prison religious facilities was found to be the least restrictive alternative to in-cell possession.

In Salgado v. Grams, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55129 (WD WI, July 30, 2007), a Wisconsin federal district court dismissed an inmate's RLUIPA and free exercise claims. Plaintiff alleged he was denied prayer oil, a prayer rug and prayer beads. However defendants explained that plaintiff never made a request for these items. Also plaintiff made no showing that he held sincere Muslim religious beliefs.

In Echols v. Ramos, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55248 (SD IL, July 31, 2007), an Illinois federal district court permitted a Rastafarian prisoner to proceed with his claim against prison officials (but not against the Department of Corrections) alleging that his First Amendment rights were infringed when he was informed he would be required to cut his dreadlocks.

In Toler v. Leopold, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55531 (ED MO, July 31, 2007), a Missouri federal district court refused to grant defendants summary judgment in a claim by a prisoner that the First Amendment and RLUIPA were violated when he was denied a kosher diet and instead limited to a vegetarian food option, the ability to self-select items from the menu, and the ability to purchase kosher food from the canteen.

In Barrett v. Williams, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 39882 (D OR, June 6, 2007), an Oregon federal district court adopted the recommendations of a federal Magistrate Judge (2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55824) that a prisoner's First Amendment and RLUIPA claims be rejected. Inmate Jacob Barrett was not permitted to purchase a book, The Secret of the Runes, because he owed fines. The Magistrate found that this did not impose a substantial burden on Barrett's free exercise rights.

In Robinson v. Department of Corrections, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56355 (ND FL, June 6, 2007), a federal Magistrate Judge dismissed an inmate's Free Exercise claim, finding that the inmate failed to allege that withholding religious materials denied him a reasonable opportunity to pursue his religion. Also the court rejected the inmate's retaliation claim, finding he failed to show that withholding these materials was in retaliation for filing grievances.

"Adopt-A-School" Program For Churches Questioned

Yesterday's Visalia (CA) Times-Delta reports on a program operated by the Visalia (California)Unified School District that permits faith community organizations to "adopt" public schools. The guidelines for the program, published by the school board, call for groups to create a supportive presence at their adopted schools, for them to establish and nurture relationships and serve as a practical demonstration of personal faith. However, the guidelines prohibit groups from engaging in overt prayer with students, offering spiritual advice, wearing items that promote a particular faith, inviting students to religious events or arranging contact with then outside of school. Now some critics are questioning whether the church-state separation line has been crossed, especially by a summer sports camp operated by a church at one of the schools. The camp included Bible study. School officials say the church rented school premises for the camp, just as any non-profit group could rent the facilities.

Recent Articles and Book of Interest

From SSRN:
Anne K. Knight, Striking the Balance between Anti-Discrimination Laws and First Amendment Freedoms: An Alternative Proposal to Preserve Diversity, (Aug. 1, 2007).

From Bepress:
Asher Maoz, Religious Education in Israel, (Tel Aviv University Legal Working Paper Series, No.44, July 2007).

Multi-article issues:
From the State House to the Schoolhouse: Religious Expression in the Public Sphere, articles by Cynthia A. Baker, Kevin C. McDowell, Luke Meier, Mark Strasser, 40 Indiana Law Review 491-584 (2007).

Journal of Church and State, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Spring 2007) has recently been published.

From SmartCILP:
Robert Audi, Religion and Public Education In a Constitutional Democracy, (Reviewing Kent Greenawalt, Does God Belong in Public Schools?), 93 Virginia Law Review 1175-1195 (2007).

David Keane, Addressing the Aggravated Meeting Points of Race and Religion, 6 University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender & Class 367-406 (2006).

Andrew Koss, Anti-Semitism in Poland, Then and Now: A Review of Two Books, (Reviewing Jan T. Gross, Fear: Anti-Semitism After Auschwitz; and Joanna Beata Michlic, Poland's Threatening Other.) 1 Columbia Journal of East European Law 188-199 (2007).

Alenka Kuhelj, A Socio-Legal View on Multi-Culturalism and Religious Changes in Post-Communist EU States, 1 Columbia Journal of East European Law 114-141 (2007).

Jennifer M. Smith, Morse Code, Da Vinci Code, Tax Code and ... Churches: An Historical and Constitutional Analysis of Why Section 501(c)(3) Does Not Apply to Churches, 23 Journal of Law and Politics 41-88 (2007).

Mark Totten, The Politics of Faith: Rethinking the Prohibition on Political Campaign Intervention, 18 Stanford Law & Policy Review 298-323 (2007).

New book:
Bill Osinski, Ungodly: A True Story of Unprecedented Evil (2007),(reviewed by Fulton County Daily Report).

Scientology's Help In Disaster Areas Questioned

An ABC News report on Friday focuses on the Church of Scientology's large corps of ministers who appear at natural and man-made disasters around the world. Scientology says they are there to assist and console. Critics say that Scientology uses these disasters to convert people when they are most vulnerable. 20 Scientologists in the Minneapolis area headed to the site of the collapsed bridge last week to help the Red Cross. In recent years, Scientology volunteers have been at Virgina Tech, New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and Ground Zero after 9/11.

Trial Set To Begin In Suit To Recover Funds Donated To Church

Today's Palm Beach Post reports that jury selection is scheduled to begin Tuesday in a suit against a West Palm Beach (FL) Baptist church and its former pastor. Lucinda Bennett is seeking to recover $1.8 million she gave to the church and its pastors, claiming that the church's pastoral staff improperly obtained the funds from her, knowing that she was mentally ill at the time. The church argues that Bennett donated her recently-inherited funds freely in the exercise of her constitutional right to practice her religion.

Italian Premier Wants Church To Help With Tax Compliance

Italy's Premier Romano Prodi has asked the Catholic Church to help the government in its attempt to crack down on tax evasion. In an interview with a religious weekly, Prodi said: "A third of Italians heavily evade taxes.... Why, when I go to Mass, is this issue, which is ethically charged, almost never touched upon in the homilies?" The AP reported last week that Prodi's appeal has led his opponents to charge that he is violating the principle of secularism that he has strongly defended in the past.

Some of Pastor's Defamation and Related Claims Dismissed

In Seung Jin Lee v. Tai Chul Kim, (Nassau Co. Sup. Ct., Aug. 2, 2007), a New York trial court dismissed several defamation claims brought by the Senior Pastor of the Korean Church of Eternal Life (Woodside, Queens) against two opponents of her serving in that position. It found the statements underlying those claims do not constitute defamation. However, the court permitted plaintiff to move ahead with her claim that certain other statements were defamatory. The court also dismissed the pastor's claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress, trespass, conversion and tortious interference with contract.

Complex Housing Discrimination Case Generates Multiple California Lawsuits

In Santa Monica, California, suits alleging housing discrimination on the basis of religion have been filed in both federal and state court by tenants about to be evicted from an apartment building and by the City Attorney's Office. Yesterday's Santa Monica Daily Press reports on developments. The suits claim that Or Khaim Hashalom-- whose status as a religious organization the suits are challenging-- has been attempting to evict current tenants so it can demolish the building in which they live and put up high-priced condominiums that would be sold only to Jewish refugees from the Middle East. The tenants' suit seeks compensatory damages of $5 million per tenant, plus punitive damages and attorneys' fees.

In the complicated dispute, the city has has declared the current building a "landmark" so it cannot be torn down. Or Khaim has challenged that in its own lawsuit, claiming both that the designation is not justified under the landmark law, and that as a religious institution it is exempt. (Cal. Govt. Code. Sec. 37361). Meanwhile, Or Khaim says it has given up on its plans to house Jewish refugees and instead plans to offer transitional housing for the poor. The suit filed by the city indicates that it is skeptical, saying that Or Khaim has already begun "ethnic and religious cleansing" of the apartment building. A more detailed account of the controversy appears in today's Iranian Jewish Chronicle.

UPDATE: On Aug. 6, a federal district judge issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting eviction of tenants. The Santa Monica Daily Press reported the court found that there may have been a violation of the Fair Housing Act.

Military Chaplain Imposter Sentenced To Probation and Community Service

Today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports on the sentencing of Reggie Buddle, who falsely posed as a military chaplain and Marine combat hero. Buddle convinced 19-year old Christopher Bearce to enlist in the Marines. Then he baptized Bearce and two of his friends before they left for basic training. Later on, Buddle performed the wedding ceremony for Bearce and his fiancée, and officiated at the funeral of Bearce’s grandmother. Buddle plead guilty last April to unlawful wearing of military medals and decorations, and now has been sentenced to two years' probation and 500 hours of community service in a military cemetery.