Objective coverage of church-state and religious liberty developments, with extensive links to primary sources.
Monday, October 05, 2009
Saudi Religious Police Will Add Human Rights Unit
Military Critic Sues Former Chaplain Alleging Threats
American Evangelist Turned Away From Britain Over Visa Problem
Recent Articles, Book and Video of Interest
- C. Scott Pryor, Principled Pluralism and Contract Remedies, (McGeorge Law Review, Vol. 40, No. 3, 2009).
- Lyman P. Q. Johnson, Counter-Narrative in Corporate Law: Saints and Sinners, Apostles and Epistles, (Michigan State Law Review, Forthcoming).
- Dana Brakman Reiser, Charity Law’s Essentials, (Brooklyn Law School, Legal Studies Paper No. 167, Sept. 28, 2009).
- Nehaluddin Ahmad, The Modern Concept of Secularism and Islamic Jurisprudence: A Comparative Analysis, 15 Annual Survey Of International & Comparative Law 75-105 (2009).
- Paul Horwitz, Demographics and Distrust: the Eleventh Circuit on Graduation Prayer in Adler v. Duval County, 63 University of Miami Law Review 835-892 (2009).
- Symposium: Constitutionalism and Secularism in an Age of Religious Revival: The Challenge of Global and Local Fundamentalisms, 30 Cardozo Law Review 2331- 2896 (June 2009).
Recent Book:
- Steven H. Shiffrin, The Religious Left and Church-State Relations, (Princeton Univ. Press, 2009).
- Citizens United Productions, Rediscovering God in America II: Our Heritage, (2009), reviewed in CNS News.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Native Hawaiian Cultural Practitioners Challenge Land Management Plan
Missouri Creates New Faith-Based Partnership For Disaster Relief
Bald Eagle Case Transferred To Tribal Court
Brooklyn Judge Criticizes Orthodox Jewish Community's Views On Child Abusers
Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases
In Watson v. Wakefield, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88395 (SD TX, Sept. 25, 2009), a Texas federal district court allowed two Muslim inmates to move ahead with his claim under RLUIPA that his rights were violated when he was barred for six months from attending Muslim services because during a scheduled prayer service he called for the resignation of his unit’s inmate Islamic coordinator. The court concluded that defendants had not shown for purposes of summary judgment that exclusion was the least restrictive means of promoting prison safety and security after a single incident of disruption. The court did however dismiss plaintiff’s First Amendment free exercise claim.
Vega v. Lantz, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88550 (D CT, Sept. 25, 2009), involved free exercise and equal protection complaints, as well as a claim under RLUIPA, alleging a lengthy series of restrictions on a Muslim inmate’s right to practice his religion. A Connecticut federal magistrate judge rejected plaintiff’s complaint that he was denied halal meat and 5-times per day congregate prayer, as well as complaints about several other alleged infringements. The court however permitted plaintiff to move ahead with claims that Friday Jumah services are frequently cancelled, that the Qu’ran was mishandled, that his request to be circumcised for religious reasons was refused, that he was not allowed to purchase a toothstick, and that prayer oils sold in the commissary did not comply with Islamic requirements. The court also held that damages are not available under RLUIPA in claims against officials in their individual capacities.
In Decker v. Hogan, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89048 (ND NY, Sept. 28, 2009), a New York federal district court permitted an atheist civil detainee who was placed in a sexual offender treatment program to move ahead with his First Amendment claim that portions of the program are based on Zen Buddhism and Christianity. The court, however refused to issue a preliminary injunction because plaintiff had not shown a substantial likelihood of success on the merits.
In Lewis v. Foster, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88652 (D DE, Sept. 25, 2009), a Delaware federal district court rejected a claim by a former inmate that while he was incarcerated he was denied access to a razor to shave his head. He claimed that his Hebrew Israelite religion required him to shave his head for an indeterminate time after he came in contact with a dead body, namely his stillborn child.
In Lee v. Gurney, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88883 (ED VA, Sept. 25, 2009), a Virginia federal district court rejected a Sunni Muslim inmate’s First Amendment and Equal Protection contentions, but permitted him to move ahead with his claim under RLUIPA complaining about a ban on group prayer in the prison recreation yard. The court concluded that authorities had not shown for summary judgment purposes that they used the least restrictive means to further a compelling interest in imposing the ban.
In Ramsey v. Goord, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88859 (WD NY, Aug. 19, 2009), a New York federal magistrate judge refused to grant defendants’ motion for summary judgment on a series of related claims by an inmate who declared himself to be Jewish who was temporarily removed from the prison’s kosher food program without any chance to challenge the claimed reasons for his removal. He was charged with giving some of his kosher food to another inmate when it appears that this was done by an inmate porter of the food trays rather than plaintiff. Plaintiff was also allowed to move ahead with his claim that his removal from the program was in retaliation for his providing a statement helping another Jewish inmate in his charges against a prison staff member.
In Ellis v. United States, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89392 (WD PA, Sept. 28, 2009), a Pennsylvania federal district court dismissed a Muslim federal inmate’s negligence claim stemming from the omission of his name from the call-out sheet for the 2006 Eid celebration as well as his free exercise claim based on the denial of Halal meat for the 2006 Eid celebration. The court also adopted a number of recommendations made in the case by a federal magistrate judge (2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 90035 (June 2, 2009)) including permitting plaintiff to move ahead with a RFRA claim that his name was omitted for 3 months from the call-out list for Jumu’ah services, an equal protection claim regarding denial of Halal meat for the Eid service, and a retaliation claim. The court agreed to deny a RFRA claim relating to plaintiff’s ability to purchase prayer oil and omission of Halal meat from the Eid service.
In Katz v. McGrew, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89599 (D HI, Sept. 23, 2009), a Hawaii federal district court dismissed without prejudice a claim by a Jewish prisoner seeking a transfer from Hawaii to a mainland federal prison where he could eat and pray in a Sukkah during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The court said that case should have been brought as a civil rights claim, and not as a habeas corpus claim.
In Mayo v. Norris, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89831 (ED AK, Sept. 17, 2009), and Arkansas federal magistrate judge recommended dismissing as frivolous a claim by an inmate who said he is a Disciple of Christ that he requires a one-person cell so he can be separate from those who do not obey the doctrines of Jesus.
In Boles v. Neet, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91474 (D CO, Sept. 29, 2009), a Colorado federal district court accepted a federal magistrate’s recommendations (2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 90019 (March 13, 2009) and dismissed a complaint by an Orthodox Jewish prisoner that he was not permitted to wear his yarmulke and talit katan while being transported off prison premises for cataract surgery. (The case was on remand from the 10th Circuit. See prior posting.)
Friday, October 02, 2009
Court Says "Ministeral Exception" Does Not Apply To Suits Under Trafficking Victims Protection Act
the standards that govern what constitutes trafficking and forced labor do not depend on the interpretation of religious doctrine; rather they are secular standards that guarantee that employers cannot deprive employees of fundamental human rights. Thus, unlike analyzing suits brought under federal and state employment laws, exploring the ills that the TVPA is meant to combat -- namely, trafficking and forced labor -- does not require courts to unduly interfere with the internal affairs of religious organizations or get involved in the selection or retention of ministers. Furthermore, a suit under the TVPA is not analogous to a suit under federal and state employment laws, because it is not brought in response to an adverse employment action...
Alabama High Court Says Morality Can Still Justify Commercial Regulation
Court Rejects Protesters' Attempts To Use Chalk Art In Anti-Roe Demonstration
European Court Faults Russia For Refusing To Register 2 Scientolgy Churches
The court noted that member states differed as to whether Scientology should be categorized as a religion. Therefore the court said it would defer to authorities of the country in question as to that issue. Russian officials held that the two churches were religious organizations. It went on to conclude that Russia's "15-year rule" violated the ECHR because it impacts only newly-formed churches that are not part of a strictly hierarchical church structure, and there is no justification for this difference in treatment. A ECHR press release summarized the decision.
Israel Prison Authority Says Prisoners Can Sleep In Sukkah
Washington's Red Mass Is Sunday As Supreme Court Opens Its Term
Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, says that Washington's Red Mass was begun after several Supreme Court decisions were handed down that troubled the Church. The Mass is sponsored by the John Carroll Society, a lay Catholic group of legal professionals. Jane Roberts, wife of the chief justice, is an officer of the Society. Currently six of the Justices on the Court are Catholic. Justices of other faiths are invited to the Mass as well, and some, like Justice Breyer (who is Jewish), attend. However Justice Ginsburg, has stopped going because of the subject matter of the sermons. Church officials deny using the Mass to lobby the Court. Last year, 5 Justices attended. (See prior posting.)
New Hampshire Federal Court Rejects Challenge To Pledge of Allegiance
the Pledge of Allegiance is not a religious prayer, nor is it a "nonsectarian prayer" .... and its recitation in schools does not constitute a "religious exercise." The Pledge does not thank God. It does not ask God for a blessing, or for guidance. It does not address God in any way.... Rather, the Pledge, in content and function, is a civic patriotic statement.... Peer or social pressure to participate in a school exercise not of a religious character does not implicate the Establishment Clause, and as a civic or patriotic exercise, the statute is clear in making participation completely voluntary....
The words "under God" undeniably come from the vocabulary of religion, or, at the least, reflect a theistic orientation, but no more so than the benign deism reflected in the national trust in God declared on our currency, or in ceremonial intercessions to "save this Honorable Court" .... It may well be that some, perhaps many, people required to employ U.S. currency, or socially pressured to stand during civic ceremonies, feel offended by what seems to them an imposition of theistic doctrine. But the Constitution prohibits the government from establishing a religion, or coercing one to support or participate in religion, a religious exercise, or prayer. It does not mandate that government refrain from all civic, cultural, and historic references to a God.....When Congress added the words "under God," to the Pledge in 1954, its actual intent probably had far more to do with politics than religion — more to do with currying favor with the electorate than with an Almighty. (God, if God exists, is probably not so easily fooled.) In the intervening half century since the words were added, rote repetition has, as Justice Brennan observed, removed any significant religious content embodied in the words, if there ever was significant religious (as opposed to political) content embodied in those words. Today, the words remain religious words, but plainly fall comfortably within the category of historic artifacts — reflecting a benign or ceremonial civic deism that presents no threat to the fundamental values protected by the Establishment Clause.