Religious Education Companies Face No Threat Under Indiana Cities' Anti-Discrimination Law

 In Indiana Family Institute, Inc. v. City of Carmel, (IN App., Sept. 10, 2020), an Indiana state appellate court dismissed a suit brought by two companies offering religion-based education programs against four Indiana cities. Plaintiffs claim that their exclusion of same-sex married couples from their events would subject them to various penalties under the cities' non-discrimination ordinances, and that protections in Indiana's RFRA are not broad enough to cover them. The court however found that the companies face no threat of injury, saying in part:

The Companies do not require event attendees to share the same religious beliefs, and the Companies’ own designated evidence demonstrates that they have permitted “many gay people” to attend their programs....

Although the Companies claim that their rights to hold events in the Cites are chilled because of the ordinances’ failure to exempt their activities from enforcement, none of the Companies have been the subject of a complaint or investigation; nor have they been threatened with sanctions or penalties.... 

[T]he Companies have failed to show how the ordinances subjected them to an imminent threat of harm or that they faced a credible threat of prosecution.

Order To Stay Away From Basilica Did Not Violate RFRA

 In De Bèarn v. United States, (DC Ct. App., Sept. 10, 2020), the District of Columbia's highest local appellate court held that a stay-away order barring appellant from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception did not violate his rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Gaston DeBéarn was arrested on charges of destruction property after he entered the Basilica yelling about the need to restore the traditional mass and ran to the altar knocking over candle sticks. A court issued the stay-away order as a condition of releasing DeBéarn before trial.  DeBéarn twice violated the order and was also charged with two counts of contempt. In rejecting DeBéarn's RFRA defense, the court said in part:

“Not just any imposition on religious exercise creates a substantial burden; a burden must have some degree of severity to be considered substantial.”...

At trial, appellant noted that the Shrine was his “favorite” place to attend mass and that he did not “go to other churches” because they are “just not as beautiful as that one.” He acknowledged, however, that he could go to other churches. “With so many alternative places to practice [his religion],” we are satisfied that the stay-away order imposed on appellant as to a single Catholic church “d[id] not force [appellant] to choose between abandoning [his] faith and facing criminal prosecution.”...

1st Circuit Hears Oral Arguments In COVID-19 Worship Service Limitation Challenge

 The U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday heard oral arguments in Calvary Chapel of Bangor v. Mills. (Audio of full oral arguments.) In May, a Maine federal district court a Maine federal district court rejected a church's First Amendment challenge to Maine Governor Janet Mills' COVID-19 order which at that time prohibited religious gatherings of more than ten people. (See prior posting.)  WBAI News reports on the oral arguments.

DoD Issues New Document On Transgender Military Service

Last week (Sept. 4), the Department of Defense issued DoD Instruction 1300.28 setting out its current policy on enlistment and service in the military by transgender individuals. The new document tracks a policy memo issue last March. (See prior posting.) The new Instruction provides in part:

Transgender Service members and applicants for Military Service [who enlisted on or after April 12, 2019 or who are newly diagnosed with gender disphoria] ... must adhere to the standards associated with their biological sex. Transgender Service members may consult with a military medical provider, receive a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, and receive mental health counseling, but may not obtain a gender marker change or serve in their preferred gender. A Service member may be retained without a waiver provided that a military medical provider determined that gender transition is not medically necessary to protect the health of the individual. Continued service is contingent on the Service member not seeking gender transition, the Service member being willing and able to serve in his or her biological sex, and the Service member being able to meet applicable deployability requirements.

DOE Issues Final Rule On College Free Speech and Equal Treatment of Student Religious Groups

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education announced the release of its Final Rule (full text) conditioning government grants on protections of free speech rights and equal treatment of religious organizations. Summarizing the 246-page Release, DOE said in part:

[P]ublic colleges and universities must comply with the First Amendment as a requirement to receive Department grants. Private institutions of higher education must comply with their own stated institutional policies regarding freedom of speech, including academic freedom, as a requirement of Department grants.... 

Second, the rule clarifies how an institution may demonstrate that it is controlled by a religious organization for purposes of Title IX. Federal law provides that Title IX “shall not apply” to educational institutions that are “controlled by a religious organization,” to the extent that application of Title IX would not be consistent with the religious tenets of such organization....

Third, the rule ensures equal treatment of religious student organizations at public colleges and universities. As a requirement of the Department’s grants, public colleges and universities must not deny to a religious student group any of the rights, benefits, or privileges that other student groups enjoy. For example, a religious student group must have the same rights as other student groups at the public institution to receive official recognition, to use the institution’s facilities, and to receive student fee funds. Equal treatment of religious student groups is now a material condition of the Department’s grants.  

Fourth, the rule revises regulations governing some discretionary grant programs under Titles III and V of the Higher Education Act.... Current regulations could prohibit a school from using such a grant for even secular activities or services such as teaching a course about world religions. The rule more narrowly tailors the prohibition on the use of these grants to religious instruction, religious worship, or proselytization. The rule also ... clarif[ies] that institutions are not prohibited from using grants for a secular department of religion.

Education Dive reports on the new Rule.

California Ban On Indoor Religious Services Upheld

In Harvest Rock Church v. Newsom, (CD CA, Sept. 2, 2020), a California federal district court refused to issue a preliminary injunction to a church challenging the state's COVID-19 orders that prohibit indoor church services.  The court said in part:

Because the Orders restrict indoor religious services similarly to or less than comparable secular activities, it is subject to rational basis review, which it easily passes: by limiting certain activities, the Orders reduce person-to-person contact, which in turn furthers the interest of reducing COVID-19 spread. Accordingly, Plaintiffs are not likely to succeed on the merits of their Free Exercise Claim. 

The court also rejected Establishment Clause and free speech challenges.

2020 Census Will Tabulate Sikhs As Ethnic Category

India West reported yesterday that for the first time, Sikhs can be counted in the ongoing 2020 census as a separate group, despite the legal prohibition on the census asking questions about religion.  The Census Bureau will consider Sikhism to be a cultural or ethno-religious category.  As explained by India West:

Sikhism does not appear as a category to tick off on the census forms ..., but Sikhs can tick off the "Other Asian" category and write in their religion as a sub-category instead of listing themselves under Asian Indian or other listed racial and ethnic identities....

But while anyone can write in any religious or ethnic or linguistic identities beyond the categories that appear on the form, only Sikhs and some others are given a code that will allow them to be tabulated separately....

"'Sikh' will be included as a distinct detailed population group within the 'Asian' racial category, and not classified as 'Asian Indian' as it was in the 2010 Census when it was viewed as a religious response," according to the Census Bureau.

The bureau did not say where Sikhs who were not of Asian origin, like many members of the Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere, who are racially White, can write in their separate identity.

"The Census Bureau included 'Sikh' codes as part of the draft 2020 Census code list within the 2018 Census Test Redistricting Data Prototype," it said.

Britain Asks For Comment On Reform of Marriage Law

Britain's Law Commission last week issued a 458-page Consultation Paper on Weddings Law (full text). The document titled Getting Married, proposes for public comment significant changes in laws relating to marriage in England and Wales. The document explains:

1.3 Weddings law in England and Wales is in desperate need of reform.

1.4 The law is ancient, with most of the current rules dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. The rules were devised at a time when virtually everyone lived, married and died within a single community, and when most people shared the same faith and beliefs; indeed, religion would have been the dominating force in most people’s lives. Weddings today are still governed by this system. The law is based on a way of life that bears little resemblance to life in England and Wales today.

1.5 Unsurprisingly, then, the law does not work for many. It restricts how couples are permitted to celebrate their weddings, for historical rather than current policy reasons.

3.4 ...[T]he scheme we provisionally propose is based on regulation of the officiant. That would mark a significant shift in focus from the current law, under which regulation is generally based around the building in which the wedding takes place. With very few exceptions, under our proposed scheme, the same rules would apply to all weddings. Again, that is different to the current law ... under which different rules often apply to Anglican weddings, Jewish and Quaker weddings, other religious weddings, to civil weddings that take place in a register office, and to civil weddings that take place on approved premises.

Law & Religion UK reports on these developments.

Sudan Agrees To Separation of Religion and State As Part of Peace Deal

 Voice of America reports:

Sudan's transitional government has agreed in principle to separate religion and state after three decades of Islamic rule in the country.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Abdel-Aziz Adam al-Hilu, the leader of the rebel SPLM-North faction, signed a declaration of principles in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Thursday evening [Sept. 3] that says, "The state shall not establish an official religion. No citizen shall be discriminated against based on their religion."

Christianity Today adds further details:

The agreement was signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, four days after a more inclusive peace deal was signed with a coalition of rebel groups in the Sudan Revolutionary Front in Juba, South Sudan.

The Juba agreement established a national commission for religious freedom, which guarantees the rights of Christian communities in Sudan’s southern regions.

Recent Articles and Books of Interest

From SSRN:

• Nicholas Aroney, The Rise and Fall of Human Dignity (July 27, 2020).
• David Orentlicher, Cruzan and Surrogate Decision-Making, (SMU Law Review, Vol. 73, No. 1, 2020, pages 155-162).
• Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, Charitable Crowdfunding,(September 4, 2020). Notre Dame Legal Studies Paper No. 200904 (Sept. 2020).
• Paul B. Miller, The Morality of Fiduciary Law, (62 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. (2021 Forthcoming)).

From SmartCILP:

• Dallan F. Flake, Interactive Religious Accommodations, 71 Alabama Law Review 67-114 (2019).
• Robin Fretwell Wilson, Common Ground Lawmaking: Lessons for Peaceful Coexistence from Masterpiece Cakeshop and the Utah Compromise, 51 Connecticut Law Review 483-574 (2019).
• Kermit V. Lipez, Reflections on the Church/State Puzzle, [Abstract], 20 Journal of Appellate Practice & Process 7-60 (2019).

Recent Books:

• Joel Harrison, Post-Liberal Religious Liberty: Forming Communities of Charity, (Cambridge University Press, July 2020).
• John Corrigan, Religious Intolerance, America, and the World: A History of Forgetting and Remembering, (University of Chicago Press, April 2020).
• David Nash, Acts Against God: A Short History of Blasphemy, (University of Chicago Press, July 2020).
• Jeremy Patrick, Faith or Fraud: Fortune-Telling, Spirituality and the Law, (University of British Columbia Press, Sept. 2020).
• Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Church State Corporation: Construing Religion In US Law, (University of Chicago Press, July 2020).
• Tony Keddie, Republican Jesus: How the Right Has Rewritten the Gospels, (University of California Press, Oct. 2020).

Court Denies Summary Judgment In Attempt To Permanently Enjoin Disclosure Requirements By Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers

 In National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Rauner, (ND IL, Sept. 3, 2020), an Illinois federal district court denied summary judgment to two pro-life crisis pregnancy centers that are seeking to permanently enjoin enforcement of an Illinois statutory provision conditioning immunity for health care providers on their disclosure of medical options, including those that conflict with their religious beliefs. They must also facilitate patients' obtaining such services from others. In 2017, a different federal district court judge issued a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the Act. (See prior posting.) In refusing at this stage of litigation to make the injunction permanent, the court said in part:

In this litigation, Plaintiffs allege that the CPCs’ ability to promote their religiously motivated pro-life messaging ... are threatened by changes to the Illinois Healthcare Right of Conscience Act adopted in 2016....The law will compel them, Plaintiffs assert, to discuss the benefits of treatments they deem objectionable: abortion, contraception, or sterilization. Likewise, under the law, Plaintiffs must facilitate those treatments by providing patients with lists of doctors who provide those services or by transferring or referring patients to them. Both requirements violate Plaintiffs’ First Amendment Speech and Free Exercise rights, they claim....

Starting with the requirement to discuss the benefits of abortion, the court agrees with Defendant that as in Casey, this is a regulation of professional conduct that only incidentally burdens speech....

The court is mindful that from Plaintiffs’ perspective, the law compels speech on a message antithetical to their beliefs and thereby contradicts this Free Speech principle. But the court too recognizes that Plaintiffs’ patients are no less deserving of this right to decide for themselves what ideas are worth considering and adhering to, and the state may be well within its powers to protect this principle in a context involving “matters of the highest privacy and the most personal nature.”...

If the law does no more than bring the regulations of conscience objectors into conformity with that of other medical professionals (again, still a disputed issue), then the amended HCRCA may not be characterized as discriminating against religious medical professionals. The law’s text and history ... suggest instead that the legislature adopted the changes due to legitimate concerns about patient access to healthcare and not out of a desire to stifle religiously-motivated conduct.

6th Circuit: Settlement In Long-Running Baptist Children's Home Case Is Unenforceable

In Pedreira v. Sunrise Children's Services, Inc., (6th Cir., Sept. 2, 2020), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, in an Establishment Clause case that has been in litigation for 20 years, held that a proposed modified consent decree that was to settle the case is unenforceable. The case involves a challenge to the state of Kentucky's funding of treatment for abused and neglected children in facilities operated by Sunrise Children's Services, a Baptist organization. (See prior related posting.) The 6th Circuit agreed with the district court that the consent decree violates Kentucky law because it requires enactment of new or modified administrative regulations to be implemented.

Church Says Signage Required To Exclude Guns Burdens Free Speech

Suit was filed in a Texas federal district court earlier this week by a Unitarian Church (and another plaintiff) challenging a Texas law that makes it difficult to exclude individuals carrying firearms from one's property. The complaint (full text) in Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church v. Paxton, (SD TX, filed 9/2/2020) alleges in part:

Texas has ignored the First Amendment and enacted legislation that singles out a group with which it disagrees—those who prefer to keep guns off of their property—and selectively burdens their speech. Specifically, Texas property owners who espouse this viewpoint must post multiple large, text-heavy signs containing language specified by the State in order to exercise the longest established and most fundamental of their property rights: the right to exclude. If these property owners use other means of indicating that firearms are not welcome on the premises—even if entirely reasonable and understandable—they cannot avail themselves of Texas’s criminal trespass laws. By contrast, property owners who wish to exclude others for any other reason at all do not face these same burdens. This viewpoint-based discrimination was entirely intentional....

The Church has an official policy that forbids carrying firearms, whether open or concealed, onto church property....  One of the most fundamental religious tenets of the Church is to address conflict through conversation, non-violence, love, and compassion. The Church believes that the signs required by the Acts detract from those religious principles.

[Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.] 

7th Circuit: COVID-19 Order Exempting Religious Services Is Valid

 In Illinois Republican Party v. Pritzker, (7th Cir., Sept. 3, 2020), the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by the Illinois Republican Party that Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker's COVD-19 Order limiting gatherings (including political gatherings) to 50 people is unconstitutional because there is an exemption from the limit for religious services. The court, denying a preliminary injunction, said in part:

A careful look at the Supreme Court’s Religion Clause cases, coupled with the fact that EO43 is designed to give greater leeway to the exercise of religion, convinces us that the speech that accompanies religious exercise has a privileged position under the First Amendment, and that EO43 permissibly accommodates religious activities....

Because the exercise of religion involves more than simple speech, the equivalency urged on us by the Republicans between political speech and religious exercise is a false one.... Free exercise of religion enjoys express constitutional protection, and the Governor was entitled to carve out some room for religion, even while he declined to do so for other activities.

Jurist reports on the decision.  [Thanks to Steven H. Sholk for the lead.]

Canada, Netherlands Will Assist In Case Against Myanmar For Genocide Against Rohingya

 In a Joint Statement (full text) issued on Wednesday, the Foreign Ministers of Canada and the Netherlands said that their governments plan to intervene in the genocide case that has been brought against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice. In the case, Gambia claims that Myanmar has taken and condoned actions against Rohingya Muslims that violate the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. In an initial decision, the International Court imposed provisional measures on Myanmar.  In their Joint Statement, Canada and the Netherlands said in part:

The Gambia took a laudable step towards ending impunity for those committing atrocities in Myanmar and upholding this pledge. Canada and the Netherlands consider it our obligation to support these efforts which are of concern to all of humanity. As part of this intervention, Canada and the Kingdom of the Netherlands will assist with the complex legal issues that are expected to arise and will pay special attention to crimes related to sexual and gender-based violence, including rape.

Al Jazeera reports on these developments.

9th Circuit Upholds California School Curriculum On Hinduism

 In California Parents for the Equalization of Educational Materials v. Torlakson, (9th Cir., Sept. 3, 2020), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of a suit claiming that California's History-Social Science Standards and Framework incorrectly describe Hinduism and treat it negatively in relation to the treatment of other religions. Rejecting plaintiffs' free exercise claims, the court said in part:

Appellants allegations suggest at most that portions of the Standards and Framework contain material Appellants find offensive to their religious beliefs. .... Offensive content that does not penalize, interfere with, or otherwise burden religious exercise does not violate Free Exercise rights. 

The court also rejected equal protection, due process and establishment clause challenges. Education Week reports on the decision.

Muslim Woman Sues After She Was Forced To Remove Her Hijab

Last week, a Muslim woman sued a Michigan county and two State Police officers for requiring her to remove her hijab when she was booked and arraigned on an outstanding warrant after a traffic stop. The process caused her to be viewed by a number of men with he head uncovered, in violation of her religious beliefs. The complaint (full text) in Cave v. Genesee County, (ED MI, filed 8/26/2020) asserts violations of the Free Exercise Clause, RLUIPA and the Equal Protection Clause. NBC25 News reports on the lawsuit.

Court Enjoins Two Portions of Trump Administration's New Health Care Anti-Discrimination Rules

 In Whitman-Walker Clinic, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (D DC, Sept. 2, 2020), the D.C. federal district court, in a 101-page opinion, issued a nationwide injunction barring enforcement of two of the changes to health care anti-discrimination rules made by the Trump Administration earlier this year.  (See prior posting.)  The court summarized its holding:

The Court ultimately concludes that Plaintiffs have standing to level challenges to certain provisions of the 2020 Rule, but not others, and that they are likely to succeed (and will suffer irreparable harm) on two central claims: first, that the 2020 Rule arbitrarily and capriciously eliminated “sex stereotyping” from the prior Rule’s definition of “discrimination on the basis of sex”; and second, that it improperly incorporated Title IX’s exemption of certain religious organizations from the statute’s nondiscrimination mandate. 

Suit Challenges Tennessee's Abortion Reversal Disclosure Requirement

Suit was filed in a Tennessee federal district court this week challenging a recently enacted Tennessee abortion law (Tenn. Code Sec. 39-15-218, effective Oct. 1, 2020)  that requires doctors to tell their patients that it may be possible to reverse the effects of the first drug given to induce a medical abortion if the woman acts quickly. The complaint (full text) in Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi v. Slatery, (MD TN, filed 8/31/2020) alleges in part:

By forcing Plaintiffs to communicate a government-ordered message with which they and the overwhelming consensus of the medical profession disagree, and to present abortion patients with untruthful, misleading, and irrelevant information, the Act violates the First Amendment right of Plaintiffs and their staff and physicians against compelled speech, as well as their patients’ privacy rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. The Act likewise violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection, singling out abortion providers and patients for adverse treatment not imposed on any other medical providers or patients in the State.

Courthouse News Service reports on the lawsuit. [Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]

Cert. Petition Filed In Hierarchical Deference Case

 A petition for certiorari (full text) was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday in Schulz v. Presbytery of  Seattle. In the case, a Washington state appellate court upheld a trial court's deference to decisions of the Administrative Commission set up by the Presbyterian Church USA's representative in connection with disputes regarding a break-away congregation.  (See prior posting.) The petition for review frames the Question Presented as:

In a dispute between a local congregation and its former denomination over ownership of property to which the local congregation holds legal title, does the First Amendment permit courts to apply a rule of absolute deference to assertions of ownership by the denomination?

[Thanks to Paul Harold for the lead.]