In Marsh v. Florida Department of Corrections, (11th Cir., May 18, 2009), the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a free exercise challenge to a policy of the Florida Civil Commitment Center that bars plaintiff from practicing Nisei GoJu-Ryu Karate, a form of martial arts practiced by Zen Buddhists for spiritual enlightenment. The court concluded it did not have to decide whether Turner v. Safley applies to civilly committed detainees as well as those committed criminally. It concluded that even were it to apply the constitutional protections granted to non-detained individuals, the institution’s martial arts ban would be upheld as a neutral and generally applicable rule.
In Florer v. Johnson, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 41960 (WD WA, May 4, 2009), a Washington federal magistrate judge granted plaintiff leave to amend his complaint to allege that that the 2004, 2006 and 2008 kosher and mainline dietary menus offered by the Washington Department of Corrections were nutritionally and religiously inadequate. It rejected defendants’ claims that the amended complaints were barred by res judicata.
In Trotter v. Schwarzennegger, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 41554 (ED CA, May 5, 2009), a California federal magistrate judge dismissed a prisoner’s complaint alleging a lack of religious programs at his prison.
Source:Recent Prisoner Free Exercise Cases
In State of Wisconsin v. McGuire, (WI Dist. II Ct. App., May 20, 2009), a Wisconsin state appellate court upheld the 7-year prison term imposed on a former, once-prominent Jesuit priest who was convicted of molesting two teenage boys in the late 1960′s. Priest Donald McGuire was not charged until 2005, and was tried in 2006. The statute of limitations had not run because McGuire was not in Wisconsin in the intervening years, thus tolling the statute. The court rejected McGuire’s claims that the 36-year delay in bringing charges against him prejudiced his defense and violated his constitutional rights; that he received ineffective assistance of trial counsel; and that the trial court had admitted unduly prejudicial evidence. Yesterday’s Chippewa Valley (WI) Newspapers reporting on the appeal said that the now 78-year old priest was also sentenced earlier this year by a federal court to 25 years in prison for traveling across state lines and out of the country to have sex with a teenager between 2000 and 2003.
Source:Priest's Conviction on Child Molestation Charges Upheld
In Athens, Greece, some 1,500 young Muslims marched to the Parliament building yesterday to protest charges that a police officer tore up a copy of the Qur’an while checking an Iraqi immigrant’s identity papers. Today’s Haaretz reports that as the crowd shrunk to about 300, violent clashes with police broke out and 46 protesters were arrested. Police released photos of the torn Qur’an and said they will investigate the charges, but emphasized that the isolated incident did not justify the violent reaction.
Source:In Greece, Young Muslims Violently Protest Ripping of Quran By Policeman
As previously reported, in April Britain’s new Equality Bill was introduced into the House of Commons. The Explanatory Notes published by the Equalities Office devoted several pages to the exemption from the provisions on sexual orientation discrimination for organized religious groups. [Scroll to pp. 85-89 of the PDF document]. Wednesday’s London Telegraph reported that Deputy Equalities Minister Maria Eagle speaking to the delegates at the Faith, Homophobia, Transphobia, & Human Rights conference in London has indicated that the exemption will be read narrowly. She said in part:
The circumstances in which religious institutions can practice anything less than full equality are few and far between. While the state would not intervene in narrowly ritual or doctrinal matters within faith groups, these communities cannot claim that everything they run is outside the scope of anti-discrimination law. Members of faith groups have a role in making the argument in their own communities for greater LGBT acceptance, but in the meantime the state has a duty to protect people from unfair treatment.
Source:Pending British Equality Bill Creates Only Narrow Exemption For Religious Objections
In Ridha v. Texas A&M University System, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 41290 (SD TX, May 15, 2009), a Texas federal district court dismissed some, but not all, of the claims brought by husband and wife medical researchers against various defendants alleging discrimination on the basis of race, national origin and religion. Both plaintiffs are Iraqi Muslims (one Arab and one Kurdish) who left Iraq after the U.S. invasion in 2003. Both plaintiffs, who conducted research in the Reproductive Sciences Lab at Texas A&M, alleged among other things that various individuals who worked with them ridiculed their Muslim faith and threw animal urine and feces on their prayer rugs. Plaintiffs also allege that they were fired from their positions in retaliation for their complaints about harassment and discrimination. Among other things, the court held that the University System was not plaintiffs’ employer for purposes of Title VII and that the 11th Amendment shields the University from damage claims for alleged 1st Amendment violations. It also held that claims under 42 USC Sec. 1981 can be brought for racial discrimination (including discrimination on the basis of ethnicity), but not for religious discrimination.
Source:Court Dismisses Some Discrimination Claims Brought By Muslim Researchers
Congregation Etz Chaim v. City of Los Angeles, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42345 (CD CA, May 5, 2009), is the latest decision in a dispute that began in 1996 over whether the city of Los Angeles would issue a conditional use permit to members of a synagogue to allow them to conduct religious services at a house in Los Angeles. A 2001 settlement of a RLUIPA lawsuit filed by the congregation was overturned by the 9th Circuit in 2007 on the ground that the settlement process cannot be used to evade state law requirements for notice and a hearing for the affected community before a conditional use permit is granted. (See prior posting.) In May 2008 the Congregation filed a new conditional use permit application with the city, but also asked the court to move ahead with a decision on its original RLUIPA claim. The court refused to do so on ripeness grounds, holding:
Over ten years have passed since the City denied plaintiff’s CUP application, and the Congregation has recently filed a second application, which the City is currently considering. This second CUP application presents the first opportunity for the City to consider the Congregation’s request in light of RLUIPA….. [G]ranting of the second CUP application would moot the instant action. Furthermore, it does not appear that the Congregation will be immediately harmed by the Court’s decision to dismiss the instant action on ripeness grounds. The City has not taken any action to date to enforce the original denial of the CUP…. [T]he threat of hardship to the Congregation remains speculative.
Source:Court Refuses To Decide RLUIPA Claim On Ripeness Grounds
Last Monday in a northern California federal courtroom, trial onlookers shouted at federal district judge Marilyn Hall Patel and the federal prosecutor after Patel sentenced defendant Charles “Eddy” Lepp to the mandatory ten years in prison on charges of running a vast marijuana farm known as “Eddie’s Medicinal Gardens and Ministry of the Rastafari.” According to Law.com, Judge Patel questioned the sincerity of Lepp’s attempted religious defense to the charges, saying he did not display much knowledge about Rastafarianism. The judge, who said she thought the mandatory minimum was excessive but had no authority to modify it, said she would entertain a motion to modify Lepp’s sentence if Congress changes the law while he is still in prison.
Source:Defendant Sentenced To 10 Years For Pot Farm; Religious Defense Found Insincere
On Tuesday, the French government agency Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectaires, (MIVILUDES), i.e. “Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cultic Deviances,” released its 2008 annual report (full text in French). France 24 says the report:
warns that religious sects are on the increase in France, tripling in the last 15 years to reach at least 600 different movements across the country. The report also denounces a huge increase in unqualified therapists, warning that sects are using the personality coaching and self-help trends to target impressionable people.
Digital Journal says that 10 pages in MIVILUDES’ 199-page report are devoted to criticizing the activity of sects in the United Nations and the OSCE. The report says that non-governmental organizations are attempting to limit MIVILUDES influence in the UN and OSCE, and that the Church of Scientology has particularly taken aim at MIVILUDES.
Source:French Government Agency Combatting Cults Releases Report
The Chicago Tribune and the Wausau Daily Herald report that yesterday in Wausau, Wisconsin, a state court jury found Leilani Neumann guilty of second-degree reckless homicide in the death of her 11-year old daughter, Kara, whose diabetes went untreated. Instead the girl’s parents, relatives and friends prayed for her as her health deteriorated and she finally went into a coma. In closing arguments, the prosecutor described Neumann as a religious zealot who let her daughter die as a test of faith. Defense counsel responded that Neumann did not realize her daughter was so ill and did all she could consistent with her family’s belief in faith-healing. Neumann faces a possible sentence of 25 years in prison, and her attorney says an appeal is planned based on the trial court’s refusal to allow a faith-healing expert to testify at trial. Neumann’s husband, Dale, will be tried separately on similar charges in July.
Source:Wisconsin Jury Convicts Mother Who Relied on Faith Healing of Homicide
A New York Times report this morning from Somalia says that the African country is moving from clan warfare to religious warfare. In the central part of the country, moderate Sufi militias are winning against the conservative extremist Shabab movement, even though the Shabab is increasingly taking over the capital of Mogadishu on the country’s coast.
Source:Somalia Moves Toward Sufi vs. Shabab Warfare