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Around the Web

Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

  • In Mustin v. Wainwright, the Sixth Circuit reversed a lower court’s decision dismissing a Free Exercise and RLUIPA claim brought by a Muslim inmate at a correctional facility. The Sixth Circuit reasoned that the plaintiff was likely to succeed in his Free Exercise and RLUIPA claims, as it found that Defendants’ failure to provide adequate space to plaintiff and other Muslim inmates, as well as the serving of raw, expired, or pork-incorporated food, satisfied the plaintiff’s burden in pleading that the correctional facility placed a substantial burden upon his ability to practice his religion freely.
  • In Cambridge Christian School, Inc. v. Florida High School Athletic Association, Inc., the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court’s decision rejecting a Christian private schools claims that the Association’s refusal to allow the school to use the state championship football stadium’s PA System to lead a pre-game prayer violated the school’s free speech and free exercise rights. The Eleventh Circuit reasoned that because the government is the entity engaging in speech at the games, the government’s control over the content of its message does not infringe upon the school’s rights.
  • In Reinoehl v. Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation, an Indiana District Court held that a public school that teaches the theory of evolution as part of its state-mandated science curriculum does not violate the Establishment Clause. The District Court rejected Plaintiff’s claim that the theory of evolution originates from the religion of atheism, instead holding that evolution is not a religion and that the idea that it may incidentally coincide with certain tenets of atheism does not render the teaching of evolution in public schools violative of the Establishment Clause.
  • In Doe v. First Baptist Church of Pierce City, Missouri, the Missouri Court of Appeals referred to the State’s Supreme Court the question whether the Establishment Clause prevents a court from determining if a youth pastor negligently failed to supervise children in a youth ministries program.
  • The National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint against Edward Waters University in Florida for withdrawing recognition of its faculty labor union. The university, which is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, argues that its rights as a religious educational institution permit it to withdraw recognition of the union.
Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Black Churches, Israel, and Palestine

Black churches have had enormous influence on American law and politics. Mostly, that influence is domestic. But like other Christians, African American Christians also take an interest in foreign policy and have tried to influence US international relations. Earlier this year, Columbia University Press published a study of African Americans’ engagement with the Israel-Palestine conflict. The book is Black Visions of the Holy Land: African American Christian Engagement with Israel and Palestine, by sociologist Roger Baumann (Hope College). Here is the description from Columbia’s website:

Since at least the high point of the civil rights movement, African American Christianity has been widely recognized as a potent force for social change. Most attention to the political significance of Black churches, however, focuses on domestic protest and electoral politics. Yet some Black churches take a deep interest in the global issue of Israel and Palestine. Why would African American Christians get involved—and even take sides—in Palestine and Israel, and what does that reveal about the political significance of “the Black Church” today?

This book examines African American Christian involvement in Israel and Palestine to show how competing visions of “the Black Church” are changing through transnational political engagement. Considering cases ranging from African American Christian Zionists to Palestinian solidarity activists, Roger Baumann traces how Black religious politics transcend domestic arenas and enter global spaces. These cases, he argues, illuminate how the meaning of the ostensibly singular and unifying category of “the Black Church”—spanning its history, identity, culture, and mission—is deeply contested at every turn. Black Visions of the Holy Land offers new insights into how Black churches understand their political role and social significance; the ways race, religion, and politics both converge and diverge; and why the meaning of overlapping racial and religious identities shifts when moving from national to global contexts.

Posted on by L&R Forum

Around the Web

Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:

  • In National Religious Broadcasters v. Werfel, filed in federal district court in Texas this week, plaintiffs claim that the Johnson Amendment is unconstitutional as it applies to churches. This amendment prohibits tax-exempt organizations, including churches, from supporting or opposing political candidates.   
  • In Hunter v. U.S. Dep’t of Education, the 9th Circuit held that the religious exemption in Title IX violates neither the Fifth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause nor the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
  • In Nunez v. Wolf, the 3rd Circuit found that the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections did not have a compelling interest in denying a Muslim inmate religious accommodations.
  • In Couzens v. City of Forest Park, Ohio, the 6th Circuit affirmed that off-duty police officers’ assistance in removing a pastor from a congregation did not violate the pastor’s free exercise rights. The pastor had been dismissed from his position and thus the officers acted reasonably by assisting in his removal.
  • A group of Jewish professors at a New York university petitioned for cert at the Supreme Court in a lawsuit demanding the right to break away from their union’s representation. A lawsuit filed on the professors behalf in 2022 alleged that the union is antisemitic, and that forcing them to be represented by the union is a violation of their First Amendment rights.
  • In Italy, an unusual clash between church and state is publicly taking place. Pope Francis and Italy’s bishops are openly challenging the government’s proposed laws concerning regional autonomy and migration.
Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Welcoming our Mattone Center Student Fellows for 2024-2025

L-R: Mesrobian, Cadet, Xenakis, and Markowitz

They have been working hard on the blog and the podcasts since the summer, but now that the term has begun, I’d like to formally welcome our Mattone Center Student Fellows for 2024-2025: Noa Cadet ‘3L, Riki Markowitz ‘2L, Kalina Mesrobian ‘2L, and Panayiotis Xenakis ‘3L. You can read more about them in the Law School’s press release, here. Welcome aboard, gang!

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

The Paradox of Islamic Finance

Even people who know little about Islamic law know it forbids the lending of money at interest. A new book from Princeton, The Paradox of Islamic Finance: How Shariah Scholars Reconcile Religion and Capitalism, shows, perhaps surprisingly, that the ban on interest has not created obstacles for contemporary finance, as scholars have developed alternative ways for observant Muslims to participate in the global economy. How religious law adapts to modernity is always a fascinating topic. The author is sociologist Ryan Calder (Johns Hopkins). Here’s the description from the publisher’s website:

In just fifty years, Islamic finance has grown from a tiny experiment operated from a Volkswagen van to a thriving global industry worth more than the entire financial sector of India, South America, or Eastern Europe. You can now shop with an Islamic credit card, invest in Islamic bonds, and buy Islamic derivatives. But how has this spectacular growth been possible, given Islam’s strictures against interest? In The Paradox of Islamic Finance, Ryan Calder examines the Islamic finance boom, arguing that shariah scholars—experts in Islamic law who certify financial products as truly Islamic—have made the industry a profitable, if controversial, hybrid of religion and markets.

Critics say Islamic finance merely reproduces conventional interest-based finance, with the shariah scholars’ blessing. From an economic perspective, they are right: the most popular Islamic products act like conventional interest-bearing ones, earning healthy profits for Islamic banks and global financial heavyweights like Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs. Yet as Calder shows by delving into the shariah scholars’ day-to-day work, what seem like high-tech work-arounds to outsiders carry deep and nuanced meaning to the scholars—and to the hundreds of millions of Muslims who respect their expertise. He argues that Shariah scholars’ conception of Islamic finance is perfectly suited to the age of financialization and the global efflorescence of shariah-minded Islam.

Posted on by L&R Forum

Legal Spirits 062: Can a Public School Ask Kids to State Their Religion?

(Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger)

When the Cedar Grove School District in New Jersey surveyed students about their religious identities and other sensitive matters, St. John’s Law Professor Patricia Montana went into action. She and other parents sued the district for violating student privacy laws, including the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, a federal statute. Last month, the US Department of Education ruled in the parents’ favor. In this episode, Montana talks about her successful legal challenge and explains why she and other parents fought the district’s policy. Listen in!

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Posted on by L&R Forum

Around the Web

Here are some important law-and-religion stories from around the web:

  • In Youth 71Five Ministries v. Williams, the 9th Circuit issued an injunction allowing a Christian organization to participate in Oregon’s Youth Community Investment Grant Program after the state canceled its grants due to religious-based hiring practices. The court found that Oregon selectively enforced its Certification Rule against the organization while continuing to fund secular groups that also violated the rule.
  • In Resurrection House Ministries, Inc. v. City of Brunswick, a Georgia federal court dismissed the ministry’s Religious Land Use And Institutionalized Persons Act claim but allowed its other constitutional claims to proceed. The court found that the ministry sufficiently alleged the city’s nuisance action was retaliatory and aimed at deterring its religious practices.
  • In Knights of Columbus Council 2616 v. Town of Fairfield, a Connecticut federal court allowed the Knights of Columbus to proceed with free speech, free exercise, and equal protection claims after the town denied the group a permit to hold a Christmas Vigil in a public park. The court found that the town’s stated COVID-19 concerns were likely pretextual and that the Special Events Permitting Scheme lacked adequate standards, giving the Commission unbridled discretion.
  • In Desmarais v. Granholm, a D.C. federal court allowed a Title VII claim to proceed in which a Department of Energy employee alleged that his request for a religious exemption from the Covid vaccine mandate was deprioritized compared to medical exemptions. The court found that the employee plausibly alleged a causal connection between his religious beliefs and the decision to delay his accommodation request.
  • In North United Methodist Church v. New York Annual Conference, a Connecticut trial court dismissed the local church’s petition for a declaratory judgment on its disaffiliation from the parent church, citing the need to avoid involvement in church policy matters.
Posted on by Mark Movsesian

“The Best Man,” Sixty Years Later

For people who are interested, over at Law & Liberty, I have an essay on the 60th anniversary of Gore Vidal’s classic film on presidential nominating conventions, 1964’s “The Best Man.” I’ve always loved the film, which captures some of the fun and banality of democratic politics–as well as its deeply cynical, even nihilistic side. Very relevant this election year. Here’s an excerpt:

This year marks the 60th anniversary of perhaps the greatest political film of all time, 1964’s The Best Man. Based on a play of the same name by Gore Vidal, who also wrote the screenplay, The Best Man tells the story of a deadlocked political convention at which two candidates vie for their party’s presidential nomination. Sixty years on, the film remains tremendously entertaining: clever, suspenseful, with an exceptional cast. The dialogue is outstanding. Considering what we have witnessed in the current presidential campaign—and it’s only August—Americans might again find interest in Vidal’s depiction of the backroom intrigue that determines a nomination.

The Best Man holds up for its mordant but profound observations about American democracy. There’s not much idealism here. The film’s most principled character has flaws that make him unfit to lead and the ultimate nominee is a “nobody” whose lack of record is his best quality. But there are important lessons about the sort of person who seeks high office in a democracy—and the sort of person high office requires. Perhaps surprisingly, given that Vidal was a man of the Left and had a rather acid personality, The Best Man offers a basically fair, even forgiving, depiction of progressives and conservatives. Neither are wholly good nor wholly bad, just human.

You can read the whole essay here.

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

A New Edition of Tocqueville

If Western philosophy consists of a series of footnotes to Plato, American sociology consists of a series of footnotes to Tocqueville. Again and again one finds, in researching religion or democracy in the US, that contemporary scholars repeat or develop observations that appear first in Democracy in America. Like the Simpsons, Tocqueville already did it.

Last month, Regnery released a new edition of Democracy in America, edited by law professor Bruce Frohnen (Ohio Northern). Here’s the description of the new edition from the publisher’s website:

This classic analysis of America’s unique political character is quoted heavily by politicians and perennially pops up on history professors’ reading lists.

The enduring appeal of Democracy in America lies in the eloquent, prophetic voice of Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859), a French aristocrat who visited the United States in 1831. A thoughtful young man in a still-young country, he succeeded in penning this penetrating study of America’s people, culture, history, geography, politics, legal system, and economy.

Tocqueville asserts, “I confess that in America I saw more than America; I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or hope from its progress.”

As Bruce Frohnen notes in his introduction to this edition, this republication of Henry Reeve’s “important translation” beautifully showcases “one of the world’s greatest achievements in political philosophy.”

Posted on by L&R Forum

Around the Web

Here are some important law-and-religion stories from around the web:

  • A California federal court recently issued a temporary injunction barring the University of California from allowing protestors to prevent Jewish students from attending class. The lawsuit was initiated by three Jewish students who claimed they were prevented from accessing certain portions of UCLA’s campus without wearing a wristband signifying their refusal to recognize the State of Israel.
  • In Saint Dominic Academy v. Makin, a Maine federal court refused to enjoin the enforcement of a statute that requires schools receiving tuition aid for out-of-district students to refrain from discriminating on the basis of religion or sexual orientation. The Court found that the statute met the strict scrutiny standard of review placed upon it by the Supreme Court, despite the Plaintiff’s claim that it amounts to a de facto ban on parochial schools receiving the desired aid.
  • In In re Covid-Related Restrictions on Religious Services, the Delaware Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of two challenges to the Governor’s orders restricting religious gatherings in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Court held that any injury caused could not be redressed by the suit due the lifting of the restrictions as well as a binding commitment by the Governor not to impose similar restrictions in the future, rendering the desired declarative judgment incapable of changing the status quo.