AllAfrica and The Malay Mail Online, as well as other outlets, so report. From AllAfrica: A young Muslim man in Mauritania is facing a possible death sentence after being convicted of apostasy and jailed for having written an article criticising the prophet Mohammed, a judicial source said … He … “was convicted of lack of […]
Archive | Religion and the Law
O Hear the Angel Voices
An interesting case, In re Stephen O. (Alaska Dec. 17, 2013), dealing with the recurring question of how religious claims can be relevant to mental commitment proceedings. From the three-Justice majority (some paragraph breaks added): Shortly after Christmas 2009 Stephen O. experienced what he believed to be a religious conversion and, as he described it, […]
Brown v. Buhman and Bestiality
By Eugene Kontorovich on December 16, 2013 4:16 am in Constitutional Law, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom, Sexual Conduct Restrictions, Sexual Orientation
The Utah polygamy-rights decision is truly a courageous civil rights ruling. Most sexual liberties decisions going all the way back to Griswold v. Connecticut come at a time when the relevant practices have won very broad acceptance, especially among the educated elites. Not so with polygamy, which is quite far from the lives of the […]
Brown v. Buhman isn’t so complicated
By David Kopel on December 14, 2013 4:35 am in Criminal Law, Fourteenth Amendment, Gay Rights, Privacy, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom, Sexual Conduct Restrictions, Sexual Orientation, Supreme Court, Television
To me, today’s decision of the United States District Court for the District of Utah in Brown v. Buhman is much clearer and carefully-reasoned that Orin finds it to be. There may be plenty of blogging on the case, and Eugene’s analysis next week, after he’s had a chance to analyze it, will provide the perspective […]
Wind Farm Permits to Kill Protected Eagles
By Will Baude on December 7, 2013 10:32 am in Endangered Species, Environment, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
Yesterday the Department of Interior finalized a rule that allows wind farms to get 30-year permits allowing them to kill federally-protected eagles. Eagles are frequent accidental victims of power plants and wind turbines, and the government has long taken the position that it is a federal crime to kill an eagle even unintentionally. To get […]
Tax Exemption for Ministers’ Housing Expenses Violates the Establishment Clause
So holds yesterday’s Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Lew (W.D. Wisc. Nov. 22, 2013). Section 107(2) of the Federal tax code exempts from the income of “a minister of the gospel” (read broadly to not just be limited to Christian denominations) “the rental allowance paid to him as part of his compensation, to the extent […]
Amicus Brief in Religious Exemption Case
I thought I’d pass along two briefs that the UCLA First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic has filed in the last few weeks. One, on behalf of the Becket Fund, is in Overall v. Ascension Health (E.D. Mich.). My students Nate Barrett, Garry Padrta, and Paulette Rodriguez-Lopez worked on the brief, and Daniel P. Dalton of […]
Response From Religious-Liberty Scholars Supporting a “Marriage Conscience” Exemption
By Dale Carpenter on November 7, 2013 12:40 pm in Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom, Same-Sex Marriage, Sexual Orientation
Last week I wrote about the response of a group of us (Andy Koppelman, Doug NeJaime, Ira Lupu, William Marshall, and me) to calls for broad religious-liberty exemptions in laws authorizing same-sex marriage. Specifically in the context of the proposed marriage bill in Illinois, which has since passed, we argued that the proposals from several religious-liberty scholars urged for several years […]
Religious Liberty and SSM: A Response to Concerns in Illinois
By Dale Carpenter on October 30, 2013 2:14 pm in Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom, Same-Sex Marriage, Sexual Orientation
The Illinois legislature is considering a bill that would extend marriage to same-sex couples. In response, a group of religious-liberty scholars have urged the governor and legislative leaders to include what they call a “marriage conscience protection” that would significantly expand the scope of religious exemptions already provided in the bill, and would insert additional substantive exemptions that would […]
Disciplinary Charges Filed Against “Messiah” Judge
By Eugene Volokh on October 27, 2013 7:37 pm in Foreign and Religious Law in American Courts, Religion and the Law
In August, Tennessee family court judge Lu Ann Ballew changed a child’s name from “Messiah,” over the parents’ objection: “The word Messiah is a title and it’s a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ,” Judge Ballew said…. According to Judge Ballew, it is the first […]
Court Enforces Religious Arbitration Agreement, Over Objection of Plaintiff
By Eugene Volokh on October 15, 2013 3:05 pm in Foreign and Religious Law in American Courts, Religion and the Law
In Spivey v. Teen Challenge Inc. (Fla. Ct. App. Oct. 11, 2013), Pamela Spivey’s son, Nicklaus Ellison, then age 19, “enrolled in a year-long program at Teen Challenge’s substance abuse facility,” which “assist[s] young men in overcoming addiction through the application of biblical principles.” Ellison fell off the wagon several times, and eventually died from […]
Prosecution of Religious Kidnapping-for-Hire Ring
From the Criminal Complaint in United States v. Epstein (D.N.J. filed Oct. 7, 2013): I. According to Jewish law, in order to effect a divorce, a husband must provide his wife with a document known as a “get.” Although a divorce may only be initiated by the husband issuing a get, the wife has the […]
Europe’s Proposed Circumcision Ban: How Far Back We’ve Gone While Making Progress
By Eugene Kontorovich on October 4, 2013 10:12 am in Anti-Semitism, Circumcision Bans, Democracy, Jewish Culture, Religion, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom, Uncategorized
The Council of Europe in Strasbourg has recommended nations consider banning child circumcision. Jewish groups, and the State of Israel, are predictably outraged by the recommendation, which if adopted would make traditional (and not just religious) Jewish life impossible on the Continent. Thus the law has been denounced as anti-Semitic. While I have recently criticized […]
It’s a Crime to Say This About Muslim Men in Denmark
According to the Copenhagen Post (Sept. 18, 2013), Danish-Iranian artist Firoozeh Bazrafkan was convicted under “anti-racism legislation” for posting this blog entry on a newspaper Web site, quoting and endorsing an earlier statement by Lars Kragh Andersen: I am very convinced that Muslim men around the world rape, abuse and kill their daughters. This is, […]
Bill Introduced by House Republicans Offers Broad Exemptions to Opponents of Same-Sex Marriage (and Non-Marital Sex)
By Dale Carpenter on September 19, 2013 12:51 pm in Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom, Same-Sex Marriage
Sixty members of the U.S. House of Representatives (58 Republicans and 2 Democrats) have introduced legislation, the “Marriage and Religious Freedom Act” (MARFA), that would prohibit any “adverse action” by the federal government against any “person” who acts on the basis of a religious belief opposing same-sex marriage or opposing sexual relations outside of opposite-sex marriages. “Adverse actions” […]