News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.
Click here to view full article at www.mcall.com The Lehigh County seal (Contributed Photo / THE MORNING CALL) A group of 20 religious and civil rights organizations have filed a brief supporting a federal court’s ruling against Lehigh County, arguing the county seal is unconstitutional because features a cross .…
Click here to view full article at www.mcall.com The Lehigh County seal (Contributed Photo / THE MORNING CALL) A group of 20 religious and civil rights organizations have filed a brief supporting a federal court’s ruling against Lehigh County, arguing the county seal is unconstitutional because features a cross .…
Click here to view full article at evangelicalfocus.com European Court of Justice. In recent years, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the American Supreme Court have taken some decisions regarding the hiring of religious employees. For example, in 2012 a teacher laid off from a school linked to…
Click here to view full article at www.jdsupra.com Local governments in New York may regulate land use within their borders directly through their zoning codes and indirectly by adopting a variety of other statutes and regulations. There are, however, limits to their power. Municipalities, of course, must not discriminate on…
Click here to view full article at www.greeleytribune.com Kirkpatrick, R. Craig Recently, a series of letters have appeared on the editorial page of The Tribune addressing the issue of religious practice within our public square. One writer offered an opinion of those who argue that teaching the Bible should be…
Click here to view full article at www.lawandreligionuk.com Local elections apart, such a quiet week that on Saturday The Sun led with the story that a bloke was buying a suit… …and the newspaper both created and solved the Church Mystery: Grave of woman who died in 2011 mysteriously appears…
Click here to view full article at newsok.com Derek Ensminger is an employment law attorney with Hartzog Conger Cason & Neville. Derek Ensminger is associate general counsel for labor and employment for Sonic Corp., and an Oklahoma City University adjunct employment law professor. Recent case addresses tension between laws protecting…
Click here to view full article at www.ncronline.org Students wait in line outside the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the campus of the University of Notre Dame in 2015. (CNS/University of Notre Dame/Barbara Johnston) The University of Notre Dame changed its mind again earlier this year. Holy Cross Fr.…
Click here to view full article at www.lawandreligionuk.com Saved by S5 Disused Burial Grounds Act 1884, or not? Disused burial grounds both old and ancient frequently feature in Midsomer Murders . In real life, however, their reuse is an on-going concern in view of the growing shortage of burial space.…
Click here to view full article at www.businessinsurance.com Reprints A jury in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn has awarded $5.1 million to 10 workers who said their health-network employer had forced them to participate in group prayers and other religious activities as part of the “Onionhead” religion, in a case…
Click here to view full article at www.jdsupra.com Health Network Violated Federal Law by Creating a Hostile Work Environment through Forced Participation in Religious Activities, Jury Found NEW YORK – Following a three-week trial, on April 25, a unanimous Brooklyn federal jury found that United Health Programs of America, Inc,…
Click here to view full article at www.crainsnewyork.com Photo: YouTube/LoveOnionhead Onionhead A federal jury in Brooklyn has awarded $5.1 million in damages to 10 former employees of a Long Island discount health plan and its parent company, finding the companies violated federal laws by coercing the workers to engage in…
There have been a number of “wedding industry” religious freedom cases arising in the United States and the UK over the last few years. On 28 December 2017 the Oregon Court of Appeals, in Klein v. Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries ( CA Or; Dec 28, 2017, — P.3d…
Click here to view full article at www.businesswire.com SEATTLE–( BUSINESS WIRE )–Seattle law firm Bergman Draper Oslund has filed a petition with the King County Superior Court, asking the Court to amend its standing order requiring autopsies in all asbestos cases where the plaintiff dies during the pendency of the…
Click here to view full article at www.worldreligionnews.com Alliance Defending Freedom counters the Freedom From Religion Foundation with a petition campaign to save the Ministerial Housing Allowance. Churches and pastors in the Chicago area have appealed a ruling made in 2017 which declared clergy housing tax breaks to be unconstitutional.…
Click here to view full article at www.worldreligionnews.com Alliance Defending Freedom counters the Freedom From Religion Foundation with a petition campaign to save the Ministerial Housing Allowance. Churches and pastors in the Chicago area have appealed a ruling made in 2017 which declared clergy housing tax breaks to be unconstitutional.…
Click here to view full article at religionclause.blogspot.com In Egenberger v. Evangelisches Werk für Diakonie und Entwicklung eV , (CJEU, April 17, 2018), the Court of Justice of the European Union in a preliminary ruling by its Grand Chamber interpreted Council Directive 2000/78/EC which bars employment discrimination on the basis…
Click here to view full article at www.catholicherald.co.uk The European Court of Justice Requirement for Church employees to have a ‘religious affiliation’ could violate anti-discrimination laws Germany’s Catholic Church has said it would review its employment system after top European judges warned it could violate anti-discrimination laws by requiring employees…
Click here to view full article at catholicphilly.com The towers of the European Court of Justice are seen in Luxembourg. Germany’s Catholic Church said it would review its employment system, after top European judges warned it could violate anti-discrimination laws by requiring staffers to be religious. (CNS photo/Francois Lenoir, Reuters)…
Here’s one that we missed when it was published in 2016, but that a colleague noticed in reading this recent review : Darwinism as Religion: What Literature Tells Us About Evolution (OUP), by philosopher Michael Ruse. As a general matter, claims by the religious that American law incorporates a scientistic,…
Click here to view full article at ukhumanrightsblog.com The Court of Justice of the European Union has issued its first major ruling on the reconciliation of the autonomy rights of religious organisations with the right of employees (or potential employees) of such organisations to be free of discrimination. Background In…
Click here to view full article at religionclause.blogspot.com Earlier this week, a South Carolina federal district court issued another opinion in the long-running battle between competing Episcopal Church factions in South Carolina. While the underlying dispute over which faction owns church property has been litigated in state court, a federal…
Click here to view full article at www.lawandreligionuk.com In Vera Egenberger v Evangelisches Werk für Diakonie und Entwicklung eV [2018] EUECJ C-414/16 , the Grand Chamber of the CJEU has reaffirmed that, in cases where religion or belief organisations impose a Genuine Occupational Requirement when recruiting staff, that requirement must…
Click here to view full article at www.arkansasonline.com Judge Wendell Griffen A federal judge on Thursday refused to dismiss a circuit judge’s lawsuit against the seven justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court who barred him from presiding over death-penalty cases, but the high court itself was dismissed from the case.…
Click here to view full article at www.bna.com A flurry of recent appellate court decisions have changed the landscape of worker protections under federal workplace discrimination laws. This has raised questions for employers who may look to religious protections to defend their hiring and firing decisions. Title VII of the…