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.…
European Court Interprets Provision Allowing Churches To Hire On Basis of Religion
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…
German Church could face legal challenge after European court ruling
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…
German church to review employment practices after European court ruling
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)…
Ruse, “Darwinism as Religion”
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,…
Salvation outside the church? CJEU rules on religious discrimination in employment — Dr Ronan McCrea
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…
More Rulings In South Carolina Episcopal Church Split
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…
Religion and the Genuine Occupational Requirement: Egenberger – the judgment
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…
Arkansas judge barred from hearing death-penalty cases can sue justices, not court, federal judge rules
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.…
Corporate Religious Freedom Examined as LGBT Protections Expand (1)
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…
Knowing your rights
Click here to view full article at press-herald.com Johnson, Landry hold Freedom Student Summit Partially in response to ongoing litigations against the Webster and Bossier Parish School Boards, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and U.S. Representative Mike Johnson published the Student Rights Review in January, a reminder to students of…
Rorabaugh, “Prohibition: A Concise History”
I have often thought that a course on Prohibition and the Law would be very worthwhile. Think of how many things you could cover: the regulatory structure within the background of expanding national legislative and administrative power, the issue of legal moralism (is this the only time in recent American…
Church property again: Christian Baptist Church
Click here to view full article at www.lawandreligionuk.com The issue of expropriated church property has come up again, this time in Poland. Background In Christian Baptist Church in Wrocław v Poland [2018] ECHR (no. 32045/10 , the Church applied to the Governor of Wrocław In May 1996 for a decision…
Suit Over “In Christ” E-Mail Signature Moves Ahead
Click here to view full article at religionclause.blogspot.com In Mial v. Foxhoven , (ND IA, April 4, 2018), an Iowa federal district court refused to dismiss Title VII and state religious discrimination claims brought by Michael Mial who had been fired from his position as a security specialist in the…
Air Force Upholds Right of Commander To Refuse To Sign Certificate For Same-Sex Spouse
Click here to view full article at religionclause.blogspot.com Stars and Stripes reported yesterday that the Director of the Air Force Review Boards Agency has granted an appeal by an Air Force Colonel who had been disciplined for refusing to sign a "certificate of appreciation" for the same-sex spouse of a…
Jehovah’s Witness parents’ legal win means child with cancer can skip blood transfusions
Click here to view full article at www.azcentral.com (Photo: Hemera Technologies/Getty Images) The parents of a 14-year-old boy with bone cancer won a legal challenge against a Mesa hospital that attempted to override their religious objections to blood transfusions. The Arizona Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled that a lower…
Christian colonel suspended for marriage view wins appeal
Click here to view full article at brnow.org A U.S. Air Force colonel and devout Christian suspended and denied promotion after refusing to affirm same-sex marriage has won a legal appeal to reverse the disciplinary actions against him. Col. Leland Bohannon was restored April 3 to his military position and…
Christian colonel suspended for marriage view wins appeal
Click here to view full article at brnow.org A U.S. Air Force colonel and devout Christian suspended and denied promotion after refusing to affirm same-sex marriage has won a legal appeal to reverse the disciplinary actions against him. Col. Leland Bohannon was restored April 3 to his military position and…
Christian col. suspended for marriage view wins appeal
Click here to view full article at www.bpnews.net ARLINGTON, Va. (BP) — A U.S. Air Force colonel and devout Christian suspended and denied promotion after refusing to affirm same-sex marriage has won a legal appeal to reverse the disciplinary actions against him. Leland Bohannon Col. Leland Bohannon was restored today…
Has The Free Exercise Clause Become A Free Pass to Discriminate?
Click here to view full article at forward.com Lori Windham (R), senior counsel for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, joins supporters in front of the Supreme Court after the decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores June 30, 2014 in Washington, DC. The First Amendment to the Constitution forbids…
Recent Articles of Interest
Click here to view full article at religionclause.blogspot.com From SSRN: Josef Hien & Christian Joerges, Dead Man Walking: Current European Interest in the Ordoliberal Tradition , (EUI Department of Law Research Paper No. 2018/03 (2018)). Robert T. Miller, What is a Compelling Governmental Interest?, (Journal of Morality and Markets, (Forthcoming)).…
Catholic Benefits Association wins suit filed in 2014 against HHS mandate
Click here to view full article at cruxnow.com A group of Little Sisters of the Poor are joined by other women as they walk down the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington in 2016 after attending oral arguments in the Zubik v. Burwell contraceptive mandate case. (Credit: CNS…
Recent queries and comments – late March
Click here to view full article at www.lawandreligionuk.com More answers to readers’ queries and comments Below is a further compilation of “Quick Answers” to questions which have arisen from searches of, or comments during the past couple of weeks, providing links to our blog posts addressing these issues. As before,…
The House of Commons debates freedom of religion or belief
On 1 March, the House of Commons held a debate in Westminster Hall on freedom of religion or belief (FORB), introduced by Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP), Chair of the All-party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief, which – he pointed out, “speaks on behalf of those with…
Reynolds, “The Judiciary’s Class War”
Here is another new book that addresses the impact of culture on law, The Judiciary’s Class War (Encounter Books), by University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds. As I wrote in Monday’s post, cultural values profoundly American influence church-state law. Reynolds, who also hosts the InstaPundit blog, points out…