That’s the question brewing in Lexington, Kentucky. The Gay and Lesbian Services Organization has filed the following complaint with the Lexington Human Rights Commission (paragraph breaks added): The Pride Festival committee of the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization (GLSO) received a quote from Hands On Originals in December by phone (from an employee named Kaleb) […]
Archive | Religious Freedom
Pakistan: Life in Prison for Blasphemy
So reports Pakistan Today (thanks to Prof. Howard Friedman (Religion Clause) for the pointer. The defendant was a police officer, who allegedly “uttered blasphemy in a conversation with him and two other men, Javed Iqbal and Hafiz Shahid, on street crime. [The complainant] had alleged that the [defendant] called Hafiz a ‘Maulvi’ and used blasphemous […]
Rabbi Jailed for Refusing to Testify Against Co-Religionists
1. So reports the L.A. Times: An orthodox rabbi [Moshe Zigelman] who refused to testify before a federal grand jury, saying his religious beliefs prohibit informing on fellow Jews, was ordered jailed Friday by a District Court judge for contempt of court … [u]ntil he chooses to testify …. Zigelman has previously pleaded guilty and […]
Accommodations (Religious, Philosophical, and Otherwise), of Employees and Others
The discussion of the Israeli postal workers who are refusing to deliver Bibles led some to bring up the examples of Muslim cab drivers in Minneapolis who don’t want to drive passengers who are carrying alcohol, and pharmacy owners and pharmacy employees who do not want to sell drugs that they view as abortion pills. […]
Catholic Bishops Continue Protesting HHS Mandates
Last Friday, a letter was sent by from Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan, President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. What follows are some excerpts. (You can read a pdf of the entire letter here.) My brother bishops, . . . Thank you, brothers, for the opportunity to provide this update to you and the dioceses you serve. Many […]
Postal Workers Refusing to Deliver Religious Material They Disagree With
YNet News reports: Dozens of Israel Postal Company employees in Ramat Gan refused to distribute thousands of copies of the New Testament to city residents. They claimed such distribution is forbidden according to [Jewish religious law], and might even be illegal [under Israeli law]. Both religious and secular postal workers were asked to hand out […]
Another Religious Unemployment Compensation Case
The discussion of the unemployment compensation case involving the woman who refused to sell alcohol was very interesting to me, and seemed to interest many commenters. I therefore thought I’d bring up another similar unemployment compensation case, and see what people thought about it. First, remember the general legal framework: Most states will let people […]
Unemployment Compensation When Someone Quits a Job Because of Religious Objections to Selling Alcohol
I blogged about this issue yesterday, but didn’t point to the particular case — which I had recently come across — in which the question was discussed. (I wanted people to discuss the issue with just the information that I gave.) Now that the thread has mostly settled down, I thought I’d cite the case: […]
Converts and Religious Exemption Claims
Some have argued that a religious exemption analysis in work-related cases might differ depending on whether (1) the job requirements changed in a way that violated the employee’s felt religious obligations or (2) the employee’s religious beliefs changed in a way that started to conflict with the existing job requirements. That might or might not […]
Unemployment Compensation When Someone Quits a Job Because of Religious Objections to Selling Alcohol
Most states will let people who quit their jobs collect unemployment compensation only if they had “good cause” for leaving, and if they are available to take another job (unless they have “good cause” for declining that). In Sherbert v. Verner (1963), Adell Sherbert, “a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, was discharged by her […]
Religious Objectors Have Constitutional Right to Exemption from “Plan B” Pharmacy Mandate
So holds a federal district court in today’s Stormans Inc. v. Selecky (W.D. Wash. Feb. 22, 2012): This case presents a novel question: can the State compel licensed pharmacies and pharmacists to dispense lawfully prescribed emergency contraceptives over their sincere religious belief that doing so terminates a human life? In 2007, under pressure from the […]
Ban on Ministers’ and Other Group Leaders’ Election-Related Advocacy in Private
From Montana Code § 13-35-218, titled “Coercion or Undue Influence of Voters,” first enacted by referendum in 1913 and still in effect: A person who is a minister, preacher, priest, or other church officer or who is an officer of any corporation or organization, religious or otherwise, may not, other than by public speech or […]
Interesting Old Prosecution for Expelling Someone from a Church Based on How He Voted
State v. Rogers, 38 S.E. 34 (N.C. 1901) (paragraph breaks added); I would suspect that today there wouldn’t even be a prosecution in such a case, even if the statute were more broadly worded: The defendants were indicted under section 2715 of the Code …: “Any person who shall discharge from employment, withdraw patronage from, […]
Court Reaffirms Ministerial Exception
By Jonathan H. Adler on January 11, 2012 10:26 am in First Amendment, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom, Supreme Court
SCOTUSBlog reports that the Supreme Court has issued its opinion in Hosanna Tabor v EEOC, unanimously reversing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on the question whether the First Amendment precludes employment discrimination suits against religious entities by those in “ministerial” positions. The Court was unanimous in the judgment. Chief Justice Roberts […]
“We Can’t Achieve Development by Going Backwards to the Stone Age or Being Ignorant”
As reported by the Maldivian newspaper Haveeru, “President Mohamed Nasheed yesterday called on citizens to reject religious extremism and continue to support the ‘traditional form’ of Islam that has been practiced in the Maldives for the past 800 years,” and in particular said, Should we ban music? Should we mutilate girls’ genitals? Should we allow […]