Law and Religion Headlines

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Tuesday, 15 August 2017

Texas 'bathroom bill' dies in special legislative session
(Jon Herskovitz, Reuters)

Americans may be more tolerant of Muslims than ever
(Paul E. Peterson, Wall Street Journal)

Progressive values can't be just secular values
(Chris Coons, The Atlantic)

Hillary Clinton's pastor plagiarized portion of new book
(Daniel Burke, CNN)

Polish TV station parodies ‘Arbeit macht frei’ sign at Auschwitz in story about Germany
(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Federal appeals court upholds funeral picketing law; Westboro Baptist Church vows to take case to Supreme Court
(Paul Hammel, Omaha World-Herald)

8th Circuit upholds Nebraska's funeral picketing law
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)

Statement on today’s decision in the matter of Phillips v. Archdiocese of Newark et al
(Archbishop of Newark)

Catholic school's expulsion of girls upheld; judge lashes out at parents
(Tom Haydon, NJ Advance Media)

Trial judge upholds Catholic school's refusal to re-enroll students after disruptive year
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)

Sikh cadets sue West Point over headgear requirement
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)

Sikh cadets object to wearing West Point 'Tar Bucket'
(Lorraine Bailey, Courthouse News Service)

Australian Commission recommends that child sex abuse learned in confession must be reported to authorities
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)

Americans United applauds federal appellate court’s decision that Maryland school district not required to fund religious instruction
(Press Release, Americans United)

4th Circuit: Federal law does not entitle disabled students to education in their religious traditions
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)

Teen tackled by bystanders after vandalizing Boston Holocaust memorial
(Alex Schiffer, The Washington Post)

India treats all citizens as equals, be proud of your religion, region and ethnicity, says CJI JS Khehar
(Amit Anand Choudhary, The Times of India)

BJP chief silent on religion tag for Lingayats
(The Times of India)

Modi urges India to reject violence in name of religion
(Tommy Wilkes and Rahul Bhatia, Reuters)

Indonesia: Should the blasphemy law be revised?
(Global Indonesian Voices)

Yes vote on same-sex marriage must not hurt religious freedom: MPs
(Sarah Martina nd Phoebe Wearne, The West Australian)

Forced conversions of Hindu girls in Pakistan make a mockery of its constitution
(Sadiq Bhanbhro, The Conversation)

The problem with making hate speech illegal
(Suzanne Nossel, Foreign Policy)

How Germany responds to “blood and soil” politics
(The Economist)

Monday, 14 August 2017

At least 18 killed as gunmen attack restaurant in Burkina Faso
(Associated Press, CBS News)

Christianity does not justify Trump's 'fire and fury'
(Steven Paulikas, The New York Times)

The Guardian view on India at 70: democracy in action
(Editorial, The Guardian)

Clashes over Title VII protection of sexual orientation make way toward Supreme Court
(Alex Swoyer, The Washington Times)

Trump’s evangelicals need to do the right thing
(Mark Silk, RNS Column: Spiritual Politics)

White House argues to SCOTUS: Travel ban is not about religion
(Don Byrd, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty)

Trump v. International Refugee Assistance Project
(Documents page, SCOTUSblog)

A century and a half of imprisonment; a look at the conditions of 25 Bahá’í prisoners in Tehran and Alborz
(Iran Press Watch)

Respecting rights? Measuring the world's blasphemy laws
(USCIRF, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF))

Anti-religious speech: Ranking countries by their blasphemy laws
(Erasmus, The Economist [Erasmus: Religion and public policy])

Charlottesville violence highlights high religious hostilities in U.S. and world
(Religious Freedom & Business Foundation)

Anti-wall activists march to protect church in Rio Grande Valley
(Julian Aguilar, The Texas Tribune)

Anglican Diocese of Christchurch to consider gifting Christ Church Cathedral to Government
(Kurt Bayer, New Zealand Herald)

Australian Royal Commission recommends lifting seal of confessional
(Frank Cranmer, Law & Religion UK)

Jerusalem: Greek Orthodox church aims to block property sale in court
(Karin Laub, Associated Press)

Hindu today, Muslim tomorrow
(Saba Imtiaz, The Atlantic)

Religious liberty for all
(Curtis W. Freeman, Religion News Service)

Russian church leader hopes cardinal tackles local issues during visit
(Jonathan Luxmoore, Catholic News Service)

Kyiv patriarchate is de facto the state church today, says Metropolitan Oleksandr Drabynko
(Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Can the German-Turkish relationship be saved?
(Katrin Elger, Maximilian Popp, Christian Reiermann and Michael Sauga, Spiegel Online)

Attack underscores need to address refugees' mental health
(Laura Backes, Jürgen Dahlkamp, Hubert Gude, Martin Knobbe, Roman Lehberger, Andrew Moussa and Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt, Spiegel Online)

Suhakam disappointed over Clause 88A removal from Law Reform Bill on religious conversions
(Veena Babulal, New Staits Times)

India: House okays anti-religious conversion law amid din
(Santosh Narayan, The Pioneer)

Ranchi conversion law sparks outrage - No change of religion without permission
(Pheroze L. Vincent, The Telegraph)

August 13: Trump still silent on mosque bombing, threatens “fire and fury” against North Korea
(Religious Freedom Review: Weekly updates on religious freedom in America)

Struggling to survive, congregations look to sell houses of worship
(Vivian Wang, The New York Times)

‘Meet a Muslim’ events hope to dispel misconceptions
(Kristin J. Bender, Associated Press)

Charlottesville Jewish community hires security
(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

The military, minorities and social engineering: A long history
(Richard S. Slotkin, The Conversation)

Lithuanian President shrugs off protest over Jewish cemetery construction
(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Former Belgian PM challenges Pope Francis on euthanasia ban for religious hospitals
(Inés San Martín, Crux: Taking the Catholic Pulse)

Venezuelan cardinal rejects U.S. military intervention
(Junno Arocho Esteves, Crux: Taking the Catholic Pulse)

U.S. bishops explicitly reject ‘racism, white supremacy and neo-nazism’
(Shannon Levitt, Crux: Taking the Catholic Pulse)

US tourist beaten for giving Hitler salute in Dresden, Germany
(Deutsche Welle)

National Minorities Day observed in President House of Pakistan
(Pakistan Christian Post)

Pakistan: Call for laws against religious discrimination
(Independent Catholic News)

Pakistan: Highlight if hate speech is part of curriculum: President
(Sophia Siddiqui, Pakistan Observer)

22 states ask U.S. Supreme Court to take up New Mexico Ten Commandments case
(Don Byrd, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty)

Defending the Decalogue (again) in the latest Ten Commandments case at the Supreme Court
(Geoffrey Surtees, ACLJ)

Tunisia takes a big step to protect women from abuse
(Lilia Blaise, The New York Times)

What does Trump think about Putin's war on religion?
(Roman Lunkin, Newsweek)

Seventh Circuit rules no religious discrimination based on sprinkler requirement
(Evan Seeman, RLUIPA-Defense)

Houston sued over possible denial of benefits to gay spouses
(Juan A. Lozano, Associated Press, Star Tribune)

Kaliningrad authorities under pressure from islamophobes refused construction of a mosque
(The MiceTimes of Asia)

Dying with Dignity may challenge Ontario law exempting religious hospitals from offering assisted death
(Laura Fraser, CBC News)

Abolish the oath: moral prejudice against atheists may bias courtroom decisions
(Ryan McKay and Colin Davis, The Conversation)

At a site of Nazi terror, Muslim refugees reckon with Germany’s past
(Isaac Stanley-Becker and Alexandra Rojkov, The Washington Post)

Muslim women: Do their good stories get less news coverage than the bad ones?
(Ira Rifkin, GetReligion)

'Historic day' as Jordanian parliament repeals rape law
(Zena Tahhan, AlJazerra)

70 years later, survivors recall the horrors of India-Pakistan partition
(Vedhi Doshi and Nisar Mehdi, The Washington Post)

Suit seeks to protect eruv in New Jersey township
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)

2nd Circuit: Pregnancy discrimination claim against synagogue can proceed
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)

Judge wrongly relied on defendant's Christian religious background to enhance sentence
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)

Free Exercise claim against hospital over diet for daughter moves ahead
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)

EVENT, 14 -18 August 2017: Migrants, Refugees and Religion: Global and Comparative Perspectives
(Radboud Summer School, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands)

A thought occasioned by Charlottesville
(Frank Cranmer & David Pocklington, Law & Religion UK)

LDS Church issues statement denouncing racism
(Deseret News Faith)

Sunday, 13 August 2017

Donald Trump, relativist in chief
(Jeffrey Salkin, RNS Column: Martini Judaism (for those who want to be shaken and stirred))

Evangelicals, Trump and the politics of redemption
(Jonathan Merritt, RNS Column: On Faith and Culture)

What is the fate of foreign IS fighters in Iraq?
(Sara al-Qaher, trans. Sahar Ghoussoub, Al Monitor: Iraq Pulse)

What's behind controversial Iraqi cleric's visit to Saudi Arabia?
(Hamdi Malik, trans. Sami-Joe Abboud, Al-Monitor: Iraq Pulse)

Saturday, 12 August 2017

A religious procession of boats down a Louisiana bayou
(Associated Press)

Coalition of states files brief in Ten Commandments case
(Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press)

Court refuses to enforce arbitration award in church control dispute
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)

Devoutly Catholic Guam celebrates Mass amid N. Korea threat
(Associated Press)

McMaster and the challenge of sharia supremacism
(Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review)

Orthodox Jewish group sues town to keep religious markers
(Associated Press)

Religion, land bills passed
(The Telegraph India)

Rights clash looms in same-sex debate
(Konstantin Klein, The Weekend Australian)

The use of nuclear weapons is inherently evil
(Mark Galli, Christianity Today)

Tribal members 'seek justice' for sacred site leveled to widen U.S. 26
(Andrew Theen, The Oregonian)

Ukrainian rebels harass Jehovah's Witnesses
(Informator, Russia Religion News)

Waikato schools flout religion rules
(Donna-Lee Biddle, stuff.co.nz)

Flying Spaghetti Monster flock gets a fair shake in new Deutsche Welle report
(George Conger, GetReligion)

Friday, 11 August 2017

Some flocks grow, while others shrink: Yes, that's a big, complex, religion story. So there!
(Terry Mattingly, GetReligion)

Bulgarian imams are left without pay
(Novinite Sofia News Agency)

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