Supreme Court Adds Two Potentially Significant Cases to OT2024 Docket
December certiorari grants on standing and religion are early holiday gifts for Court watchers.
Religion and the Law
No Pseudonymity for Israeli Suing Intel Over Layoff Allegedly Prompted by Complaints Over Boss's Allegedly Pro-Hamas Statements
"Plaintiff's allegations are emotionally and politically charged, and ... Plaintiff is a member of certain groups subject to discrimination. That, however, is true of a plethora of cases in the federal courts and has generally not been understood to authorize anonymous pleading."
British Man Convicted of Criminal Charges for Praying Silently Near Abortion Clinic
British law allows local governments to enact absurdly censorious orders limiting "anti-social" behavior.
No Civil Court Claim Over Publicizing Religious Court's Statement That Litigant Refuses to Appear in the Religious Court
Plaintiff had argued that defendants' publicizing the religious court's statement "serves as a form of social pressure, calling on the community to shun or ostracize the individual until they comply with the court's demands."
Title IX's Exemption for Religious Institutions as to Sex, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity Is Constitutionally Permissible
The court concludes that the government may institute such an exemption, though doesn't decide whether it must do so.
Can a Public School Ask Students to State their Religion?
Overzealous school administrators should think about students' privacy rights.
Lawsuit Over Allegedly Discriminatory Denial of Permit to Display Nativity Scene in Park Can Go Forward
Nativity scene was allegedly excluded (ostensibly on COVID grounds) while a menorah lighting was allowed.
UCLA Appeals Yesterday's Preliminary Injunction That Ordered It to Avoid Repetition of Exclusion of Jewish or Pro-Israel Students from Parts of Campus
[UPDATE 8/23/24: UCLA has just dropped the appeal.]
Court Issues Preliminary Injunction Against UCLA, Stemming from Risk of Repetition of Exclusion of Jewish or Pro-Israel Students from Parts of Campus
If participants in unauthorized encampments exclude Jewish or pro-Israel students from walking in parts of campus, UCLA would then have to close those parts to everyone.
State May Not Deny Grants to Charity Based on Its Religious Discrimination in Employment, When
the state had allowed other organizations to get grants despite their discriminating based on race and sex—so suggests the Ninth Circuit in a recent decision granting an injunction pending appeal.
A Religious Freedom Case for "YIGBY"
Notre Dame law Prof. Patrick Reidy argues that religious organizations are entitled to faith-based exemptions from zoning restrictions preventing them from building affordable housing on their land.
"Yes in God's Backyard" - A Useful, But Limited Form of Housing Deregulation
There is a growing movement to let churches and other religious organizations build housing on their property that would otherwise be banned by zoning regulations.
Religious Exemption Claim Brought by Employees Who Objected to COVID Vaccination and Testing Can Go Forward
So says a federal appellate court, applying federal employment law, which requires employers to exempt religious objectors even from generally applicable job rules, unless exemption would impose an "undue hardship" on the employer.
Zoning Regulations Empower Control Freaks—and Bigots
The Institute for Justice has launched a project to reform land use regulation.
3 Unsettled Questions Regarding the Constitutionality of Public Funding of Religious Schools
The charter school movement has seen many recent Supreme Court victories widening their scope to faith-based education, but some ambiguities remain.
Frozen Embryos Are Now Children Under Alabama Law
State Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker cited the Bible to explain why.
Nebraska Court Upholds Order That Father Not Take Son to Sweat Lodge
The court is silent on whether it would be OK to take him to Houston in July.
"Protecting People from Their Own Religious Communities: Jane Doe in Church and State,"
a new article of mine, is now available at the Journal of Law & Religion.
Washington Court Refuses to Enforce Saudi Child Custody Decree
"During the custody battle [in Saudi Arabia], Ghassan AlHaidari accused Bethany of gender mixing, adultery, and insulting Islam and Saudi Arabia. Gender mixing, a punishable crime, entails having a male friend. To prove the charge of adultery, Ghassan submitted a photograph of Bethany with a male, who Ghassan claimed to be her boyfriend. The crimes of adultery, insulting Islam, and insulting Saudi Arabia carry a death penalty in Saudi Arabia."
"A Woman Intentionally Crashed Her Car Into What She Thought Was a Jewish School …
because she was angry about the Israel-Hamas war, Indianapolis police said."
Old gun controls that were constitutionally repealed are not precedents for modern gun control
Amicus brief in Supreme Court's Second Amendment Rahimi case
