"Doctors accused of using faith to violate gay bias laws"

If you get a chance before class this week, please read this article from USA Today.

And let's discuss how the law should handle the conflict between gay rights legislation and the constitutional right of free exercise of religion.

Religious Discrimination in Scholarships

This is the old post I mentioned in class today about Colorado Christian University and denominational discrimination in the Colorado scholarship program:


Here is a link to the complaint in the case.

Here are some links to coverage of the case by the religion Clause blog:

1. link

2. link

Comparative Religious Freedom: Interesting Case

From the Religion Law blog:

Saudi Religious Police Defend Arrest of Businesswoman

In Saudi Arabia, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has posted an unusal statement on the Internet defending the arrest of a U.S. businesswoman living with her husband in Saudi Arabia. Today's London Times reports that the woman, identified only as Yara, is a managing partner in a finance company in Riyadh. She was arrested earlier this month as she was having coffee with a male colleague (a Syrian financial analyst) at a Starbucks. She claims she was strip searched and made to place her fingerprints on a confession in Arabic that she could not understand. (Muslim News, Feb. 10.) These allegations are denied by the religious police.

In their posting, the religious police said: "It's not allowed for any woman to travel alone and sit with a strange man and talk and laugh and drink coffee together like they are married. All of these are against the law.... First, for a woman to work with men is against the law and against religion. Second, the family sections at coffee shops and restaurants are meant for families and close relatives." The religious police say they will sue two newspaper columnists who defended Yara. The Mutaween say the columnists are spreading lies that give the wrong idea of Saudi Arabia.

Religious Accommodation or Religious Favoritism?

You decide whether this violates the EC or is required by the FEC.

From the Religion Clause blog:

New York Has First Hasidic Police Recruit

Today, the New York City Police Academy has its first Hasidic Jewish police recruit. The New York Post reports that Joel Witriol, a 24-year-old Talmud scholar from Brooklyn, starts his training today. The Police Department has accommodated his religious needs by granting Witriol an exemption from its hairstyle rules so he can keep his beard and his peyot, and it will excuse him from working on the Jewish Sabbath and holidays. When Witriol graduates, he will be only the third Hasidic police officer in the country.

"Universities Install Footbaths to Benefit Muslims, and Not Everyone Is Pleased "

Here is a link to the above article from NYT. Here is an excerpt:



"When pools of water began accumulating on the floor in some restrooms at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and the sinks pulling away from the walls, the problem was easy to pinpoint. On this campus, more than 10 percent of the students are Muslims, and as part of ritual ablutions required before their five-times-a-day prayers, some were washing their feet in the sinks.

The solution seemed straightforward. After discussions with the Muslim Students’ Association, the university announced that it would install $25,000 foot-washing stations in several restrooms.

But as a legal and political matter, that solution has not been quite so simple. When word of the plan got out this spring, it created instant controversy, with bloggers going on about the Islamification of the university, students divided on the use of their building-maintenance fees, and tricky legal questions about whether the plan is a legitimate accommodation of students’ right to practice their religion — or unconstitutional government support for that religion."


This should be an easy case under the EC--this is a permissible accommodation designed to serve a secular purpose and to advance--not religion but--religious liberty. No?