In Lozano v. Collier, (5th Cir., April 11, 2024), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a portion of the district court's decision and vacated another portion of it in a challenge by a Muslim inmate to practices that allegedly burdened plaintiff's ability to exercise his religion. The court said in part: In his first RLUIPA claim, Lozano alleges that the [Texas Department of Criminal Justice] Defendants burdened his religious exercise by denying him the opportunity to shower privately with other Muslim inmates for Jumah.  He alleges that the shower conditions—which include ..read more

 In Muldrow v. City of St. Louis, (Sup. Ct., April 17, 2024), the U.S. Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Kagan, clarified the extent to which harm must be shown in a Title VII employment discrimination case in which plaintiff alleges a discriminatory job transfer. The court said in part: The courts below rejected the claim on the ground that the transfer did not cause Muldrow a “significant” employment disadvantage.  Other courts have used similar standards in addressing Title VII suits arising from job transfers.  Today, we disapprove that approach. Although an employe ..read more

In The King (On the application of TTT) v. Michaela Community Schools Trust, (High Ct., Kings Bench, April 16, 2024), a British trial court in an 83-page opinion rejected a Muslim student's challenge to a secular secondary school's Prayer Ritual Policy (PRP) that prevented the student from using part of her lunch break to perform her Duhr prayer. The policy was adopted by the high-performing school, in which half of the students were Muslim, after prayer by some students led to divisions within the student body and to threatening social media posts. The court said in part: It seems to me that ..read more

Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 377-44 adopted House Resolution 883 (full text) stating that the slogan, "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free'" is antisemitic. After 29 "Whereas" clauses, the Resolution reads: That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that— (1) the slogan, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, is outrightly antisemitic and must be strongly condemned;  (2) this slogan is divisive and does a disservice to Israelis, Palestinians, and all those in the region who seek peace; (3) this slogan rejects ca ..read more

 In Moe v. Yost, (OH Com. Pl., April 16, 2024), an Ohio state trial court issued a 14-day temporary restraining order preventing the state from enforcing House Bill 68 which enacted the Saving Ohio Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act barring gender transition services for minors and the Save Women's Sports Act that barred transgender women from competing on women's sports teams. (See prior posting.) The bill was set to take effect on April 24. The court concluded that the bill likely violates the provision in the Ohio Constitution that states: "No bill shall contain more than one ..read more

 In Matter of Ferrelli v State of New York, (App. Div., April 16, 2024), a New York state appellate court upheld the denial of religious exemptions from the Covid vaccine mandate imposed for employment in the New York court system, The court held that the mandate was a neutral law of general applicability and thus was subject only to rational basis review. The court went on: Marie Zweig, submitted her initial religious exemption application asserting that because of her Christian belief in the sanctity of life, she could not "in good conscience receive or benefit from the use of vac ..read more

As previously reported, last year a Texas federal district court held that members of the Lipam-Apache Native American Church should be given access for religious services to a point on the San Antonio River which is a Sacred Site for them.  The court refused to grant plaintiffs' request that the proposed improvements to the park in which the Sacred Site is located be limited so that the spiritual ecology of the Sacred Area would be preserved by minimizing tree removal and allowing cormorants to nest. Plaintiffs appealed the injunction denials.  In Perez v. City of San Antonio, (5th ..read more

As previously reported, last month the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sitting en banc, by a vote of 6-5, refused to enjoin the government from transferring to a copper mining company federally-owned forest land that is of significant spiritual value to members of the Western Apache tribes. The land sits on the third largest deposit of copper ore in the world. The case generated six separate opinions spanning 241 pages which created separate majority alignments on different aspects of the interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Yesterday, plaintiffs filed a petition (full te ..read more

In Allouche v. France, (ECHR, April 11, 2024) (full text in French), the European Court of Human Rights in a Chamber Judgment awarded damages of 15,000 Euros plus costs and expenses to a Jewish woman for violation of her right to respect for her private life. As explained by the Court in an English language summary: Criminal proceedings were conducted following a complaint lodged by the applicant concerning antisemitic insults and threats she had received by email from B.... The applicant’s complaint concerned the fact that the authorities, which had failed to take into account the antisemi ..read more

From SSRN: Whittney Barth, Minimal (In)Fidelity: The Ministerial Exception in Religious Higher Education, (Forthcoming: ABA Journal of Labor and Employment Law). Andrew Sykes, One Nation Under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Dignity for All: Justice Anthony Kennedy’s Use of Catholic Social Teaching in His Gay Rights Jurisprudence, (CSLR Research Paper No. #1.2024-ESS (2024)). Lama Abu-Odeh, Western Feminism Before and After October 7, (Georgetown University Law Center Research Paper No.___, Forthcoming, (2024)). Florence Ashley, Parental Rights Over Transgender Youth—Furthering a ..read more