EEOC Sues Over Firing of Seventh Day Adventist

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The EEOC announced yesterday that it has filed suit against Greenville Ready Mix Concrete, Inc., a North Carolina based company, for refusing to accommodate the religious observances of a Seventh Day Adventist employee.  Michael Cole, a truck driver for the company, was baptized as a Seventh-Day Adventist in February 2014, after which he asked not to work on Saturdays.  The company nevertheless scheduled him for a Saturday, and fired him when he refused.

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Court Again Denies Minister Right To File Amended Complaint In Building Code Dispute

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In Salman v. City of Phoenix, (D AZ, June 6, 2016), an Arizona federal district court denied a motion by an Arizona minister to file a fourth amended complaint in a suit challenging Phoenix’s application of its building code to his use of his house for weekly Bible study meetings and worship.

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Court Issues Preliminary Injunction Against College’s Speech Permit Policy

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In Grace Christian Life v. Woodson, (ED NC, June 4, 2016), a North Carolina federal district court issued a preliminary injunction barring North Carolina State University from enforcing its non-commercial speech permit policy that requires students to obtain prior written permission before distributing leaflets or soliciting passersby on campus. The suit was brought by a Christian student organization that proselytizes on campus. (See prior posting.) According to a press release by ADF, the court issued the preliminary injunction two days after a hearing in the case.  The court adopted plaintiff’s allegations as its findings of fact. The preliminary injunction allows the University to still ban disruption of University activities, obstruction of buildings or sidewalks, or interference with educational activities or ceremonies.

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EEOC Sues Claiming Inadequate Accommodation of Refusal To Take Flu Shot

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The EEOC announced last week that it has filed suit in a Massachusetts federal district court against Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts for failing to accommodate an employee who, for religious reasons, refused to get a flu vaccination.  The medical center allows employees with religious objections to instead wear a mask at work.  Stephanie Clarke, a recruiter in Baystate’s human resources department, initially wore the mask, but job applicants could not understand her when they spoke to her. So she removed her mask and requested Baystate to find a different accommodation. Instead Baystate put her on indefinite, unpaid leave, and when she complained it terminated her employment. EEOC argues that an accommodation under Title VII must both respect the employee’s religious beliefs and permit her to do her job effectively. Here she was terminated because she complained about religious discrimination. BNA Daily Labor Report has more on the suit.

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Another Challenge Filed To Mississippi’s Freedom of Conscience Law

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As reported by AP, on Friday a third lawsuit was filed challenging Mississippi’s House Bill 1523, the Protecting Freedom of Conscience From Government Discrimination Act. Mississippi Center for Justice announced the filing of the federal lawsuit which was brought by a group of clergy, community leaders, activists and a Hattiesburg church.  The complaint (full text) contends:

With the passage and approval of that bill, the Legislature and the Governor breached the separation of church and state, and specifically endorsed certain narrow religious beliefs that condemn same-sex couples who get married, condemn unmarried people who have sexual relations, and condemn transgender people.

Last month the ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging the new law (see prior posting) and plaintiffs in a suit that helped bring down the barriers to same-sex marriage in Mississippi have moved to challenge the law by reopening their lawsuit.

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Sewer Connection To Amish Must Be Made In Least Religiously Intrusive Means

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In Yoder v. Sugar Grove Area Sewer Authority, (PA Commw., June 3, 2016), a Pennsylvania appellate court remanded to the trial court a suit by an Old Order Amish family seeking to avoid connecting their property to the public sewer system.  In an earlier decision, the trial court had concluded that the interest in protecting public health through a sewer connection outweighed the Amish family’s free exercise rights, but required that the connection to the sewer system be made in accordance with the family’s religious convictions. The current suit stems from disagreements on how to carry out this prior order and the trial court’s improper belated modification of it. According to the court, the Amish family has religious objections to having electricity power anything associated with the use of their outhouse, and risk excommunication if they use a privy tainted with the use of electric power. In remanding and requiring the trial court to reconsider the method by which a sewer connection would be made to the family’s property, the court said in part:

The trial court’s analysis regarding the threat to public safety pertained to the lack of any sewer connection at all, not a connection by nonelectric means, or, failing that, electricity generated by natural, non-electricity provider means. Importantly, the trial court also did not address Owners’ alleged clear right to the least intrusive means of a mandatory connection.

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Christian Camp Says Nearby Dairy Farm Approval Violates RLUIPA

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A lawsuit was filed last month in an Indiana state trial court by a Christian youth camp which objects to a zoning board’s approval of a large dairy farm nearby. The complaint (full text) in House of Prayer Ministries, Inc. v. Rush County Board of Zoning Appeals, (filed 5/16/2016), alleges that the 1400 cows and three large waste lagoons on the farm will expose campers to noxious odors and harmful air emissions that will “interfere with Harvest Christian Camp’s thirty-year mission and ability to provide a safe, healthy, and Christian rural setting for thousands of children and teens to be educated, enriched spiritually, and enhanced by the outdoors….”  This, the complaint alleges, amounts to a substantial burden that violates the camp’s rights under RLUIPA, the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the First and 14th Amendments and the state constitution’s equal privileges and immunities clause. RLUIPA Defense blog reports on the case.

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New Jersey Court Invalidates Capital Grants To 2 Religious Colleges

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In American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey v. Hendricks, (NJ App., May 26. 2016), a New Jersey state appellate court held that grants to two religious colleges for capital improvements violate the provision in the New Jersey Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 3, that bars taxation “for building or repairing any church or churches, place or places of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry….” The Department of Higher Education had awarded two grants totaling over $10 million to a Jewish school, Beth Medrash Govoha, and three grants totaling $645,323 to Princeton Theological Seminary. The court said that a 1978 New Jersey Supreme Court ruling interpreting Art. I, Sec. 8 compelled it to conclude that these grants of public funds were invalid. NJ.com reports on the decision.

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Appeals Court Upholds Saturday Murder Trial Despite Defendant’s Religious Objection

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In State v. Victor, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 1030 (LA App., May 26, 2016), a Louisiana state appeals court held that defendant’s free exercise rights were not violated when the court refused to adjourn his second degree murder trial on Saturday, which defendant claimed was his Sabbath.  Defendant was on trial for the murder of his 8-year old stepson who died after a severe beating that was allegedly administered as discipline for stealing ice cream. In upholding on compelling interest grounds the trial court’s refusal to adjourn for Saturday, the appeals court said in part:

the record reflects that the trial judge carefully considered defendant’s concerns as well as his delay in raising this issue, including his failure to object when the prospective jury was advised numerous times of the possibility that they would be required to work on Saturday, his lack of a specific religious affiliation or particular church membership, the unavailability of the State’s key expert witness the following week, and “the justice system as a whole,” in denying defendant’s request not to hold trial on Saturday.

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Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine Leads To Dismissal of Consumer Fraud Complaint Against Cemetery

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In Mammon v. SCI Funeral Services of Florida, Inc., (FL App., May 25, 2016), a Florida appellate court invoked the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine to dismiss a consumer fraud complaint against a cemetery brought by a widow who claimed that the cemetery gave false assurances that her late husband would be buried in accordance with Jewish burial customs and traditions. A month after her husband was buried, the widow discovered that the cemetery allowed non-Jews to be buried in the same section of the cemetery, a practice which she alleged violated Jewish burial traditions. Defendants however cited theological debates among rabbis on whether there are exceptions to the ban. The court held that:

although the widow’s complaint is framed in counts alleging deceptive and fraudulent misrepresentations regarding “Jewish burial customs and traditions,” the disposition of those counts cannot be accomplished without first determining, as a matter of fact, what constitutes “Jewish burial customs and traditions.” *** That preliminary determination would violate the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine.

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