By Michael D. Peabody, Esq. – For over 25 years, the legal system has grappled with the question of what constitutes prima facie discriminatory conduct under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Courts across the nation have established different standards for prima facie discrimatory conduct and there have been no clear-cut answers. Sixth Circuit Court…
Category: Employment Law
Maryland State Legislature considers a Workplace Religious Freedom Act (HB 381)
ANNAPOLIS – The Maryland State Legislature is presently considering a state-level Workplace Religious Freedom Act” (HB 381). The bill, currently working its way through the House where it was heard on February 10, 2010, addresses employee requests for observance of holy days. Modeled on the Maryland Flexible Leave Act, the Maryland Workplace Religious Freedom Act would require…
NJ county’s Sunday buying ban may be checking out (AP)
Thanks to RLTV reader Doug Beasley for finding this story. EXCERPT: The Sunday shopping ban in New Jersey’s largest county – among the nation’s last remaining blue laws – may be lifted to satisfy the state’s hunger for more sales tax revenue. The budget proposed last week by new Republican Gov. Chris Christie assumes $65 million in new…
9th Circuit Holds ‘Ministerial Exception’ Bars Seminarian Employment Case
EXCERPT: This “ministerial exception” helps to preserve the wall between church and state from even the mundane government intrusion presented here. In this case, plaintiff Cesar Rosas seeks pay for the overtime hours he worked as a seminarian in a Catholic church in Washington. The district court correctly determined that the ministerial exception bars Rosas’s claim and dismissed the case on the pleadings.
Washington State Bill to Unionize Child Care Centers Dies in Committee
Washington State Bill to Unionize Child Care Centers Dies in Committee We have good news from the State of Washington. You may have read our last newsletter about the bill that labor unions were trying to pass that would unionize private child care centers, and including faith-based preschools, and categorize their workers as government employees…
Oregon Legislature Votes Down 1923 Ban on Teachers Wearing Religious Dress
Oregon Legislature Votes Down 1923 Ban on Teachers Wearing Religious Dress By Michael Peabody – This month we have a couple of big stories coming out of the great Pacific Northwest. In Oregon, the legislature has passed a bill championed by the Northwest Religious Liberty Association that overturns a 87-year-old law that prohibited teachers from…
Oregon Legislature Ends Ban on Teachers Wearing Religious Dress – Goes to Governor for Signature
EXCERPT from OregonLive.com (link below): Oregon’s longstanding ban on teachers wearing head scarves or other religious dress is near its demise after the Senate and House gave final approval Tuesday to lift the ban. Champions in the Senate called ending the ban a historic step toward religious freedom and non-discrimination in a state that has…
Washington House of Representatives Attempts to Facilitate Union Take-Over of Religious Child Care Centers
By Michael D. Peabody – So what’s the biggest threat to religious liberty? According to J. Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, the answer is found in the strings attached to government funding of religious activity. Earlier this month, during a speech for the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, Walker said, “What the government funds, it always regulates. Government-sponsored religion is always bad for religion. How can we raise a prophetic fist with one hand and take government money with the other?”
The truth of Walker’s statement was underscored just last week when the Washington State House of Representatives passed HB 1329, now working its way through the state Senate, that cleared the way for unionization of private and most non-profit child care centers if they take government subsidies for as little as one child, and even declares the centers’ employees “government employees” for the purposes of unionization.
Blue Laws and Sunday Legislation-why do they exist? CNN Video
A video describing some of the religious and secular rationale behind American Sunday blue laws.
Pastor Boissoin’s Lawyer: Case Will Positively Impact Religious Freedom in Canada (LifeSiteNews)
From http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/dec/09120706.html EXCERPT: CALGARY, December 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Gerald Chipeur, the lawyer who represented Pastor Stephen Boissoin, has said that the recent ruling in favor of Mr. Boissoin “will have a significant long term positive impact on religious freedom in Canada, there are other lawyers in other aspects of law, like accidents or injuries…