Thanks to Howard Friedman for linking to the text of remarks delivered by New York Mayor Bloomberg following yesterday's vote of the Landmarks Commission clearing the way for the controversial "ground zero mosque". Read the whole thing, but here's a...
The NYTimes reports the Landmarks Commission voted 9-0 today to allow the building of an Islamic center to go forward near ground zero, rejecting a bid to block the development by having the site named a historical landmark. Sharif El-Gamal, chief executive of SoHo...
Calling it a "close case", a 3rd Circuit panel ruled 2-1 yesterday that a Pennsylvania prison did not violate the civil rights of female Muslim employees in prohibiting the wearing of headscarves as a condition of continued employment. The private company...
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced today the Senate will take up the confirmation of Elena Kagan tomorrow morning. A vote is expected Thursday or Friday.
I'm a little surprised that news coverage of recent mosque controversies has made practically no mention of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). (I guess, in their defense, it *is* hard to pronounce.) That law, passed in 2000,...
Saturday's NYTimes offered an update on the controversial proposal to build a mosque and Islamic center near the ground zero site in New York, characterizing it as a "fierce national debate about the limits of religious freedom." City officials,...
