Around the states

Church & State, Jul/Aug 2002

Falwell Fulmination Fails To Squash Satire Site

An international arbiter of Internet domain names has ruled that a parody website devoted to the Rev. Jerry Falwell can continue to poke fun at the controversial Religious Right leader.

Falwell had complained to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) that www.jerryfalwell.com violates a "common-law trademark" of his name, and will lead visitors to the website into "false thinking" about the Bible. The site was created by web designer Gary Cohn to chronicle and mock Falwell's speeches, fundraising letters and ultra-conservative positions on political issues. Sections on the site include "Jerry's Lies," "Faith Ba$ed" and "False Prophets."

A three-member panel convened by the WIPO announced on June 8 that the site can remain active.

"The complainant has failed to show that his name, well known as it is, has been used in a trademark sense as a label of particular goods or services," the WIPO decision said. "There are many well-known ministers, religious figures and academics. Are their sermons or lectures to be considered commercial goods?"

Fawell's lawyers have indicated that they are planning to file suit against the site in American civil courts sometime soon.

Preaching Teacher In N.Y. Loses Another Court Battle

A New York teacher who was fired in 1998 after praying and laying her hands on the foreheads of her sixth-grade students has lost another round in court.

Mildred Rosario, a Pentecostal teacher from the Bronx, became a Religious Right hero in June 1998 when she lost her teaching position over inappropriate religious activity in class. After a student died in a drowning accident, Rosario invited the public school students to "accept Jesus" as their savior. Then, as Rosario explained in a statement, "I put my hand on [the students'] forehead asking Jesus to take care of them and their families."

Confronted by school officials, Rosario refused to promise such an incident would not occur again. This attitude, coupled with Rosario's record of poor teaching performance and absenteeism, led to her prompt dismissal.

Rosario sued the New York Board of Education, arguing that the firing was motivated by an anti-Christian, anti-Puerto Rican bias. On June 10, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected her claims in Rosario v. Board of Education of the City of New York. The appeals court unanimously concluded that the board's. interest in avoiding constitutional difficulties of its own "justified its actions in terminating Rosario."

N.Y. Kosher Laws Aren't Kosher, Court Holds

A federal appeals court has struck down a New York statute that regulated and set standards for Jewish kosher rules.

The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled May 22 in Commack v. Weiss that state laws regulating a religious group's standards require public officials to interfere in religious matters, a practice in conflict with the First Amendment because the laws "excessively entangle government and religion."

The suit was brought by two Long Island butchers who had been following the kosher guidelines of the Conservative branch of Judaism, but were fined repeatedly by New York for not adhering to the stricter Orthodox rules endorsed by the state government.

"Through these laws, the state has selected the views of one branch of Judaism..to the exclusion of others," the unanimous appeals court said.

The ruling upholds a district court decision from July 2000 that also ruled kosher law enforcement unconstitutional.

Tax Break For Religious Studies Rejected By Appeals Court

A federal appeals court has ruled that a Jewish family in California cannot legally deduct religious school tuition payments on their tax return, despite the fact that members of the Church of Scientology are permitted to deduct the costs of some of their religious services.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided unanimously that Michael and Maria Sklar could not deduct 55 percent of the tuition they paid to send their four children to Jewish day schools.

The Sklars noted that the Internal Revenue Service allows Scientologists to deduct the costs of religious services including "auditing" and "training," two elements of worship integral to the Scientologists' religion. In light of that allowance, the Sklars argued that 55 percent of the time at their children's school was spent on religious education and should therefore be tax deductible.

In a unanimous ruling in Sklar v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the judges said that the religious education received by the Sklars' children "does not appear to be similar to the 'auditing' and 'training' conducted by the Church of Scientology."

AROUND THE WORLD

Vatican Denies Role In Insurance Fraud Scheme

Five U.S. state insurance commissions are suing the Vatican, charging that high-ranking officials in the Roman Catholic Church helped an American financier engage in insurance fraud.

In May, the insurance commissioners of Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi filed suit in federal court in Mississippi alleging that Marvin Frankel orchestrated a complex insurance fraud through a charitable organization, the St. Francis of Assisi Foundation to Serve and Help the Poor and Alleviate Suffering, which he helped create with a former Vatican judge, Monsignor Emilio Colagiovanni.