Air Force Academy asks for informal review of religion on campus

The Air Force Academy has asked retired Air Force General Patrick K. Gable, former commandant of cadets at the Academy and currently president of the University of Alaska, informally to review how the Academy was doing since charges of religious intolerance were lodged in 2004.

Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, criticized the scope of the review.

The problem at the school is not with any restriction on the free exercise of religion, but with unwanted proselytizing by fundamentalist Christians, a violation of the constitutional concept of the separation of church and state, he said.

Gamble said he was assembling a team of five or six members with expertise in law, religion, and academics and had not yet decided whether they would look at the separation issue.

[The Associated Press]

Eleven from Muslim Student Union charged for disrupting speech by Israel’s ambassador

Inside Higher Ed reports on the continuing fallout from last year’s demonstration by members of the University of California Irvine Muslim Student Union aimed at interrupting a speech by Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States. The Orange County District Attorney has charged 11 persons affiliated with the Muslim Student Union with two misdemeanor counts: disrupting a meeting and disturbing a meeting.

If convicted, the students could face up to six months in jail. The charges stem from an incident a year ago in which members of the student group repeatedly interrupted a talk at Irvine by Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States. Leaders of the Muslim student group have denied that they did anything wrong, and some at Irvine who criticized the heckling have said that this is a matter that should be adjudicated by the university (which has already done so).

Air Force Academy Professors sue to block prayer event

Five faculty members at the Air Force Academy and the Military Freedom Foundation have filed suit to block a “National Prayer Luncheon” event to which cadets and faculty have been invited. The professors claim that the event infringes on the separation of church and state; an academy spokesman said that the attendance was strictly voluntary.

[Associated Press via Inside Higher Ed]

More on UW-Madison religious funding case

Inside Higher Ed’s Scott Jaschik offers detailed background and analysis to the decision of the American Council on Education and six other national higher education organizations to file amicus briefs in support of the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s appeal of an appellate court ruling that the university improperly denied funding for Catholic worship activities sponsored by an approved student group.

A key part of the 2-to-1 ruling of by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit involved the university’s decision to fund broad categories of activities in the first place. The majority decision indicated that the university could have blocked student fees from going to the activities in question if it had blocked entire categories of support — whether conducted by secular or religious groups. Once a university allows any category of student activity to receive support, however, the court ruled that it can’t bar support for that activity just because it may involve worship.

For their part, the university and the higher education organizations filing the amicus brief argue that certain kinds of religious activity should not be supported by public funds.

ACE supports Supreme Court review of religious funding case

The American Council on Education has filed an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court decision that requires the University of Wisconsin-Madison to fund religious worship.

In a Sept. 1, 2010, decision in the case David G. Walsh v. Badger Catholic, Inc., the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the university’s decision to decline a small portion of funding requested by Badger Catholic, a registered student organization at UW-Madison, violated Badger Catholic’s First Amendment right to free speech.

The ACE news release and a link to the Amicus Brief are here.

U. of Kentucky pays astronomer $125,000 to settle religious discrimination suit

The University of Kentucky has agreed to pay astronomer C. Martin Gaskell $125,000 to settle a suit filed by the American Center for Law and Justice on Gaskell’s behalf. Gaskell had been the leading candidate to head Kentucky’s new MacAdam Student Observatory until members of the search committee learned that Gaskell harbored doubts about evolution and saw value for some forms of the argument for “intelligent design.”

See the articles in The Chronicle for Higher Education and especially in Inside Higher Ed, which summarizes some of Gaskell’s arguments that featured in the controversy.

Vanderbilt University’s nursing program and abortion

Inside Higher Ed has a series of posts on a controversy regarding Vanderbilt University’ Medical Center’s application to its Nurse Residency Program, which stated that nurses “will be expected to care for women undergoing termination of pregnancy.” It continues: “If you feel you cannot provide care to women during this type of event, we encourage you to apply to a different track of the Nurse Residency Program to explore opportunities that may best fit your skills and career goals.”

The Alliance Defense Fund charged that Vanderbilt was violating the law.  Vanderbilt University Medical Center issued a clarification of the intent of the application, a clarification that was then disputed by the Alliance Defense Fund. Vanderbilt subsequently announced that it had modified the application form to make it clear that those accepted into the program would not be required to assist in abortions.

Astronomer’s views on evolution may have cost him a job

In 2007 Martin Gaskell was the leading candidate for the position of director of a new observatory at the University of Kentucky until his views on evolution became known. Now a federal judge has ruled that Gaskell has the right to a jury trial over his allegations that he lost the job because of  his religious beliefs. The University claims that it was Gaskell’s scientific views that became an issue, not his religious beliefs. The Louisville Courier-Journal summarizes,

In its brief, UK said professors worried about Gaskell’s "casual blending of religion and science" and feared the then-planned MacAdam Student Observatory’s "true mission … would be thwarted by controversy that has nothing to do with astronomy."

Gaskell’s lawsuit, however, argues UK officials repeatedly referred to his religion in their discussions and e-mails. And he argues that UK mistook him for a creationist — someone who believes the Bible disproves the theory of evolution

The Louisville Courier-Journal’s report provides extensive background material from the court records.

[The Louisville Courier-Journal via Inside Higher Ed]

Cancellation of noncredit course on Islam remains controversial

Insider Higher Ed’s David Moltz has a report on the continuing controversy over the decision by Oregon’s Lane Community College to cancel a noncredit course on Islam. The course was to be taught by Barry Sommer, head of the local Eugene/Springfield chapter of Act! for America. The website for the national organization opens with this statement from its founder:

I founded ACT! for America because Islamic militants have declared war on America. I know what this means. For years, I witnessed first-hand how brutally jihadists treat non-Muslims.

We are in for the fight of our lives and we must ACT! – before it’s too late.

The reason Lane administrators gave for the cancellation was the recent terrorist attack in Portland and the firebombing of a mosque in Covallis. But on the same day as the cancellation, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on the college to replace Sommer as the instructor. Much of the ongoing controversy, and the threatened law suit, revolve around whether the college bowed to outside pressure from CAIR and compromised academic freedom.

Are campus police at church-related colleges a violation of the separation of church and state?

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a detailed report [subscription  required] on whether the arrest powers of campus police on religiously-affiliated campuses violate the constitutional separation of church and state. The issue is now before the state supreme court of North Carolina, which must decide on the legality of an arrest of a student by a Davidson College police officer for drunken and reckless driving. A state appellate court has already ruled that delegating police power to a religious institution constitutes “excessive entanglement” of government and religion. The article sketches the wider context and discusses implications for other college campus police forces, both in North Carolina and elsewhere.