Yesterday, the Obama Administration received a final report and recommendations from its 25-member Faith-based Advisory Council. At the Washington Post's On Faith blog, Melissa Rogers describes the process and the results of the various task forces making up the council.

Those involved in these conversations did not consider or come to agreement on every issue. Indeed, our differences on a couple of issues are described below. But we were able to unite around a call for a number of important reforms. If implemented, these proposals would make a real difference on the ground, helping us to serve people in ways that are sensible, effective, and much more respectful of religious liberty.

Kudos to Rogers - former BJC General Counsel - for shepherding this important process through an extremely diverse panel of viewpoints, and to BJC executive Director Brent Walker for helping draft recommendations for reform of the faith-based program. Here's hoping the President will implement all, or at least most, of the council's advice.

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled that Cheryl Perich, dismissed by the Hosanna-Tabor Lutheran School in Redford, Michigan, may bring a discrimination claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The decision overturns the district court's finding that courts are not allowed to intervene in the case because of the ADA's "ministerial exception" which gives a religious institution the ability to control employment consistent with its religious mission. Here, writing for the panel, Judge Eric Clay argues, Perich's role at the school was not religious in nature, leaving the exception inapplicable.

[W]hen courts have found that teachers classify as ministerial employees for purposes of the exception, those teachers have generally taught primarily religious subjects or had a central role in the spiritual or pastoral mission of the church.
...
the district court erred in its legal conclusion classifying Perich as a ministerial employee. Perich spent approximately six hours and fifteen minutes of her seven hour day teaching secular subjects, using secular textbooks, without incorporating religion into the secular material.

...The fact that Perich participated in and led some religious activities throughout the day does not make her primary function religious.

At the Wall of Separation, Ilana Stern notes that today is the 62nd anniversary of a key church-state decision. 1948's McCollum v. Board of Education determined that public schools may not use instructional time for religious education - even under the guise of a "voluntary" program.

In 1944, Illinois fourth-grader James McCollum returned home from school and handed his mother a batch of homework assignments and a permission slip. James’ class was not embarking on a field trip, but rather, he and his classmates were asked to participate in “voluntary” religion classes that would be taught during the school day.

Initially consenting, his mother, Vashti McCollum, quickly changed her mind. After reviewing the course materials, she prohibited James from engaging in the school’s released-time program based on her belief that the classes were inappropriate for the public schools and offensive to her humanist sensibilities.

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post explores the question no one seems to think he should have bothered asking: "Does President Obama's next Supreme Court nominee need to be a Protestant?" 

Clearly, the court thinks of itself as post-religious. Last fall, Alito said he was frustrated that discussions about the court's Catholic majority became "one of those questions that does not die." He complained of "respectable people who have seriously raised the questions in serious publications about whether these individuals could be trusted to do their jobs."

Scalia has said he would be "hard-pressed to tell you of a single opinion of mine that would have come out differently if I were not Catholic." Ginsburg has said that whereas her predecessors on the court have been known collectively as the "Jewish justices," she and Breyer are "justices who happen to be Jews."

If President Obama nominates another Justice, here's hoping the media and the Senate confirmation process spends as much time considering the nominee's record and viewpoint on the constitutional balance of church-state separation as they do the denominational balance of the court's own members. More substance, please.

In a quick about-face, the head of the Dallas Housing Authority has now agreed that worship services for senior citizens may take place in public housing apartment buildings. Earlier, DHA President MaryAnn Russ had claimed otherwise, citing the separation of church and state.

The Oklahoma Senate yesterday passed a bill authorizing an elective class on the Bible in public high schools. Courses would be required to remain neutral on religious matters, but would use the controversial National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools. The measure now goes to the State House.

Recently-fired employees of the Ohio Workers Compensation Council allege widespread religious discrimination and coercion at the state office.

The Texas Freedom Network Insider blog analyzes election results for the Texas Board of Education. Incumbent and former chairman Don McLeroy - a leader in the effort to add religious perspectives to the science and social studies curricula - was very narrowly defeated in a Republican primary.

An Appeals Court order to remove religious materials from a Post Office operating in a church-run building was left in place by the Supreme Court, which has declined the petition for a hearing. The US Postal Service contracts with the Full Gospel Interdenominational Church to use one of its buildings to house the Manchester, CT Post Office. Complaints arose over the presence of religious symbols and literature around the counter where customers use the federal service. The Hartford Courant has more on the Court's decision.

In 2003, Bertram Cooper, a postal patron and Manchester resident who is Jewish, sued the postal service, saying that the display of religious materials offended him and violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits government from giving preference to one religion over another...."We are pleased that the Supreme Court left intact previous rulings that held that the function of religious outreach is out of place at a postal counter," said Andrew Schneider, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut. "Religious liberty is best protected when the government or those acting as governmental agents remain neutral on matters of faith."

Senator Joe Lieberman plans to introduce an amendment today that would extend the DC school voucher program, according to Americans United. Despite Congress' decision to end the program, this amendment would - reports say - fund school vouchers for another 5 years. The provision would be attached to HR 4213, the bill to amend the tax code.

The Senate should reject this effort (again). School vouchers are a drain on public school resources, they aren't necessarily effective means of improving student achievement, and most importantly for my purposes here, they send taxpayer money to private and religious schools, with few safeguards, if any, to ensure that public funds are not used to indoctrinate students.

A California school district violated teacher Bradley Johnson's constitutional rights when officials required him to remove banners from his classroom proclaiming "In God We Trust", "God Bless America", "God Shed His Grace on Thee", and other patriotic slogans invoking God. The North County Times has more.

In a decision filed Feb. 25, Judge Roger Benitez wrote that the school district may not censor one teacher's expression that refers to Judeo-Christian views while allowing other teachers to express views on a number of controversial subjects, including religious and anti-religious.

"By squelching only Johnson’s patriotic and religious classroom banners, while permitting other diverse religious and anti-religious classroom displays, the school district does a disservice to the students of Westview High School and the federal and state constitutions do not permit this one-sided censorship," the judge wrote.

Benitez also wrote that Johnson hung the banners not as a class lesson but for self-expression, which is allowed in the district for other teachers.

Read the opinion here.

One peculiarity of yesterday's statewide primary in Texas is that the Republican ballot included not only candidate races but also ballot propositions. These are non-binding of course - we can't let members of one party determine state law - but they do reflect the viewpoints of their party's voters on issues they would like to see become public policy. One of the gems up for a vote yesterday was Ballot Proposition 4 - Public Acknowledgment of God:

The use of the word “God”, prayers, and the Ten Commandments should be allowed at public gatherings and public educational institutions, as well as be permitted on government buildings and property.

It's hard to say what's worse here, the misleading language - after all, God and prayers are "allowed" in all of those places so long as they do not constitute government speech or imply government endorsement- or the political cynicism that would try to drive voters to your party by giving them hot-button, sensationalized religious themes at the ballot box. (Want to "acknowledge God"? You must be right for our party!)

Dividing citizens between the religious and non-religious is a sad political strategy, bad for our politics and our religion alike. It replaces serious discussion about church-state issues and the role of faith in government with a false choice and a foolish contest, over who loves God more.

The measure passed, by the way, 95%-5%.