The West Allis (Wisconsin) Public Library refused a patron's request to hold a meeting in its public meeting room because his creation science workshop might include religious discussion, and library policy did not allow use of the room for religious services. "It may be that the exclusion of partisan political meetings and religious services or instruction is based on the library's desire to avoid controversy," wrote U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman in a decision against the library. "However, the avoidance of controversy is not a valid ground for restricting speech in a public forum." (See more coverage at The Freedom Forum.)

The Russian Orthodox Church has been trying for ten years to regain control of Moscow's 1693 Church of the Intercession, now a "carefully-tended museum" in the words of Ian Traynor. It's pretty easy to tell from his article in Britain's The Guardian which side Traynor favors. "Having coped with the barbarities visited on it over 300 years, the church now faces a new threat," he writes. "According to some of Russia's architecture experts, incense and overcrowding could succeed where despots failed and destroy a precious national heirloom." An interesting take on priorities comes from Gennady Popov, director of the museum: "This is our cultural heritage and that is paramount. That's what we should be thinking about." In a related Russia story, University of Chicago sociologist Andrew Greeley told a religion conference at Oxford University that religious interest is skyrocketing in the country. "In a remarkably brief period of time, Russia ...