Religion briefs

Jewish school asks court to overturn ruling

LONDON (AP) — A leading Jewish school asked Britain's Supreme Court on Tuesday to overturn a ruling that it racially discriminated against a boy when it refused to accept him as a pupil because it did not recognize his mother as Jewish.

In June, the Court of Appeal ruled that London's JFS, or Jews' Free School, racially discriminated against a 13-year-old boy identified as M. His father is Jewish by birth, but his mother converted at a progressive synagogue not recognized by Orthodox Judaism.

The Court of Appeal ruled that because Jews are defined as an ethnic group in British law, denying a child admission because his mother is not Jewish constituted racial discrimination.

The school's lawyer, David Pannick, said the dispute was about religious law, not race. He said M would be regarded as Jewish by Reform, Masorti or Liberal Judaism, but not by Orthodox Jews.

"Our case is that the refusal of the place to M was not an act of race discrimination," Pannick said.

Pannick said M was rejected "because and only because of the religious criteria applied by the Chief Rabbi as to who is Jewish."

N.M. court denies prisoner's request

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The state's highest court has denied a request from sect leader Wayne Bent for prison release on bond while he appeals his convictions for sexual misconduct with teenage female followers.

The Supreme Court denied the petition without explanation, as had the Court of Appeals.

Bent is serving 10 years for criminal sexual contact of a minor and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The leader of The Lord Our Righteousness Church said the touching was part of a religious healing ritual and there was no sexual activity.

Bent was sentenced in December. He has been fasting, and his lawyer says he is being fed through a tube. A judge cleared the way for the feeding last month.

The court's ruling was announced Tuesday by the attorney general.

Prosecutors cold to defendant's 'sorry'

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — He may have hugged the clerk. He may have prayed with her, too. But prosecutors say Gregory Smith's contrition during a crime in progress doesn't change the fact he still robbed a check cashing store.

"One of the commandments is 'Thou shalt not steal,'" said David E. Wyser, Marion County's chief deputy prosecutor.