Digital Commons Network^™

The French Law "Marriage For All" A Lot Of Noise, And Then?, Frank S. Giaoui

Frank S. Giaoui

Upon a recent decision of the Federal Supreme Court, the USA has become the 15th country in the World to act marriage as a civil right for same-sex couples. Just two years before, in a very different constitutional environment, France acted an equivalent law including adoptive filiation. France had to overcome a long debate at the parliament and passionate reactions among the various secular and religious constituencies of its society.

This article tends to address three main questions: How does the law actually change the family environment of same-sex couples? Why the most willing legislators advised by the …

Stemming The Hobby Lobby Tidal Wave: Why Rfra Challenges To Obama's Executive Order Prohibiting Federal Contractors From Discriminating Against Lgbt Employees Will Not Succeed, Kayla Higgins

Kayla Higgins

On July 21, 2014 President Obama released Executive Order 13672, which expressly aimed to provide for a uniform policy for the Federal Government to prohibit discrimination and take further steps to promote economy and efficiency in Federal Government procurement by prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Some commentators believe that the order “could be the next battleground” for the competing views of religious leaders and liberals when it comes to how to weigh religious liberty against other priorities. However, there are two main reasons why the most recent executive order should not crumble under the Hobby Lobby …

The Power Of The Body: Analyzing The Corporeal Logic Of Law And Social Change In The Arab Spring, Zeina Jallad, Zeina Jallad

Zeina Jallad

The Power of the Body:

Analyzing the Logic of Law and Social Change in the Arab Spring

Abstract:

Under conditions of extreme social and political injustice - when human rights are under the most threat - rational arguments rooted in the language of human rights are often unlikely to spur reform or to ensure government adherence to citizens’ rights. When those entrusted with securing human dignity, rights, and freedoms fail to do so, and when other actors—such as human rights activists, international institutions, and social movements—fail to engage the levers of power to eliminate injustice, then oppressed and even quotidian …

Latest Surveys And Polls On Bascule Of Religion And Belief In Both The United Kingdom And Iran, Mohamad Ali Ali Yousefkhani Mr

Mohamad Ali Ali Yousefkhani

Numerous surveys indicate that the proportion of individuals who do not hold religious beliefs is steadily increasing. Religions and beliefs are notoriously difficult to measure, as they are not fixed or innate, and therefore any poll should be primarily treated as an indication of beliefs rather than a concrete measure. However, one of the foremost respected measures of religious attitudes is the annual British Social Attitudes Survey, further details of the latest report may be found on NatCen’s website

Free Exercise For Whom? -- Could The Religious Liberty Principle That Catholics Established In Perez V. Sharp Also Protect Same-Sex Couples' Right To Marry?, Eric Alan Isaacson

Eric Alan Isaacson

Recent discussions about the threat that same-sex couples hypothetically pose to the religious freedom of Americans whose religions traditions frown upon same-sex unions have largely overlooked the possibility that same-sex couples might have their own religious-liberty interest in being able to marry. The General Synod of the United Church of Christ brought the issue to the fore with an April 2014 lawsuit challenging North Carolina laws barring same-sex marriages. Authored by a lawyer who represented the California Council of Churches and other religions organizations as amici curiae in recent marriage-equality litigation, this article argues that although marriage is a secular …

Why Chief Justice Roy Moore And The Alabama Supreme Court Just Made The Best Case For Same-Sex Marriage, Adam Lamparello

Adam Lamparello

The Alabama Court of the Judiciary should remove Roy Moore from the Supreme Court of Alabama for a second and final time. Over ten years after being ousted from the Alabama Supreme Court, Chief Justice Moore is embroiled in yet another controversy that involves disregarding the federal courts and creating chaos in the legal system. In fact, Moore recently stated that he would ignore the Supremacy Clause and not respect a U.S. Supreme Court decision invalidating same-sex marriage bans. That statement brings back memories of Governor Wallace’s infamous stand at the schoolhouse door. At least Wallace had a change of …

Definitions, Religion, And Free Exercise Guarantees, Mark Strasser

Mark Strasser

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the free exercise of religion. Non-religious practices do not receive those same protections, which makes the ability to distinguish between religious and non-religious practices important. Regrettably, members of the Court have been unable to agree about how to distinguish the religious from the non-religious—sometimes, the implicit criteria focus on the sincerity of the beliefs, sometimes the strength of the beliefs or the role that they play in an individual’s life, and sometimes the kind of beliefs. In short, the Court has virtually guaranteed an incoherent jurisprudence by sending contradictory signals with …

Toward A New Separation Of Church And State: Implications For Analogies To Last Year's Supreme Court Decision In Hobby Lobby By This Year's Decision In Obergefell V. Hodges, Vincent Samar

Vincent J. Samar

No abstract provided.

The French Law "Marriage For All" A Lot Of Noise, And Then?, Frank S. Giaoui

Frank S. Giaoui

Upon a recent decision of the Federal Supreme Court, the USA has become the 15th country in the World to act marriage as a civil right for same-sex couples. Just two years before, in a very different constitutional environment, France acted an equivalent law including adoptive filiation. France had to overcome a long debate at the parliament and passionate reactions among the various secular and religious constituencies of its society. This article tends to address three main questions: How does the law actually change the family environment of same-sex couples? Why the most willing legislators advised by the most competent …

What Impact The Supreme Court’S Recent Hobby Lobby Decision Might Have For Lgbt Civil Rights?, Vincent Samar

Vincent J. Samar

Abstract

What Impact the Supreme Court’s Recent Hobby Lobby

Decision Might Have for LGBT Civil Rights?

Vincent J. Samar

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in the Hobby Lobby case has created shockwaves of concern among civil rights groups questioning whether for-profit corporations can assert a religious exemption from civil rights legislation under a 1993 federal law, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The matter is of particular concern in the LGBT community given the possible impact it could have on services traditionally offered to those getting married as more and more states legalize same-sex marriage. Though the Court’s conservative majority …

Phil 130: Dimensions Of Diversity (Spring 2014), Dylan Kissane

Dylan Kissane

No abstract provided.

Discrimination In France, Dylan Kissane

Dylan Kissane

No abstract provided.

Legitimation, Mark C. Modak-Truran

Mark C Modak-Truran

This article identifies three different conceptions of legitimation - pre-modern, modern, and post-secular - that compete both within and across national boundaries for the coveted prize of informing the social imaginary regarding how the government and the law should be legitimated in constitutional democracies. Pre-modern conceptions of legitimation consider governments and rulers legitimate if they are ordained by God or if the political system is ordered in accordance with the normative cosmic order. Contemporary proponents of the pre-modern conception range from those in the United States who maintain that the government has been legitimated by the “Judeo-Christian tradition” to those …

Rethinking Religious Tradition And Authority In The Postmodern World, Chang Yau Hoon

Chang Yau HOON

No abstract provided.

Religious Victory Over The Affordable Care Act? Possible Recourse For The Employee Of The Religious Employer, Jacqueline Prats

Jacqueline M Prats

In 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Even as the Court deliberated, a number of for-profit employers prepared to challenge the law—not the Act as a whole, but a specific part: the requirement that insurance plans cover contraceptives for women, free of co-pay or other cost-sharing. Although their companies were secular, these business owners claimed that the “contraception mandate” violated not only their religious beliefs, but also those of their companies. They challenged the ACA under both the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and a federal statute called the Religious Freedom …

Identity Forum, Aajay Murphy

Aajay Murphy

Poster created for an Identity Forum held on November 13, 2013.

Phil 130: Dimensions Of Diversity (Fall 2013), Dylan Kissane

Dylan Kissane

No abstract provided.

Pancasila And The Christians In Indonesia: A Leaky Shelter?, Chang Yau Hoon

Chang Yau HOON

No abstract provided.

A Corporation Has No Soul - The Business Entity Law Response To Challenges To The Contraceptive Mandate Under The Ppaca, Thomas E. Rutledge

Thomas E. Rutledge

The most contentious matter in the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “PPACA”) is not a question of health care, but rather one of the law of business organizations. The dispute has been over the requirement that group health insurance plans provide, on a no-cost sharing basis, coverage for a variety of procedures and prescription medicines involving contraception and what are described as “abortificants.”

The class of suits subject to this discussion were filed by what are not religious organizations but rather for-profit business ventures, asserting that they should be exempt from the requirements of the …

Phil 130: Dimensions Of Diversity (Summer 2013), Dylan Kissane

Dylan Kissane

No abstract provided.

Secularity, Religion And The Possibilities For Religious Citizenship, Lyn Parker, Chang Yau Hoon

Chang Yau HOON

No abstract provided.

De-Gendering The Church Wedding: An Analysis Of The United Church Of Christ Marriage Rite For Persons Of The Same Sex In Light Of Catholic Teaching, Daniel Avila

Daniel Avila

An analysis pursuant to Catholic teaching of the United Church of Christ wedding ceremony revised to celebrate same-sex commitments as marriage.

Phil 130: Dimensions Of Diversity (Spring 2013), Dylan Kissane

Dylan Kissane

No abstract provided.

U.S. Asylum Law As A Path To Religious Persecution, Jack C. Dolance Ii

Jack C Dolance II

U.S. asylum law protects against persecution “on account of . . . religion.” But must the law protect a non-believer seeking religious asylum in the United States? Many may instinctively answer “no,” for a non-believer is by most definitions not “religious.” Such a response misses the mark however — at least in the context of U.S. asylum law, which is subject to the First Amendment. The protection of religious liberty enshrined in the First Amendment embodies freedom from persecution on account of one’s “religion” — in whatever form that religion may take. In the asylum context, then, “religion” must be …

Ideological Voting Applied To The School Desegregation Cases In The Federal Courts Of Appeals From The 1960’S And 70’S, Joe Custer

Joe Custer

This paper considers a research suggestion from Cass Sunstein to analyze segregation cases from the 1960's and 1970's and whether three hypothesis he projected in the article "Ideological Voting on Federal Courts of Appeals: A Preliminary Investigation," 90 Va. L. Rev. 301 (2004), involving various models of judicial ideology, would pertain. My paper considers Sunstein’s three hypotheses in addition to other judicial ideologies to try to empirically determine what was influencing Federal Court of Appeals Judges in regard to Civil Rights issues, specifically school desegregation, in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Spiritual Development And Education: A Spiritual Needs/Motivation/Volition Framework, Russell Yocum, Susan James, Laura Staal, Elyse Pinkie

Russell Yocum

No abstract provided.

Reinterpret Polygamy In Islam: A Case Study In Indonesia, Arif Rohman

Arif Rohman

It is the consensus of ulema (religious leader) in Indonesia that polygamy is allowed in Islam, while polyandry is prohibited. That is why even though that the practice of monogamy has negative impacts to women, some people still conduct it and believe that polygamy is sunnah (the manner or deeds of Muhammad) and part of syariah (Islamic law). This article will explore the perspective of fundamentalist and modernist about polygamy and how the modernist Muslim scholars in Indonesia fight for opposing polygamy.

Why Are We Teaching Kids To Hate?: Ending The Practice Of Gay-To-Straight Conversion Treatments, Afton R. Cavanaugh

Afton R. Cavanaugh

The governor of California just signed into law SB 1172, creating a cause of action against mental health professionals that attempt to convert children under the age of eighteen from gay to straight. Conversion therapy, as this practice is called, has been around for a long time, but recently our nation’s youth has come into the crosshairs of powerful anti-gay activists. Conversion therapy imbeds within the child’s psyche an internalized form of homophobia that causes an extreme risk of psychological distress given the developing and often fragile mental state of children and teenagers. These methods have no proven success rate, …

Religious Law Schools And Democratic Society, Jennifer Wright

Jennifer Wright

Many believe that, in a democratic society, the law must be approached as a purely secular, neutral system to which all members of society can assent. Discussion of religious foundations of law is condemned as inherently divisive and destructive of democratic process. Many in the legal academy believe that law school education should not involve teaching students to examine the moral foundations of the law and the legal system, and certainly should not invite and challenge law students to examine their professional role in the justice system in light of their own moral commitments and religious faiths. Law students both …

Leaving The Dale To Be More Fair: On Cls And First Amendment Jurisprudence, Mark Strasser

Mark Strasser

In Christian Legal Society of the University of California, Hastings College of Law v. Martinez, the Supreme Court upheld the Hastings College of Law’s requirement that all recognized student groups have an open membership policy. The decision has been criticized for a variety of reasons, e.g., that the Court conflated the First Amendment tests for speech and association. What has not been adequately explored is the degree to which the Court has modified limited purpose public forum analysis in the university context over the past few decades, resulting in a jurisprudence that is virtually unrecognizable in light of the more …