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Full-Text Articles in Law
Reynolds Revisited: The Original Meaning Of Reynolds V. United States And Free Exercise After Fulton, Clark B. Lombardi
Reynolds Revisited: The Original Meaning Of Reynolds V. United States And Free Exercise After Fulton, Clark B. Lombardi
Articles
This Article calls for a profound reevaluation of the stories that are being told today about the Supreme Court’s free exercise jurisprudence starting with the Court’s seminal 1879 decision in Reynolds v. United States and proceeding up to the present day. Scholars and judges today agree that the Supreme Court in Reynolds interpreted the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to protect only religious belief and not religiously motivated action. All casebooks today embrace this interpretation of the case, and the Supreme Court has regularly endorsed it over the past twenty years, most recently in 2022. However, this Article …
Balancing Religious Liberties And Antidiscrimination Interests In The Public Employment Context: The Impact Of Masterpiece Cakeshop And American Legion, Brenda Bauges
Articles
No abstract provided.
Deference To Claims Of Substantial Religious Burden, Caroline Mala Corbin
Deference To Claims Of Substantial Religious Burden, Caroline Mala Corbin
Articles
No abstract provided.
Intentional Discrimination In Establishment Clause Jurisprudence, Caroline Mala Corbin
Intentional Discrimination In Establishment Clause Jurisprudence, Caroline Mala Corbin
Articles
In Town of Greece, New York v. Galloway, the Supreme Court upheld a legislative prayer practice with overwhelmingly Christian prayers in part because the Court concluded that the exclusion of all other religions was unintentional. This requirement-that a religiously disparate impact must be intentional before it amounts to an establishment violation-is new for Establishment Clause doctrine. An intent requirement, however, is not new for equal protection or free exercise claims. This Essay explores the increased symmetry between the Establishment Clause, the Equal Protection Clause, and the Free Exercise Clause. It argues that many of the critiques of the intentional …
Hobby Lobby And The Pathology Of Citizens United, Ellen D. Katz
Hobby Lobby And The Pathology Of Citizens United, Ellen D. Katz
Articles
Four years ago, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission held that for-profit corporations possess a First Amendment right to make independent campaign expenditures. In so doing, the United States Supreme Court invited speculation that such corporations might possess other First Amendment rights as well. The petitioners in Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius are now arguing that for-profit corporations are among the intended beneficiaries of the Free Exercise Clause and, along with the respondents in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, that they also qualify as “persons” under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Neither suggestion follows inexorably from Citizens United, …
The Contraception Mandate, Caroline Mala Corbin
The Contraception Mandate, Caroline Mala Corbin
Articles
Under the new health care regime, health insurance plans must cover contraception. While religious employers are exempt from this requirement, religiously affiliated employers are not. Several have sued, claiming that the "contraception mandate" violates the Free Exercise Clause, the Free Speech Clause, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This Essay explains why the contraception mandate violates none of them.
Debate: The Contraception Mandate And Religious Freedom, Steven D. Smith, Caroline Mala Corbin
Debate: The Contraception Mandate And Religious Freedom, Steven D. Smith, Caroline Mala Corbin
Articles
No abstract provided.
The Irony Of Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church And School V Eeoc, Caroline Mala Corbin
The Irony Of Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church And School V Eeoc, Caroline Mala Corbin
Articles
In Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, a schoolteacher sued her employer for retaliating against her in violation of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). The success of her ADA claim turned on whether the Supreme Court thought that she was a minister. If she was not a minister, she would have probably won. After all, the school stated in writing that a main reason for her termination was her threatened lawsuit. But because the Supreme Court decided that she was a minister, and that ministers may not sue their religious employers for discrimination under the ministerial …
Nineteenth-Century Free Exercise Jurisprudence And The Challenge Of Polygamy: The Relevance Of Nineteenth-Century Cases And Commentaries For Contemporary Debates About Free Exercise Exemptions, Clark B. Lombardi
Articles
Does the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution require judges to exempt religious objectors from the application of nondiscriminatory and otherwise applicable laws? Over the last twenty years, judges and academics have debated fiercely whether the Clause should be interpreted to provide religiously observant citizens with a right to “free exercise exemptions.” The debate has led indirectly to a new interest in nineteenth-century views on free exercise jurisprudence. In this Article, I will examine the scholarship on nineteenth-century free exercise jurisprudence to date and ask what it adds to our understanding of the Clause and the question of exemptions.
Talking About Religion In The Language Of The Law: Impossible But Necessary, James Boyd White
Talking About Religion In The Language Of The Law: Impossible But Necessary, James Boyd White
Articles
In speaking to this conference about religion and law I am in a decidedly peculiar position, for it may be that every one of you has thought longer and harder about the relation between these two forms of life than I have. When Scott Idleman first asked me to talk to you, I explained that I was no expert, to put it mildly, and that the most that I could offer would be the reflections of a neophyte. He said that this was fine-perhaps he was just desperate for a speaker; perhaps he thought that it might be helpful to …