Law Commons^™

Salt, Smurthwaite, And Smith: The Origins Of The Modern Legal Identity Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

In 2019 there existed a legal entity known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This fact will likely strike most readers as unexceptional. More interesting, however, prior to 2019 there had been no such legal entity as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for over 150 years, the last of that name likely having been disincorporated in 1862. Even more strangely, although there were millions of people around the globe who identified themselves as Latter-day Saints, in 2019 the only member of the legal entity known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints …

Civil Disobedience In Latter-Day Saint Thought, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

The twelfth article of faith declares, “We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law” (A of F 1:12). On its face, this statement seems to be an unqualified acceptance of legal authority, one that would suggest that Latter-day Saints ought to shun civil disobedience. However, a closer look at Restoration scripture, teachings, and experience reveals a more complicated picture. To be sure, law-abidingness has long been central to the Saints’ identity, particularly in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and like the New Testament, Restoration scripture generally accepts the need to …

Temple, Talmud, And Sacrament: Some Christian Thoughts On Halakhah, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Commerce, Religion, And The Rule Of Law, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

The rule of law and religion can act as commercial substitutes. Both can create the trust required for material prosperity. The rule of law simplifies social interactions, turning people into formal legal agents and generating a map of society that the state can observe and control, thus credibly committing to the enforcement of the legal rights demanded by impersonal markets. Religion, in contrast, embraces complex social identities. Within these communities, economic actors can monitor and sanction misbehavior. Both approaches have benefits and problems. The rule of law allows for trade among strangers, fostering peaceful pluralism. However, law breeds what Montesquieu …

Religious Schooling And Homeschooling Before And After Hobby Lobby, James G. Dwyer

Faculty Publications

The most serious incursions on religious liberty in America today are being inflicted on children by parents and private school operators through power the State has given them. This Article examines the potential effect of the Court’s Hobby Lobby decision on interpreting the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (“RFRA”) on both federal and state levels, detailing why the Court’s decision is irrelevant to addressing the incursions on liberty experienced by children subject to religious and home schooling.

Ultimately, the Article finds that home schools and private schools are unfazed by the Hobby Lobby decision in their capacities as employers and educators …

Book Review Of The Child Cases: How America's Religious Exemption Laws Harm Children, James G. Dwyer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Need For A Law Of Church And Market, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

This Essay uses Helfand and Richman’s fine article to raise the question of the law of church and market. In Part I, I argue that the question of religion’s proper relationship to the market is more than simply another aspect of the church-state debates. Rather, it is a topic deserving explicit reflection in its own right. In Part II, I argue that Helfand and Richman demonstrate the danger of creating the law of church and market by accident. Courts and legislators do this when they resolve questions religious commerce poses by applying legal theories developed without any thought for the …

International Legal Experience And The Mormon Theology Of The State, 1945-2012, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Natural Law And The Rhetoric Of Empire: Reynolds V. United States, Polygamy, And Imperialism, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

In 1879, the U.S. Supreme Court construed the Free Exercise Clause for the first time, holding in Reynolds v. United States that Congress could punish Mormon polygamy. Historians have interpreted Reynolds, and the anti-polygamy legislation and litigation that it midwifed, as an extension of Reconstruction into the American West. This Article offers a new historical interpretation, one that places the birth of Free Exercise jurisprudence in Reynolds within an international context of Great Power imperialism and American international expansion at the end of the nineteenth century. It does this by recovering the lost theory of religious freedom that the Mormons …

How To Judge Shari'a Contracts: A Guide To Islamic Marriage Agreements In American Courts, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

This Article thus has two goals. The first is to show how the Muslim conception of marriage diverges from the Christian-influenced norms that dominate American law and society. Understanding this divergence provides a necessary background to Islamic mahr contracts. The second goal is to provide lawyers and judges with a doctrinal framework within our current law for analyzing these contracts and reaching sensible results in concrete cases.

Bargaining In The Shadow Of God's Law: Islamic Mahr Contracts And The Perils Of Legal Specialization, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Preaching To The Court House And Judging In The Temple, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Lifting The Veil: Women And Islamic Law, Christie S. Warren

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Religious V. Secular Ideologies And Sex Education: A Response To Professors Cahn And Carbone, Vivian E. Hamilton

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Symposium Introduction: The Religion Clauses In The 21st Century, William P. Marshall, Vivian E. Hamilton, John E. Taylor

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Wagering On Religious Liberty, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Story Of A Forgotten Battle, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

State Regulation Of Religious Education, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Failure Of The Religious Freedom Restoration Act Under Section 5 Of The Fourteenth Amendment, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Judicial Postscript On The Church-State Debates Of 1989: How Porous The Wall, How Civil The State?, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Publications

This work is a continuation of the debate regarding the Establishment Clause. The focus lies with Justice O’Connor’s concurrence in County of Allegheny v. ACLU and how this opinion harkens back to a concept shared by Jefferson and Madison, that the establishment clause is designed to prevent government favoritism.

Federal Funds To Religious Groups: Where Are The First Amendment Boundaries?, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

What Is “An Establishment Of Religion?", William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Religious Symbols And The Establishment Clause, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Trends In The Supreme Court: Mr. Jefferson’S Crumbling Wall - A Comment On Lynch V. Donnelly, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

State Regulation Of Christian Schools, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Forum Of Conscience: Applying Standards Under The Free Exercise Clause, Paul Marcus

Faculty Publications

The 1973 Supreme Court decision in Wisconsin v. Yoder reenforced and amplified the Court's earlier holding in Sherbert v. Verner that the free exercise clause of the first amendment requires the state to render substantial deference to religiously motivated behavior in the application of its laws and regulatory schemes. In this article, Mr. Marcus traces the evolving standards of free exercise doctrine and observes that the "balancing test" which has resulted from that evolution requires still further refinement to give religious freedom its full constitutional due. The author then illustrates how the new standards of free exercise might be applied …