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Full-Text Articles in Law

Rectifying The Tilt: Equality Lessons From Religion, Disability, Sexual Orientation, And Transgender, Chai R. Feldblum Dec 2017

Rectifying The Tilt: Equality Lessons From Religion, Disability, Sexual Orientation, And Transgender, Chai R. Feldblum

Maine Law Review

The joy and the challenge of being located in an academic setting is that I am also able to engage in forays (albeit intermittent forays) into scholarly analysis. Delivering this lecture, and publishing this piece, provides an excellent opportunity for me to engage in such a foray. This piece, then, is a scholarly reflection on my advocacy experiences. My goal is to use my experiences in advocacy as fertile soil from which to create, I hope, a lovely flower of theory and conceptual thought. Before setting out on this endeavor, however, I would like to offer two postulates. There are …


Church Liability For Clergy Sexual Abuse: Have Time And Events Overthrown Swanson V. Roman Catholic Bishop Of Portland?, Sonia J. Buck Nov 2017

Church Liability For Clergy Sexual Abuse: Have Time And Events Overthrown Swanson V. Roman Catholic Bishop Of Portland?, Sonia J. Buck

Maine Law Review

In Swanson v. Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland, Albert and Ruth Swanson sued their former pastor, Father Maurice Morin, after the couple's marriage counseling sessions with Father Morin led to a sexual relationship between Father Morin and Mrs. Swanson. The Swansons brought claims against Father Morin for negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent pastoral counseling. They also sued the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland, a corporation, and Bishop Joseph Gerry in his personal capacity (collectively referred to as the “Church”) for negligence in selecting, training, and supervising Father Morin. The Maine Superior Court dismissed the claims against …


Education Funding In Maine In Light Of Zelman And Locke: Too Much Play In The Joints?, Sarah M. Lavigne Nov 2017

Education Funding In Maine In Light Of Zelman And Locke: Too Much Play In The Joints?, Sarah M. Lavigne

Maine Law Review

The United States Supreme Court has struggled with the countervailing directives of the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause for decades. One area in which this battle has been particularly contentious is the issue of public funding of religious schools. On one hand, opponents argue that such funding is an impermissible co-mingling of church and state, thereby violating the Establishment Clause. Meanwhile, proponents of public funding of religious schools argue that, to withhold funding from religious schools would place a burden on those wishing to send their children to religious schools, thereby impermissibly preventing individuals from practicing their faith …


Fighting The New Wars Of Religion: The Need For A Tolerant First Amendment, Leslie C. Griffin Oct 2017

Fighting The New Wars Of Religion: The Need For A Tolerant First Amendment, Leslie C. Griffin

Maine Law Review

Religious wars have broken out around the country about the legality of gay marriage, the consequences of gay ordination for property ownership, the funding of faith-based organizations and the placement of crosses and Ten Commandments (but not Seven Aphorisms) on public land. To resolve such impassioned disputes, Americans traditionally look to the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment, which state "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Unfortunately, the Court's modern decisions interpreting those clauses have shed more heat than light on the discussion and have provoked ongoing controversy instead of …


God's Green Earth? The Environmental Impacts Of Religious Land Use, Kellen Zale Oct 2017

God's Green Earth? The Environmental Impacts Of Religious Land Use, Kellen Zale

Maine Law Review

Boulder County, Colorado has been at the forefront of the environmental movement for decades. Starting with its citizens’ vote in 1967 to implement a tax specifically to preserve open space, the city has long been known for its progressive environmental policies. At the center of Boulder’s environmental protection efforts is a comprehensive system of land use regulations designed to mitigate the slow chokehold of ever-encroaching development on wetlands and open space, on groundwater and soils, and on wildlife and native species. Numerous communities across the country have followed Boulder’s much-praised model and enacted their own environmental zoning laws to protect …


The Lautsi Decision As Seen From (Christian) Europe, Pierre-Henri Prelot Apr 2017

The Lautsi Decision As Seen From (Christian) Europe, Pierre-Henri Prelot

Maine Law Review

It is very interesting, as well as a strange, situation for the French to comment on behalf of the Americans in Lautsi case, especially the decisive pleading of Joseph Weiler in the Grand Chamber of the European Court in 2011. French people heard about Joseph Weiler a few years ago in 2009 when he published: “L’Europe Chretienne?: Une Excursion” (Christian Europr?: An Excursion). The book was prefaced by the French (Catholic) philosopher Remi Brague. The French edition had been translated from its 2003 Italian version. There is no English edition of it. Such a lacking may seem strange, but the …


The Lautsi Decision And The American Establishment Clause Experience: A Response To Professor Weiler, William P. Marshall Apr 2017

The Lautsi Decision And The American Establishment Clause Experience: A Response To Professor Weiler, William P. Marshall

Maine Law Review

In Lautsi v. Italy, the European Court of Human Rights (“ECHR”) held that an Italian law requiring crucifixes to be displayed in public school classrooms did not violate the European Convention on Human Rights (“European Convention”). In so holding, the ECHR sent the message that it would not incorporate American nonestablishment norms into its interpretation of the European Convention. They key advocate behind the Lautsi decision was Professor Joseph Weiler. Representing the nations intervening in the case on behalf of Italy, Professor Weiler took the lead in arguing against a strict nonestablishment interpretation of the European Convention—the position that the …


Freedom Of Religion And Freedom From Religion: The European Model, Jhh Weiler Apr 2017

Freedom Of Religion And Freedom From Religion: The European Model, Jhh Weiler

Maine Law Review

What place may religion have in our public space? In our definition of the State? In our educational systems? In defining our public identity? It is, in part, a question of and for democracy: Imagine a State with a majority of practicing Christians among its citizens. May they use the legislative and administrative institutions of the State to make theirs a Christian State? Would that not run up institutions of the State to make theirs a Christian State? Would that not run up against our most cherished constitutional principles of freedom, notable freedom of religion and freedom from religion? The …


Introduction: Symposium: Law, Religion, And Lautsi V. Italy, Malick W. Ghachem Apr 2017

Introduction: Symposium: Law, Religion, And Lautsi V. Italy, Malick W. Ghachem

Maine Law Review

This symposium offers a rare opportunity to see three of the finest minds in Law and Religion scholarship from both sides of the North Atlantic at work. Held at the University of Maine on March 23, 2012, the symposium featured a keynote address by Professor Joseph Weiler of New York University Law School. Professor Weiler’s remarks were occasioned by a 2011 decision of the European Court of Human Rights (“ECHR”) in Strasbourg, Lautsi v. Italy, upholding the constitutionality of the display of the crucifix in Italian public school classrooms under the European Convention of Human Rights (“the Convention”). The principal …