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Full-Text Articles in Law
Corporations, Taxes, And Religion: The Hobby Lobby And Conestoga Contraceptive Cases, Steven Willis
Corporations, Taxes, And Religion: The Hobby Lobby And Conestoga Contraceptive Cases, Steven Willis
Steven J. Willis
Beginning in 2013, the federal government mandated that general business corporations include contraceptive and early abortion coverage in large employee health plans. Internal Revenue Code Section 4980D imposes a substantial excise tax on health plans violating the mandate. Indeed, for one company – Hobby Lobby – the expected annual tax is nearly one-half billion dollars. Dozens of “for profit” businesses have challenged the mandate on free exercise grounds, asserting claims under the First Amendment as well as under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. So far, courts have been reluctant to hold corporations have religious rights of their own; as a …
Hostility Toward Religion And The Rise And Decline Of Constitutionally Protected Religious Speech, Ralph Mawdsley, Charles Russo
Hostility Toward Religion And The Rise And Decline Of Constitutionally Protected Religious Speech, Ralph Mawdsley, Charles Russo
Charles J. Russo
No abstract provided.
Religious Institutionalism, Implied Consent And The Value Of Voluntarism, Michael A. Helfand
Religious Institutionalism, Implied Consent And The Value Of Voluntarism, Michael A. Helfand
Michael A Helfand
Increasingly, clashes between the demands of law and aspirations of religion center on the legal status and treatment of religious institutions. Much of the rising tensions revolving around religious institutions—exemplified by recent Supreme Court decisions such as Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby—stem from conflicts between the religious objectives of those institutions and their impact on third parties who do not necessarily share those same objectives. This Article aims to provide a framework for analyzing the claims of religious institutions by grounding those claims in the principle of voluntarism. On such an account, religious institutions deserve protection because …
The Challenge Of Co-Religionist Commerce, Michael A. Helfand, Barak D. Richman
The Challenge Of Co-Religionist Commerce, Michael A. Helfand, Barak D. Richman
Michael A Helfand
This Article addresses the rise of “co-religionist commerce” in the United States—that is, the explosion of commercial dealings that take place between co-religionists who intend their transactions to achieve both commercial and religious objectives. To remain viable, co-religionist commerce requires all the legal support necessary to sustain all other commercial relationships. Contracts must be enforced, parties must be protected against torts, and disputes must be reliably adjudicated.
Under current constitutional doctrine, co-religionist commercial agreements must be translated into secular terminology if there are to be judicially enforced. However, religious goods and services often cannot be accurately translated without religious terms …
Religion's Wise Embrace Of Commerce, Michael Helfand
Religion's Wise Embrace Of Commerce, Michael Helfand
Michael A Helfand
No abstract provided.
The Reality Of Moral Imperatives In Liberal Religion, Howard Lesnick
The Reality Of Moral Imperatives In Liberal Religion, Howard Lesnick
howard lesnick
This paper uses a classic one-liner attributed to Dostoyoevski’s Ivan Karamozov, "Without God everything is permitted," to explore some differences between what I term traditional and liberal religion. The expansive connotations and implications of Ivan’s words are grounded in the historic association of wrongfulness and punishment, and in a reaction against the late modern challenge to the inexorability of that association, whether in liberal religion or in secular moral thought. The paper argues that, with its full import understood, Ivan’s claim begs critical questions of the meaning and source of compulsion and choice, and of knowledge and belief regarding the …
A Liberalism Of Sincerity: The Role Of Religion In The Public Square, Michael Helfand
A Liberalism Of Sincerity: The Role Of Religion In The Public Square, Michael Helfand
Michael A Helfand
This article considers the extent to which the liberal nation-state ought to accommodate religious practices that contravene state law and to incorporate religious discourse into public debate. To address these questions, the article develops a liberalism of sincerity based on John Locke’s theory of toleration. On such an account, liberalism imposes a duty of sincerity to prevent individuals from consenting to a regime that exercises control over matters of core concern such as faith, religion, and conscience. Liberal theory grounds the legitimacy of the state in the consent of the governed, but consenting to an intolerant regime is illegitimate because …
Re-Emerging Equality Traditions Of Justice In The Cultural Roots Of The Egyptian Revolution, Giancarlo Anello, Khaled Qatam
Re-Emerging Equality Traditions Of Justice In The Cultural Roots Of The Egyptian Revolution, Giancarlo Anello, Khaled Qatam
giancarlo anello
For years, modern Egyptian Islamic thinkers have been attempting to define Islamic ideals of social justice and the way in which they have been ignored in the post-colonial period. This paper will discuss and critique the mid-20th century works of theorists of the Muslim Revolution like Abbas Mahmud ‘Aqqad (author of al-dymuqratyah fy al-islam, Democracy in Islam) and Sayyid Qutb (author of al-‘adalah al-ijtima‘iyya fy al-islam, Social Justice in Islam) in order to shape the discourse about the relevance of their theories of democracy, justice and equality for today’s political movements
Litigating Religion, Michael A. Helfand
Litigating Religion, Michael A. Helfand
Michael A Helfand
This article considers how parties should resolve disputes that turn on religious doctrine and practice – that is, how people should litigate religion. Under current constitutional doctrine, litigating religion is generally the task of two types of religious institutions: first, religious arbitration tribunals, whose decisions are protected by arbitration doctrine, and religious courts, whose decision are protected by the religion clauses. Such institutions have been thrust into playing this role largely because the religion clauses are currently understood to prohibit courts from resolving religious questions – that is, the “religious question” doctrine is currently understood to prohibit courts from litigating …
The Genesis Of Rluipa And Federalism: Evaluating The Creation Of A Federal Statutory Right And Its Impact On Local Government, Patricia Salkin, Amy Lavine
The Genesis Of Rluipa And Federalism: Evaluating The Creation Of A Federal Statutory Right And Its Impact On Local Government, Patricia Salkin, Amy Lavine
Patricia E. Salkin
In 2000, Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), designed to provide protection from discrimination for the exercise of religion for incarcerated individuals and for those in need of various municipal permits or approvals in order to exercise their religion. With seven years of experience in the courts, this article examines the impact of RLUIPA on local governments across the country through an analysis of how the courts have been interpreting and applying statutory ambiguities and creating inconsistent doctrine in an effort to define terms and implement RLUIPA's protections. Whether an appropriate …
Issues Of Law And Religion In The News -- Amish Beard Cutters, Hate Crimes, And The Limits Of The Commerce Clause, Lorin Geitner
Issues Of Law And Religion In The News -- Amish Beard Cutters, Hate Crimes, And The Limits Of The Commerce Clause, Lorin Geitner
Lorin C. Geitner
Amish are being tried under a Federal Hate Crimes statute in Ohio for cutting the beards of elders in another Amish community. Why such a strange form of assault? Since this is an Amish on Amish crime, does it constitute a hate crime? And is the reliance of the statute on the commerce clause over-reaching, and potentially under-reaching as well?
Social Architecture And The Law, Lorin Geitner
Social Architecture And The Law, Lorin Geitner
Lorin C. Geitner
The reputation of attorneys has steadily declined over the last 50 years. How can we determine why this has occurred? Given the relatively high reputation of British Barristers, a comparison of US and British court room arrangement and practice may provide some clues, and the heuristic of "critical spatial studies" provides a methodology.
Issues Of Law And Religion In The News -- Hutterites, Lorin Geitner
Issues Of Law And Religion In The News -- Hutterites, Lorin Geitner
Lorin C. Geitner
The Hutterites are an Anabaptist group who live communally. This lifestyle has allowed them to compete against private construction firms in Montana. A new law requires the Hutterites to carry workers compensation for their members who work in construction. The Hutterites counter that they already have provisions in their society that provide all the coverage provided by workers compensation. The legislator who sponsored this bill says this bill is needed to provide an even playing field. What are the Hutterites history, beliefs and practices which lead them to believe this is redundant? What are the legal principles involved? Who is …
Issues Of Law And Religion In The News -- Mennonites, Lorin Geitner
Issues Of Law And Religion In The News -- Mennonites, Lorin Geitner
Lorin C. Geitner
An ordinance in Mitchell county, Iowa, forbade the use of tractors with steel-rim tires on county roads, for the sake of road preservation. The Groffdale Old Order Mennonites, however, require their members to use just such tires, for religious reasons. When a Mennonite youth received a citation for driving such a tractor on the road, it set off a nearly prototypical Church/State conflict. What do steel-rim tires have to do with religion? And does the county's concern with preserving roads trump this religious practice, or vice versa?
Issues Of Law And Religion, In The News -- Non-Catholic Teachers Fired For Fertility Treatments, Lorin Geitner
Issues Of Law And Religion, In The News -- Non-Catholic Teachers Fired For Fertility Treatments, Lorin Geitner
Lorin C. Geitner
Two non-Catholic teachers had been fired from Catholic schools, for breaching Catholic doctrine when it comes to acceptable fertility treatments. Has the Catholic Church breached its employment contracts with these teachers? If so, would it still be protected under the ministerial exception?
Religious Arbitration And The New Multiculturalism: Negotiating Conflicting Legal Orders, Michael A. Helfand
Religious Arbitration And The New Multiculturalism: Negotiating Conflicting Legal Orders, Michael A. Helfand
Michael A Helfand
This Article considers a trend towards what I have termed the "new multiculturalism," where conflicts between law and religion are less about recognition and symbolism and more about conflicting legal orders. Nothing typifies this trend more than the increased visibility of religious arbitration, whereby religious groups use current arbitration doctrine to have their disputes adjudicated not in U.S. courts and under U.S. law, but before religious courts and under religious law. This dynamic has pushed the following question to the forefront of the multicultural agenda: under what circumstances should U.S. courts enforce arbitration awards issued by religious courts in accordance …
A Jewish-Sponsored Law School: Its Purposes And Challenges, Howard Glickstein
A Jewish-Sponsored Law School: Its Purposes And Challenges, Howard Glickstein
Howard Glickstein
No abstract provided.
Eruv And Establishment, Lorin Geitner
Eruv And Establishment, Lorin Geitner
Lorin C. Geitner
An examination of how the Orthodox Jewish practice known as an "eruv", based in Jewish religious law, can help illustrate the tension between the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment.
Law And Religion – The First Amendment And The Problems Of Alienation, Lorin Geitner
Law And Religion – The First Amendment And The Problems Of Alienation, Lorin Geitner
Lorin C. Geitner
A survey of the different patterns of the relationship between of law to religion (and vice versa) in the course of world history, in order to provide historical and legal context and argue for the notion that the United States, truly, a secular society, but rather a religiously pluralistic one.
Westboro Baptist And The Limits Of Religious Speech, Lorin Geitner
Westboro Baptist And The Limits Of Religious Speech, Lorin Geitner
Lorin C. Geitner
A discussion of the role of defense attorneys, the implications of the prosecutorial burden of proof, the Supreme Court case of Phelps v. Snyder, and a corresponding incident in Floyd County Virginia involving the posting of the 10 Commandments in a public school, by different parties, and why there were differing results depending upon the party.
When Religious Practices Become Legal Obligations: Extending The Foreign Compulsion Defense, Michael A. Helfand
When Religious Practices Become Legal Obligations: Extending The Foreign Compulsion Defense, Michael A. Helfand
Michael A Helfand
The purpose of this article is to fashion a religious compulsion defense as an outgrowth of the legally recognized foreign compulsion defense. Contra the rationale advanced in Employment Division v. Smith, the article argues that the rationale behind the foreign compulsion defense - to protect individuals from conflicting legal norms of competing legal systems - should also apply to situations where religious law and United States law collide. In adopting the criteria of the foreign compulsion defense, a religious compulsion defense would extract individuals from conflicts of law, protecting individuals in the throes of the most intractable of dilemmas.
Mary And Isis, Lorin Geitner
Mary And Isis, Lorin Geitner
Lorin C. Geitner
An examination of the degree to which the modern conception of the Virgin Mary was affected and influenced by the cult of Isis.