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Same-Sex Family Equality And Religious Freedom, Ira C. Lupu, Robert W. Tuttle
Same-Sex Family Equality And Religious Freedom, Ira C. Lupu, Robert W. Tuttle
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
In the spring of 2009, the legislatures of Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont became the first in the U.S. to enact laws recognizing the legality of same-sex civil marriage. The legislation in all four states included provisions designed to protect the freedom of clergy and religious communities that do not want to recognize same-sex marriage. The legislation in several of the states also included provisions designed to insulate religious organizations from obligations that might arise from the legalization of same-sex marriage – for example, with respect to adoption or the provision of housing to married couples. Despite academic and …
The Cross At College: Accommodation And Acknowledgment Of Religion At Public Universities, Ira C. Lupu, Robert W. Tuttle
The Cross At College: Accommodation And Acknowledgment Of Religion At Public Universities, Ira C. Lupu, Robert W. Tuttle
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
In the fall of 2006, President Gene Nichol of the College of William & Mary decided that the college - a public institution - should no longer display a cross on the altar table of the college's Wren Chapel. He ordered the cross moved to a back room, from which it could be returned to the altar table during Christian worship. This decision sparked an outcry from many Christian conservatives, who asserted that President Nichol was undermining the college's historical legacy. After a period of campus furor, a special Committee proposed and the President accepted a compromise - the cross …
Deep Purple: Religious Shades Of Family Law, Naomi R. Cahn, June Carbone
Deep Purple: Religious Shades Of Family Law, Naomi R. Cahn, June Carbone
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
"Deep Purple" examines the impact of religion on the politics and jurisprudence of abstinence education. Abstinence education is one of the many locations (issues) in the contemporary culture wars between red and blue state values. Families who live in red and blue states are experiencing divergent life patterns, and religion affects the development of these patterns. Frequency of church attendance has been tied to likelihood of marriage, and, as this paper shows, has been profoundly influential in approaches to teen sexuality. Religion decreases the opportunity for dialogue and compromise on these issues because people use underlying values - such as …
Federalism And Faith, Ira C. Lupu, Robert W. Tuttle
Federalism And Faith, Ira C. Lupu, Robert W. Tuttle
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
Should the U.S. constitution afford greater discretion to states than to the federal government in matters affecting religion? In recent years, a number of commentators have been asserting that the Establishment Clause should not apply to the states. Justice Thomas has embraced this view, while offering his own refinements to it. Moreover, the Supreme Court's decision in Locke v. Davey (2004) ruled that a state did not run afoul of the Free Exercise Clause when it refused to subsidize religious studies, in a context in which the Establishment Clause would have permitted the subsidy.
This paper offers a focused (re)consideration …
A Constitutional Hierarchy Of Religions? Justice Scalia, The Ten Commandments, And The Future Of The Establishment Clause, Thomas Colby
A Constitutional Hierarchy Of Religions? Justice Scalia, The Ten Commandments, And The Future Of The Establishment Clause, Thomas Colby
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
If there is one principle of Establishment Clause jurisprudence that has enjoyed the unanimous support of all of the Justices of the Supreme Court over the last half century, it is that all religions are afforded equal status under the Constitution. With his dissenting opinion in the 2005 Ten Commandments cases, however, Justice Scalia has upset that consensus. According to Justice Scalia's dissent, the Establishment Clause affords greater protection to the believers of some religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) than others (Hinduism, Buddhism, no religion, everything else). Turning traditional constitutional law on its head, Justice Scalia's approach treats the Establishment Clause …
Can This Culture Be Saved? Another Affirmative Action Baby Reflects On Religious Freedom (Review Of The Culture Of Disbelief, How American Law And Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion, By Stephen L. Carter), W. Burlette Carter
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
In a critical review of Professor Stephen Carter’s The Culture of Disbelief, this article contends Stephen Carter’s thesis that religion is disrespected in the U.S. lacks support and is inherently defective as a starting point from which to fashion a workable theory of freedom to engage in public religion. It argues that Stephen Carter himself fails to adequately consider minority group religious freedom rights and, thus, trivializes the very religious concerns that he set out to highlight. The article is split into four parts. In Part I, the article gives a basic outline of the trivialization theory. Part II …