Law Commons^™

Distinguishing The Corporal From The Divine: Legal Fictions Create Bodies Not Souls, Daisy Ayllon

Seventh Circuit Review

Can a for-profit, secular corporation exercise religion? If so, does the Affordable Care Act's requirement that employer-provided health insurance plans offer women of reproductive age contraceptives violate free exercise rights?

Plaintiffs challenging the "contraceptive mandate," as it is commonly known, argue that it violates their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) because it imposes a substantial burden on their religious exercise without meeting strict scrutiny. Although these challenges do present courts with a novel issue (whether a secular, for-profit corporation is a "person" capable of "exercising religion"), the answer to the broader question should be clear: requiring corporate-provided …

From Roach Powder To Radical Humanism: Professor Derrick Bell's 'Critical' Constitutional Pedagogy, Vinay Harpalani

All Faculty Scholarship

This essay is a tribute to the late Professor Derrick Bell, who passed away on October 5, 2011. The author was the Derrick Bell Fellow at New York University School of Law in 2009-10 and assisted Professor Bell in teaching his constitutional law courses. The essay discusses Professor Bell's 'critical' constitutional and life pedagogy, by giving illustrations from Professor Bell's classes and anecdotes from several of his former students. It highlights not only Professor Bell's comprehensive approach to constitutional law, but also the "radical humanism" he brought to teaching and mentoring students.