Religion Law Commons^™

Religion: How To Stay Out Of Court, Kenneth Akers, Sara Rotramel, Jorge Wellmann

Parameters of Law in Student Affairs and Higher Education (CNS 670)

In the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, it reads that, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” This single sentence, the Establishment Clause, is the backbone of religious freedom in the United States, and with its several annotations it has given shape and breadth to the concept of religion in America, more specifically our topic, i.e. …

Can Congress Ban People From Threatening To Burn The Quran? Yes: No Rights Are Absolute, Especially Amid Legitimate Safety Issues, Jessica D. Gabel

Faculty Publications By Year

No abstract provided.

The Fallacy Of Neutrality From Beginning To End: The Battle Between Religious Liberties And Rights Based On Homosexual Conduct, Rena M. Lindevaldsen

Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Bible plainly states that everyone must either "bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" or continue as "enemies in your mind." Un-Biblical thinking, like un-Bibical actions, leads one on a path away from God. Part II of this Article will briefly introduce a Biblical approach to thinking about contemporary issues and discuss how Christians can unwittingly abandon distinctively Biblical thinking under the guise of neutrality. Part III will present a number of cases that highlight the fallacy of neutrality in the battle between religious liberties and rights based on homosexual conduct. Part IV will contend that …

The Protection Of Religious Liberty Under The American Constitution, Robert A. Sedler

Law Faculty Research Publications

Religious liberty is a favored value under the United States Constitution. The Constitution provides two-fold protection to religious liberty by means of the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. The Establishment Clause, sometimes referred to as the separation of church and state, requires that the government maintain a course of complete official neutrality toward religion. The government cannot favor one religion over another, nor can it favor religion over non-religion. The Free Exercise Clause is a textual guarantee of peoples' right to practice their religion and to hold and act on religious beliefs. The First Amendment's guarantee of freedom …

Government Identity Speech And Religion: Establishment Clause Limits After Summum, 19 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 1 (2010), Mary Jean Dolan

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

This Article offers in-depth analysis of the opinions in Pleasant Grove v. Summum. Summum is a significant case because it expands "government speech" to cover broad, thematic government identity messages in the form of donated monuments, including the much-litigated Fraternal Order of Eagles-donated Ten Commandments. The Article explores the fine distinctions between the new "government speech doctrine"- a defense in Free Speech Clause cases that allows government to express its own viewpoint and to reject alternative views-and "government speech" analyzed under the Establishment Clause, which prohibits government from expressing a viewpoint on religion, and from favoring some religions over others. …

How Is Islam The Solution?: Constitutional Visions Of Contemporary Islamists, Kristen Stilt

Faculty Working Papers

This Article uses documents issued by the Muslim Brotherhood, in particular the lengthy 2007 "Political Party" Platform, and personal interviews with Brotherhood leadership to examine the group's specific goals and beliefs for the place of religion within the structure of the Egyptian legal system. While many important angles need to be explored, I focus on one topic that has drawn the most attention to the Brotherhood, the place of religion in the state, or religion defined and enforced by state institutions. I show that the Brotherhood carefully acknowledges the existing constitutional structure and jurisprudence on the position of Islam in …

Taxpayer Standing From Flast To Hein, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

This essay plays off a critique by Professor Maya Manian of an article where I discussed the decision in Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., 551 U.S. 587 (2007) (plurality opinion). While Professor Manian was concerned about how the result in Hein would lead to under enforcement of church-state separation, my article had utilized Hein, and more generally the law of taxpayer standing beginning with Flast v. Cohen (1968), to look beyond the question of aid to religion. Rather, I began by showing that the only cases in which the Court had announced a “generalized grievance” and thereby denied …

A Closer Look At Law: Human Rights As Multi-Level Sites Of Struggles Over Multi-Dimensional Equality, Susanne Baer

Articles

In many societies, deep conflicts arise around religious matters, and around equality. Often, religious collectives demand the right to self-determination of issues considered - by them - to be their own, and these demands collide with individual rights to, again, religious freedom. These are thus conflicts of religion v. religion. Then, collective religious freedom tends to become an obligation for all those who are defined as belonging to the collective, which carries the problem that mostly elites define its meaning and they silence dissent. Usually, such obligations are also unequal relating to gender, with different regimes for women and for …

Laïcité In Comparative Perspective (Conference): Foreword, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

On June 11, 2010, the Center for Law and Religion at St. John's University School of Law held its inaugural event, an academic conference at the University's Paris campus. "Laïcité in Comparative Perspective" brought together scholars from the United States and Europe to explore the French concept of laïcité and compare it with models of church-state relations in other countries, particularly the United States. Participants included Douglas Laycock (University of Virginia), who offered the Conference Introduction; Nathalie Caron (Université Paris-Est Créteil); Blandine Chelini-Pont (Université Paul Cézanne Aix-Marseille); Nina Crimm (St. John's University); Marc DeGirolami (St. John's University); Javier Martínez-Torrón Universidad …

Religion-Based Claims For Impinging On Queer Citizenship, Bruce Macdougall, Donn Short

All Faculty Publications

Competing claims for legal protection based on religion and on sexual orientation have arisen fairly frequently in Canada in the past decade or so. The authors place such competitions into five categories based on the nature of who is making the claim and who is impacted, the site of the competition, and the extent to which the usual legal and constitutional norms applicable are affected. Three of the five categories identified involve a claim that a religion operate in some form in the public area so as to impinge on the usual protection of equality on the basis of sexual …

When Is Religious Speech Outrageous?: Snyder V. Phelps And The Limits Of Religious Advocacy, Jeffrey Shulman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Constitution affords great protection to religiously motivated speech. Religious liberty would mean little if it did not mean the right to profess and practice as well as to believe. But are there limits beyond which religious speech loses its constitutional shield? Would it violate the First Amendment to subject a religious entity to tort liability if its religious profession causes emotional distress? When is religious speech outrageous?

These are vexing questions, to say the least; but the United States Supreme Court will take them up next term—and it will do so in a factual context that has generated as …