Law Commons^™

Separation Of Church And Law: The Ministerial Exception In Demkovich V. St. Andrew The Apostle Parish, Jonathan Murray

University of Colorado Law Review

Religious freedom is increasingly invoked to defeat liability for behavior that has long been regulated under accepted, neutral law, an argument to which many courts and judges appear receptive. One such area of law seeing this activity is the ministerial exception-a judicial principle recognized under the First Amendment. The ministerial exception guarantees religious organizations' discretion in how they select their "ministers,"or religious employees dedicated to the organization's religious mission. However, current law lacks clarity regarding the application of the exception to an organization's treatment of its ministers. Recently, the Seventh Circuit, sitting en banc, chose to categorically expand the application …

Discrimination, Trump V. Hawaii, And Masterpiece Cakeshop, Christopher C. Lund

Georgia Law Review

This short symposium piece is a comment on two of the Supreme Court’s recent religion cases. The first is Trump v. Hawaii, the travel ban case, where the Court rejected the claim of unconstitutional religious discrimination against Muslims.1 The second is Masterpiece Cakeshop, the case about the baker who refused to make a cake for a gay wedding, where the Court accepted the claim of unconstitutional religious discrimination against a conservative Christian.2 One case finds discrimination, while the other rejects it. Yet more fundamentally, the pairing suggests differences in how we perceive or react to evidence of discrimination. Both on …

No Aid, No Agency, Steven K. Green

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Over the past three decades, members of the Supreme Court have demonstrated increasing hostility to the Establishment Clause’s rule against funding religion, first enunciated in 1947. Over the years, the Court has not only narrowed the rule to allow for government aid to flow to religious schools and faith-based charities, it has more recently declared that to enforce that rule may amount to discrimination against religion. This Article argues that a key reason for the decline in the no-aid principle rests on the weakness of the rationale underlying that rule: that funding of religion coerces the conscience of taxpayers. The …

The Deliberative-Privacy Principle: Abortion, Free Speech, And Religious Freedom, B. Jessie Hill

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

The Conscience Of The Baker: Religion And Compelled Speech, Ashutosh Bhagwat

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Panel 3: Free Speech And Freedom Of Religion

Georgia State University Law Review

Moderator: Eric Segall

Panelists: Mike Dorf and Eugene Volokh

Religious Freedom Through Market Freedom: The Sherman Act And The Marketplace For Religion, Barak D. Richman

William & Mary Law Review

In prior work, I examined certain restraints by private religious organizations and concluded that the First Amendment did not immunize these organizations from antitrust liability. In short, the First Amendment did not preempt enforcing the Sherman Act against certain religious monopolies or cartels.

This Article offers a stronger argument: First Amendment values demand antitrust enforcement. Because American religious freedoms, enshrined in the Constitution and reflected in American history, are quintessentially exercised when decentralized communities create their own religious expression, the First Amendment’s religion clauses are best exemplified by a proverbial marketplace for religions. Any effort to stifle a market organization …

(Same) Sex, Lies, And Democracy: Tradition, Religion, And Substantive Due Process (With An Emphasis On Obergefell V. Hodges), Stephen M. Feldman

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Substantive due process issues implicitly concern voice. Whose voice will be heard? Although such issues often remain submerged, the Justices occasionally translate them into disputes over democratic participation and power. The Supreme Court’s most important substantive due process decision in years, Obergefell v. Hodges, entailed such a battle over democracy. The multiple dissenting opinions insisted that the decision demeaned the opponents of same-sex marriage, many of whom were inspired by traditional values and religious convictions. The majority explicitly disagreed, reasoning that the case resolved the rights of same-sex couples to marry and did not diminish the opponents’ voices. The dissenters …

Five Justices Have Transformed The First Amendment’S Freedom Of Religion To Freedom From Religion, Gerald Walpin

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Primer On Hobby Lobby: For-Profit Corporate Entities’ Challenge To The Hhs Mandate, Free Exercise Rights, Rfra’S Scope, And The Nondelegation Doctrine, Terri R. Day, Leticia M. Diaz, Danielle Weatherby

Pepperdine Law Review

Earlier this term, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in the consolidated case of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. v. Sebelius, the first of a litany of cases in which for-profit business entities are invoking the Religious Freedom Restoration Act ("RFRA") in support of their claim that the Affordable Care Act’s HHS Mandate violates their freedom of religion. In particular, these plaintiffs argue that the Mandate’s requirement that employer-provided health insurance covers the costs of contraceptives, the "morning after" pill, and other fertility-related drugs conflicts with their deeply-held religious belief that life begins at conception and is, therefore, unconstitutional. …

Public Accommodation Statutes And Sexual Orientation: Should There Be A Religious Exemption For Secular Businesses?, Lucien J. Dhooge

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This Article examines the issue of whether there should be a religious exemption for secular businesses from public accommodation statutes that protect prospective patrons from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The Article examines this issue in the context of protecting free exercise of religion versus offering services to all members of the public equally and without distinction. The Article concludes that the perceived threat to religious liberty posed by such statutes is exaggerated, that the consequences of granting exemptions would be harmful, and that state-sanctioned discrimination is contrary to the fundamental principles of justice and equality underlying the …

Freedom Of Religion In Public Schools In Germany And In The United States, Inke Muehlhoff

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Piercing The Religious Veil Of The So-Called Cults , Joey Peter Moore

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Government Entanglement With Religion: What Degree Of Proof Is Required? , Lee Boothby

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Divide: The Transformative Significance Of The School Prayer Decisions, Steven D. Smith

Pepperdine Law Review

This article challenges the standard view in which Everson v. Board of Education was the foundational and most important establishment clause decision and the school prayer decisions of the early 1960s (Engel v. Vitale and Abington School District v. Schempp) were virtually automatic corollaries. In fact, the article argues, it was the school prayer decisions that were foundational, subverting Everson’s “no aid separationism,” and animating not only later establishment clause jurisprudence but much else in constitutional and public discourse besides. Indeed, it is plausible to see the influence of the school prayer decisions and their articulation of secular neutrality as …

First Amendment Freedom Of Speech And Religion - October 2009 Term, Burt Neuborne, Michael C. Dorf

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

God Of Our Fathers, Gods For Ourselves: Fundamentalism And Postmodern Belief, Frederick Mark Gedicks

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Perspectives On Religious Fundamentalism And Families In The U.S., Vivian E. Hamilton

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Fundamentalism, The First Amendment, And The Rise Of The Religious Right, Randall Balmer

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Fundamentalist Challenges To Core Democratic Values: Exit And Homeschooling, Catherine J. Ross

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

The "Licentiousness" In Religious Organizations And Why It Is Not Protected Under Religious Liberty Constitutional Provisions, Marci A. Hamilton

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Separationism To The Extreme: The Mt. Soledad Cross And The Ninth Circuit's Crusade To Burden The Free Exercise Clause, Cameron M. Rountree

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Possession Is Nine Tenths Of The Law: But Who Really Owns A Church's Property In The Wake Of A Religious Split Within A Hierarchical Church?, Meghaan Cecilia Mcelroy

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Freedom To Err: The Idea Of Natural Selection In Politics, Schools, And Courts, Paul D. Carrington

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

The Continuing Threshold Test For Free Exercise Claims, Andy G. Olree

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

When a claimant challenges some governmental law or action under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, courts have long required the claimant to make out a prima facie case that the government has burdened the exercise of the claimant's sincerely held religious beliefs. This requirement has been referred to as the threshold test for free exercise claims, since claimants must make this showing as a threshold matter before courts will proceed to evaluate the burden and the governmental interest at stake under some standard of scrutiny. This Article argues that although the Supreme Court of the United States …

The Cross At College: Accomodation And Acknowledgment Of Religion At Public Universities, Ira C. Lupu, Robert W. Tuttle

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Religious Tests In The Mirror: The Constitutional Law And Constitutional Etiquette Of Religion In Judicial Nominations, Paul Horwitz

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Social Reproduction And Religious Reproduction: A Democratic-Communitarian Analysis Of The Yoder Problem, Josh Chafetz

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Religions, Fragmentations, And Doctrinal Limits, Frederick Mark Gedicks

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Empiricism, Religion, And Judicial Decision-Making, Stephen M. Feldman

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.