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Full-Text Articles in Law
A More Capacious Concept Of Church, Philip Hackney, Samuel D. Brunson
A More Capacious Concept Of Church, Philip Hackney, Samuel D. Brunson
Articles
United States tax law provides churches with extra benefits and robust protection from IRS enforcement actions. Churches and religious organizations are automatically exempt from the income tax without needing to apply to be so recognized and without needing to file a tax return. Beyond that, churches are protected from audit by stringent procedures. There are good reasons to consider providing a distance between church and state, including the state tax authority. In many instances, Congress granted churches preferential tax treatment to try to avoid excess entanglement between church and state, though that preferential treatment often just shifts the locus of …
Hobby Lobby And The Pathology Of Citizens United, Ellen D. Katz
Hobby Lobby And The Pathology Of Citizens United, Ellen D. Katz
Articles
Four years ago, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission held that for-profit corporations possess a First Amendment right to make independent campaign expenditures. In so doing, the United States Supreme Court invited speculation that such corporations might possess other First Amendment rights as well. The petitioners in Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius are now arguing that for-profit corporations are among the intended beneficiaries of the Free Exercise Clause and, along with the respondents in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, that they also qualify as “persons” under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Neither suggestion follows inexorably from Citizens United, …
Legislators And Religious-Based Reasoning, Diana Ginn, David Blaikie, Micah Goldstein
Legislators And Religious-Based Reasoning, Diana Ginn, David Blaikie, Micah Goldstein
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
In a secular, multicultural, liberal democratic society founded on the rule of law, is it appropriate for legislators (or political candidates) to refer to religious beliefs or texts when discussing a government initiative or urging action on a particular issue? Such references might be used for various purposes: to explain the speakers’ own beliefs; to emphasize that an issue has been around for a long time and therefore should be taken seriously; to elucidate historical influences on a particular law; or to give weight to a particular argument by buttressing it with religious authority. In Canada today, do ethics, law, …
Mother Of All Rights: Making The World Safe For Religion, David F. Forte
Mother Of All Rights: Making The World Safe For Religion, David F. Forte
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
Freedom of religion is not just one right among many. It is, in the words of the Islamic scholar John Kelsay, "the mother of all rights." When a state recognizes religious liberty, it ipso facto allows people the right to worship an authority higher than the state. Congress should insist that before any reconstruction aid is approved for Afghanistan, the new government there should affirm legal protection for basic human rights, including most importantly, freedom of religion.