Law Commons^™

A Response To Professor Choper: Laying Down Another Ladder, Sheri Lynn Johnson

Sheri Lynn Johnson

No abstract provided.

High Court Of Australia Declines Leave To Appeal Cyc V Cobaw, Neil J. Foster

Neil J Foster

Discusses the recent decision of the High Court to refuse special leave to appeal in CYC v Cobaw, and implications of the decision for religious freedom in Australia.

Abortion, Religion, And The Accusation Of Establishment: A Critique Of Justice Stevens’ Opinions In Thornburgh, Webster, And Casey, John M. Breen

John M. Breen

It is commonplace to characterize legal arguments in favor of protecting the human embryo or fetus as “inherently religious” such that laws embodying this point of view constitute an establishment of religion in violation of the First Amendment. The practical effect of this argumentative strategy is to foreclose substantive debate on the issue of the legal status of the unborn – to preclude from consideration an entire point of view and so win an argument without ever really having one. This claim has a long pedigree, tracing back to the founding of NARAL and Lawrence Lader’s “Catholic strategy.” Its most …

Law And Religion In The Victorian Court Of Appeal, Neil J. Foster

Neil J Foster

Briefly notes the decision in Cobaw v CYC (2014) and suggests reason why the High Court should grant special leave to appeal.

Terrorism As An Intellectual Problem, Charles W. Collier

Charles W. Collier

The past few years have been instructive for observers of religious terrorism. Events have conspired to reveal ever more of its grim visage, inner logic, and awful potential. Religious terrorism has been exhaustively analyzed as a security problem, a military problem, an economic problem, a political problem, and more. But it is also an intellectual problem, one with particular implications for the study of law, culture, and history. This Essay examines the intellectual assumptions of religious terrorism, and it does so from three distinct perspectives: the theory of religion and American constitutional law (Part I); the common law (Part II); …

Some Thoughts On Law, Religious Freedom And The “Commercial Sphere”, Neil J. Foster

Neil J Foster

Discusses the question of religious freedom in the commercial sphere.

Religious Freedom, Church-State Separation, & The Ministerial Exception, Carl H. Esbeck, Thomas C. Berg, Kimberlee Wood Colby, Richard W. Garnett

Richard W Garnett

The Hosanna-Tabor case concerns the separation of church and state, an arrangement that is often misunderstood but is nevertheless a critical dimension of the freedom of religion protected by the First Amendment to our Constitution. For nearly a thousand years, the tradition of Western constitutionalism - the project of protecting political freedom by marking boundaries to the power of government - has been assisted by the principled commitment to religious liberty and to church-state separation, correctly understood. A community that respects - as ours does - both the importance of, and the distinction between, the spheres of political and religious …

Accommodation, Establishment, And Freedom Of Religion, Richard W. Garnett

Richard W Garnett

This short essay engages the argument that it would violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause to exempt an ordinary, nonreligious, profit-seeking business – such as Hobby Lobby – from the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive-coverage rules. In response to this argument, it is emphasized that the First Amendment not only permits but invites generous, religion-specific accommodations and exemptions and that the Court’s Smith decision does not teach otherwise. In addition, this essay proposes that laws and policies that promote and protect religious freedom should be seen as having a “secular purpose” and that because religious freedom, like clean air, is an …

Theories And Practices Of Islamic Finance And Exchange Laws: Poverty Of Interest, Ahmed E. Souaiaia

Ahmed E SOUAIAIA

The Legal Clinic Is More Than A Sign On The Door: Transforming Law School Education In Revolutionary Egypt, Stephen Rosenbaum

Stephen A. Rosenbaum

No abstract provided.

The Inheritance Rights Of Women Under Jewish And Islamic Law, Mary F. Radford

Mary F. Radford

The inheritance rights of women in the Anglo-American system have evolved from a system whose primary purpose was the support of women to one in which women enjoy the same rights to inherit and own property as their male counterparts. The laws of Judaism and Islam contain elements of these two Anglo-American approaches, with a focus on support under Jewish law and on ownership (although not equal ownershiP) under Islamic law. In this article Professor Radford gives a brief overview of the legal systems of Judaism and Islam and of the place of women in these systems. She then provides …

Discrimination, Language And Freedom Of Religion: Two Important Law And Religion Decisions In Australia, Neil J. Foster

Neil J Foster

The paper discusses two important recent cases at an appellate level in Australia raising issues to do with the intersection of law and religious commitment. One deals with discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation and whether religious groups should enjoy religious freedom to decline to support a non-Biblical view of sexual morality. The other deals with whether the members of a church can assert religious freedom rights against the leaders of the church.

Sacred Cows, Holy Wars: Exploring The Limits Of Law In The Regulation Of Raw Milk And Kosher Meat, Kenneth Lasson

Kenneth Lasson

SACRED COWS, HOLY WARS Exploring the Limits of Law in the Regulation of Raw Milk and Kosher Meat By Kenneth Lasson Abstract In a free society law and religion seldom coincide comfortably, tending instead to reflect the inherent tension that often resides between the two. This is nowhere more apparent than in America, where the underlying principle upon which the first freedom enunciated by the Constitution’s Bill of Rights is based ‒ the separation of church and state – is conceptually at odds with the pragmatic compromises that may be reached. But our adherence to the primacy of individual rights …

Institutional Autonomy And Constitutional Structure, Randy J. Kozel

Randy J Kozel

This Review makes two claims. The first is that Paul Horwitz’s excellent book, "First Amendment Institutions," depicts the institutionalist movement in robust and provocative form. The second is that it would be a mistake to assume from its immersion in First Amendment jurisprudence (not to mention its title) that the book's implications are limited to the First Amendment. Professor Horwitz presents First Amendment institutionalism as a wide-ranging theory of constitutional structure whose focus is as much on constraining the authority of political government as it is on facilitating expression. These are the terms on which the book's argument — and, …

New Anti-Discrimination Laws 'Erode Religious Freedom', Neil J. Foster, Katherine Towers

Neil J Foster

A newspaper report on the recent Victorian Cobaw case with comments from me on the issues.

Christian Youth Camp Liable For Declining Booking From Homosexual Support Group, Neil J. Foster

Neil J Foster

Discusses the decision on appeal in Christian Youth Camps Limited & Ors v Cobaw Community Health Service Limited & Ors [2014] VSCA 75 (16 April 2014) and its implication for Christian organisations.

Submission On S 18c Reforms, Neil J. Foster

Neil J Foster

A copy of my submission to the Commonwealth Attorney-General concerning amendments to s 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 on racial vilification

Foreword: Conference On Religious Legal Theory: Rlt Iv: Expanding The Conversation, Samuel J. Levine

Samuel J. Levine

In this article, the author introduces the articles published in the Symposium Issue of the Touro Law Review, which is a compilation of selected excerpts from the fourth annual Conference on Religious Legal Theory (“RLT”) held April 10-12, 2013. By introducing each article, the author shows a sampling of the variety of topics and disciplines explored and the range of perspectives represented at the Conference, which revolved around the theme RLT IV: Expanding the Conversation. The author provides the background of the panelists to give context to each article, and then briefly discusses the relevance and main ideas.

Religious Freedom And Workers’ Compensation - Big Sky Colony V Montana Department Of Labor And Industry, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

Social security and health care litigation has played a prominent role in the development of the jurisprudence concerning the religious clauses of the US Constitution. At the time of writing further litigation in this area is ongoing with initial rulings having been handed down in relation to challenges concerning the compatibility of the PPACA’s contraceptive mandate with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). This note considers an interesting recent decision of the Montana supreme court which considered the constitutionality of an extension of coverage under the Montana workers’ compensation code to colonies of the Hutterite (or Hutterian or Hutterische) Brethren …

Arizona's New Religious Freedom Law: License To Discriminate Against Gays?, Neil J. Foster

Neil J Foster

Discusses Arizona's controversial new Bill which has been labelled a "license to discriminate". The paper concludes that while the aim of crafting a religious freedom exemption for those who do not want to support or celebrate same sex unions is a laudable one, on balance the Arizona law seems to be too broad and should not be supported.

Religious Associations: Hosanna-Tabor And The Instrumental Value Of Religious Groups, Ashutosh Bhagwat

Ashutosh Bhagwat

In its 2012 decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Church & Sch. V. EEOC, the Supreme Court held that the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment require recognition of a “ministerial exception” to general antidiscrimination statutes (in that case, the ADA), because religious institutions must have autonomy in selecting their ministers. In the course of its analysis, however, the Court made a very interesting move. In response to the government’s argument that the case could be resolved under the general First Amendment right of association, the Court responded that this position was “untenable,” and indeed “remarkable,” because the very existence of …

The New Religious Institutionalism Meets The Old Establishment Clause, Gregory P. Magarian

Gregory P. Magarian

Recent religious liberty scholarship spotlights the legal rights of churches and similar religious institutions, as distinct from the rights of individual religious believers. Advocates of “the new religious institutionalism” argue that religious institutions need robust legal rights in order to effectuate their institutional functions and advance religious believers’ interests. The Supreme Court recently fanned the new institutionalist flame by holding, in Hosanna Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church v. EEOC, that the Constitution protects churches from legal liability for employment discrimination in hiring ministers. In this essay, Professor Magarian considers a complication that advocates of the new religious institutionalism have generally ignored: …

Implementing Religious Law In Modern Nation-States: Reflections From The Catholic Tradition, Patrick Brennan

Patrick McKinley Brennan

This paper originated as an invited contribution to a symposium on "Implementing Religious Law in Contemporary Nation-States: Definitions and Challenges," sponsored by the Robbins Collection, Berkeley Hall, Boalt Hall, U.C. Berkeley, February 2014. The symposium by design brought papers speaking variously from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim perspectives into conversation. My paper proposes that the Catholic tradition of reflection on human lawmaking, even in modern nation-states, must take as its starting point the God who rules His rational creatures through higher or eternal law, where the rational creature’s participation in that higher law is what is known as the natural law. …

Recent Uk Case Connected With Sexual Orientation “Hate Speech”, Neil J. Foster

Neil J Foster

Discusses the decision in R (On the Application Of Core Issues Trust) v Transport for London [2014] EWCA Civ 34 (27 January 2014) dealing with signs on London buses alleged to be "homophobic".

Legal Pressure Points For Christians In 21st Century Australia, Neil J. Foster

Neil J Foster

This paper discusses the pressures facing Christians who adhere to Biblical ethical values when those principles clash with current discrimination and vilification laws.

"To Kill A Cleric?: The Al-Awlaki Case And The Chaplaincy Exception Under The Laws Of War", K Benson

K Benson

Anwar al-Awlaki was the first American citizen to be targeted for extrajudicial assassination by the Obama administration. While scholarly attention has focused on legality of his killing under domestic law, his status as a chaplain under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) has gone unexamined. The possibility that Anwar al-Awlaki may have been a protected person as a chaplain has profound ramifications for the legality of his killing and for the conduct of the war on terror more generally. As the definition of a "Chaplain" under IHL is under-developed at best and vague at worst, ideologues such as Mr. al-Awlaki operate in …

Experimenting With Religious Liberty The Quasi-Constitutional Status Of Religious Exemptions, Bruce Ledewitz

Bruce Ledewitz

A Christian On Listening With Jewish Ears And Hearing With The Heart Of God, Randy Lee

Randy Lee

No abstract provided.

The Lawless Rule Of The Norm In The Government Religious Speech Cases, Kyle Langvardt

Kyle Langvardt

Various forms of speech by the government implicate religion in one way or another. These include nativity scenes and Ten Commandments displays in town halls and courthouses, the words “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, the printing of “In God We Trust” on money, and so on. Over the past three decades, the Court has attempted to analyze these questions under various “tests:” the government should not “endorse” religion; should not “coerce” religious compliance; should in all ways act “neutrally.” But none of these tests has enjoyed consensus on the Court. The leading test has never commanded the support …

Decorating The Structure: The Art Of Making Human Law, Brian M. Mccall

Brian M McCall