Law Commons^™

Independent And Overlapping: Institutional Religious Freedom And Religious Providers Of Social Services, Kathleen A. Brady

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

Roughly two decades ago, scholarly interest in the limits of government involvement in religious institutions exploded. Scholars explored distinctions between the spiritual and temporal dimensions of human activity and identified numerous individual, social, spiritual and civic goods associated with independent religious groups. From these foundations, they defined and refined areas of protection and immunity from government intervention. A shared premise of much of this work was that religious matters belong to religious believers and their institutions, and that the internal governance and operations of these institutions must be kept from state interference. In 2012, this scholarship bore fruit when the …

Locating Free-Exercise Most-Favored-Nation-Status (Mfn) Reasoning In Constitutional Context, Alan E. Brownstein, Vikram David Amar

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

This Article examines the theoretical and doctrinal origins and consequences of a potentially game-changing approach to processing claims brought under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Since 1990, and the decision in Employment Division v. Smith, the Court has read that Clause not to require accommodation of religious activity via exemptions from religion-neutral and generally applicable laws and regulations. What the Free Exercise Clause does prohibit, according to Smith, is government action targeting or discriminating against religion. But the Court’s decision a year ago in Tandon v. Newsom provides some powerful evidence about how this doctrine …

The Establishment Clause, Civil Rights, And The Accomodationist Path Forward, Lisa Shaw Roy

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

The U.S. Supreme Court’s First Amendment Religion Clause doctrine is undergoing a transition between the Court’s older, strict separationist decisions and its current accommodationist approach. This shift can be seen in the Court’s most recent Establishment and Free Exercise Clause decisions, and in particular, in its unanimous Free Speech Clause decision in Shurtleff v. City of Boston, a case which found that the challenger, Harold Shurtleff, had a First Amendment right to raise a flag with a cross on a city flagpole. In many ways, Shurtleff exemplifies the Court’s incremental movement toward an accommodationist Establishment Clause doctrine, and this …

Constructing The Establishment Clause, Vincent Phillip Muñoz, Kate Hardiman Rhodes

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

In this Article, we attempt to document how the history of the Supreme Court’s Establishment Clause jurisprudence is a history of constructionism, much of it—though not all—originalist in flavor. We use “construction” in a technical sense and in contradistinction to “interpretation.” Construction is the act of importing meaning into the constitutional text. To document and explain how leading Supreme Court justices have engaged in originalist constructionism, we employ the interpretation-construction distinction as well as two additional analytical concepts recently discussed by leading legal scholars: Sam Bray’s recovery of “the mischief rule” and Jack Balkin’s textual typology of principles, standards, and …

Is Church Autonomy Jurisdictional?, Lael Weinberger

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

The First Amendment’s religion clauses create what courts have called “church autonomy doctrine,” protecting the internal self-governance of religious institutions. But courts are divided as to whether this doctrine is simply an affirmative defense for religious institutions or a jurisdictional limitation on courts’ ability to adjudicate internal religious matters. Scholars, meanwhile, have long debated whether church autonomy is jurisdictional at a higher level of abstraction, speaking of jurisdiction as a concept of authority rather than a technical term for civil procedure. This Article engages this multilevel debate with an argument for unbundling. First, it urges unbundling conceptual jurisdiction from judicial …

Religious Nondelegation, B. Jessie Hill

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

The problem of religious exemptions has given rise to a rich body of scholarly literature, as well as a flood of litigation. One recent set of cases involved challenges to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) health care mandates—Section 1557 and the contraceptive mandate—and their religious exemptions. Some scholars have argued that religious exemptions violate the Establishment Clause when they confer a benefit on religious individuals, the costs of which are largely borne by those who do not share the religious individuals’ beliefs—a notion that is sometimes expressed in terms of “third-party harms.” The third-party harms approach to Establishment Clause violations …

The New Thoreaus, Mark L. Movsesian

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

Fifty years ago, in Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Supreme Court famously indicated that “religion” denotes a communal rather than a purely individual phenomenon. An organized group like the Amish would qualify as religious, the Court wrote, but a solitary seeker like the nineteenth century transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau would not. At the time, the question was mostly peripheral; hardly any Americans claimed to have their own, personal religions that would make it difficult for them to comply with civil law. In the intervening decades, though, American religion has changed. One-fifth of us—roughly sixty-six million people—now claim, like Thoreau, to …

Families, Schools, And Religious Freedom, Helen M. Alvaré

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

Old and New Testament scriptures persistently point to human beings’ romantic and familial relationships according to Christian norms as means of glimpsing foundational religious beliefs about God’s identity, how God loves human beings, and how human beings are to love Him and one another. Christian families, therefore, are alarmed to witness public schools educating minors using normative materials directly opposing Christian norms, and doing so outside of courses subject to parental opt-ins or opt- outs. The Supreme Court has not weighed in on the precise question of parental rights respecting particular educational content of this type, but lower federal courts …

Introduction To Issue Two, Jack Hynes

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

It Was Never About A Cake: Masterpiece Cakeshop And The Crusade To Weaponize Religious Freedom, Andrew L. Seidel

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

God Is My Roommate? Tax Exemptions For Parsonages Yesterday, Today, And (If Constitutional) Tomorrow, Samuel D. Brunson

Faculty Publications & Other Works

In 2019, the Seventh Circuit decided an Establishment Clause question that had been percolating through the courts for two decades. It held that the parsonage allowance, which permits “ministers of the gospel” to receive an untaxed housing allowance, does not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. It grounded its conclusion in part on the “historical significance” test the Supreme Court established in its Town of Greece v. Galloway decision.

In coming to that conclusion, the Seventh Circuit cited a 200-year unbroken history of property tax exemptions for religious property. According to the Seventh Circuit, that history demonstrated that both …

A Light Unseen: The History Of Catholic Legal Education In The United States: A Response To Our Colleagues And Critics, John M. Breen, Lee J. Strang

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Prophesy, Public Theology, And Questions Of Justice: Some Modest Reflections, Barry Sullivan

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Holt V. Hobbs: Rluipa Requires Religious Exception To Prison's Beard Ban, Jonathan J. Sheffield, Alex S. Moe, Spencer K. Lickteig

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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

Faculty Publications & Other Works

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 …

A Trinity Of Viewpoints On The Moral Perspective In The Public Square: Murray, Kennedy, And Cuomo, Robert J. Araujo S.J.

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Unanswered Questions: Transsexual Parents Lack Equality Under The Illinois Religious Freedom Protection And Civil Union Act, Brittany Francois

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Our Debt To De Vitoria: A Catholic Foundation Of Human Rights, Robert J. Araujo S.J.

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

A Natural Law Approach To An Issue Of The Day: A Critique Of The (Equality) Justification For Same Sex Marriage, Robert J. Araujo S.J.

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Back On The Books: The Illinois Silent Reflection And Student Prayer Act, Brendan Brassil

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Religion And The Purification Of Reason: Why The Liberal State Requires More Than Simple Tolerance., John M. Breen

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Are Christians Fit To Be Parents And Guardians—The Case Of Johns V. Derby City Council, Robert J. Araujo S.J.

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Love, Truth And The Economy: A Reflection On Benedict Xvi's Caritas In Veritate, John M. Breen

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Unleashing Or Harnessing "Armies Of Compassion"?: Reflections On The Faith-Based Initiative, Linda C. Mcclain

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Military Symbolism Or Religious Preference? The Mount Soledad Cross Controversey, Jason Lewis

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Marriage, Same-Sex Relationships, And The Catholic Church, Thomas J. Paprocki

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Shattered Vessel: The Dying Person In Jewish Law And Ethics, Philip J. Bentley

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Affirmative Action And Admissions At A Jesuit Law School, Alan Raphael

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Peremptory Challenges And Religion: The Unanswered Prayer For A Supreme Court Opinion, Courtney A. Waggoner

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Politically Active Church, Douglas H. Cook

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.