Law Commons^™

Civil Rights, Erwin Chemerinsky

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Confronting The Shadow: Is Forcing A Muslim Witness To Unveil In A Criminal Trial A Constitutional Right, Or An Unreasonable Intrusion?, Steven R. Houchin

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Religion-Free Environments In Common Interest Communities, Angela C. Carmella

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Defending Blasphemy: Exploring Religious Expression Under Ireland's Blasphemy Law, Katherine A. E. Jacob

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

Note of the Year.

Oklahoma's Save Our State Amendment: Two Issues For The Appeal, John T. Parry

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Opening The Broom Closet: Recognizing The Religious Rights Of Wiccans, Witches, And Other Neo-Pagans, Bradford S. Stewart

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Religious freedom is a core component of our nation and one of the most widely known and accepted constitutional guarantees provided by the First Amendment. No prior civilization had adopted a national policy that tolerated various religious beliefs while simultaneously refusing to endorse or promote a national religion. Considering the fundamental backdrop of religious tolerance, it might seem unimaginable that a skilled medical technician could be fired from her job, an alleged victim of sexual abuse could have her credibility undermined in a court of law, or a mother could lose custody of her child, under the color of legality, …

The Intersection Of Laicite And American Secularism: The French Burqa Ban In The Context Of United States Constitutional Law, Mary-Caitlin Ray

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Islam In The Secular Nomos Of The European Court Of Human Rights, Peter G. Danchin

Michigan Journal of International Law

If, with the benefit of hindsight, Mr. Choudhury's case was a harbinger of the emergence of various problems associated with Islam and the rights of Muslim minorities in European nation-states, then the events of September 11, 2001 have propelled these issues to the forefront of law and politics in a way unimaginable even a decade earlier. In Denmark, cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad as a suicide bomber have been published leading to protests and violence across Europe and the Islamic world; a law prohibiting students in public schools from wearing symbols or attire through which they conspicuously exhibit a …

Are Muslims The New Catholics? Europe’S Headscarf Laws In Comparative Historical Perspective, Robert A. Kahn

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law

No abstract provided.

Tango Or More - From California's Lesson 9 To The Constitutionality Of A Gay-Friendly Curriculum In Public Elementary Schools, Amy Lai

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

In August 2009, a group of parents in California filed a lawsuit, Balde v. Alameda Unified School District, in the Superior Court of California, County of Alameda. They alleged that the Alameda Unified School District refused them the right to excuse their children from a new curriculum, Lesson 9, that would teach public elementary school children about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) families. The proposed curriculum included short sessions about GLBT people, incorporated into more general lessons about family and health, once a year from kindergarten through fifth grade. Kindergarteners would learn the harms of teasing, while fifth graders …

Teachers' Religious Garb As An Instrument For Globalization In Education, Caitlin S. Kerr

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Nebraska and Pennsylvania currently have laws in place that prohibit public school teachers from wearing religious garb. This Note applies the appropriate constitutional framework-a balancing test-in order to determine the propriety of a religious garb statute. Courts have upheld the statutes in light of perceived government endorsement of teachers' religion and feared impact on impressionable young children. However, both of these concerns are exaggerated and misplaced. Rather, a court must consider the demands a newly globalized world places on effective education for tomorrow's global citizens.

Constitutional Law - Vernon V. City Of Los Angeles, Et Al.: Government Employer May Investigate Employee's Religious Beliefs To Determine Whether Beliefs Affect Job Performance, Wendy L. Wilbanks

Golden Gate University Law Review

In Vernon v. City of Los Angeles, et al., the Ninth Circuit held that the city of Los Angeles' investigation of its assistant police chiefs religious beliefs did not violate his state or federal civil rights.

Church Of The Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. V. City Of Hialeah: A Reader's Companion To Contemporary Free Exercise Jurisprudence And The Right To Perform Ritual Animal Sacrifice, Rod M. Fliegel

Golden Gate University Law Review

Contemporary scholars have devoted ample attention to the Court's free exercise jurisprudence. The scope of this comment is thus appropriately limited to consideration of the fundamental free exercise questions presented by Hialeah. Although some review is obviously necessary, this comment is not intended as a comprehensive discussion of recent free exercise cases. Principally, issues which remain unresolved in the wake of the Court's Smith decision will be addressed, including the following. Observing that "neutrality" is the cornerstone of the Smith decision, what evidence may properly be considered when making the neutrality assessment? Will facial-neutrality be dispositive? Additionally, assuming that Smith …

Constitutional Law, Jeff Kirk, Robert E. Kroll, James D. Fisher, Jacqueline Martinez

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Anomalies: When Canada's Proportionality And The U.S.'S Categorization Just Don't Fit The Bill, Zakarij N. Laux

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Minarets Vote Compromises Human Rights For Everyone, Anna Talbot

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Minarets, like church steeples, are a physical manifestation of religion. There is little doubt, then, that their recent banning in Switzerland following a referendum constitutes a breach of the right to freedom of religion, with respect to the right to manifest ones religion. This right is protected under a number of instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 18), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) (Article 18), and the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 9). Under these instruments, the right to manifest ones religion can only be limited if such a limitation is necessary …

Of Minarets, Headscarves, And Cartoons, Kurt Mills

Human Rights & Human Welfare

It is difficult not to agree with Tariq Ramadan. The fear of and discrimination against Muslims in Western societies since 9/11 is clear and worrying. The anti-Muslim populism he cites is real, although it may also be part of a broader anti-immigrant populism. The posters he describes are extremely disturbing, and reminiscent of World War II propaganda. They are an artifact of fear of the misunderstood “other.”

January Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“My compatriots' vote to ban minarets is fuelled by fear” by Tariq Ramadan. The Guardian. November 29, 2009.

Democracy And Flame-Fanning Populists: An Undesirable Yet Inevitable Combination, Richard Burchill

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Tariq Ramadan views the recent referendum in Switzerland inserting a ban against the building of minarets into the Swiss Constitution, as a vote against Muslims not only in Switzerland, but across Europe. Those of a more tolerant sensibility will of course agree with Ramadan on this issue and will easily criticize the Swiss for “getting it wrong” by voting in favor of this constitutional amendment. There is no question that a constitutional vote on what is essentially an issue of local planning permission is, as Ramadan describes it, a silly initiative. However, this is also the nature of democracy as …

On Visibly Dangerous Silliness, Anthony Chase

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“Silly” is what Ramadan calls the Swiss minaret referendum. He urges, in response to its passage, that Swiss Muslims be more rather than less visible. Each point is worth reflection. How and why does silliness transform itself into danger? And how and why is visibility the correct response to such danger—even if it leads in directions Ramadan may not suspect?

Trying A New Way: Barack Obama’S Tolerance Of Intolerance, Stephanie L. Phillips

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Caesar's Faith: Limited Government And Freedom Of Religion In Bruker V. Marcovitz, F C. Decoste

Dalhousie Law Journal

The Supreme Court of Canada has long pursued the view that our law is somehow an expression and repository of what it terms "Canada 's fundamental values." In Bruker v. Marcovitz, the Court added to the catalogue of these judicially decreed and enforced values one concerning religion, namely, the protection of Canadians against the arbitrary disadvantages of their religions. This comment argues that the Court's judgment in this regard constitutes a fundamental threat to religious liberty inasmuch as it subordinates religious beliefand practice to state values by making the legal acceptability of the former turn on their conformity to the …

Polygamy's Inscrutable Criminal Mischief, Susan G. Drummond

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The polygamy charges laid in the settlement of Bountiful, British Columbia, in January 2009, give rise to questions about the particular mischief of the polygamy offence in section 293 of Canada's Criminal Code. This article argues that, as a result of developments within related areas of law, polygamy's mischief under the current wording of the section is virtually inscrutable. When used, this section has principally served as a mechanism to discipline socially and politically marginalized groups. Developments in family law over the last forty years have generated a host of exceptions to the application of the polygamy section, including religious …

Establishing Inequality, Gene R. Nichol

Michigan Law Review

Part I outlines Nussbaum's thesis and her similarly interesting, if perhaps not always completely consistent, applications of it. Part II touches on some challenges and potential shortcomings her theory presents-for clearly there are such. But, in Part III, I argue that her wide-ranging study of the work of the religion clauses nonetheless touches something residing at the core of American citizenship. No bosses. No masters. No insiders. None outcast. Finally, and far more idiosyncratically, in Part IV I explore and expand on Nussbaum's thesis in light of a modestly serious and rather public dispute over religious equality that occurred at …

Restoring Rluipas Equal Terms Provision, Sarah Keeton Campbell

Duke Law Journal

The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act's (RLUIPA) equal terms provision prohibits government from implementing a land-use regulation in a manner that treats religious assemblies and institutions less favorably than secular assemblies and institutions. Lower courts have only begun to interpret and apply RLUIPA's equal terms provision, but already they have significantly weakened its protections of religious liberty by giving the provision unnecessarily restrictive interpretations. Not surprisingly, in light of the Supreme Court's invalidation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA), the lower courts' restrictive readings seen? driven by concerns that a broader interpretation would exceed Congress's …

Same-Sex Marriage In The Heartland: The Case For Legislative Minimalism In Crafting Religious Exemptions, Ian C. Bartrum

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

In Varnum v. Brien, decided April 3rd of this year, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously struck down the state's statutory ban on same-sex marriage. In a remarkably clear and thoughtful opinion, Justice Mark Cady explored in depth the immutability of sexual identity and the appropriate standard of judicial review for legislative classifications based on sexual orientation-adopting (for now) an intermediate level of scrutiny. The decision marked the first significant legal victory for same-sex marriage outside of New England (with the exception of a short-term success in Hawaii), and served notice that the gay rights movement—once thought compelling only among northeastern …

What The Doctor Ordered: Balancing Religion And Patient Rights In U.S. Pharmacies, Rachel T. Caudel

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Patrick Mckinley Brennan, John F. Scarpa

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Some Difficulties In Assuring Equality And Avoiding Endorsement, Jesse H. Choper

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Equality, Conscience, And The Liberty Of The Church: Justifying The Controversiale Per Controversialius, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.