Law Commons^™

The Catholic Law School & Constitutional Self-Government, The Honorable Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain

Catholic University Law Review

Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain serves as a Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. This talk was delivered at the Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of America on September 15, 2014 for the 2014 Brendan F. Brown Lecture and has been adapted and updated for this article format.

Pope Francis And The Vocation Of The Lawyer: Reflections On Service And Responsibility, Lucia A. Silecchia

Scholarly Articles

Through the years, Catholic lawyers have had many opportunities and invitations to reflect on their profession as a vocation due to the guidance that can be found in Sacred Scripture, the examples of saints who were themselves members of the legal profession, the teachings of church leaders, and the insights of religious writers on the vocation of the lawyer, to name but a few.

More recently, Pope Francis has also offered guidance as to what a life in the law might mean and what might characterize the vocation to practice law today. This guidance is not to be found in …

Rluipa: Re-Aligning Burdens Of Proof, Clarifying Freedoms, And Re-Defining Responsibilities, George P. Smith Ii, Philip M. Donoho

Scholarly Articles

Into the breach primed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Employment Division Department of Human Resources v. Smith in 1990, Congress plunged headlong, dragging along with it a judiciary charged with enforcement of a mandate only defined ambiguously. Thus, in 2004 the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) was passed and heralded as a legislative sum certain — a “clear” articulation of Congress’ balancing of local zoning prerogative with idiosyncratic religious use. It has proved anything but; for, since its passage, the results of litigation have remained resolutely immune to coherent explanation, as the Federal Circuit courts …

Substantive Due Process As A Two-Way Street: How The Court Can Reconcile Same-Sex Marriage And Religious Liberty, Mark L. Rienzi

Scholarly Articles

Last month, the potential conflict between same-sex marriage and religious liberty prompted death threats, arson threats, and the temporary closure of a small-town pizzeria in Indiana. The restaurant’s owner had admitted to a reporter that she could not cater a hypothetical same-sex wedding because of her religious beliefs (even though she otherwise serves gay customers in her restaurant). Threatened with violence over her unpopular religious belief, the owner was forced to close the restaurant, uncertain if she could ever reopen.

Leading up to oral argument in the same-sex marriage cases, it was reasonable to wonder whether the Indiana episode was …

“A Witness First Lives The Life He Proposes:” Evangelization And The Catholic Lawyer, Lucia A. Silecchia

Scholarly Articles

This essay was presented at the lecture for legal professionals in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 21, 2015. The roots of the word evangelization are, literally, in the words that mean “to bring good news.” We live in a world that craves good news and, by virtue of our Baptism, all of us – lawyers included – are called to bring good news to a world that, despite all appearances to the contrary, aches for good news and deeply yearns to know the God from whom all good news comes, and to whom all good news leads. I am convinced that …