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Full-Text Articles in Law
Legislator-Led Legislative Prayer And The Search For Religious Neutrality, Aishwarya Masrani
Legislator-Led Legislative Prayer And The Search For Religious Neutrality, Aishwarya Masrani
Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy Sidebar
Leading a group in prayer in a public setting blurs the line between public and private. Such blurring implicates a constitutional tension between the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. This tension is magnified when the constitutionality of prayer is questioned in the context of democratic participation. Current Supreme Court precedent holds legislative prayer to be constitutional, but the relevant cases, Marsh v. Chambers and Town of Greece, NY v. Galloway, do not address the specific constitutionality of legislator-led prayer. There is currently a circuit split on the subject: in Bormuth v. County of Jackson, the United …
Gutting Public Sector Unions: Friedrichs V. California Teachers Association, Jake Wasserman
Gutting Public Sector Unions: Friedrichs V. California Teachers Association, Jake Wasserman
Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy Sidebar
In Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, public-sector unions face a constitutional challenge that could lead to their demise. In California, all public school employees are represented by a union--whether or not they are union members--and are required to pay an agency fee. This requirement seems to run contrary to the First Amendment, which generally prohibits the government from compelling citizens to support the speech and expressive activities of a private organization. This commentary argues that the Court should not overrule its decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education and uphold the validity of agency-shop agreements.