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Religion And The Public Defender, Sadiq Reza
Religion And The Public Defender, Sadiq Reza
Faculty Scholarship
This Essay will argue that the public defender, or any other attorney appointed by the court to defend adults or juveniles charged with criminal offenses, should not undertake, or fail to undertake, any action to the legal detriment of a client on the basis of a conflict the attorney perceives between religious and professional imperatives, except in the rare case of imminent death or serious bodily harm to another. This argument rests on the following four premises: (1) the public defender occupies a unique position in our legal system, and options that may be available to lawyers who serve private …
A Constitutional Right Of Religious Exemption: An Historical Perspective, Philip A. Hamburger
A Constitutional Right Of Religious Exemption: An Historical Perspective, Philip A. Hamburger
Faculty Scholarship
Did late eighteenth-century Americans understand the Free Exercise Clause of the United States Constitution to provide individuals a right of exemption from civil laws to which they had religious objections? Claims of exemption based on the Free Exercise Clause have prompted some of the Supreme Court's most prominent free exercise decisions, and therefore this historical inquiry about a right of exemption may have implications for our constitutional jurisprudence. Even if the Court does not adopt late eighteenth-century ideas about the free exercise of religion, we may, nonetheless, find that the history of such ideas can contribute to our contemporary analysis. …